How many could the Cougs draw for this USC game ...

[PeteTheChop]

if the game was on Saturday afternoon and Martin Stadium had unlimited capacity instead of 32,952?

Hypothetical, obviously, but 50k? 60k? If the weather held and it was perfect fall day in the Palouse, perhaps even more?

Fun to think about (and I know some in the "expand the stadium" crowd may have a suggestion).

 

[79COUG]

A hundred miles closer to Seattle? Probably 60.
As it is now...
I'm guessing 50.

 

[Fab5Coug]

What was the most we ever drew before Martin was reduced in size?

I'm with 79, probably between 45-50 IF the game was Saturday afternoon. 60K? No chance.

 

[CPtheCoug]

What was the most we ever drew before Martin was reduced in size?

I'm with 79, probably between 45-50 IF the game was Saturday afternoon. 60K? No chance.

I've always felt 45k was our sweet spot if we were to ever expand the stadium (not before better on field performance, better athletic department financials, etc...).

 

[PeteTheChop]

What was the most we ever drew before Martin was reduced in size?

I'm with 79, probably between 45-50 IF the game was Saturday afternoon. 60K? No chance.

If only there was an actual freeway between Spokane and Pullman (or, even better, Spokane, Pullman and the Tri-Cities) ... 60,000 might be no problem at all for some of really big games.

 

[PeteTheChop]

What was the most we ever drew before Martin was reduced in size?

The Martin Stadium record is 40,306 back in 1997 (against Stanford, which probably brought only a few hundred fans to Pullman that day).

Mr. Moos should sell SRO tickets Friday night just to break a 20-year-old record.

 

[Flatlandcoug]

if the game was on Saturday afternoon and Martin Stadium had unlimited capacity instead of 32,952?

Hypothetical, obviously, but 50k? 60k? If the weather held and it was perfect fall day in the Palouse, perhaps even more?

Fun to think about (and I know some in the "expand the stadium" crowd may have a suggestion).

As mentioned above, there are a lot of variables in play, but 50k would be a no brainer. In terms of real world stadium sizing, I agree with the comment above that WSU should be targeting 45k as the maximum size of our stadium.

 

[CPtheCoug]

The Martin Stadium record is 40,306 back in 1997 (against Stanford, which probably brought only a few hundred fans to Pullman that day).

Mr. Moos should sell SRO tickets Friday night just to break a 20-year-old record.

I think we offer something like 500ish standing room only tickets when normal seats sell out. Word on the street is that standing room only tickets have sold out! Maybe sell another 500? lol!

 

[PeteTheChop]

How would 45,000 capacity work at Martin Stadium?

A second deck on the visitor's side or maybe relocating the current JumboTron and adding another level of end-zone seating?

 

[Fab5Coug]

The Martin Stadium record is 40,306 back in 1997 (against Stanford, which probably brought only a few hundred fans to Pullman that day).

Mr. Moos should sell SRO tickets Friday night just to break a 20-year-old record.

I think they did. Even then, there's only so many you can sell, I think.

 

[Fab5Coug]

The stadium expansion discussion has been done several times on this board. IMO, they need to cut back on the student section before expanding the stadium. No need to invest millions in adding seats when you're practically giving away 1/3 of your stadium, including some pretty premium seats.

 

[CPtheCoug]

How would 45,000 capacity work at Martin Stadium?

A second deck on the visitor's side or maybe relocating the current JumboTron and adding another level of end-zone seating?

About a year or two ago I suggested a new cantilevered deck over the north stands (student section side). Because of the field house it will probably only be built between the 20's. The first floor/level of the structure would have 1,800 premium seats (to mirror the press box side), a row of loge box seating, and an indoor club area serving booze (again about the same size/scale as the press box). The second level of the structure would be a single row of about a dozen or so private suites. The third level would be deck seating that is slightly cantilevered over the suites (think of the whole structure as "stacked"). The deck would have about 6,000-7,000 "cheap" seats (bench seating).

My idea would be incredibly expensive, probably in the $40-$60 million range, but I think there are a lot of positives.

1. I believe the "real" money comes from Seattle/Tri-Cities/Spokane/Etc.. fans (well... maybe not spokane). That means most of the money is going to take hours and hours to get to Pullman. Does this money want to sit in endzone seats exposed to the elements without a beer to buy after driving 4+ hours? I know I don't want to drive for hours only to have a crappy view of the game. Give the money a great view of the game with great amenities!
2. You are still building "cheap" seats with the third level deck. Adding the deck gives you a little more flexibility in regards to the students. You now have more room to move the student section around based on revenue needs. Now everyone will have good seats.
3. Having the structure stacked will give a more intimate game day experience, while also providing a more visually intimidating home field advantage. The vertical the venue is, the imposing it will appear. I hate the huskies, but husky stadium is a very imposing place to play.
4. Having the structure stacked will also enclose sound better, helping with home field advantage, etc...

