Of the three college football venues in the Salt Lake metro, we have three that seem to match the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears very well. We have the Stewart Stadium in Ogden that is too big. Rice Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City that is too small. And there is LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo that is just right?
The one too big...
The smallest of the three...Stewart Stadium was built in the 1970s, before the days of ESPN and other around the clock TV outlets. The NCAA, in those days, controlled what games were on TV and recognized that the WAC was the dominant conference in Utah. Only ABC had college football on TV and usually WAC games were shown regionally. Usually, there was a double header on Saturday. A national game and a regional game. Some weeks, there was not even a national game. There was also a limit to the number of games that any team would appear during the season. Therefore, while Arizona and New Mexico were on TV, Ogdenites would actually venture to the mountainside campus and see the Wildcats play. But that was the past. If FBS college football is like AAA in baseball, the FCS is AA. The division formerly known as I-AA has suffered the most from the around-the-clock, nation-wide college football coverage.
Except when coach Mac first arrived in Ogden, I do not remember a sell-out game at Stewart Stadium since homecoming my freshman year. In 2009, WSU's average attendance was a little over a third of the listed stadium capacity of 17,500. It was 6,500. It may have been a little higher, were in not for the snow squall that hit Ogden just in time for the Northern Arizona game. Even on the best of days, however, everyone in attendance could bring a friend and there would still be more than enough seats to spare.
The stadium (west side) is now nearly 40 years old (east side is even older). It it beginning to show it's age. It may be time to replace the aging concrete structure with a smaller, more intimate football stadium. I know that Ron McBride has other items on his to-do list and it is not likely that a new football stadium is in the near future. The Head Coach is thinking about recruiting. He wants an indoor practice facility built before he retires. It will help ensure that whoever follows him will be successful. It will be that success that will win fans back. Whether this can continue in Ogden after Ron McBride retires is something we will have to wait for.
No for where: Anyone else notice that the businesses on the east side of Harrison, west of the Dee Events Center continue to fail? Why not use public domain to condemn these sites and build a new stadium here? This could, and should be a smaller, 10,000 seat, expandable football/soccer stadium. Think a smaller Rio Tinto without the canvas. There should be enough room if the Training Table Site and the other burger stand site were raised. The may also be enough room at the south-east corner of 42nd and Harrison. Another possible location is the current location of Wasatch, Stansbury and LaSalle Halls. These dorms are not in high demand or high use since University Village was finished.
With a place to play soccer, an indoor practice facility can be added to the south side of the Stromberg complex. A new track facility can be build south of University Village. The current stadium location can be used for other new campus buildings or parking lots.
Finally, consider this: A half-empty stadium does not provide much of a home-field advantage.
The one too small
This article in the Deseret News caught my eye. When an organization can raise ticket prices and not see a drop off in demand, that can only mean one thing. The place is too small. Before we are to critical of that, we have to hearken back to the time that it was built.
It was back in the mid-1990s, when Salt Lake City was awarded the Olympic Winter Games for 2002. The old venue was not suitable for the opening and closing ceremonies for the Olympics. Most of the stadium was demolished and the new structure arose from the ashes in about 10 months time. The Ute Football team at that time was in the heart of the Ron McBride era. The Utes were an exciting team to watch in those days, but were not the consistent winners that they have been recently. Therefore, 45,000 permanent seats seemed like a good fit for the program. In the early days of the new Rice Eccles Stadium, it was enough. In fact, it was more than enough.
Since the stadium opened in 1998, the bar has been raised on the Ute program--and fans have responded. There has hardly been a non-sellout game since the Fiesta Bowl season of 2004. Demand has increased even more since the Sugar Bowl season two years ago, and the program seems poised for even bigger things in the coming decade. More and more people want to be part of it. They sense history in the making, and it may be time to strike the iron and add a few more seats to house on the hill.
The question is, how? The stadium is boxed in. You have South Campus drive and the old Nielsen field house on the north side. There are power, water and heating facilities on the east. And now there is the Olympic Legacy Part on the south. Not to mention the Press Box/Luxury Seating on the west. A major expansion does not seem feasible unless is can be incorporated within the footprint of the existing venue. It is a challenge for a really motivated architect.
Just Right?
LaVell Edwards stadium was expanded to it's current size in the early 1980s, when the BYU football program escaped the shadow of Frank Cush's Arizona State program. The seating configuration has been changed a little. There are now chair seats where there were once bench seats, and that cost the stadium capacity a little. But occasionally, there are still a few seats available in Provo on a Saturday afternoon. Likely it will happen on a season like this coming season where expectations are lower and where there are only two bowl teams from last season (Nevada and Wyoming) coming to play.
