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

While we’re at it, bring back the

 

Unfortunately that piped in “music” is catering to the college kids. Sure doesn’t cater to me. I have decided I’ll never go to a game at Williams Brice again unless they stop irritating the hell out of everybody with that grating noise they call Sandstorm

 

Yes you’ve been on this train for awhile and I always agreed with you. How does our budget compare to the competitions? I’m guessing this will put our product ahead of theirs, at least temporarily until whenever they decide to try and jump us again?

 

I suppose you can jackhammer and re-pour a lot of concrete for $400M, because that’s what it’s gonna take to get more spacing between seat rows

 

Neither are really “iconic”. The O’Dome renovation wasn’t a disaster or anything, it was just bizarre how they insisted on keeping it in the same shell/footprint. Obviously done to save costs. The result was a boring facility with little character.

The Swamp at this stage is a Frankenstein monster. A mix of old and new, but the old sections are so worn down you could almost call it a dump, literally starting the crumble in some spots. I assume the newer sections renovated after the 90’s won’t be touched too much (just further updated with some more modern comforts). $400 million these days is probably half a stadium. So a huge chunk of costs will be just about bringing that “unrenovated” half of the stadium up to spec. $400m is a lot of money for sure, but it will still be a bit of a Frankenstein monster because of the piecemeal nature of renovations. Of course unlike the O’Dome where they 100% should have started more completely from scratch, i don’t think anyone sees that as realistic for football as it’s a totally different scale of project.

 

The Swamp is definitely a bucket list venue for sports/college football enthusiasts. One of the great things IMO about the storied venues is the character that comes with decades worth of renovations and additions.

 

Beer fountains, pls

 

Neither are iconic? Beg to differ. The Swamp is one of a kind. Honest question: when is the last time you attended a home game at Florida Field?

 

Wouldn't be great if there was room to expand out an endzone for a food court that included the Purple Porpoise, Burrito Brothers, Krispy Kreme, CJs, Mac's Burgers, and Joe's Deli. You would have your bar, chips, burritos, wings, subs, and burgers all in one place. Now that's a sports bar made in heaven.

 

Forget laser lights and jumbotrons, let's bring water into the Swamp!

Waterfalls running down from top levels to bottom, pools of water around the endzones, with requisite marsh plants, and moccasins.

And Alligators...

 

They (all sports teams) consistently misread what fans want in terms of gameday experience.

It’s not AC
It’s not food
It’s not more room
It’s not premium seats

Its winning.

Build a stadium to create the most hostile environment and fans would absolutely love it. Make it loud. Make it intimate

 

You can't increase seat size, widen the ailes and add other improvements without dramatically changing the hysteria, energy and excitement I think we agree, is the true ingredient that fans identify as being the true nature of the Swamp.

 

Off topic, but I think the O'Dome has too much seating. I'm surprised that the attendance figures are so high, when it seems we don't have a full crowd when watching on tv. According to Google, the O'Dome capacity is allegedly 10,133 and the average basketball game attendance is 9,686. That doesn't seem right to me.

 

Believe that’s because a huge portion of tickets are now purchased by out of town individuals. Those that can afford just buy up packages and hold on to tickets until they want to go. Reducing capacity is all relative because as soon as you do it you increase cost and price more people out.

 

The West stand concourses are jammed up with vendor lines to the point that they're dangerously clogged and overheated and prevent access to the bathrooms and through the concourses. But, they're working on the East side instead. They should try to focus their efforts in the areas where the money comes from, which is not the student sections. They're also widening the lower bowl seats and adding chairbacks. Our seats are in the first couple rows of the upper bowl, so no relief to us with that either. Bottom line, $400M worth of disruption won't benefit my section even slightly. I know it's not about me, but, I just can't get excited about this personally.

 

It only has too much because no one wants to sit up in the awful 3rd level. I'm concerned that UF will do to Florida Field what it did to the O'Connell Center....removing hundreds (probably thousands since the relative size difference) of the best seats in the place and reducing the snakepit atmosphere the Swamp is so famous for. All the while jacking up prices astronomically and not giving a crap whether anyone is in those seats or not as long as they're sold.

 

Sort of, it’s winning. . . with ac, some more room, premium seats and some of those better food choices.

 

Wonder if the face lift will be like Dolphin stadium.

 

I hope not

 

Exactly. They are going the wrong way.

Make it a more hostile environment that helps the Gators win.

If the Gators win the fans will come. The fans won’t care at all if the seats are crammed if the team is winning and they are helping the team win.

Nice amenities but with a mediocre team will still produce mediocre attendance. Stop trying to compete with the comforts of home. Nobody comes to a game to get that