Even if we start having great success and packing the stadium it would be quite a while..and I think as long as Barnhart is our athletics director he's going to be really reluctant to have an expansion because it would basically be like him admitting that he was wrong in reducing capacity in the first place..the fact of the matter is that it never should've been reduced in the first place..you don't make a knee jerk reaction and do something as drastic as he did during what was back-to-back (2-10) years..of course attendance is going to be low on the heels of an economic recession when you've gone (4-20) in a two-year span following one of the most successful stretches you've had in program history..anyone with two eyes & a brain can look at Kentucky fans and know that throughout 95% of our history we've packed the stadium..we've NEVER had trouble filling the stadium as long as we have a team that isn't completely unwatchable and terrible..I don't plan on having terrible, unwatchable teams, but maybe Mitch does, I don't know..every school in the nation has had years recently where they had trouble filling their stadium because of the recession, etc, but attendance in the SEC (and nationally) has rebounded greatly (with Kentucky being the leader in attendance increase coincidentally) and you don't see those AD's making a knee-jerk reaction like the one and drastically reducing what was an already small seating-capacity by 7,000 seats...you expect a guy that's in his position to have a heck of a lot more vision than that
It was a dangerous knee-jerk reaction because it's not like if once we start winning some big games and fans start pouring back out (like we've always done historically) we can just snap our fingers and slap 7,000 seats back on..it would take years and years of planning, fund raising, etc, and with this recent major renovation that's going to make it that much longer before we do anything else major with the stadium...of course the stadium isn't going to be jam-packed when you're having 3 or 4 or 5-win seasons and people are struggling to find work..come on..that doesn't mean you decrease your already small seating capacity..it doesn't exactly scream confidence in the future of your program when you're reducing capacity..what screams confidence is an AD that has the vision and guts to say "hey, I know we're not filling up the stadium right now, but I understand that these (2-10) seasons are the outlier, not the norm
The fact that we're STILL talking about the seating reduction--and so many in our fanbase are getting emotional--is because deep down inside, whether they admit it or not, they know it was a bad decision and a costly decision that can't be fixed by snapping your fingers and saying "ok the fans are back now that we're not unwatchable, let's slap those seats back on!"..you don't completely stop watering your flowers just because you have a couple days of heavy rain..you don't cut the size of your restaurant in half just because you have a month of slow business ..you ride it out, you look at the trends in the past, you have VISION
If nothing else reducing the seating capacity just sends a terrible message about where you THINK the program is going to be in the future. By reducing capacity what does it tell you about how Mitch feels about the future of the program? Be honest with yourself..does it scream confidence & growth? And don't give me this Oregon & Baylor stuff..you know those two teams are the outliers, and you know that neither of those schools are traditional football powers that have sustained long-term success, and neither of those schools play in the Southeastern Conference where 80-90k seat stadiums are the norm.
I know how Tom Jurich and SEC athletics directors (who've had tons of success) feel about their programs. I can tell just by looking at what they're doing with their seating capacity. They're expanding--even when they don't completely fill their current capacity--because to them the future is bright. Even schools with smaller football fanbases than Kentucky are expanding. Those guys aren't short-sighted..they're in it for the long-term, and in the long-term they see football continuing to grow, and the demand for tickets continuing to grow. Guys like Jurich and SEC AD's are betting that more and more fans are going to be wanting to come to games at their stadiums 10 or 15 years from now. Does Mitch feel that way? Obviously not or he wouldn't have decreased seating...he's putting his money on less of our fans coming to games in the future for one reason or another, those are just the facts, I'm sorry, but you can't deny that, Mitch has shown us that he feels that for one reason or another less fans are going to be coming to our games in the future or else he wouldn't have decreased capacity, it's as simple as that.
Whether you want to admit it or not, people look at the size of your stadium as a measuring stick for where you're at as a program..it's fine if you don't want to expand a 68,000 seat stadium until we take a step forward, but why in the world would you reduce capacity? There was ZERO reason for it..absolutely ZERO..I mean it would be different if there was some kind of national trend of big time football schools and others reducing their stadium capacity, but they're not ..they're doing the exact opposite..who do you trust, Mitch Barnhart or the field? I'll take the field...I mean if people aren't showing up to your restaurant do you make your restaurant smaller or do you improve your product? I know which move Mitch would make, but me personally I'd rather make some better food..I mean come on.. Maybe Mitch should've looked back at WHY WE EXPANDED THE STADIUM IN THE FIRST PLACE..if we have a decent team (or just have a team that's not completely unwatchable) the fans will show up in droves..they always have and they always will..but now we as Kentucky fans are going to have to sit back and watch a commuter school that was on Western Kentucky's level pass us up, even though our football fanbase is twice the size of theirs and we have ten times the tradition of Louisville
Mark my word, if (and when) Mark Stoops gets this program to the place that we all know he will in the next year or two, we're going to be wishing & begging that we had all those seats back and then some (especially when we look down the road and see Louisville with a 65 or 70,000-seat stadium that's the largest in the state), and we won't be able to just slap them back on..those seats are gone for the foreseeable future.
In 2008, our seating capacity was 68,000 and Louisville's was 42,000...ours is now 61,000 and in a few years Louisville's will be near 70,000 (or more) and looking to expand even more. It just makes me mad because I see how much potential that we have and how much we're squandering it. Louisville doesn't have half of our fanbase, yet they continue to expand and grow ALL because of their athletics director. ALL because of him and his passion for football and sports in general and how he will sell his soul to the devil in order to win. It's just honestly amazing what has happened to each school's football programs since those two AD's have taken over. 20 years ago if you would've told fans that one school in the state would have a 70 or 80,000-seat stadium and the other school in the state would have a 60,000 seat stadium, almost everyone would've said it would've been Kentucky with the bigger stadium..it's just amazing what has happened and what will continue to happen as Jurich has plans to expand his stadium all the way up to 80,000. Whether you want to admit it or not, that guy has seen the blueprint for building a football power, and he knows that it involves expanding his stadium at every turn. Since football was invented, the football powers have continued to expand their stadium. When seats are empty because of a bad product on the field, they don't reduce capacity and try to hide their shortcomings, they do everything short of selling their mother to win games, and continue to expand.
