College capacities & Texas A&M plans

[redbuck]

Texas A&M Plans Expansion to 115,000 Seats

In what is certainly an ambitious undertaking, athletics officials at Texas A&M are working with architects to devise a master facilities plan that includes an expansion of Kyle Field to a capacity of 115,000 seats. According to an article in the San Antonio Business Journal, architectural firm O'Connell Robertson & Associates Inc. presented to the university's Board of Regents a plan that included six decks of new seating, new fan concourses, and a major cosmetic facelift.

Originally constructed in 1927, Kyle Field currently holds 82,000 fans, and was rated third among "Best Weekends in College Football" by Sports Illustrated. The planned expansion would make the stadium larger than any college facility in use today. The University of Michigan's Michigan Stadium is now the largest with 107,501 seats, followed by Penn State's Beaver Stadium, which holds 107,282.

The questions that remain to be answered surround the exact timetable of the project, who will pay for it, and how the Aggies plan to fill all those seats. Plenty of tickets remain on sale in the currently configured stadium for this weekend's home contest against Colorado.

-Robert Knodell

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Michigan Stadium's capacity will be down a few hundred fans in 2006, leaving Penn State as #1 this year. By 2007 Michigan will have a renovated field with over 108,000, back in first place. But if Texas A&M pulls off its plans the capacity race could have a clear winner very soon.

[tdk1984]

Oh brother. How many seats is too many?

[ATLFalcons]

There can never be too many seats when it comes to being a 12th man. It means so much to the home team when you have 100,000 strong behind you.

[tdk1984]

100,000 is one thing, but 115,000?

On a related note, I'm suprised no NFL team has tried to get a stadium with a capacity of 100k.

[redbuck]

NFL stadia have been getting slightly larger. 80,000 is not out of the question anymore. But NFL football is much about comfort, and as NFL stadia usually have seats instead of bleachers, not as many seats can be crammed in to have good views. Compare the two pictures below. The first, Ohio Stadium, has bleachers - if the stadium did not have suites filling one of the side under decks there could be approximately 109,000 seats. Heinz Field has about 70,000, with seats, yet they physical footprints are about the same size.


http://www.collegecharlie.com/files/ohio_stadium2.jpg

http://mall.ballparks.com/images/AV32.jpg

[redbuck]

Games in College Station must be an experience, not pure Ohio State / Michigan / Notre Dame style experience but an entirely different type. It isn't cold and the band isn't lively and the pure football tradition isn't as steep, but the experience is a tradition.

I went to the '99 Sugar Bowl - Ohio State vs. Texas A&M. There were a ton of TAM fans down there. They stood most of the game, which was amazing. But the most spectacular thing was their enormous, very very slow moving marching band. It wasn't as lively as TBDBITL but is amazing because its motions are so dull but exciting in their dullness.

[efin98]

As long as it has enough bathrooms, concessions, and allows fans to exit quickly and safely more power to the team. Cram in as many of them in as they can safely- it's more money for the other sports teams at the college to improve their own facilities and teams.

[Chevy114]

Sorry Im new but I want to revisit old topics, let me know if that gets annoying!

The thought of texas a&m being one of the biggest stadiums in the ncaa seems weird, but if they fill it up more power to them. I already like how big and loud the feel of the stadium is though.

[wvkeeper]

Any knowledge if this plan ever went forward?

[twk]

That A&M plan will not be implemented any time soon, and may never be built out completely,. In particular, I seriously doubt that they will ever fill in the corners. The main point of doing that master plan was to ensure that they do future projects in an orderly progression. Right now, A&M doesn't need additional seating capacity, but they do have strong deman for luxury seats, so they are planning to build a lower deck and luxury seating structure in the south endzone that mirrors the one in the north, but without the upper levels of seating. Simultaneously, they are going to knock down the west first deck, and rebuild it terraced for armchair seating with a concourse level at the top (as they have in the north endzone), and then renumber the seating in the upper level of the north endzone. The net result will be little or no addition to overal capacity, but several thousand more premium seats.