Next stadium expansion?

[Kooky Kats]

It seems a bit crazy to me to even think about stadium "expansion" while putting the finishing touches on a $110M renovation that, among other things, physically removed ~6,000 seats from a stadium that was expanded by ~10,000 seats (to about 67,500) in 1999! In fact the UKAA is still paying debt service (~$3.3M last FY) on the $27.6M 1999 expansion. I'm not sure when the 1999 expansion is scheduled to be paid off but these things are typically 30 year debts.


Peace

I got an idea, let's get a university president to make corrupt no-bid contracts with puppet government entities and bilk the taxpayers of millions of dollars to when the stadium goes bankrupt the university can buy it back for pennies on the dollar...

I heard that plan works quite well and within a short timeframe.

 

[How Blue Can You Get?]

Assuming Stoops does as everyone expects, it got me thinking. When and what would be the next stadium upgrade? I assume we will eventually bowl the endzones or at least one of them. What do y'all think will be the next thing? Also, what would it raise capacity to?

That's why I was mad about losing seats. Back in 2007, we filled Commonwealth to near capacity most every game. If Stoops raises UK to that type of level or higher, there's gonna be a lot of fans locked out that wanna go,and it will be real expensive to expand. The renovation should have at least been designed in such a manner that it would be easier to add back capacity, at least some sort of contingency plan to expand again when necessary. I'm happy about the upgrades, and would rather upgrades with less seats, than more seats with no upgrades, but IMO, this is just another of many bad moves by Barnhart. Pretty sure he won't be offering up any of his salary to fund the expansion once it is necessary.

 

[SanAntonioCat]

Huh?

 

[bigbluegrog]

That's why I was mad about losing seats. Back in 2007, we filled Commonwealth to near capacity most every game. If Stoops raises UK to that type of level or higher, there's gonna be a lot of fans locked out that wanna go,and it will be real expensive to expand. The renovation should have at least been designed in such a manner that it would be easier to add back capacity, at least some sort of contingency plan to expand again when necessary. I'm happy about the upgrades, and would rather upgrades with less seats, than more seats with no upgrades, but IMO, this is just another of many bad moves by Barnhart. Pretty sure he won't be offering up any of his salary to fund the expansion once it is necessary.

You could be right about fans getting "locked out" but maybe they should get season tickets now then? I know there are fans that can't afford to pay face value but others just take advantage. I look forward to the day when fans without tickets can't get them out in front of CWS for $5, $10 or even free.

 

[How Blue Can You Get?]

wish i could afford em again. As for now, hopefully I'll catch a game or 2 if lucky.

 

[RV2]

That's why I was mad about losing seats. Back in 2007, we filled Commonwealth to near capacity most every game. If Stoops raises UK to that type of level or higher, there's gonna be a lot of fans locked out that wanna go,and it will be real expensive to expand. The renovation should have at least been designed in such a manner that it would be easier to add back capacity, at least some sort of contingency plan to expand again when necessary. I'm happy about the upgrades, and would rather upgrades with less seats, than more seats with no upgrades, but IMO, this is just another of many bad moves by Barnhart. Pretty sure he won't be offering up any of his salary to fund the expansion once it is necessary.

Evidently you don't realize our season ticket allotment for fans is nearly identical to what it was before the 'downsizing'.

 

[UKBrassowTipIN]

Do ppl not understand economics..it's a national trend, attendance is declining, even at big programs. In 2013 UGA's student section alone dropped 40 %. Thats not to mention the other big programs, the alumni donors, and the nosebleeds being reduced from season ticket to single game purchases. It's cool to go to games if you have good seats as a season ticket holder, or even an occasional game if you are coming from far or whatever to sit in the upper deck, but who wants to pay to sit in the 3rd deck every single game with HD 70 inch smart tvs on the market. That's a reality.

 

[167Hike]

Evidently you don't realize our season ticket allotment for fans is nearly identical to what it was before the 'downsizing'.

It amazes me that this fact is lost on so many people.