The structure would almost certainly take up place on the track, which will have to be moved.

Long story short, my idea is to basically rebuild the press box above the north side stands, with the exception being that instead of having a 3rd floor filled with media rooms/press rooms/coaches rooms/etc.., there is a 7,000 seat deck.

One can dream...

 

[425cougfan]

The TV dynamic is a pretty big headwind to attendance ... not only the availability of all games in HD at very little cost, but also the terrible start times. Going over and back from the west side is reasonable when the start time is somewhere between 1pm and 3pm, maybe even 5pm for night owls like me.

It only took me 4 hours on the nose to get over there for the Oregon State game, and I wasn't speeding (too much) and still was tied up in some traffic between Colfax and Pullman.

7pm starts, though, are completely unworkable for getting back to the Seattle area, and maybe even places like Yakima, for most fans. Even getting back to Spokane at 1am or so isn't much fun, especially in the winter.

 

[chugspig]

Probably 120k. If the weather was 74.3 and there was a slight 2 mph breeze and beer was free and chicks weren't wearing anything we could push up to 121k maybe.

 

[Fab5Coug]

The TV dynamic is a pretty big headwind to attendance ... not only the availability of all games in HD at very little cost, but also the terrible start times. Going over and back from the west side is reasonable when the start time is somewhere between 1pm and 3pm, maybe even 5pm for night owls like me.

It only took me 4 hours on the nose to get over there for the Oregon State game, and I wasn't speeding (too much) and still was tied up in some traffic between Colfax and Pullman.

7pm starts, though, are completely unworkable for getting back to the Seattle area, and maybe even places like Yakima, for most fans. Even getting back to Spokane at 1am or so isn't much fun, especially in the winter.

My record is 3:45, coming from Bellevue. But, it was summer. Left Friday afternoon, set the cruise to 80, listened to an M's game, and didn't stop. Magical.

 

[Fab5Coug]

Probably 120k. If the weather was 74.3 and there was a slight 2 mph breeze and beer was free and chicks weren't wearing anything we could push up to 121k maybe.

I could see cresting 110K if the game was actually played at Michigan and if WSU & USC were replaced with Michigan & tOSU.

 

[PeteTheChop]

About a year or two ago I suggested a new cantilevered deck over the north stands (student section side). Because of the field house it will probably only be built between the 20's. The first floor/level of the structure would have 1,800 premium seats (to mirror the press box side), a row of loge box seating, and an indoor club area serving booze (again about the same size/scale as the press box). The second level of the structure would be a single row of about a dozen or so private suites. The third level would be deck seating that is slightly cantilevered over the suites (think of the whole structure as "stacked"). The deck would have about 6,000-7,000 "cheap" seats (bench seating).

My idea would be incredibly expensive, probably in the $40-$60 million range, but I think there are a lot of positives.

1. I believe the "real" money comes from Seattle/Tri-Cities/Spokane/Etc.. fans (well... maybe not spokane). That means most of the money is going to take hours and hours to get to Pullman. Does this money want to sit in endzone seats exposed to the elements without a beer to buy after driving 4+ hours? I know I don't want to drive for hours only to have a crappy view of the game. Give the money a great view of the game with great amenities!
2. You are still building "cheap" seats with the third level deck. Adding the deck gives you a little more flexibility in regards to the students. You now have more room to move the student section around based on revenue needs. Now everyone will have good seats.
3. Having the structure stacked will give a more intimate game day experience, while also providing a more visually intimidating home field advantage. The vertical the venue is, the imposing it will appear. I hate the huskies, but husky stadium is a very imposing place to play.
4. Having the structure stacked will also enclose sound better, helping with home field advantage, etc...

The structure would almost certainly take up place on the track, which will have to be moved.

Long story short, my idea is to basically rebuild the press box above the north side stands, with the exception being that instead of having a 3rd floor filled with media rooms/press rooms/coaches rooms/etc.., there is a 7,000 seat deck.

One can dream...

Intriguing concept, thanks for sharing.

Would your plan put capacity at 45K?

Could there be an opportunity to further expand down the road as the state of Washington and the Inland Empire continue to grow? Additional end zone seating or more sky boxes?

I remember a while back that one of the long-time posters here (not sure which one?) suggested a 70,000-seat stadium could be a realistic goal during most of our lifetimes.

 

[CPtheCoug]

Intriguing concept, thanks for sharing.

Would your plan put capacity at 45K?

Could there be an opportunity to further expand down the road as the state of Washington and the Inland Empire continue to grow? Additional end zone seating or more sky boxes?

