What additions would you make to Michigan Stadium?

Submitted by MGoRedemption on March 29th, 2023 at 1:39 PM

You are now the Czar of Michigan football and can make any changes to the Big House as you want. The stadium has obviously had many changes over the years and who knows what it'll look like in another 50+ years. Would you wrap around the structures in the endzones or put in upper decks? Maybe tear down the skyboxes all together to create Yost's original vision of 150,000 capacity. How would you make the stadium acoustics better to increase crowd noise?

Maybe you want to put a giant noodle on the concourse and shoot off fireworks. Let your imagination run wild on this slow slow news day. 

Mr. Robot

March 29th, 2023 at 4:08 PM ^

Raise the field up and expand it into the front rows until it is large enough to suitably hold a soccer field within more typical international dimensions so that Michigan Stadium can start hosting big time soccer games on the regular.

To make up for the loss of the front rows, add upper decks to the endzones and complete the upper concourse all the way around the stadium. Scoreboards would be raised up above and behind the upper decks and possible get another size bump to account for the extra distance for people looking from the other endzone.

Wifi service needs to be improved. There are way too many breaks in football now for me to not be able to at least check some other scores, if not briefly watch them if it's halftime and band is done with their show. This is especially true since they've really reduced how much they do of "out of town" scores on the downtime.

More bathrooms and drinking fountains wherever it makes to to reduce the lost game time when nature calls.

Hang a bunch of TVs on the girders of the concourse to show the game while it is going on and you might be stuck in a line, and/or show other athletic events going on that are happening at the same time in the rare cases there is a conflict.

Schembo

March 29th, 2023 at 4:25 PM ^

Put a retractable roof on it, add slots and sports gambling bars, move it to Vegas and have Garth Brooks sing pregame and halftime shows....profit.

BKBlue94

March 29th, 2023 at 4:58 PM ^

Commercial breaks are getting longer and more annoying. I think the stadium needs more well thought out commercial break programing. Bring out like three students at the start of the game and have them do continual stuff throughout the commercial breaks all game so people get invested - could do the punt catching/races or whatever, but also like do a dunk tank, play checkers, ask trivia questions, pull up tinder on the big screen and do some swipes (not actually a good idea, but just saying it can be personal stuff too so people care about these people) , whatever I don't have all the ideas, but something to get the crowd invested so we actually enjoy the breaks.

Because I love being at the game in person more than anyone I know, and I'll always go to the games over watching on tv, but more and more friends would rather watch at home, and even for me those nearly four minute commercial breaks get super boring. We need something fun and frivolous but that people can get invested in and cheer for more than the one off things they do now that last a minute or less

Synful

March 29th, 2023 at 5:40 PM ^

Let's see...

- Wrap the endzones higher to help contain the noise and draw more people in
- Drop prices by 1/3 to fill the seats, including concessions
- Remove the onfield DJ and go back to playing music that appeals to more than just 15-23yo
- Deploy a dozen or more towers to improve WiFi to the stadium significantly
- Stretch goal:  Try and convince the city and state to not do construction on key arteries during the football season unless on an emergency basis

Bando Calrissian

March 29th, 2023 at 6:08 PM ^

Heretical opinions: Widen the seats, lower the capacity. Make it easier to get around in the stadium and ease the stress on the overtaxed infrastructure. Build a parking deck at the back of the Blue Lot to increase parking capacity, lessen the number of automatic spots in the Blue Lot for suite and club people who (generally) do not use them for tailgating. Build more bathrooms, revamp the concourse to make them easier to access.

Less heretical opinions: Nuke the DJ, greatly limit RAWK, ensure visiting bands get an accessible seating area in the bowl and the opportunity to perform both pregame and halftime shows. Revamp gameday operations to make it feel less obviously scripted and regain some of the small things that made the stadium experience great (i.e., get rid of the MMB intro video, bring back total silence before the DM steps out of the tunnel), Big Ten flags all season long, etc.

Anti-American opinion: Get rid of any and all militarization. No more flyovers or veteran of the day. Keep the focus on Michigan, stop trying to be NFL Lite.

