Seating Capacity

iamthenorm

iamthenorm

Four-Star Recruit
I was looking at the attendance figures for this past year, and noticed that Nebraska is the only school that has a seating capacity of less than 90,000, but yet still in the top 10 of attendance. I have heard reports that there is discussion to move the seating capacity up near 100,000. I don't have any sources, is that true? And if it was that high, could the sellout streak remain intact? Thoughts.....

 
Ive seen and heard that 100,000 is not coveted by much of anyone , that somewhere around 90,000 is as big as those with the say-so would ever let it get. No sources, just people I know in and around the program with a pretty good feel for things. Who knows though. :dunno

 
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I think if they let it get to 100,000 eventually the sellout streak would end. I could be proven wrong though since there is such a long list of folks wanting season tickets.

 
All good things come to an end at some point. In this case, the streak would end earlier. That's the big issue...but that's probably enough to keep the powers that be at bay with the current capacity. The sellout streak is one of the few remaining positive streaks we've held on to over the last decade, so it's gonna be tough to make any decisions jeopardizing that.

One more thing to consider - the vast revenue Nebraska already brings in because of football. We're a top-10 revenue-generating school as it is, so there doesn't seem to be an immediate need to expand.

 
I would like to know how they fit more people into Memorial Stadium than the capacity. If my sources are right, the capacity is 81,067. The sellout record is 86,304. I wouldn't see a risk with the sellout record if we expanded to 90,000. But i don't think we will talks or even expansion until around 2015 - 2020.

The east side of the stadium would be able to accommodate 8,000 - 9,000 more people, right?

 
Fuzzy said:
I would like to know how they fit more people into Memorial Stadium than the capacity. If my sources are right, the capacity is 81,067. The sellout record is 86,304. I wouldn't see a risk with the sellout record if we expanded to 90,000. But i don't think we will talks or even expansion until around 2015 - 2020.

The east side of the stadium would be able to accommodate 8,000 - 9,000 more people, right?
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I'm kind of interested as well to know where they get all those extra people in there. Maybe they count extra people in skyboxes or on the sidelines? :dunno

As for the stadium itself, the only logical addition would be the East side of the Stadium, but adding 8,000-9,000 seats is quite a hefty order, considering they only added 6,000 into the North endzone. It'd be 33% more seats than what was added in 2004.

 
I've heard scuttlebutt about doing a renovation on the East Stadium similar to what they did with the West a few years back, but without the extra press and office facilities, of course. Word was that this isn't a priority, and for certain won't happen under Osborne. My guess is if we continue to have success under Pelini, the next AD may make that his signature deal.

 
knapplc said:
I've heard scuttlebutt about doing a renovation on the East Stadium similar to what they did with the West a few years back, but without the extra press and office facilities, of course. Word was that this isn't a priority, and for certain won't happen under Osborne. My guess is if we continue to have success under Pelini, the next AD may make that his signature deal.
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I would agree with that. Pretty fair assessment.

 
I think the extra numbers come for people who work the game. The press stadium workers etc. Also i know that the stadium doesnt know how many people are auctaly at the games. So when they announce the number of people they kind of pull it out of the air.

 
Tom Osborne's AD contract only goes until June 30, 2010. Has anyone heard if he will seek an extension? I always thought that Osborne came back to NU to repair the Athletics program, mostly the football program, after Pederson and Callahan ran it into the ground. It will be interesting to see Osborne continues on as AD or if he retires again.

I don't know how the North side endzone looked before they made the changes to it in 2006. So yea 8 to 9,000 seats may be a hefty order for the East side of the stadium, i just said that to cap the capacity around 90,000. In my opinion, there is enough seats at Memorial Stadium right now, but if they want to expand, i certainly wouldn't argue with that.

Just a quick sidenote here.

Our sellout started in 1962, Memorial Stadium's capacity was 31,080. It was remodeled to fit 48,000 in 1964. Ever since then, up to 2006, Memorial Stadium has increased its size, without affecting the sellout streak. Im also sure that Lincoln, Omaha, and the suburbs have grown quite a bit since 1962.

@skerman: Um, wouldn't they go by ticket stubs. I know they don't have the exact attendance they day off, but usually the next day they have an official count.

 
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I'm kind of interested as well to know where they get all those extra people in there. Maybe they count extra people in skyboxes or on the sidelines?
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skerman said:
I think the extra numbers come for people who work the game. The press stadium workers etc. Also i know that the stadium doesnt know how many people are auctaly at the games. So when they announce the number of people they kind of pull it out of the air.
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The extra numbers come from all the non-ticket purchasing people at the game. This includes press, concessions, security, red cross, boy scouts, recruits, cheer leaders, and even coaches and players for both teams. The announced number is the number of tickets sold, plus the number of non purchasing people at the game. The number of tickets sold remains constant because all tickets are pre-sold, it is the extra workers, players, recruits, media, etc... that make the number fluctuate. Because of this the numbers are not necessarily exact, but they are very close (i would guess 20-30 people). We keep the sell out streak going because because even if people don't use their tickets they have been sold so it counts. Also if we don't sell out a game for some reason (rarely happens, last I knew of was 2007) the extra tickets can be purchased at the box office day of and if they are not purchased it still counts as a sellout because of the extra people which push the number to "capacity".

In the north expansion they added 6500 seats while the press box/sky box addition (1999 and added more clubseats in 2000) only added about 1200 seats.

 
Husker N KC said:
I'm kind of interested as well to know where they get all those extra people in there. Maybe they count extra people in skyboxes or on the sidelines?
Click to expand...
skerman said:
I think the extra numbers come for people who work the game. The press stadium workers etc. Also i know that the stadium doesnt know how many people are auctaly at the games. So when they announce the number of people they kind of pull it out of the air.
Click to expand...
The extra numbers come from all the non-ticket purchasing people at the game. This includes press, concessions, security, red cross, boy scouts, recruits, cheer leaders, and even coaches and players for both teams. The announced number is the number of tickets sold, plus the number of non purchasing people at the game. The number of tickets sold remains constant because all tickets are pre-sold, it is the extra workers, players, recruits, media, etc... that make the number fluctuate. Because of this the numbers are not necessarily exact, but they are very close (i would guess 20-30 people). We keep the sell out streak going because because even if people don't use their tickets they have been sold so it counts. Also if we don't sell out a game for some reason (rarely happens, last I knew of was 2007) the extra tickets can be purchased at the box office day of and if they are not purchased it still counts as a sellout because of the extra people which push the number to "capacity".

In the north expansion they added 6500 seats while the press box/sky box addition (1999 and added more clubseats in 2000) only added about 1200 seats.
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I also believe that the sell out streak is not affected by those tickets as technically Nebraska sold their allotment and those are returned from the opposing school...at least Im pretty sure I read that somewhere.

 
I want to say about a year ago, T.O. was on Sports Nightly talking about laying out a master plan for expansion to Memorial Stadium. There was no time frame, but he said they were specifically looking to add to the east stadium. 10,000 - 15,000 seats was also mentioned. It would have to be built in a similar fashion to the west stadium by building a separate structure around the existing east stadium because the old structure couldn't handle any more weight. What I envision is a large 2nd balcony on the east side, with a new outer facade mirroring west stadium.

 
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