Stadium expansion has been a topic of discussion for a number of years and plans for expansion were announced almost a year ago. The expansion will increase seating capacity to approximately 50,000 and will completely overhaul the locker rooms and the south end zone. There is no doubt that the south end zone and locker areas need to be replaced. The question that remains is how increased seating capacity will be received. Are there enough Ute fans out there to snap up the additional seats or will the availability of tickets on an individual game basis reduce the demand for season tickets. When my youngest graduated from the U about 5 years ago, I decided to buy a pair of tickets in the NEZ for him to use when he was able to attend. He does camera work for both ESPN and Fox when they are broadcasting from within the State and cannot always attend. He shot the WSU game and will be shooting the Cal game. Prior to this year, it was relatively easy to sell the tickets and we probably made a little money, but this year there have been so many tickets for sale on the secondary market that it has been very difficult to sell them for what we paid. NEZ tickets used to be a good deal. I think they were $25 per seat when we started buying them. They are now $39 before you add the $40 per season renovation fee and the $50 CC fee. Those fees bring the price to about $52 per ticket. I understand that the late start times and weather have contributed to this, but the late starts will continue if the Utes are good and there will always be some weather impacted game. My wife and I went to both games, stayed to the end, and had a great time. I also understand that we do not have any of the big boys on the home schedule this year and that things might be different when USC, UW, Oregon, Stanford and BYU are on the schedule. Does anyone else believe the Utes will have a hard time actually getting 5,000 more people in the seats?
I think we will.
I imagine different types of social and busines engineering models have been employed.
Isnt that the classic question: you have a restaurant that keeps selling out and then add five seats, and they keep selling out, then you add 10 seats, and it keeps selling out.
Finally, one adds 30 more, but, then the resrurant remains half empty all the time…Something like that.
I think we can fill the Stadium and also accommadate those with reduced incomes, tickets in some way. Ute fans come in all incomes.
I think the whole thing will be driven by adding more affordable seats. I’m one who believes the U is about to see they’ve hit the inflection point on the P/Q curve. They’re a little cocky about what they can do because of the high renewal rates, but the increases have driven some friends of ours away.
Also, in the survey about stadium expansion a couple of years ago, it was obvious they wanted a good chunk of it to cater to the high end buyers that wanted to have a lot of amenities. I found that really annoying, but that’s pretty much how it played out.
As far as trying to sell a ticket within a few days of the game, we’ve had abysmal start times and weather this year. (2 games in summer heat, 2 more with steady rain predicted (accurately) for most of the game).
Seems like most of the new seats in the south end are for the high end customers and they seem confident they will get snatched up quickly. Remains to be seen if that’s the case. Does seem to be that for those with limited funds, it’s getting fairly expensive to attend games.
“They’re a little cocky about what they can do because of the high renewal rates, but the increases have driven some friends of ours away.”
Yes they are cocky. It seems they don’t want to listen when they are told that people are getting priced out. I know, I know…we are a “bargain” compared to other schools. But they need to start listening to the fan base. People are about tapped out.
The general trend in college athletics is decreased attendance/viewership. Seems crazy to think that the trend won’t hit us at some point.
tapped out and Idaho state and NIU on the Home schedule doesn’t help. I’m at the point of considering not renewing.
One thing I know is that there are several of our vendors/software providers at work who have wanted to get corporate suites for Utah football but there has been nothing available for a long time. I fully expect those new suites to sell out.
Yep crappy OOC opponents combined with late games have now driven 5 of our seat mates out of their season tickets. Since have sat in the SEZ we will have to follow with the build out. Not less of a fan, just can’t prioritize even more money and more days off because I’m too old to recover from 1 am return home times.
Just my two cents, the stadium rebuild isn’t so much about adding seats. In fact I think that’s the lowest priority of what the rebuild is bringing to the table. I agree with Canuck, suites and corporate entertaining spaces have basically been unavailable for several years now and building new corporate areas is a key portion of the rebuild.
The main benefit and priority to my mind is new locker rooms. Just like Mac used to joke that they would deliberately delay going to the football facility with recruits, they now try to avoid the locker rooms as much as possible. Not saying the U needs to go all Phil Knight and Oregon but it’s time these things go away.
I do agree that the addition of our indoor facility, Athletic Center and weight room (thanks to Alex Smith) probably helped recruiting a great deal I think that the upgrading the locker room probably will make a difference as well.