Stadium Expansion: Will it ever even happen?

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Okie

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I know this is a very weird time to be talking about a topic like this, with the NDSU game tomorrow and considering the fact we would have trouble filling a typical high school stadium at the moment, but I wanted to just hear other opinions on this. Ever since the TCF Bank Stadium was built, I have been hoping that we would see the stadium expanded to 80,000 seats eventually. It's a great stadium, don't get me wrong, but I feel like if we ever want to become a consistent Big Ten contender, we need a bigger stadium (yes I know, we need more fans first). Also, when you walk by the stadium, it just looks like its missing a top level. It's just so short compared to other stadiums, almost like someone just sliced off the third level or it.

Now let's get hypothetical. Let's say that Jerry Kill is as good as we (and I) think he is, and turns this program around in the next 4-5 years to the point that we can contend for the Legends Division title every year, kind of like an Iowa. I guess the first question I have is, do you think that we could get enough fan support to have enough demand to fill an 80,000 seat stadium? And secondly, do you think the school would even consider it, no matter the circumstances, after seeing how bad the support gets when we don't win?

Even though I know it's unrealistic, I just wanted to talk about this because I've been dreaming about this ever since they built the stadium, and I don't think that we will have a truly awesome atmosphere unless we go bigger. Bad timing aside, what are your guys' thoughts on this?
 

They will soon but the U is broke cant afford it yet.
 



I hope not. Let it become a hard to get ticket so the phat katz have to dig deep to get in line for a ticket!
 


They'll go forward on it the day after the Vikes move to LA.:D If the Vikes don't move at least 10 years.:(
 

I don't see the Gophers or Vikings ever selling 80,000 tickets. If you can't sell them don't build it. Just my $0.02.
 

I've been curious about this myself.

My question is; has anyone seen drawings/renderings of the expansion. A third deck(for 30,000) would have to be bigger than the first two decks.

Just wondering.
 

I don't see it ever going to 80,000. It would take becoming winning program for several years running. Then I could see serious talk to expand it to 60,000.
 



nsmike said:
They'll go forward on it the day after the Vikes move to LA.:D If the Vikes don't move at least 10 years.:(
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Man some of y'all got the worst little brother syndrome.

The Gophers can stand on their own just fine.
 


station19 said:
I've been curious about this myself.

My question is; has anyone seen drawings/renderings of the expansion. A third deck(for 30,000) would have to be bigger than the first two decks.

Just wondering.
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There has been a rumor that there is some renderings of the stadium expansion floating around, but I've never seen one. The closest I've seen is this image created by the Strib:

TCFBankStadiumExpansion.jpg
 

After going to both the Gophers and Vikings games last weekend, free ticket to the Vikes that no one else would take so I told a friend I would go, there is virtually nothing in common with the fanbases. Other than the enjoyment of the football game there are few similarities. The dome definitely had a white trash feel to it on Sunday, people hammered out of their mind. Don't get me wrong I like tying one on as much as the next person but it is not a place I would take my kids, should I have one someday.

I am glad I prefer Saturdays and Gopher football, now let's get another W tomorrow!
 



station19 said:
I've been curious about this myself.

My question is; has anyone seen drawings/renderings of the expansion. A third deck(for 30,000) would have to be bigger than the first two decks.

Just wondering.
Click to expand...

There has been a rumor that there is some renderings of the stadium expansion floating around, but I've never seen one. The closest I've seen is this image created by the Strib:

View attachment 1137
 


Yeah, at this point, I'm not so confident it will ever happen. But I still feel that, despite what sort of coach you have, a program needs multiple other things to maintain any sort of momentum/popularity it gains by having a few good seasons, and those would be a good atmosphere at games with good fan support, and an intimidating stadium.
 

It will take at least 5 winning seasons, a conference championship, and a solid fan base not a ticket give away.
 

Okie said:
Yeah, at this point, I'm not so confident it will ever happen. But I still feel that, despite what sort of coach you have, a program needs multiple other things to maintain any sort of momentum/popularity it gains by having a few good seasons, and those would be a good atmosphere at games with good fan support, and an intimidating stadium.
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My understanding is that it can be expanded in 10,000 seat increments. Therefore, if needed, I would guess they would expand to 60,000 first with those 10,000 seats being on the future visitor's side third deck probably between the 20s.
 

I hope they never expand to 80,000. I think it would be hard to fill up consistently. Plus an upper deck seat in the end zone is a pretty lousy seat. TCF stadium doesn't have a bad seat in it. Why add one now? Keep the upper deck between the goal lines. Somewhere between 60,000-70,000 I would guess.
 

Unless we can schedule Iowa, Wisconsin and Nebraska at home every year, it would be a waste of money.
 

I thought when the stadium was first being built they said they would close in the horseshoe and make it a bowl? Did anybody else here this?
 

Big Play said:
No in 5-7 years.
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Not gonna happen anytime soon.

1. Your timeline means the legislature would have to approve funding within the next 3-5 years. No matter how how good Kill is, that would be a very fast timeframe for our fan base to mushroom and the public to be ready for another stadium funding bill.

2. Could the Vikes have filled an 80k seat stadium during the height of the Moss years? Maybe, maybe not. But the Vikes can barely keep the dome full year in and out and pro football is the most popular sport in the nation.

