What Would You Do With the South Endzone?

[desotodawg]

Campus Book Mart and Methodist Union charge $10 to park. Started parking at CBM about 4 years ago. Not a bad walk down old Lee Blvd the stadium.

[Pipedream]

Going to the Buccaneers stadium for the Outback Bowl was a real a-ha moment for me in regards to what we should do to DWS. First, I'd segment both east and west lower levels into standard seating and "club" seating. The top of the lower West side needs to be enclosed and turned into club area that would match the East side. Making 20 or so rows into club, making them wider more comfortable chairback seating (if you went to the Outback Bowl and sat at the top of the lower bowl, you know how comfy those chairs were) should take out roughly 3000 from the capacity if you convert 20 rows from each lower section to "club". Secondly, the west quarter deck/press box needs to be converted completely to sky boxes/suites. No reason for the media to get the best seats in the house for free. Turn that entire deck into suites. Lots of $ there. You'll also lose maybe a thousand or so seats in that process as suites will seat less than those sections. Finally, I'd mirror the South End Zone to the North end zone expansion from 2014. That should, based on historical data, add ~6000 seats. Overall, this entire plan only adds roughly 2000 seats to the entire scheme, but creates a lot more money, better viewing/seating, more comfort, better amenities, and would double our premium club/suites.

[Choctaw Dawg]

Ill try to go by and take a picture today, but there looks to be work being done to the midtier west side of stadium. There is scaffolding that goes across most of the mid tier, but if I had to guess its just yearly maintenance and not any extensive work being done. A new press box should honestly be the first priority, we might have one of the worst in the league

[OLJWales]

I hope before I die I get to see a true bowled in Davis Wade.

[Joebob]

I hope before I die I get to see a true bowled in Davis Wade.

I?d like to see the south end bowled in too. It would finish giving us that big time stadium look. The cowbells would probably be even louder too, as there would be nowhere for the sound to escape.

[deadheaddawg]

I would rather do something to the middle section of the west side. The press box area looks awful from the outside. Looks very old. Like something a CUSA team would have.

[Cooterpoot]

Just move Dorman to where Seal is and put bleachers on half and leave places for lawn chairs and coolers on the rest.*

[gtowndawg]

In all seriousness, I'm still lost on the whole hotel thing. Official renderings were put out, but there's never been any talk about it. Was that just leaked? Is that an official idea or not? I've never seen something like that come out and essentially get ignored (as far as I can remember anyway).

[Lord McBuckethead]

In all seriousness, I'm still lost on the whole hotel thing. Official renderings were put out, but there's never been any talk about it. Was that just leaked? Is that an official idea or not? I've never seen something like that come out and essentially get ignored (as far as I can remember anyway).

It got shelved because it was terrible.

[dotcomdawg]

I would put chairback throughout the entire stadium except for visitor's seats and students. We would lose some seats in the process. Then I would mirror the south endzone with the north endzone. We don't need more than 70k seats (if that many).

Though another option would be to take the Dudy Noble model and put condo/suites in the south endzone above new seating that mirrored the north end zone.

I know we do this every so often, but I always enjoy the ideas created on here.

Post a picture of what you'd want the south endzone to be inspired by.

Personally, I'm fine with a hotel in the South endzone, but the hotel side that is facing the inside of the stadium needs to be a stadium, bowl the stadium in, & add to the STADIUM. Not just be a building in the end zone.

[BeastMan]

First thing I?d do to upgrade the stadium is make every seat chair back with a cup holder. Bleachers absolutely suck.

[ShotgunDawg]

First thing I?d do to upgrade the stadium is make every seat chair back with a cup holder. Bleachers absolutely suck.

To me, this is actually the first question that needs to be asked. The answer to this question directly effects what you do in the South end zone.

Doing the math, putting chair backs in will decrease the stadium by 20% making DWS a 48,000 sear stadium. If you do that, then you need to build a 13-15 K seat end zone.

