Anyone heard of any plans to expand or build a new one? I know it’s high on Cig’s list of things he would like to see get done in the near future.
I have not seen any plans. I would guess there is a master plan for the stadium somewhere in Scott's office that includes a new press box, it just has not be publicly unveiled yet. We know Scott is raising money for more substantial stadium improvements, so he's probably got to show donors a vision for Memorial to get them to commit.
We absolutely need a new press box. I think this issue is athletic dept cash flow is tight, IU just gave the AD a ~$35M loan, mostly for the football staff transition. I can see why: $15M went to Tom, our staff costs are up ~$12M/yr since the Allen era, and we've got to pay ~$21M/yr in rev share now. Yeesh. And our donors now need to fund NIL too, which is another $15M+/yr.
I've noticed a few other ADs are tight on cash. Other schools are having to deal with rev share and similar increased costs as well. It's not unique to us.
I believe cash flow should improve with media rights about to increase, donations (Scott says he has pledges for the whole aforementioned loan, which probably occur over time), and improved FB gameday revenue. That's my best guess looking at this as an outsider.
So, I think our best case is after this season or early next year something is announced and work starts next year. Ideally the press box work also includes some revenue generating suites/premium seating.
Needs done. But obviously that's disruptive, and would cost a lot of money.
If I were doing it...I'd put a couple turrets up like the NEZ ones, then have a huge press box and luxury suites that span in between the turrets. Make the whole structure below it a much nicer concourse. Leave the East stands how they are. Probably reduces capacity a little bit. But even now, I don't think IU needs much more capacity.
Uneducated fans perspective on our needs, in order of importance...
1. Keep improving pools of money for coaching staff and players
2. New practice facility... I've mentioned this numerous times... tap in to some other schools within IU, with hopes of attracting more big donors, and building a bigger structure to help cover part of the infrastructure costs for the main football part. Example... a new Cuban Media center, a new Lilly sports medicine and rehab center, etc... Notre Dame's new facility is mind blowingly great, and I'm sure is a big part of their recent emergence. And I'm sure that has already, and will lead to many more coming up with incredible multi purpose, cross platform type facilities.
3. New west stands press box, luxury suites, concourse... If the money happened to be there, I'd actually re do the SEZ to more closely match the NEZ, and then use a similar design for the West side complex... A 3 sided version of the NEZ, with the east stands remaning the same, would be a pretty amazing look and feel, I would think.
Numbers 2 and 3 can't be at the expense of number 1, though. Gotta have the money to get the dudes. Players AND coaches.
have a luxury airship (blimp) fly people in and hover over one of the stands for the game. 
thinking outside the box
Imo they could add some permanent seats to the south endzone, probably “premium seats,” maybe 500 or so could fit — there is plenty of space and it wouldn’t be expensive. I don’t think they used that SEZ space very well with respect to seating and the temporary suites don’t look very good and the field level suites have bad views.
I also wish they would bring the seating closer to the field in the corners where those green mats are. That wouldn’t cost much and it would be another ~250 seats. Just my opinion -- those green mats annoy me and those would be decent seats.
Uneducated fans perspective on our needs, in order of importance...
1. Keep improving pools of money for coaching staff and players
2. New practice facility... I've mentioned this numerous times... tap in to some other schools within IU, with hopes of attracting more big donors, and building a bigger structure to help cover part of the infrastructure costs for the main football part. Example... a new Cuban Media center, a new Lilly sports medicine and rehab center, etc... Notre Dame's new facility is mind blowingly great, and I'm sure is a big part of their recent emergence. And I'm sure that has already, and will lead to many more coming up with incredible multi purpose, cross platform type facilities.
3. New west stands press box, luxury suites, concourse... If the money happened to be there, I'd actually re do the SEZ to more closely match the NEZ, and then use a similar design for the West side complex... A 3 sided version of the NEZ, with the east stands remaning the same, would be a pretty amazing look and feel, I would think.
Numbers 2 and 3 can't be at the expense of number 1, though. Gotta have the money to get the dudes. Players AND coaches.
They're not going to redo the south end zone this soon after they just did the south end zone. It is what it is at this point.
Cigs has mentioned wanting the press box addressed so I am guessing that is the next big project.
@hurryinghoosiers Why would Cig care about the press box?
maybe doesn't like how dated it looks?? i don't recall him saying why.
@old-crescent Don't know the answer to that...other than the man has a notoriously sharp attention to detail, and I'm sure the glorified high school sized press box probably stands out to him as not fit for a good B10 level football program.
@tammany I just can't fathom how the SEZ ended up looking and being what it did. Its an awful design, that doesn't really add to, or even match any of the existing architecture... Obviously there wasn't the same budget that the NEZ got, I get that. And I'm just some shlub on a keyboard, I'm sure the details of it all make sense on how it ended up how it did... buuut, I can't dream of how. Bad design, bad functionality, doesn't really enhance the game day experience like they constantly claim it does. Even the smaller budget was a significant investment. I don't think that money was well spent, at all.
@old-crescent look at the other conference press boxes compared to ours.
@iunorth Yea, IU kinda flubbed it and didn’t think ahead. I’d guess they figured we didn’t need many new seats and they got too focused on all the facilities it contains and some of the views those would have of the field. I still think if they built up some seats right in front it would be okay. They probably won’t. Oh well, the exterior of it looks decent.
@old-crescent Don't know the answer to that...other than the man has a notoriously sharp attention to detail, and I'm sure the glorified high school sized press box probably stands out to him as not fit for a good B10 level football program.
Yes, there is a reason the visiting fan section is no longer a strip of seats down to the field, but now they’re all up in the nosebleeds as far away as possible from the field.
Cig, and recruits, have said they like the football complex being in the stadium. It’s all right there. They have training/weight/rehab/nutrition/academic literally in the stadium. The weight room has a football only portion now. So I don’t think they’re going to build a separate building with the same things further away from where the players are on a daily basis. I believe the next phase is the main stadium renovation like concourse/restrooms/suites.Uneducated fans perspective on our needs, in order of importance...
1. Keep improving pools of money for coaching staff and players
2. New practice facility... I've mentioned this numerous times... tap in to some other schools within IU, with hopes of attracting more big donors, and building a bigger structure to help cover part of the infrastructure costs for the main football part. Example... a new Cuban Media center, a new Lilly sports medicine and rehab center, etc... Notre Dame's new facility is mind blowingly great, and I'm sure is a big part of their recent emergence. And I'm sure that has already, and will lead to many more coming up with incredible multi purpose, cross platform type facilities.
3. New west stands press box, luxury suites, concourse... If the money happened to be there, I'd actually re do the SEZ to more closely match the NEZ, and then use a similar design for the West side complex... A 3 sided version of the NEZ, with the east stands remaning the same, would be a pretty amazing look and feel, I would think.
Numbers 2 and 3 can't be at the expense of number 1, though. Gotta have the money to get the dudes. Players AND coaches.