Don't get me wrong I love many things about the new Dude. I enjoyed walking around during the game last night. However there is one thing that really concerns me, the actual seating capacity (somewhere to actually sit your butt) is drastically reduced. The new stadium has ZERO general admission seats. Only place to actually try to sit is the grass berms and they are small. They will only hold a few hundred. We cut out 2,700 general admission seats. The previous stadium seated around 7,200 (4,660 chairbacks, 180 sky box seats, and around 2,700 in the bleachers). Granted the bleacher seats had bad viewing in some places and there was no concourse to see anything on the field outside of a seat, that's a major reduction. The new stadium is only going to actually seat somewhere around 5,500 or a little more and that includes the club levels. There are 3,250 seats in the lower bowl and only 1,300 seats are going to be in the upper bowl. Then the club levels. Neither of these numbers include the outfield, old stadium or new. I'm just wondering now that there is no area for kids to play in and that was scraped in the new stadium, how many family are really going to want to come to games and have to stand the entire game? Even with the concourses on big games when they line up past 2 to 3 deep people aren't going to be able to see. All the standing room the stadium is going to have is there now, except the left field berm isn't open yet. I just can't see 15,000 ever being in there again. No more than the upper level is going to seat there would have to be 12,500 to 13,000 on the lower level and after what I saw last night, I just can't see that happening. The 7,100 and change last night was paid attendance. All the chairbacks are sold out, so pretending they were full last night I can't see another 6,000 on the lower level of the stadium. I figure another 1,000 would fit in the outfield (they are boxed in now) and maybe 1,000 around the concourses. That would be 9,000 and I think that's what Cohen was saying for this season. I'm thinking 12,000 to 13,000 so packed out you can't walk around. Is anyone else thinking this?
New Dude Seating Capacity
- Thread starter ScottMState
- Start date
When we moved in the LFL I was told by a MSU official that once completed they are expecting it to hold between 20-25k.
A couple of paragraphs would make your post easier to read, but pretty much as a non-baseball fan (I have no right to opine other than being an alum, a BDC member, and a football season ticket holder). I haven't been to the new stadium, and it may be very nice. But I wonder at the wisdom of spending $55M to make the place smaller, and have what looks like astroturf throughout the infield, including what would normally be dirt (I could be wrong, but that's what it looks like on television). Admittedly, many people who have been there sing the new stadium's praises.
I don’t have time to read that, but the new capacity will be however many we can squeeze in. We can hold more in this one than we could in the last one with standing room.
Why not both? A nice stadium and big crowds will not hurt our chances of winning
I guess your opinion won't be popular because you want a small stadium and wins? Instead of a large stadium and wins? Is that what you are getting at, because I don't think anyone is against winning
I just don't get the obsession over it. That's all. I understand they aren't mutually exclusive, but I don't get all the wringing of hands over seating capacity when it comes into play about 6 times a year, if that. Based on recent attendance, we way over built.
eta: Just to be clear my point is the ideal situation is the current stadium being filled or semi-filled on a regular basis instead of sporadically huge crowds at the old stadium (and let's face it that's all we have had since the double header SEC weekends ended). I am not sure our population distribution will ever make this feasible regardless of our success, but if I had the choice I'd go with "A."
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One word Brother:
Learn to use paragraphs effectively so there is a chance someone will read this.
Learn to use paragraphs effectively so there is a chance someone will read this.
Simply put, not having reasonably available ga chair back seating is what is killing the experience at least in our past. I know it's all ga this season and the upper isn't done yet, but it would be great just to have decent seats on short notice for anyone and everyone.
Yeah this was my biggest concern. If I do not have a reasonable seat, why should I go to a baseball game and stand when I can watch all of them on my TV?
Also not that hard to hookup a roku to your TV with SEC+
Apparently it does. I could swear I've been told before that the huge crowds puts too much pressure on the kids.***
We get crowds that large once per year, the Saturday of Super Bulldog Weekend. Hell, we only go over 10k two or three times per year. This stadium will be plenty large enough for the supply and demand metric. I'm sorry that a few hundred fans who attend one or two games per year will have to sit on a grass berm, but they'll get over it. Those berms are right on top of the field and offer a great view. The stadium is spectacular.
I agree with the OP, they made a mistake not giving the GA tickets a viable option for seating. I stood talking to one of the ramp attendants for an inning and multiple people came up and asked where they could sit and the answer was, GA tickets are standing room only. I finally gave my two chair back GA tickets to a couple and told them to enjoy them because I wasn't using the seats. By saying that you either buy season chair backs, which you can't at this time, or you have access to an outfield rig, in order to sit and watch the game, they are alienating a lot of people.