[Pipedream]

To me, this is actually the first question that needs to be asked. The answer to this question directly effects what you do in the South end zone.

Doing the math, putting chair backs in will decrease the stadium by 20% making DWS a 48,000 sear stadium. If you do that, then you need to build a 13-15 K seat end zone.

You don't want to chairback the ENTIRE stadium. I'd prefer it done only in certain areas of the lower bowl so you can re-market them at a higher price point (if you're looking at maximizing your return), BUT if you want to comfortably chairback the entire lower bowls on either side you'll be turning 32,400 seats (West side 18,400/East side ~14,000) into 21,600 chairs (assuming each chair is 1.5X as wide as the original bleacher seat). That removes 10,800 available seats from the lower bowls. The North EZ expansion was in total was either 8800 or 7000 depending upon how you interpret the literature. You could easily add height to that end zone to get up to that number (or via taller scoreboard club, more loge, more suites, etc.). So, long story short, yes, chair backing the entire lower bowl + a South EZ would roughly = current capacity.

[gtowndawg]

You don't want to chairback the ENTIRE stadium. I'd prefer it done only in certain areas of the lower bowl so you can re-market them at a higher price point (if you're looking at maximizing your return), BUT if you want to comfortably chairback the entire lower bowls on either side you'll be turning 32,400 seats (West side 18,400/East side ~14,000) into 21,600 chairs (assuming each chair is 1.5X as wide as the original bleacher seat). That removes 10,800 available seats from the lower bowls. The North EZ expansion was in total was either 8800 or 7000 depending upon how you interpret the literature. You could easily add height to that end zone to get up to that number (or via taller scoreboard club, more loge, more suites, etc.). So, long story short, yes, chair backing the entire lower bowl + a South EZ would roughly = current capacity.

This is the answer. Mirror the south end zone with north, make all lower bowl seats chairbacks and leave upper decks as bleachers (cheaper seats).

[Pipedream]

This is the answer. Mirror the south end zone with north, make all lower bowl seats chairbacks and leave upper decks as bleachers (cheaper seats).

Yeah, I think it's definitely the simplest option along with making the West Skydeck suites/boxes. That's the biggest no brainer move and I can't believe it's been in place almost 40 years without someone capitalizing on that opportunity. Only issue with mirroring the north and south end zones is what do you do with the students? Do you split them up? Sell regular season ticket holders end zone seats? IDK how well those would sell. Might take a slightly amended mirroring to make it work. Look at Arkansas' new end zone. I think that's exactly what we'd need to make it work. Less actual seats, more premium areas but the same "largeness" as the North EZ.

[Mjoelner34]

The North EZ expansion was in total was either 8800 or 7000 depending upon how you interpret the literature. You could easily add height to that end zone to get up to that number (or via taller scoreboard club, more loge, more suites, etc.).

I don't know about future expansion (left and right) of current Scoreboard Club seating below the north video board but, the standing deck was built where club level seating like the State Level below the Scoreboard Club could be placed.

[IMissJack]

First thing I?d do to upgrade the stadium is make every seat chair back with a cup holder. Bleachers absolutely suck.

I'm somewhat in agreement. We really need to think about replacing some sections of the lower level of West side. The bleachers are not in great condition in some areas, and the stairs are freaking difficult to get up and down. Pretty sure my Grandfather helped build that lower level in the '40's.

[RocketDawg]

I'm somewhat in agreement. We really need to think about replacing some sections of the lower level of West side. The bleachers are not in great condition in some areas, and the stairs are freaking difficult to get up and down. Pretty sure my Grandfather helped build that lower level in the '40's.

I'm not sure what you could do about the stairs without a total rebuild. Do they have handrails? If not, they certainly should have and probably are required to.

[TUSK]

JMO, but the first thing is to get into it more often... That'd pay for whatever upgrades are desired.

[MafiaDawg]

A very big multi level bar.