re: A couple of questions about the new Kyle Field...

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Attendance doesn't mean much, what matters is what TYPE of attendance. If you are selling the luxury suites it doesn't matter if you sell the cheap seats. One 100k annual lease on a box pays for an awful lot of $60 cheap seats.

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This is the current trend for many schools. And not just for football stadiums. Alex Box Stadium suites are sold out for LSU baseball as well.

Premium seating, where the seats are paid for in advance, is the way to go.

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Any talk regarding the expansion of Kyle Field would be speculation right now. They have done a good job at keeping the information from leaking until all of the details are worked out. I would expect it to seat around 100k, not sure about the suites though.

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You can bet your arse Eric Hyman is going to push expansion sooner than later. That's what he always tries to build his legacy upon - whether it is a good idea or not.

Hyman took a lot of credit for a lot of work and financing Mike McGee had put in place before he handed the reigns of the SC job over to Hyman. Hyman stepped in with a lot of money sitting in the bank, bond referendums already approved and architects' plans already on the table. What he did was claim to cut costs, save money, etc., while stalling a year or two, then he started the upgrades. Then he claimed credit for it all when, in fact, most fans recognized he was not responsible for the upgrades.

At any rate, we'll continue to fight stadium expansion at SC because at 86k that's plenty big enough, although there are drawings in place that would take us to almost 98k that Mike McGee commissioned while he was the AD.

There is overkill in stadium expansion these days. Only the big games really pack the stadiums, with the lesser games rarely selling-out anywhere in the country because every game is on TV these days.

Luxury suites are where the money is right now. I was told that the average seat in the SEC, with PSLs a given, are bringing an average of $140.00 per seat per game. While a luxury box seat in the SEC brings over $1,000.00 per seat, per game, and that is not counting a 2000% increase in concession sales to those suits because all of them have to be catered by the stadiums' catering services around the league and alcohol is allowed in the suites.

South Carolina approaches luxury seating on a more affordable level with only 18 "Luxury Suites" that go for almost $100,000 per season with only 24 seats per box.

Then there is The Champions Club which goes for $1,500 per seat per game and only 250 of those are available.

The Executive Club goes for $1,150.00 per seat annually and there are only 510 of those available.

The 600 Club and those are $1,000.00 per seat annually and only 336 of those are available.

And The Zone which is $850 per seat annually ... it's one of the finest facilities of it's kind anywhere - I love that place.

SC's next step is going to be to add more Luxury Suites, but it no more seats in the open stadium.

Maybe the Dallas to Houston corridor will support 108k and all those luxury suits, but man, it seems like overkill to me.

Good luck with that though because you can bet Eric Hyman is going to push for building projects. It's his thing.

ben hill griffin stadium is stuck at 88k forever. :(

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The OP's post is talking about having expansions that would increase sitting from just over 90,000 to somewhere in the 120,000 neighborhood over the next 20 years.

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I think it's time you got a pair of these, if you don't already...



...because the OP said this...

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When the South End Zone expansion is completed in 2014, LSU's Tiger Stadium will grow to a total capacity of around 100,000 and 130 suites. The rumored addition of the North End Zone expansion in 2016 or 2017 will give Tiger Stadium a total capacity of around 108,000 and 200 suites.

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...and that's over an 8-10 year period, not 20. Just sayin'...

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Never, ever heard of a name change being remotely considered. I'll believe that when I see it.

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Not Tide-Tiger Stadium?


























I keed, I keed.

Jesus Christ they fricked y'all up

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ben hill griffin stadium is stuck at 88k forever. :(

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That's plenty. That's plenty. No need to go any higher.

IMHO there should be a ten year waiting list for seats before anyone expands. And NO program in the country has a ten year waiting list right now.

Ten year waiting lists used to be the standard. It was when we expanded in the 90s from 72k to 82,500 ... but for big games we regularly stuff up to 85k, 86k in the Billy Brice like we did for Georgia this season.

I know The Swamp will hold 92k, correct? Seems I remember there being 92k in The Swamp for a couple of games when South Carolina has come down there recently with Spurrier.

That's plenty, plenty, big enough.

Look at how bad Neyland looked this year when they were claiming there were 85k in the seats and, in fact, they might have had, at most, 50k in there a couple of times, probably much less.

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If ya'll just closed in the north end of the stadium to mirror the south end, and made the south end three tiered as well, you could add another 15,000 or so seats. That'd definitely get you into the "100k club".

The only question is if it would ever be full...

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Ben Hill Griffin Stadium is located on the very western edge of the Campus Historic District (a handful of UF's protected historic buildings are shown in the photo below). Unfortunately, a few of them are adjacent to the stadium. There is no room for expansion.

Stadium Road is immediately to the south of the stadium. Below that is Weil Hall, one of the protected historic buildings. Any expansion would be in the middle of the street and would be butting up against Weil Hall.

Immediately to the southeast of the stadium is the Florida Gymnasium, another historic building protected from demolition. So the east side is a no-go.

The north side was expanded in the 90's I believe. The west side underwent an expansion in the Zook era, bringing the capacity up to 88.5k or so. Attendance has been as high as the low 90k's. This photo is from 2007 when the trophy room was being built on the southwest corner.

Florida can add more suites.

I love what Green Bay is doing with their expansion.