"Florida Football: Is reducing capacity in The Swamp a good idea?"

A smaller beaver is good.

 

With all the drownings associated with stadiums, you might be onto something.

 

In reality BHG is a 75 thousand seat stadium if the seat widths were sized to fit a normal sized male adult. Sardining an extra 18 thousand people into the bleachers is accomplished by sizing the seat widths to fit a 12 year old kid.
The real issue is enough comfort for adults to make spending $500.00 to $1,000.00 to attend a game worth the effort. I have premium season seats on the 50 yd line every year. It's called an 86 inch HDTV with a large recliner. To entice me out of that setup you're going to have to offer me an adult sized seat with a back and arm rests. If you do that I'll forego the snacks and drinks my sweetie brings me during the game in favor of attending the game in person. I represent the tens of thousands of Gator fans who have made the same choice.
And by the way, I was there before the stadium was expanded and it was just as loud as today.

 

Okie St is doing the same thing now with T. Boone Pickens (RIP) Stadium:
Behind-the-scenes at Boone Pickens Stadium constructions; Upgrades fans will notice next season

 

Useless without pics

 

How would you know if you don’t go?

 

The issue is that you never really remove excess inventory. Reducing capacity means more premium seating and increased costs. You are also shrinking the pool of ticket purchasers. We’ve seen how this plays out in the O’Dome. People will stay home from games they don’t want to attend, doesn’t matter if there is 90K or 70K seats. There will be empties against the Vandys of the world, problem is now there will be even smaller actual attendance.

 

If the architect is clever, there could be a way to make the regular seating at 80k, but surge/standing seating/standing up to 90k. Kyle field was expanded from 83k to 106k in 2015, and the architects pre-planned a future expansion of 7k with minimal changes. Granted, comparing the Dallas Cowboys' multi-billion dollar stadium to a college stadium is not a fair comparison, but the design allows for surge from 80k to 105k. I get it, AT&T Stadium was built from the ground up for that expansion, but somewhere in between the AT&T Stadium at Arlington and Kyle Field is a design that can seat 80k comfortably, surge to 85k-90k, and pre-plan future growth by a few thousand seats more or less within the footprint of the current Swamp--even if it means making a hard decision to move a street or a pool for a few million more dollars later down the road.

Last year I paid $120 for lower level tickets to a Gator game, but I paid $450 for a similar Cowboys game. (I do not have any Jags buddies for comparison.) On the other hand, my buddy sits in the Champions club and pays $650 for a Gator game or $750 for a similar seat at a Cowboys game. The "average" listed online shows college football tickets cost as much as NFL tickets, but in my sample size of 2 I would say that college tickets can be found for a typical fan that are cheaper than NFL tickets. That average may start to look the same between the Gator tickets and Cowboys tickets with these upgrades, which leads me to believe that UF did its research and will gladly throw away a few poor fans to squeeze more out of the fans willing to spend something between the current Gator ticket price and NFL tickets.

 

I would still rather be on the 50 yard line crammed in there like sardines than sitting in my house watching my big TV. That doesn’t mean I don’t want a seat with a back on it though. I only weigh 175 pounds but I am 6 foot three the width for my ass is fine, but my knees being in the back of somebody else’s neck if I sit down as an issue.

 

I paid $1390 for four tickets on the 30 yard line for Tennessee. My parents have season tickets and the face value I think is about 125 maybe $150. So buying season tickets is much cheaper but buying a ticket. Second hand is much more expensive.

 

The older I got, the less I was willing to get squeezed in to watch football. However, if it takes a 7,000 to 10,000-seat reduction to have a more modern and comfortable venue, I'm all for it. I can understand why it needs to be done after visiting other stadiums over the years with better seating and facilities for the people who show up. Those in The Swamp deserve a better fan experience than being squeezed in like sardines. The Erector Set in Tallahassee has 83,000 capacity, but wider seats for fans.

With the above stated, I wouldn't want to see a 15,000 reduction in seating. That's too many Gator fans being turned away.

 

It's not my "opinion", it's a fact! College football attendance is down across the board. According to a CBS Sports report, attendance is down about 15% since 2008.

No doubt winning consistently will help attendance, but the days of filling an 88K+ stadium on a regular basis are probably over. As far as the other stuff, every stadium in every sport is doing whatever they can to try to make the game experience more enjoyable for the casual fan. You may not like it but the research backs up that most fans like it.

 

More than you might think. I believe season tickets cost $390, but there's a minimum contribution required for the right to buy them. That contribution ranges from $150 to $2,850 based on seat location. In any seats inside the goal lines, the contribution is currently higher than the ticket price. If I recall correctly, a few years ago when we sold out all the season ticket allotment and there was competition for seats, the contribution required for all seats was higher than the ticket price. I don't recall the exact amounts, but I saw a figures about 10 years ago for ticket sales and contributions revenues and the money UF made on contributions dwarfed the ticket revenues.

If you reduce capacity where demand is higher than the supply, the school can increase not only ticket prices but the contributions.

 

Link to your “most fans like it”
opinion?

 

This team hasn't won an SEC Championship since 2008. Attendance has been down because the quality of football has been down. 2015 season had promise (Ole Miss game anybody? Tennessee?). Then the Grier fiasco happened, and we finished with our faces scraping against the ground. By and large, we have a hungry fan base that can't wait to get after it. None of the frills matter in terms of attendance; that's not why people attend games. People will comment on this stuff when we're 15 years out from an SEC Championship; nobody is commenting on this stuff when we're hitting a late 4th quarter pass for a long TD against Tennessee to finish off a perfect September followed by a dismantling of top 5, 4-0 Ole Miss team that had already knocked off Alabama in Tuscaloosa earlier that season. None of these changes have anything to do with attendance.

This is strictly a revenue generating operation, and bless the people that want more comfort and are willing to pay for it. All I ask is that you please leave the student section alone, and let them bring what they bring when the team brings what it needs to bring.

Go GATORS!
,WESGATORS

 

The pool isn't the issue, Fl Gym is the issue. It's an historical structure and isn't going anywhere

 

Not when you factor in the booster fees for the right to buy those season tickets. I pay much more in booster fees than I do in ticket price

 

That's so you have enough room to read your book.
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