I remember a while back that one of the long-time posters here (not sure which one?) suggested a 70,000-seat stadium could be a realistic goal during most of our lifetimes.

It'd be right around 45k.

For future expansion, never say never? I'd doubt we'd ever get up to 70k...

Here is an old obsolete Martin Stadium renovation rendering. Its basically my vision, except I would have it cantilevered a bit more over the student section and then of course the 3rd level deck.

 

[Loyal Coug]

The Martin Stadium record is 40,306 back in 1997 (against Stanford, which probably brought only a few hundred fans to Pullman that day).

Mr. Moos should sell SRO tickets Friday night just to break a 20-year-old record.

wake up Pete. The stadium only holds 33,000. SRO brings us up to 33,500. Reducing the seating in both end zones has cost us 7,000 seats.

The only logical expansion, which I have presented many many times before, is to put the "second deck" in the bowl. This was planned and the infrastructure is in place. This would bring us back up to 40,000-ish at a reasonable cost, and these seats, if reasonably priced, would sell out every game.

 

[COUGinNCW]

wake up Pete. The stadium only holds 33,000. SRO brings us up to 33,500. Reducing the seating in both end zones has cost us 7,000 seats.

The only logical expansion, which I have presented many many times before, is to put the "second deck" in the bowl. This was planned and the infrastructure is in place. This would bring us back up to 40,000-ish at a reasonable cost, and these seats, if reasonably priced, would sell out every game.

I have noticed the end zone seats have the highest occupancy in the games with low attendance.

 

[CougPatrol]

wake up Pete. The stadium only holds 33,000. SRO brings us up to 33,500. Reducing the seating in both end zones has cost us 7,000 seats.

The only logical expansion, which I have presented many many times before, is to put the "second deck" in the bowl. This was planned and the infrastructure is in place. This would bring us back up to 40,000-ish at a reasonable cost, and these seats, if reasonably priced, would sell out every game.

Putting a 2nd deck in the bowl is hardly an enticement for fans who already have to drive anywhere between 80-400 miles (one way) to see the Cougs play. While I think the bowl should be completed, any serious talks about increasing stadium capacity needs to be focused on adding additional premium seating between the goal lines.

 

[brettcraycraft51]

Putting a 2nd deck in the bowl is hardly an enticement for fans who already have to drive anywhere between 80-400 miles (one way) to see the Cougs play. While I think the bowl should be completed, any serious talks about increasing stadium capacity needs to focused on adding additional premium seating between the goal lines.

i think this is right. in terms of both providing incentive for more fans to come and return on investment, endzone to endzone makes more sense than expanding the bowl.

 

[CPtheCoug]

Putting a 2nd deck in the bowl is hardly an enticement for fans who already have to drive anywhere between 80-400 miles (one way) to see the Cougs play. While I think the bowl should be completed, any serious talks about increasing stadium capacity needs to focused on adding additional premium seating between the goal lines.

This.

Also I think there's a Bill Moos quote somewhere where he said the premium seating / press box brings in as much (if not more) revenue per year than all of the rest of the stadium seats combined.

 

[Loyal Coug]

I have noticed the end zone seats have the highest occupancy in the games with low attendance.

Yes they do. And all this talk about "good" seats - c'mon everyone, we NEVER fill all the "good" seats, sold or not. Maybe Friday we will, but the end zone seats do fill up because they are cheap and they hold the opposing fans.

Hell, move some of the student seating to the bowl and take their 50 yard line section if you must. And a second deck in the bowl, elevated as it would be and as close to the field as it is, would be great seats in just about any other stadium.

 

[Flatlandcoug]

I agree with the idea of 1500-1800 premium seats with another 5,000-7,000 seats above. If you look at the stadium at TCU, one side has a level of luxury seating with an upper deck above it. Add another level in the east zone with 5,000 seats if demand gets high enough to get us to 45,000 seats. At some point, I would like to see the student seating adjusted to provide more mid-field seating for donors. Give the students more sections by the edge of the field and take away middle and upper sections at the 50.

 

[GoldenCoug]

As one wise person mentioned almost every game being televised, and almost all homes having large screen HD TVs has changed the game.

Before this change a stadium seating 45,000 seemed the right choice. Now in most stadiums in the west you see big sections of empty or sparsely filled seats. That doesn't look good on TV or to recruits. Probably better to have a cozy little stadium that leaves people still wanting tickets rather than trying to cover up empty seats.

 

[CPtheCoug]

Another old rendering, this time showing a deck in the bowl.

I am not a fan...

 

[Coug90]

How would 45,000 capacity work at Martin Stadium?

A second deck on the visitor's side or maybe relocating the current JumboTron and adding another level of end-zone seating?

You could get another 300 on top of the football ops building! Just throw some rent-a-fence up there and make a bear garden out of it!