UVA and UNC both have extremely nice stadiums. UVA’s is pretty small, but I was very impressed with it aesthetically when we were there for the SR a few years ago.
A better argument would be Cal State Fullerton. They have like 4 or 5 NC’s and play in a glorified high school stadium.
Overall, I agree with your point though. On a national scale, nobody gives two ***** about college baseball, so attendance records are pretty meaningless. It’s even less popular than women’s basketball. But, we’ve been good at it for a long time, so let’s just make sure we have the facility necessary to draw recruits and elite coaches to MSU So we can finally win the big one. Everything else is secondary, especially whether or not some fair weather fan who comes to one series a year can buy a seat in the stadium (which he will still be able to do from a scalper for 95% of the games anyway).
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Newsflash! UVA just spent $19M to upgrade Davenport. It's NO CRACKERBOX. It's not as nice as the Dude BUT few are. Oh, and MSU has as good as or better recent history than UNC. We both were at the '13 CWS and MSU made the finals.
The ONE item that Davenport has that I wish Dudy had is a National Championship Billboard. (FYI .. the first ACC team to win a baseball NC since Wake Forest in the late '50s)
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Just a reminder for the youngsters around here, but for years (and years and years...) the attendance record is/was one of a slim few sources of great pride, or maybe national recognition, for State fans. Until the late 90's, we had LFL, Bama 6-3, the '85 baseball team, the cowbell(?)... and uh, well, it was a short list.
I will admit guys my age and older probably cling to those records a little too tightly, but I think that's why.
I will admit guys my age and older probably cling to those records a little too tightly, but I think that's why.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't GA ticket holders have access to any grand stand seat that's not taken by the first inning?
Are the berms and that not a viable option for GA's?
Are the berms and that not a viable option for GA's?
What would solve this almost entirely is having a good ticket exchange like they have at the CWS. That was amazing. We stood right outside of the stadium, bought tickets on our phone, then found better tickets and sold the ones we had just bought in a matter of about 5 minutes. My group will have 8 chairbacks once the seating is done and I know I'd put the tickets up for about $5 any time we couldn't go.
I completely agree that not having any option for someone to buy a seat is a huge problem for people who want to bring kids to a game. I think that is completely solved with a little common sense in implementing a good ticket exchange
I completely agree that not having any option for someone to buy a seat is a huge problem for people who want to bring kids to a game. I think that is completely solved with a little common sense in implementing a good ticket exchange
Where have you been for all of the stadium discussions over the last 2 years? I'm with you that it needed more GA seating. Dead horse. Of course, had we put more chairbacks, we would have just sold more season tickets and the same situation would have existed. The berms and railing will seem like a lot more space when it's actually at 100% complete and you redistribute ~ 2k of those fans from where they were on Tuesday to their actual seats and other people that were in GA into theirs. This season isn't going to be a fair gauge of what we actually needed. And it still looked pretty sparse last night.
As for Pat's statement that the bleachers were better than standing, I'll disagree there. I much preferred standing at the right field corner deck to the bleachers. The bleachers were only better than blocked views behind the lounges -- and that was only true if you weren't drinking. They should have sold tickets to permanent bar stools where they put the rails in that location for a premium since it's a spot most of the displaced fans along the years grew a comfort for watching from.
I suspect once we have it done next year and see how everything is actually going to go and look for a season that we look into adding more GA seating to the stadium. Doubt it will be bleachers but could be a tiered berm in the dead space before you get to the lounges in right from the main entrance. There might be other possibilities -- I haven't had a chance to go up and walk a loop around it. But I have started to trust Cohen and Weir Boerner on this. They are hearing what we are saying.
Still existing complaints:
- Not enough chairbacks
- Not enough/good enough GA
- Not enough skyboxes
- No grills anywhere but the lounges(the tiered berms that I pined so hard for allow you to do everything they do in the lounges. Essentially what OM does).
- Cooler rule too small
As for Pat's statement that the bleachers were better than standing, I'll disagree there. I much preferred standing at the right field corner deck to the bleachers. The bleachers were only better than blocked views behind the lounges -- and that was only true if you weren't drinking. They should have sold tickets to permanent bar stools where they put the rails in that location for a premium since it's a spot most of the displaced fans along the years grew a comfort for watching from.
