Great read that shows how valuable football is in general, and at Indiana specifically.
Hope is not optimism, which expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in the conviction that there is good worth working for. - Seamus Heaney, Irish poet and likely Hoosier basketball fan.
POTFB
Football is king. Even at IU.
I have been one assuming a long term decline in football due to CTE. So I had some concerns about our rather late start in investing in football. Thought maybe we were at the peak of the curve, putting us behind the curve. Especially with stadium expansion not even begun, with that lead time.
But I guess decline hasn't happened yet, so will remain the cash cow.
Unless the current dysfunction destroys most of college sports. 🙄 Or if the SEC and Big Ten foul it all up.
Great read that shows how valuable football is in general, and at Indiana specifically.
"Priceless" is the correct term
I have been one assuming a long term decline in football due to CTE. So I had some concerns about our rather late start in investing in football. Thought maybe we were at the peak of the curve, putting us behind the curve. Especially with stadium expansion not even begun, with that lead time.
But I guess decline hasn't happened yet, so will remain the cash cow.
Unless the current dysfunction destroys most of college sports. 🙄 Or if the SEC and Big Ten foul it all up.
I wonder if there is any regret in not just building a new stadium prior to doing the north and south end zone. Obviously didn't make much sense at the time but now kind of limited in how to best put lipstick on a pig so to speak. hopefully replace the hideous press box and find a way to increase stadium capacity. Better seating would be nice but impossible without reducing capacity.
The east and west stands are blank slates. The north endzone looks great and the south is kinda meh but okay. IU has a lot of options…
@tammany I could see them adding bleacher seating to the South End Zone in a way that looks at least cool-ish. Maybe make it another premium section like the NEZ. They won't do an expansion there at the expense of the suites there and the revenue that generates (they'd be stupid to) so I could see them adding suites to a box on top of the East stands along with a new press box on the West stands.
I personally don't want to see them add like 20k capacity that may not fill or stay filled. For good or bad, it's a pure revenue game. The smarter thing is to have 60k at an average price of $100 ($6M) than 80k at an average price of $60 ($4.8M)
@tmft Agree.
The SEZ looks okay, but it wasn’t a good use of space in terms of seating. There is a lot of room over there where the field suites are. I’d love to see them add some permanent premium seating there and get rid of the cheap looking field suites.
I think 60-62K is about right. The other consideration is what do live sports look like in 20-30 years? As VR gets better and sports bars add these amazing mini-imax type screens… that’s a headwind to in person attendance. And of course we may not be so darn good at certain points in the future.
I think they will modernize the east and west stands with suites and comfy premium seating and a new press box. I’d guess building up on the east side is the logical way keep/add a little capacity.
We’ll see…
@tmft Agree.
The SEZ looks okay, but it wasn’t a good use of space in terms of seating. There is a lot of room over there where the field suites are. I’d love to see them add some permanent premium seating there and get rid of the cheap looking field suites.
I think 60-62K is about right. The other consideration is what do live sports look like in 20-30 years? As VR gets better and sports bars add these amazing mini-imax type screens… that’s a headwind to in person attendance. And of course we may not be so darn good at certain points in the future.
I think they will modernize the east and west stands with suites and comfy premium seating and a new press box. I’d guess building up on the east side is the logical way keep/add a little capacity.
We’ll see…
For the reasons you mention, I doubt that we do anything that would add more than 2 thousand seats. I could see some premium seating on both sides that would actually decrease seating + a few more seats somehow in the SE (connecting the SE to both sides down low?)+ suites on the east side and the press box,
At one time, sometime last year, I saw an interview with Cig walking in the stadium and he mentioned at some point completing the ring of seating and getting about 80,000 in here. Don’t know if he was kidding around or what but I will never doubt anything he says until I hear differently.
@openwheel Football is only gaining viewership. CTE concerns is reducing the number of high school participants, but the guys that are playing are getting more specialized training than ever and are way ahead of where HS players were in the past, so the quality of the play on field is improving. The only way FB becomes a bad investment is if the country stops gambling (gamblers love football, its the biggest driver of NFL viewership too)
Due to CTE, soccer is going to take over as the number one sport in the USA, a...n...y...day....now...
🤣
Nah, that’s a waste of money and frankly we’d probably never come up with it. Like another poster said, there’s a ton you can do with the east and west stands. The supports are there outside the east side to add another level of suites/seats because that side was originally intended to be the same size as the west. They are 100% adding a ton of new premium seating, for sure. That’s a big goal of the next project.I have been one assuming a long term decline in football due to CTE. So I had some concerns about our rather late start in investing in football. Thought maybe we were at the peak of the curve, putting us behind the curve. Especially with stadium expansion not even begun, with that lead time.
But I guess decline hasn't happened yet, so will remain the cash cow.
Unless the current dysfunction destroys most of college sports. 🙄 Or if the SEC and Big Ten foul it all up.
I wonder if there is any regret in not just building a new stadium prior to doing the north and south end zone. Obviously didn't make much sense at the time but now kind of limited in how to best put lipstick on a pig so to speak. hopefully replace the hideous press box and find a way to increase stadium capacity. Better seating would be nice but impossible without reducing capacity.