For many, however, there is not a better setting for a college football game than BYU's stadium. Any expansion could ruin it. Even if there are around 200 - 500 people standing, this stadium is just right. It has the mountains, and it is usually full of people that root hard for their team.
My opinion, however, is that BYU has a big problem on it's hands. For the first 20 years of the 65,000 seat stadium, the cream of the crop of college football would visit Provo. There were visits from Texas, Penn State, USC and Notre Dame. Between now and 2015, only two BCS programs will come to Provo, unless the MWC gets to join the club. Those programs are Washington this season and Oregon State in 2012. The highest profile non-conference program visiting BYU in the near future is Boise Sate in 2013. That could become a conference game, if you believe the grapevine. In 2010, the best team that will visit, based on their 2009 final ranking, is the Wyoming Cowboys.
The problem is that while Rice Eccles is a smaller stadium, it provides more revenue than LaVell Edwards. The home of the Utes has more luxury boxes. Rice Eccles is in the heart of a big city, and there is more for traveling fans to see and do. Going to Provo is about as exciting as visiting Aunt Martha on a Sunday afternoon. The justification for spending the money to expand this stadium was to attract a high-caliber opponent to Provo. It worked for about twenty years. It does not seem to be working any longer.
Granted, part of that comes from the caliber of team BYU has become. People do not want to schedule an automatic loss. BYU has one of the best home records in all of college football. Bronco Mendenhall makes defending the home turf one of his primary goals. BYU was 4-2 at home in 2009, and these were their first home losses since going 3-3 at home in 2005.
There needs to be some changes made to make LaVell Edwards Stadium a more attractive place for opponents to visit. A bullet train to Moab may be a nice idea, but not feasible. There has to be a way to squeeze more revenue out a college football Saturday without destroying what makes a visit to Provo worth the trip and unique. Don't destroy the view.
Every now and then, someone comes up with a new idea to expand LaVell Edwards Stadium, or to put a roof on it or something like that. True, the University should be forward thinking. There may be more chair seats, and if it can be done feasibly, the bowl could be finished. But this would only add about 5,000 to 6,000 seats. An expansion like this would need to be paired with something else that would add enough revenue to pay for the project.
One idea could be to expand and curve the press-box/luxury suite facility around to the north and south sides of the stadium, much like you see at Lambeu Field in Green Bay. Not around the entire stadium, just the west half of it. BYU could rebuild the south side and north side of the stadium to look a little more like Kyle Field. A deck on the east side of the stadium could destroy the famous view. That would have to be done carefully. You would not see BYU's stadium grow more than 75,000 to 80,000 strong, but if done correctly, BYU fans can again see the best in college football come to town.
FYI Attendance figures:
Big Sky Conference:
Average Stadium Size: 16,260
Average 2009 Attendance: 10,217
League Leader: Montana 24,417/25,203
WAC
Average Stadium Size: 31,949
Average 2009 Attendance: 22,749
League Leader: Hawaii 36,725/50,000
Mountain West
Average Stadium Size: 46,523
Average 2009 Attendance: 33,202
League Leader: BYU: 64,236/64,035
Sources:
http://web1.ncaa.org/web_files/stats/football_records/Attendance/2009.pdf
January 2011 update.
Since first writing this blog article, a lot has happened. Utah will soon become part of the PAC-12 and a stadium expansion is likely in the works. It is in the stadium master plan from the beginning, but was considered to ostentatious at the time in the wake of the Olympic bidding scandal, and, as mentioned, the Ron McBride program didn't justify a bigger stadium. A 70,000+ Rice Eccles Stadium is likely in the near future. There old blue prints will be be dusted off and updated. Expect to see the bowl completed with the south stands looking like the north. There will be new locker rooms as well as the current locker rooms are under the south stands. And you may even see a deck or something on the east side that can fit inside the footprint of the existing stadium.
BYU had an awful season first half of their season, but still draws over 50,000 even when the weather is bad and shooting Bambi is legal. The attendance only dipped for the season finale against the pathetic New Mexico Lobos. They are leaving the Mtn West, becoming independent and inked a deal with ESPN that is lucrative enough to attract Texas, Notre Dame and Georgia Tech. When funds permit, there may be something more than just cosmetic changes to LaVell Edwards Stadium. Part of the experience in Provo is the incredible view of the mountains and no stadium expansion would be worth putting that sacrifice on the table.
Weber State has been given the middle finger by the conference with their schedule. They had a home game during General Conference and the first weekend of the Deer Hunt. Their attendance has suffered. Plans toward an indoor practice facility progress, and once ground is broken, Ron McBride can retire. But thanks to some generous donors there is a stadium upgrade in the near future. The grass field will be replaced with turf and there will be an upgrade to the track as well.
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