I suspect once we have it done next year and see how everything is actually going to go and look for a season that we look into adding more GA seating to the stadium. Doubt it will be bleachers but could be a tiered berm in the dead space before you get to the lounges in right from the main entrance. There might be other possibilities -- I haven't had a chance to go up and walk a loop around it. But I have started to trust Cohen and Weir Boerner on this. They are hearing what we are saying.
Still existing complaints:
- Not enough chairbacks
- Not enough/good enough GA
- Not enough skyboxes
- No grills anywhere but the lounges(the tiered berms that I pined so hard for allow you to do everything they do in the lounges. Essentially what OM does).
- Cooler rule too small
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THIS. I think they're going to realize this in the next few years and we're going to wind up with a clunky add-on section or two of additional seating when it would have been much easier to just build it the right size to begin with. Either that, or you're just going to have fewer baseball fans attending games, which is not the right answer.
Christ. The university isn't alienating anyone. Supply and demand that is causing the "alienation", not the athletic department. I don't blame them one bit for financially locking in seats rather than hoping a good walk-up crowd shows up. It's the most financially responsible thing to do. Hell, they are probably losing money not renting out the berms. I bet you anything, there would be many businesses interested in rights to a tier.
This same problem exists in many football stadiums across the country. We just don't see it because we aren't Ohio State or Bama. I'd love to sit in a Skybox for a game, but I can't come up with the resources (or time) to do so. The university isn't alienating me because they won't allow me to sit there.
If you want to have the conversation that a university ran athletic event is responsible for having X amount of GA chair backs available, that's a slightly different discussion.
This same problem exists in many football stadiums across the country. We just don't see it because we aren't Ohio State or Bama. I'd love to sit in a Skybox for a game, but I can't come up with the resources (or time) to do so. The university isn't alienating me because they won't allow me to sit there.
If you want to have the conversation that a university ran athletic event is responsible for having X amount of GA chair backs available, that's a slightly different discussion.
I agree. I don't understand this " wanting more people in the grandstands so it doesnt look so empty on tv" idea then you don't let the people that show up use the seats. I live near Memphis and go to 5 or 6 Redbird games a season. I walk up, get my GA ticket, go sit in a chairback with my concessions and enjoy the game. Afterwards I'm looking forward to the next time I get to come to a game because it's been an enjoyable experience. Every time I've made the trek to Starkville I'm made to feel like a second class citizen because I don't have season tickets nor a spot in the LFL. If Cohen and company want me to make that trip multiple times a year then the experience needs to be better. I understand the limitations this year because of construction but for the future more GA chairbacks need to be available because SRO and berms ain't getting my money.
I think his
overall point was, he'd trade ALL of the attendance records for one national title.
I'm with Tate.
overall point was, he'd trade ALL of the attendance records for one national title.
I'm with Tate.
The university is the one who reduced the supply, when demand is going to be increasing.
This is exactly right and well stated. It's something I wish people could experience without their "MSU fan" blinders on at OM to see the difference in how it's handled and where we've went wrong in our approach to it. At least it was different several years ago when I still had buddies playing there. I haven't been back in awhile to confirm it still is. It's why they have grown into a comparable monster fan-wise in baseball and continue spending $10-20mil every 5 years on expansions. It's a scary thought but they are going to eventually surpass us if we aren't very careful about continuing to alienate fans. There's already been a generation of fans left out at Dudy Noble basically.
Up there a nobody from Mississippi State could get there early, walk into the outfield there with a chair, cooler, grill, tent, and friends -- without tickets or anyone going thru coolers or checking their sizes -- and setup a tailgate basically to watch the game if you got there early enough. We even cooked crawfish out there a few times. Students with $0 invested and without having to do extensive planning on smuggling in enough beer for a buzz in a tiny cooler hidden under stuff were able to grill out, drink unimpeded, and fraternize with all the women in one common space. Those people had great experiences, graduated, and now still come back to do the same thing -- only now they pay good $$ to do it in left field instead of in right. Where they look straight down the hill at a huge playground with their kids running rampant prettymuch right next to the field. So even the kids are having great experiences there and it is going to snowball over time.
I've had great experiences at State in the lounges, chairbacks, skyboxes. Even a few great experiences on the hill behind the lounges. I've never had a very good experience when I was walking in without planning in advance calling in favors, etc. This stadium will make that experience much better no doubt. But it's still lacking in a couple of areas that we need to figure out...
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If they had a hard sell out two years before anyone can actually sit in those seats(which they did) -- obviously they either didn't ask enough money or didn't create enough seats.