UF to Hire Architect for $400 million Renovation to Ben Hill Griffin Stadium

Lol... I don't need your advice... 10,000 lost seats will change The Swamp (in a bad way, unless you're a wide bodied hog) more than you can comprehend.

If you want an NFL type stadium then go watch the Jags play in Jacksonville. There you can at least be comfortable in your seat cheering on an NFL team. The Gators are not a farm team for the NFL... and the way they do business.

There are plenty of other ways they can make The Swamp better without gutting 10,000+ seats from it.

 

How bout 9k less seats and I get a nice silver chair on the 50? Or one less seat and I get a lazy boy.

 

If anything should be torn down to be rebuilt it's the east side, the south end zone is actually one of the newer parts of the stadium, A&M did something similar in demolishing the entire west side of their place and rebuilding.

Blow up the east side then it can be rebuilt with sky boxes on top and other fancy schmancy crap.

 

I’m not sure anybody would want to pay for a skybox where the late afternoon sun burns you out of there

 

Okay, so what are those codes in the existing stadium?

 

It was up to code when it was built. When you do a big renovation like we have planned, you have to bring it all up to current codes though.

 

The codes for the existing stadium are based on which codes were current when the last renovation (or the building was constructed). For example, the (relatively) new south end zone, would have been designed to the codes at the time it was permitted and constructed. Let's say that was the early 90's for the touchdown terrace and maybe even earlier by a decade or so for the south end zone in general. Well, as you can imagine, the NFPA codes in place at the time are WAY less stringent than they are today.
With existing structures, there is currently an Existing Building Code (as well as existing FFPC references) that depending on the level of alteration and the work being done, will require the facility to be brought up to current code. All of this can be discussed with the AHJ to come up with the appropriate solutions.

 

So big picture what do you think will happen here?

 

Yeah, I'm worried that is what the proposal will end up being.

 

Unfortunately that article is behind a paywall, but just your description of it is horrifying. And the Jags owner can go pound sand for all I care.

 

I'm just suggesting that the point where you would have to bring the stadium up to the current codes is the point where you completely stop the pie in the sky seating dreams or completely drop the stadium to the ground and rebuild. Otherwise your going to get a Frankenstein's monster like they did in the O'Dome where they remove 1,000's of the best seats in the place and push out long time season ticket holders into the hinterlands where they will immediately cancel their season tickets (which also happened in the O'Dome).

 

I would imagine they’d love to blow it up and start from scratch, but don’t have the funding, or timeline, for that.

I think capacity will be reduced and chairbacks will be installed as we’ve been told that, verbatim. I don’t know how they’re going to make it happen as the current design won’t make it easy.

I can tell you how to get a seat at the table, but I don’t have one so I can’t help alleviate any of your concerns.

 

I think that all season ticket holders are stakeholders and should be listened to carefully. How much does it cost to earn the business of a new customer vs. keeping a current one. It seems like I recall my marketing classes indicate its about a factor of 10. If they piss off a bunch of seasoned season ticket holders it could take them years to make up that revenue gap.

My concern, which really could only be alleviated by some proactive data gathering by the UAA is that they really won't listen to any current stakeholder other than what they "think" the revenue Gods will gift upon them should they blindly follow what everyone says the trends should be. If so, all I'm afraid we'll end up with is a POS stadium that is still not full. I'm just not sure why the lesson that half-ass measures usually generate half-ass results doesn't appear to be ingrained over at the UAA yet. You'd think after they've had their noses dragged in that lesson for years they would get it by now.

 

I agree that nobody really cares about the average season season ticket holder, and I think I’ve voiced that position clearly in the past. TV revenue and money from big donors is really where the money is at, so ticket sales just aren’t as important as your average season ticket holder would like to think they are. The big money with the big voice wants more luxury seating and amenities in the stadium. They’re going to be the ones funding it, and ultimately, will be the ones with the biggest say in what happens. We may not like to hear it, but we both know it’s the truth.

 

I'm hearing 75,000 now....

 

Doesn’t it seem premature to assume they’re going to do this “half-ass”?
The stadium has needed upgrading for a long time and everybody has been saying that. So now they’ve finally announced that they’re going to invest $400M in the old place and everybody is talking about how bad they’re going to screw it up. I don’t get the pessimism

 

Of course the long-time big donors should be listened to...I'm not suggesting not. My concern is that what might be driving the wagon is the thought of having a bunch of monied johnny-come-lately's jump on the bandwagon because of all the potential new "amenities." You know the type....the one's that won't go to a football game now because its "too hot" or "the bathroom has lines." They might get caught up in the excitement and get tix for a few years and soon discover that its still "too hot" and the bathrooms still have some lines.

I just believe that trying to chase that $ is somewhat wishful thinking...not the best strategy for long-term planning (IMO). Just look up Fernandez Hall to get an idea about what could possibly happen if you decide to jump on the first money train that rolls through town.

 

I don’t think there’s any exact plans in place yet, so any numbers you’re hearing aren’t based on anything but the opinions of people who are likely way less “in the know” than they’d like you to believe.

 

Except that Stricklin himself has stated that the expectation is a loss of > 10K seats, so there's that.

 

You make a fair argument, and I don’t disagree with you. Unfortunately the guy in the air conditioned sky box is probably going to get to make decisions for the guy who stands in the sun. Right or wrong.