GoBlueGoWings

March 29th, 2023 at 6:11 PM ^

Better Wi-Fi

Get rid of the DJ

Cheaper food

Have a few cash only venders

Stop playing music at every stoppage of play. It's OK not to have music on for 10 seconds.

Put a sigh in the tunnel that says, " Don't look back." Keep walking forward" "No throwing sandwiches." 

Go for two

March 29th, 2023 at 7:31 PM ^

No timeouts in the second half. 
No commercial longer than 30 seconds. No play reviews longer than 30 seconds. 
Beer garden in both end zone concourses. Selling tickets to OSU fans means instant loss of season tickets for life and public humiliation. Maximum ass width per ticket, if you exceed the width, you have to buy two tickets. 

rdonahue87

March 29th, 2023 at 8:24 PM ^

Add more seats. I wanted to buy season tickets but I can't because there aren't any to be bought. Clearly we need more seats. I don't care where or how, make it happen. 

TeslaRedVictorBlue

March 29th, 2023 at 9:25 PM ^

Move the concessions out from under the stadium. Build legit infrastructure on the ordere rim for bathrooms etc. 

Put in fucking seats. 

Have some sort of way to help with the sun. 

Do something about the shitty entry procedures. It's a mess

brad

March 29th, 2023 at 10:43 PM ^

Glass roof, glass benches.  So I could sit on the roof and look down to see the game from above.  Sure, sunlight would probably get magnified to the point of cooking a handful of spectators, but not my problem up on the roof!

But seriously, I would probably put it back to the conditions it had in the 90's, pre-Halo.  That's just nostalgia talking though.

M-Dog

March 29th, 2023 at 11:31 PM ^

Always have the ability to add at least one more seat than the largest stadium in the country, so that the Big House is always the largest football stadium there is.

long4wind

March 30th, 2023 at 12:18 AM ^

Do what ever you can do to make the place F-ing loud. Start with some kind roof over the stands, like those soccer stadiums in Europe. Keeps us dry on rainy dates, and keeps the noise in. 

jethro34

March 30th, 2023 at 7:26 AM ^

I would absolutely carry the top section all the way around to add more luxury seating there and increase the ability to keep crowd noise in the stadium. I have to be honest, though, I would widen seats on the bleachers. From a comfort standpoint the Michigan Stadium is the worst I've experienced, and yet of any sporting event it's the one I most want to experience over and over. I'm not wide, but dang. Also, get the dang wifi to work. Fireworks and effects would be great. As well as we perform and are recruiting in the class of 24, there are simple things like lighting, fireworks, and increased crowd noise (without making it fake/piped in) that could make the experience more hype for fans and recruits. But yeah, I want more enclosed seats for the quiet fans and more space to move for the loud fans.

Ernis

March 30th, 2023 at 9:23 AM ^

Remove the luxury boxes

Expand the bowl to meet Yost's grand vision of 150K

Measure attendee's noise contributions in-game as a basis for providing preferential seating

Eliminate TV timeouts having any impact on gameplay. If they want to air commercials, it'll be during game time or game-determined stoppages. Diminish the quality of the TV experience to drive more people into the expanded stadium.

Get rid of the gimmicks- flyovers, amateur league antics, etc.

Minimize piped in muzak

Eliminate delay for amplified band soundz

Add a full orchestra with string section and chorus to the band (they're mic'd now - why not?)

BYOB

BobGeeX

March 30th, 2023 at 12:52 PM ^

I think Tennessee did a lot of things right with their recent expansion:

  • Club style pavilion surrounding one of their scoreboards coupled with liquor sales.
  • Expansion of chair back seating.
  • VOLS branding pedestals in one of the end zones.

lmgoblue1

March 30th, 2023 at 2:38 PM ^

I would like to be able to buy a drink and/or food pre-pay package with separate lines, so I can get back to my seat in two minutes instead of 20.

Reduce the student seating capacity to meet the demand and sell to those who want to be there.

This is really not rocket science.

mgoblue78

March 30th, 2023 at 8:15 PM ^

I'm torn between replacing all the bleachers with seats, losing a sh*t ton of capacity and tearing out all the bleachers, SRO! No more "Down in front!" from all the old farts like me to all the whippersnappers who insist on standing for... what's that loud noise about it's killing me?