AcademyWars.com

Are we the first FBS team building a part of their home stadium to reduce capacity by another two thousand seats? In the old era press box press box, we could cram 42,000 fans into Michie Stadium. We accomplished that feat by putting on the north and south end zones temporary game day field seats. Now we don't do that these days and then in that space we put up decorative collapsible advertising instead of seats that would bring in more revenue from paying fans, thus reducing the capacity to 40,000. Next, we rip out the old press box and put up the new Hoffman press box and because of earthquake issues we build it into the already constructed west side stands thus reducing the capacity to 38,000 .
Onward to the present. We will build the new east stands with a beautiful loge which undoubtedly be named the RABBLE ROOST. Thus, the seating capacity will be reduced to 36,000 upon this latest construction project.
In the end we went from the original 17,000 capacity in 1924 to a 42,000 in the 1970's to a new 36,000 capacity today.
All this money being spent to reduce your home seating capacity by 6,000 seats.
Which to me, the academy is betting on the TV influx of money to offset the loss of capacity with all this, bringing in teams that we have no natural rivalry with and telling the fan base to basically stay home and watch the games on television.
Is there something wrong with this concept or is it me?
I mean and I believe that they could care less whether we show up or not.
Don't answer that question but all of you will say it is me.

Can you imagine a team like Notre Dame reducing their stadium capacity by 6,000 seats because of earthquake issues or making the site line to Touchdown Jesus more visible to more fans?

RABBLE wrote: ↑Mon Apr 08, 2024 6:10 pm Can you imagine a team like Notre Dame reducing their stadium capacity by 6,000 seats because of earthquake issues or making the site line to Touchdown Jesus more visible to more fans?

1. We aren't ND.
2. I doubt we'll seriously test even the reduced capacity of Michie. Any game that could do that will be played somewhere else.

Most new pro stadiums have less capacity than the one's their replacing, for what it's worth. They'd rather cut down on total seats, but increase the number of club seats, luxury boxes, etc and take in more money per seat, with less people.
You don't have to like that, but its certainly not something West Point is pioneering.

Also, not for nothing, but per Wikipedia:

Notre Dame Stadium
Capacity 77,622 (2017–present)[1]

Former
54,000 (1930–1965)
59,075 (1966–1996)
80,225 (1997)
80,012 (1998–1999)
80,232 (2000)
80,795 (2001–2016)

........so they did cut capacity by 3,000 recently.

As stated, common to reduce capacity to improve the overall fan experience with better seats, better food etc. Cause lets be honest, metal seats and concessions at michie are horrible

wpgrad wrote: ↑Tue Apr 09, 2024 10:00 am As stated, common to reduce capacity to improve the overall fan experience with better seats, better food etc. Cause lets be honest, metal seats and concessions at michie are horrible

Seems to me like current Michie was well suited for the 15 year period of Army going 2-10 every year, and the stadium was half-full with people mostly going to take in a scenic fall afternoon and watch the parade, the parachutes, etc. with the game essentially just there in the background, and head out around the halfway mark of the third quarter. But for a remotely competitive team, with a game people are actually there to watch (and not miss an entire quarter of in line for food), it's just not able to handle it well. It's basically unable to support a crowd anywhere close to its current capacity.

From the Air Force stadium renovation FAQ:

"What will the new capacity be?

"The new capacity will decline in stages with various phases, but when fully complete, the capacity is estimated to be around 32,500. This will not be officially determined until the final design of the west phases is complete."

That's just one example. It's a trend across college football, particularly outside the power schools.

• Vanderbilt is reducing capacity.
  Baylor built a new smaller stadium.
  Northwestern is doing the same.
  Kansas is reducing capacity by 7,000 with their gut job renovation.
  San Jose State took all the seats out of one sideline.
  Memphis is reducing capacity of the Liberty Bowl.

And so on and so forth.

I guess all schools are reducing the size of their stadiums now. The reason is these schools do not need bigger crowds in their ball parks.
The television contracts will provide all the revenue they they need to cover their entire athletic programs.
I assume that larger crowds will bring more expenses so they do not need the extra seats anymore. Who needs the crowds?
The next 50 years will bring armchair fans with the cheers of the crowd being bought to you in living color with canned noise on your 150 inch TV screens.
I think I was born at a time when I will not see all this.
Without "fans in the stands" football will never be the same.