3. An expansion would require significant private fundraising by the U. Right now, other significant projects are lined up ahead of any football stadium expansion. The basketball practice facility, baseball stadium, and potential replacement or repair of Williams Arena come to mind. even if the football expansion project leapfrogged the other projects, fundraising will take years and football donors were just recently hit up to build TCF in the first place.

Unless Kill wins a B1G championship and the Vikes leave town, we won't be enjoying an expanded stadium anytime within the next 10 years.
 

There's enough of a population base in the Metro to support both the Gophers and Vikings, but it will take on field success over several seasons, and an expanding season ticket wait list before expansion is contemplated, along with a reduction of debt from building the stadium. If the Vikes were to leave; I can easily see a big increase in season ticket demand as corporate buyers seek to replace the Vikings tickets they give away as gifts. Don't discount the importance of corporate customers. I'm guessing a built in demand of from 7,000 to 10,00 tickets. That would be enough to contemplate at least the first phase of expansion.
 

I have a few issues with this post.

Also, when you walk by the stadium, it just looks like its missing a top level. It's just so short compared to other stadiums, almost like someone just sliced off the third level or it.
?

Well for starters, the stadium is built more above ground than almost all other stadiums, so in reality it looks very tall from the outside relative to other stadiums, when walking by it. It is not half below ground like Kinnick, Michigan Stadium, or the USC Coliseum, so your perspective on TCF looking short is total BS. The home side, with the tall suite levels, looks like giant ocean liner when lit up at night.

What other stadiums have you "walked by"?

Secondly, are you suggesting that HOK (now called something else) is incompetent when it created the plans?

Putting 30K in seats between the end of the press level at the SE end of the stadium and the NW corner by the scoreboard is easy. As a big fan, apparently you never bothered to walk around the top level open concourse and look at all othe open space between the fence and the wall of the stadium.

Lastly, someone needs to let Stanford, Oregon and Miami (and Ok State, Arizona, BC, most ACC teams,NU, know that they can never compete for National Championships, since none of those teams ever draw much more than 50K or so to a game.
 

Baby steps people. Baby steps.

The only way they'll expand the stadium is if there's demand for seats, and so far, that demand isn't there. We're not selling out now, so why add more seats which, at this point, would likely be filled with visiting fans.

If the Vikings do leave town, and they might, then it's possible that the Gophers would become a bigger draw, particularly if the team became good. That said, a large number (possibly a majority at this point, and since 1998) of people at Vikings games are there for the party, and could not care less about the game. As I described it before, it's like Wrigley Field without the nice settting. The dome for Vikings games is a bar with a football field in the middle of it. With no booze at the Bank, most of those people aren't going to be interested. Same holds true for corporate ticket holders. If the Vikings leave, I'd expect to see more demand for suites and box seats at Wild, Twins, and even Wolves games where alcohol is served.
 

Let's say they went ahead and expand the seating capacity at TFC to 80,000. Frankly, I don't know how well they can compete with the Vikings to fill the seats. We have too many other sports venues in this town.

And, as previously mentioned the U has to take care of a basketball practice facility, a baseball stadium, and an eventual replacement to Williams arena not to mention possibly the hockey arena at some point.

Let's take care of turning the football program around first. One baby step at a time. We've got to make it attractive for high level recruits to come here. Stringing a bunch of wins will do that. Then, maybe then we can build on to bigger and better things like what is going on in Badgerland. It starts with commitment at the very top. I tip my hat off to Donna Shalala and Barry Alvarez.
 

Arbogast said:
I thought when the stadium was first being built they said they would close in the horseshoe and make it a bowl? Did anybody else here this?
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No, there's a huge jumbotron there. Even if they wanted to tear it down and put it somewhere else, 4th street passes through the footprint of the stadium, so they'd have to get really creative.
 

station19 said:
I've been curious about this myself.

My question is; has anyone seen drawings/renderings of the expansion. A third deck(for 30,000) would have to be bigger than the first two decks.

Just wondering.
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Yes, I have seen them. They were given to me way back during the design phase of the stadium so we could account for the potential future 3rd deck when designing foundations, etc. I assumed they would be around for a long time, so I didn't keep a copy, and they promptly disappeared... That's what I get for assuming.
 

The stadium itself is perfect. How about changing the name?!
 

I don't think the stadium will ever be expanded if we don't resolve the liquor issue. Corporate sponsorship is the name of the game and they won't spend big on suites and premium seats if they can't have at least a beer at the game. It just doesn't work. The stadium revenue is down over a million dollars from projections because of this idiocy by the Mn legislature. I still don't understand how the legislature decides to cut funding and impede revenue all at the same time...it's not like they were going to have hash brownie sales in the suites...its beer and wine being sold to adults.

That said, you can't compare the difficulty in the Vikes drawing 65k to the Gophers drawing 80k...it is a totally different animal. Successful college football programs are driven by families. The ticket costs, game experience, etc is designed so you can bring your kids, rival fans travel to games and the atmosphere is totally different. More kids are at the college games...which means more tickets sales at lower prices. If you go to scUM, or tOSU or NE to see a home game, you will be amazed just how many in the stadium of 80-100k are kids...versus the Vikes at the dome.
 

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