Seating capacity before renovation 68,500, of that;
50,000 were for season tickets
11,500 were set aside for student/faculty and staff, and
7000 were set aside for visitors

After renovations are completed seating capacity will be listed at 62,500
50,000 seats for season tickets
5,500 for students/faculty and staff, and
7000 for visitors.

 

[SanAntonioCat]

Would like to see the visitor allotment smaller and our fans attendance increase.

 

[CatDaddy4daWin]

It amazes me that this fact is lost on so many people.

Seating capacity before renovation 68,500, of that;
50,000 were for season tickets
11,500 were set aside for student/faculty and staff, and
7000 were set aside for visitors

After renovations are completed seating capacity will be listed at 62,500
50,000 seats for season tickets
5,500 for students/faculty and staff, and
7000 for visitors.

Don't you bring facts up in here!!! JUDAS!!

Wildcard makes a great point about his team LMAO. Why shouldn't we have bribed some politicians, taken pictures of them with hookers, or whatever TJ does to get money out of Frankfort to fund his Pitino baby funds or Petrino's Pole Sliders Are People Too charities.

 

[Blue Decade]

Frankly, I simply don't care what a ul fan has to say on the subject.

+1

 

[Blue Decade]

Would like to see the visitor allotment smaller and our fans attendance increase.

That's an oxymoron unless you believe all of our fans are season ticket holders, students, faculty, and staff. A lot of Kentucky fans end up getting in with visitor tickets.

 

[LordEgg]

is visitor allotment not a required percentage or is there not a guideline of some sort?

 

[fuzz77]

From what I have seen most of the folks wanting expansion are saying so for ego reasons. Nobody can give an economic reason to do so because those reasons do not exist.
The stadium upgrade plans that were considered back when Brooks was here which didn't result in loss capacity were estimated to have costs $250 million. The plan was to remove the upper deck, build a layer of suites and premium seating and then replace the upper deck...be it at a higher elevation. When that plan fell through because it was too costly many of the same people criticizing Mitch today for lowering capacity were criticizing him then for having a plan that was too costly to have ever been done. You can't have it both ways. A plan that would have saved capacity would have added at a minimum $100 million to the cost of the project. Add $100 million to the stadium and you probably don't get the $47 million training center, you put the project in jeopardy of not being approved by the BoT and legislature. <-- Would that make you more happy?

I realize that most folks don't care about premium seating but premium seating is the only seating that makes economic sense. Regular seating costs about $8-$10,000 per seat to build meaning if tickets were $50 you'd have to sell that seat every game for 25+years to just break even and that's assuming zero interest. Actual payback would be much longer...

I'm not sure why some of you are so dead set in wanting to hurt UK? There's a term called "house poor" that describes people that buy the most expensive house that the bank tells them they can qualify to buy...but then they have no money to maintain the house, replace their vehicles as needed, save for retirement, etc.
If the demand for more seating comes forth, more seating can be added. I remind people that there hasn't been a hard sellout for a game since Stoops has been at UK...and that includes last year at that reduced capacity. They were discounting tickets last year to get them sold.
How about let's sell what we have before we think about adding more?

What is even more humorous is that most of the people complaining DON'T BUY TICKETS!

 

[bigbluegrog]

Would like to see the visitor allotment smaller and our fans attendance increase.

I think visitor allotment is set by the SEC and is the same for every school. Any returned tickets, of course go on sale for our fans.

 

[How Blue Can You Get?]

Evidently you don't realize our season ticket allotment for fans is nearly identical to what it was before the 'downsizing'.

evidently, you didn't read my post accurately. I'm not just talking about season tix. If Stoops is as successful as I think he will be, as successful as we've been led to believe, it won't be long before the talk starts about expanding commonwealth. Expecting success and taking away seats at the same time, while not preparing for any way to add capacity back will make a future expansion cost even more money than it has to, and will likely put off doing it as a result.

 

[RV2]

evidently, you didn't read my post accurately. I'm not just talking about season tix. If Stoops is as successful as I think he will be, as successful as we've been led to believe, it won't be long before the talk starts about expanding commonwealth. Expecting success and taking away seats at the same time, while not preparing for any way to add capacity back will make a future expansion cost even more money than it has to, and will likely put off doing it as a result.

