Rice Football Stadium Upgrade

[coachacola]

Rice is going to spend $120 million to downsize and modernize their stadium. 🏟️ I know LU doesn't have the money or the need to upgrade the stadium but it's fun to think about doing something similar.  Capacity will be reduced to 30k.

[puddin tane]

They just completed a redo/down size of cajun field in Lafayette.  Its pretty dang nice.

i think downsizing is the going trend for mid majors

[puddin tane]

[puddin tane]

My dream for LU’s stadium is for the Baylor colored Provost Umphrey signage to be red!

[coachacola]

1 hour ago, puddin tane said:

My dream for LU’s stadium is for the Baylor colored Provost Umphrey signage to be red!

I agree.  A new facade to match the library would look nice in my opinion.

[NorthoftheBorder]

I saw Super Bowl VIII in 1974 at Rice Stadium.  I also saw a Rice-A&M game in 1978 there.  I was only there because I had an ex brother in law who was going to A&M at the time and my family went.  Funny story, I rooted for Rice in the game (they lost naturally, and there were more Aggies in the stadium than Rice fans) and my whole family was mad at me.

This stadium has gone unneeded at a 75k capacity for decades, since the Astrodome was built. Other than the Super Bowl in 1974, sadly, nothing of importance has taken place there.  No shade at Rice, it is just that the times changed a long time ago that a private, High End (Ivy League quality) educational university will no likely longer field an elite football program that would require this large a stadium.  This is a really good move on Rice's part.

[NorthoftheBorder]

20 hours ago, puddin tane said:

USL's stadium, at time I believe, had a capacity of 42k.  The newly renovated stadium seats 30,392.  Looks like they have averaged around 22k attendance in 5 home games this year.  Not to bad.  Even with LSU right down the road, the Lafayette fans are a little more dedicated and loyal to USL than the Golden Triangle fans are to LU.  

[NorthoftheBorder]

I have looked at this several times since we brought Football back.  Even with the Montagne still there at the North end zone, and the Duaphin complex at the south end zone, there is a way to expand PVU to 35k plus seating without blocking the Dauphin.  It would require at least a 6k upper deck on the east side of the stadium.  Praying that one day there will be a need for that much capacity for LU football, before I pass or am too senile to even know that football games are being played.  

[puddin tane]

2 hours ago, NorthoftheBorder said:

USL's stadium, at time I believe, had a capacity of 42k.  The newly renovated stadium seats 30,392.  Looks like they have averaged around 22k attendance in 5 home games this year.  Not to bad.  Even with LSU right down the road, the Lafayette fans are a little more dedicated and loyal to USL than the Golden Triangle fans are to LU.  

Lafayette does alot more to promote the cajuns, than the golden triangle does for lamar.  And they have/had? Ragin cajun beer, cigars, sonic burger, signage,  etc…but they had a 4 year run of good teams and attendance dropped. Like us,they battle the other school for fans.  
 

This year they did away with their 2 dollar natty light!  Pas bon!

[coachacola]

There was a recent article about the ULL athletic department losing about $10 or $20 million over the last decade.  Being in a G5 conference has a lot of drawbacks.

[puddin tane]

Louisiana schools are in a bad way financially.  Even lsu had hiring freeze.

[TexGator]

The attendance numbers don't seem to currently necessitate expansion.
The updated locker rooms = a great step, but I don't think adding seating even to get to a full 20K is needed until the Golden Triangle community starts to show up.

Now, if they start scheduling home games against schools that travel well, that's a different story. Doing the math, if we add 4K to the East Side, at $50/seat, that'd be an extra $200K/game in revenue that has to be shared with the visitor, depending on the contract... so it's not necessarily a straight dollars-and-cents decision.

Whether it's getting a H&H (or even 2-for-1) against a G5 school or a SWAC school that travels, there just isn't the demand to spend what would probably be over $20M to upgrade the East Side of PUS. 

Spending money just to "upgrade" is what gets you what Sam Houston is dealing with this year- $70M to not add any additional seating (at least the last time I checked, the price had increased to that... and the seating capacity wasn't being expanded). All for the low, low price of:
- articles ridiculing the turnout
- games 90 minutes from campus
- being the #2 team on the ESPN Bottom 10 for weeks

O'Malley is working on the student/fan experience with the on-field success being the most important part of it. Here's to hoping the improvements continue.

Now, Rice doing it is potentially advantageous for them because they can't get schools to come to them w/o the promise the game will be sold to NRG (when was the last time UT, TAMU, OU, or LSU played in Rice Stadium? Without checking every year's schedule, I'd guess 1997, when Texas showed up).