The Future Of Neyland Stadium...

#151
#151
tnrunner13 said:
i think they should build another level so we can add about 20k more seats. it'll be awesome. if our team can't win, at least our stadium can! i know we'll be able to get the funding.
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What you will likely see, is the stadium capacity getting smaller.

College and professional sports have been losing fans who stay at home and watch the game in the comfort of their homes. They have big screen hi-def TV, home theater seating, food, drink, and rest room facilities right there.

IN the future you are likely to see the capacity shrink as schools will try to combat the home theater experience with wider and more comfortable seats with chair backs and other luxuries that fans will pay more money for.
 
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#152
#152
Tux said:
What you will likely see, is the stadium capacity getting smaller.

College and professional sports have been losing fans who stay at home and watch the game in the comfort of their homes. They have big screen hi-def TV, home theater seating, food, drink, and rest room facilities right there.

IN the future you are likely to see the capacity shrink as schools will try to combat the home theater experience with wider and more comfortable seats with chair backs and other luxuries that fans will pay more money for.
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Except Texas A&M
 
#154
#154
Tux said:
What you will likely see, is the stadium capacity getting smaller.

College and professional sports have been losing fans who stay at home and watch the game in the comfort of their homes. They have big screen hi-def TV, home theater seating, food, drink, and rest room facilities right there.

IN the future you are likely to see the capacity shrink as schools will try to combat the home theater experience with wider and more comfortable seats with chair backs and other luxuries that fans will pay more money for.
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Not to mention the fact that any given weekend, the average football fan has access to 15-20 football games. The idea of fighting traffic/crowds, (for some) long drives, throwing down a lot of money for a family, all for one game suddenly becomes less favorable when compared to all you listed, plus you can watch a whole lot more football.
 
#156
#156
VolsSportsFan said:
I think they will end up with a bunch of empty seats.

I agree that stadium capacities will get smaller. There's a reason NFL stadiums top out around 65K.
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There are only 6 stadiums that seat 65k or less out of 32, 7 if you throw in Hienz field that holds 65,050.
 
#157
#157
Who would want to sit in a third level? I don't even like sitting in the upper deck we have now unless it's the first couple of rows.
 
#158
#158
TNnative said:
No No No. I consider indoor stadiums an abomination. I have been in the Super Dome in New Orleans, and the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. Call me weird but both seemed wrong.

I have a better idea: electrify the seats so when fans don't make enough noise, give them a mild shock. I know, that is dumb, but so is a roof.
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The Georgia Dome is nice. In all the games that I've attended there I've never had a bad seat.
 
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#160
#160
Different sport, but the Tampa Bay Rays don't draw squat to the games but it is one of the more valuable TV markets. When the new TV contract comes up it will be huge for the Rays, even though they draw 10-15k per night.

The point is, the new SEC network and TV contracts mean I can watch a ton of games in HD and get a much better viewing experience than being at 1 game. Don't get me wrong, I love being at the games but there is no comparison to what you see on TV.

The NFL did a study a couple of years ago about how to make the in-game experience more like the TV experience for fans. Which is funny given that TV has spend billions in trying to bring the stadium experience to TV. Funny twist of events. Now you have teams showing the Red Zone channel, showing fantasy stats, etc. throughout the game.
 
#161
#161
TNnative said:
Sounds like a good idea in theory, but considering Neyland Stadium's proximity to the Tennessee river (or Fort Loudon lake), would that create a problem? I am not an architect or an engineer, but it is to my understanding you can't build an underground facility like what you are talking about below the level of a nearby waterway. If anyone is or knows an architect who can answer that, I defer to their expertise.

I just have a feeling that such a facility would have been built long ago, if it were feasible.
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Much of Neyland is already underground. It used to be used for anthropology and then they shunted some dept. offices (mostly from the english dept. and even they had to share space) in there. Now it's been remodeled and is used to host sports alum/lettermen and some VIPs.
 
#162
#162
RowdyZ said:
There are only 6 stadiums that seat 65k or less out of 32, 7 if you throw in Hienz field that holds 65,050.
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Hence I said around 65K, which is about average. Point is the NFL is by far the most popular league in the US and even they aren't throwing up 100K stadiums.
 
#164
#164
Hoosier_Vol said:
I wouldn't worry about more seating right now. Like mentioned before you can't find a place to park now.
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If someone at UT gets smart, that could be helped by finding areas around Knoxville for parking with shuttle buses to the stadium. It is definitely a mess right now.
 
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#165
#165
BJWeeks said:
Should be almost time to start next phase I would imagine
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It won't happen for a while. Until we are in a much better financial situation, it is a huge resource drain and waste of money.

