re: Mega stadiums

I didn't say that A&M will sell out every game. It won't. It does however have growth potential most other programs do not have.

And? We went over our listed capacity

No reason

If a place can sell out a huge stadium, good for them, but it really does start hurting the experience at a certain point. Being so far from the field, not having enough space for tailgaters beforehand, dealing w/ traffic, etc.

Even at Auburn, which is not a mega stadium, you are a damn long way from the action if you are in the cheap upper deck seats. I can only imagine it is much worse at a stadium that holds over 100k.

A few NFL stadiums have already reduced capacities and new NFL stadiums are smaller than the last round of stadiums.

As others have said, it is different for different events. Sure, I'd take a lousy seat to watch the Iron Bowl, but with that same lousy seat if we are playing San Jose State it just isn't worth it.

A&M still has 32k student seats in prime areas so the atmosphere is going to be just fine. Actually, everything about the new build is about making the atmosphere louder and better.

There will be FEWER ads than before on the Jumbotron and other areas. There will be a canopy to keep in sound. The sight lines that are terrible in many areas of Kyle currently are all being fixed by lowering and moving the field, Kyle was originally designed as a Track/Football combo stadium and the last remnants of that will now be gone.

A&M hasn't had trouble selling tickets for some time outside of about 10k seats in the old Kyle that were just horrible with obstructed views and terrible sightlines. People wanted to go to games but only if you can actually see the game. Since '10 though even the worst seats have sold without issue. All that will be fixed with the rebuild.

The demographics though are hard to ignore. A&M graduated nearly 13k people last year and that number is going up. Some estimates are the school may reach 75k students in the next 15 years. Compare that to my Dad who graduated in '58 in a class of just over 1k and the school was 5k.

A&M also has over 25million people that live within 250 miles of campus and that number is growing by about 2k PER WEEK. It is the closest Big 5 school to the Houston Metro which has a larger population than all but 3 SEC States by itself (Tennessee by a hair, Georgia, and Florida). The Texas economy is also thriving and leading the nation in job creation with most of those jobs in oil and gas and technology which are high paying fields. It seems like every week another California Tech company either opens a site here or moves here entirely.

It is hardly a reach to say A&M can sell out 102,500 going forward. In fact 2015 is already sold out with 15 year season ticket leases and has a waiting list.

It's just an unusual circumstance because most schools and states simply aren't experiencing the same level of growth, much less both simultaneously. That of course leaves out the SEC move with a much improved schedule and the massive investment in the program to put out a quality product.

Good Lawd, aTm fans are near unbearable. Really just the worst

The weather at the AU/LSU game this past season in DV was MISERABLE...the score was worse.

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cheap upper deck seats

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Yes. Lower portion of the upper deck is fine. I meant the upper seats of the upper deck as "nosebleed." When I sit up there, I just end up watching the tv screens in the stadium.

nm