You said, and I quote "If Stoops raises UK to that type of level or higher, there's gonna be a lot of fans locked out that wanna go,"

I replied that the season ticket allotment was nearly identical as before and yet you still don't realize the point against which you are howling at the moon and castigating Barnhart without merit is that THE DOWNSIZING OF SEATS WAS BASICALLY TAKEN FROM THE STUDENT ALLOTMENT. THEREFORE BASICALLY THE SAME NUMBER OF FANS CAN ATTEND FUTURE GAMES AS IN PREVIOUS YEARS, SO HOW COULD THEY BE LOCKED OUT?

Your further insinuation that a future expansion has not been prepared for is nothing more than idle speculation based on nothing factual and sounds like something YOU would do given your evident expertise on the subject. It's called projection as a person is likely to make pronouncements about a situation through their own thoughts and values.

You and others that constantly moan and cry about Mitch did this and Mitch didn't do that are super annoying and generally ill-informed. I get it, you hate Mitch and can give him no credit but how about doing it every third post to break things up.

 

[fuzz77]

evidently, you didn't read my post accurately. I'm not just talking about season tix. If Stoops is as successful as I think he will be, as successful as we've been led to believe, it won't be long before the talk starts about expanding commonwealth. Expecting success and taking away seats at the same time, while not preparing for any way to add capacity back will make a future expansion cost even more money than it has to, and will likely put off doing it as a result.

What makes you think that there is no plan to add capacity if demand calls for it? Mind you, you don't add capacity because you might be able to sell it one game here, one game there...it needs to be hard demand...it needs to make economic sense.
There were a lot of people who said when Stoops was hired that we'd fill CWS right away...didn't happen, hasn't happened. Due to the cost of tickets and attending games, many have been priced out of the market. Add that large screen tvs and that every game is on tv and there are many who would rather watch at home.

Oregon's stadium is smaller that CWS...that isn't hurting them too much, is it?

BTW, have you bought season tickets?

 

[How Blue Can You Get?]

You said, and I quote "If Stoops raises UK to that type of level or higher, there's gonna be a lot of fans locked out that wanna go,"

I replied that the season ticket allotment was nearly identical as before and yet you still don't realize the point against which you are howling at the moon and castigating Barnhart without merit is that THE DOWNSIZING OF SEATS WAS BASICALLY TAKEN FROM THE STUDENT ALLOTMENT. THEREFORE BASICALLY THE SAME NUMBER OF FANS CAN ATTEND FUTURE GAMES AS IN PREVIOUS YEARS, SO HOW COULD THEY BE LOCKED OUT?

Your further insinuation that a future expansion has not been prepared for is nothing more than idle speculation based on nothing factual and sounds like something YOU would do given your evident expertise on the subject. It's called projection as a person is likely to make pronouncements about a situation through their own thoughts and values.

You and others that constantly moan and cry about Mitch did this and Mitch didn't do that are super annoying and generally ill-informed. I get it, you hate Mitch and can give him no credit but how about doing it every third post to break things up.

The student section is also an important part of college sports man...you do realize the players are students too, right??? And about 1 out of 50 post of mine complain about Barnhart, but yes, when the conversation is relevent, I do. The last thing I wanna do is fight with other UK fans as the season approaches but mark my words, this will be an issue eventually. We're all welcome to our opinions, I just expect a full apology when my prediction comes to fruition!

 

[SanAntonioCat]

Perhaps our football team should win in a manner befitting discussion of increased capacity. As of now, there are no sell outs for this season indicating the overall fan base has been burned and ignored by basketball AD's to the point a great many fans prefer to sit home in front of their 70 inch HD TVs.

 

[Bigblueforever]

When Kentucky can compete with Alabama, Tennessee, Florida, Auburn and LSU big thing will happen at CWS.

 

[Ldgator]

Would like to see the visitor allotment smaller and our fans attendance increase.

I believe a certain percentage is dictated by the league.