Hart figured this out almost immediately and pulled the plug on the project.
 
#166
#166
Madkins8 said:
It won't happen for a while. Until we are in a much better financial situation, it is a huge resource drain and waste of money.

Hart figured this out almost immediately and pulled the plug on the project.
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Football stadiums are only used 7-8 times per year...hard to get the ROI needed to justify.

The contrast is the Jerry Dome in Dallas. Sure it cost $1 Billion, but look at how many events are held there compared to Neyland.
 
#170
#170
Tennessee financial woes mostly due to Neyland Stadium renovations | Saturday Down South


"Tennessee’s athletic department is over $200 million in debt, according to a report this week from Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal. The report notes the department 'spends a startling $21 million a year on debt payments, $13.5 million of which comes from the school’s stressed $99.5 million athletic budget and the rest from donations.' Most of the debt is attributable to costly renovations made to Neyland Stadium in the past decade."

"While it’s easy to say this in hindsight, Tennessee shot itself in the foot with the Neyland Stadium renovations. It’s a classic example of malinvestment during an economic boom fueled by easy access to credit, not to mention the inability of Hart’s predecessors to assess their economic reality. Tying long-term capital improvements to the football team’s win-loss record is a shaky proposition at best."
 
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#171
#171
Abe Hoffman said:
Tennessee financial woes mostly due to Neyland Stadium renovations | Saturday Down South


"Tennessee’s athletic department is over $200 million in debt, according to a report this week from Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal. The report notes the department 'spends a startling $21 million a year on debt payments, $13.5 million of which comes from the school’s stressed $99.5 million athletic budget and the rest from donations.' Most of the debt is attributable to costly renovations made to Neyland Stadium in the past decade."

"While it’s easy to say this in hindsight, Tennessee shot itself in the foot with the Neyland Stadium renovations. It’s a classic example of malinvestment during an economic boom fueled by easy access to credit, not to mention the inability of Hart’s predecessors to assess their economic reality. Tying long-term capital improvements to the football team’s win-loss record is a shaky proposition at best."
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Glad that you cited this, I was going to do the same. :hi:

Mike Hamilton and UT got extremely headstrong and assumed we would be winning 10+ games a year for 30 years, generating a continued Golden Age of revenue for the AD.

Unfortunately, in his ambition to leave his mark on UT in any way possible, Hamilton ran us into debt like a Beverly Hills Blonde with a sixth maxed out credit card.
 
#173
#173
BigSteve09 said:
Glad that you cited this, I was going to do the same. :hi:

Mike Hamilton and UT got extremely headstrong and assumed we would be winning 10+ games a year for 30 years, generating a continued Golden Age of revenue for the AD.

Unfortunately, in his ambition to leave his mark on UT in any way possible, Hamilton ran us into debt like a Beverly Hills Blonde with a sixth maxed out credit card.
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There was noting wrong with trying to get the stadium up to code, and doing basic maintenance to fix where it was in complete disrepair. But, obviously they went too aggressive with their plans. Had they spent more conservative in their plans, they could have renovated the South and East sides with the money they spent.

I was at the spring game, and I was completely shocked and embarrassed at the complete disrepair of the East side which includes, poor lighting in the concourses, broken windows, and rusted beams on the outside.

Where is the basic maintenance?
 
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#174
#174
gunner said:
There was noting wrong with trying to get the stadium up to code, and doing basic maintenance to fix where it was in complete disrepair. But, obviously they went too aggressive with their plans. Had they spent more conservative in their plans, they could have renovated the South and East sides with the money they spent.

I was at the spring game, and I was completely shocked and embarrassed at the complete disrepair of the East side which includes, poor lighting in the concourses, broken windows, and rusted beams on the outside.

Where is the basic maintenance?
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I agree, they could have scaled down the enormity of it all and probably accomplished a great deal with 1/10th the budget.

Neyland was an erector set that needed polishing. We didn't have to come in and try to make a fortress out of it.

All of that said, what they've done already does look good, I'm just worried that when they finally continue the project(s) in 10-15 years they will already need to do more work, or it will be obvious that the renovations took place over the course of 20-30 years.
 
#175
#175
BigSteve09 said:
I agree, they could have scaled down the enormity of it all and probably accomplished a great deal with 1/10th the budget.

Neyland was an erector set that needed polishing. We didn't have to come in and try to make a fortress out of it.

All of that said, what they've done already does look good, I'm just worried that when they finally continue the project(s) in 10-15 years they will already need to do more work, or it will be obvious that the renovations took place over the course of 20-30 years.
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Good point, because they don't seem to be on any type of a maintenance schedule, they just build it and forget about it.
 
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