We're a lot closer than Toomey, which had the dirt track. And we now have 6-8x the marketing staff, but don't give away free playoff tickets.

I think it's a stretch adding more than 5,000 seats, esp since attendance is no longer a factor. How about add a 5,000-seat grandstand above the visitors side, concessions, bathrooms, and maybe some club boxes? Then we seat 15,000, 20,000 w endzone and general admission. Add some simple amenities... like benches near concessions, and when entering the facility for seasoned Aggies. A few trees (not 4' tall shrubs that will soon die). A grad student produced an excellent study on possible additions to the stadium. Its also kind of weird to see the concessions staff dumping ice onto the pavement near a drain, as if they don't have adequate sinks for that purpose... or at least water nearby plants.

Closing in an endzone is less expensive than going up, but removes a cozy area for young families. If we saved them, we could add in old seat planks from Toomey (less splinters).

You open it to the exterior public - but in all honesty, this type of apparel should be available at the BOOKSTORE in full force.

we could add in old seat planks from Toomey

Those are long gone.

No foresight.

AggieFinn - we have the bookstore, downtown, and online. I don't see people driving to UC Health Stadium to buy a polo.

I’m onboard with filling in one berm with seats but the bottom of that section should feature field level or bunker suites or group/party areas that are have recently become popular.

YES, a team store is a must. Really like the idea of wine and/or beer corners.

If an upper deck is added, to both add capacity and shade opportunities it should go along the west sideline.

Someone mentioned a play structure - absolutely, need to keep young-but-not-so-young alums and fans (and their families) at the games. Walking the concourse only works for so long. Place it in a location where the game is still viewable.

Also, I haven’t been to the stadium since it’s popped up, but doesn’t the Chancellor have some kind of temporary lounge setup in the NW corner? Might want to make that a permanent feature.

Would it be so much to ask to not have fake grass? Especially with the likely possibility that some of the early games will not be the 7pm variety, it seems like something that needs to be at least thought about before being tossed aside.

Lastly, adding barstools and a food/drink rail at the top of the 100s would be a good and inexpensive add, assuming that it does not impede the width of the concourse for ingress/egress.

I’m sure more thoughts will come to me.

that added bar stools and tables to the top row in section 124 (or 5) . Seemed like a popular addition. They removed seats in two rows, tables on the lower row, stools on the top.

We are walking billboards!
I can't understand the lack of football merch (the crap in the bookstores is just that- nobody wants that stuff) — SochorField

Say it louder for the folks in the back! Preach!!

+1

Most popular item could be Sac State toilet paper.

The toilet paper could be all the blueprints for their new stadium lol.

Those are now the seats at the tennis complex. Wouldn’t fit behind berms at new stadium anyway.

If an upper deck is added, to both add capacity and shade opportunities it should go along the west sideline. — ucdavisaggie05

I agree on this. I've seen a lot of commentors saying we should build on the east (visitors sideline). I'm not sure many of these people have sat through an afternoon September game on that side of the stadium. You get absolutely demolished by the sun for 4 hours and its a pretty miserable experience. One the sun sets behind the Vet buildings or the west side of the stadium, its an entirely different experience.

But it seems like building on the west side is really complicated by the press box / Edwards Room. Unless we tear that down, and add in corporate suites w seating above?

Weber State renovations....
https://www.standard.net/sports/weber-state/2023/jul/11/stewart-stadium-renderings-reconstruction-east-new-field-turf-weber-state-football/

Very nice.
Thank God we no longer have a track.

that built into hill design is nice.
has anyone heard anything about our athletics facilities master plan?

I think that’s the plan for this next phase, minus the seating. Focus on suites. Thd trip to South Dakota was a revenue eye opener. They apparently more a ton from their suites with helps offset their not great attendance.

I think the plan is tied up with the central campus over how it’s funded.

wonder if the announcement/ more info is still on track for pre-start of quarter as previously mentioned

Probably a bit off topic and weird, but is there anything left of the Toomey bleachers somewhere on campus or elsewhere? I would like to get a piece of the seating to make a bench for my son’s yard (a very avid Aggie fan). I do recall some benches in the new stadium purportedly are from the Toomey bleachers. So something might still be lying around from the old seats. If not where did they go?

the north and south bleachers were temporary each football season. Might have even been rented. They didn’t come back after the final season. The east and west bleachers were torn down in 2017 with almost no notice due structural issues. At the time people called athletics to inquire about getting a piece but it was too late to organize a plan. An uncharacteristic misstep that Kevin Blue underestimated the nostalgia and interest. There are a couple park benches at Aggie Stadium made from Toomey bleachers but otherwise everything was hauled off. I don’t know in this case exactly, but pretty typical for demo companies is to bid with the assumption that they can retain the scrap value, in this case a good amount of aluminum that probably helped offset disposal of the treated lumber.

i asked when i was up there at a practice (AgAlum was with me, so maybe he remembers better) and I don't remember a specific target date. Sounded more like 'its coming, just working on some details'.

thanks to you and @agalum for the stream of info, keep me updated :)

From todays IGNITE update:

Provide high quality training and competition venues that support championship programs
ELS architecture and urban design has delivered the final concepts for our facilities master plan. Internal review with UC Davis Design & Construction Management is ongoing. Anticipated public release November 2025.

Will there be community feedback solicited?

Those have been at the tennis center for a number of years. They don’t really make sense there but neither does much else on campus.

I don’t see the parallels for Davis. Strange the South Dakota trip was enlightening when they’re in SLO every other year which has had the suite situation dialed in since the Spanos side opened up.

it sounded like the revenue that they brought in from the suites made the game day attendance irrelevant in terms of their ability to bid on playoff games (they drew 6000 that day). Got them thinking it was easier to bring in much more game day revenue than by increasing ticket sales by 5000 a game. I think that the mindset moving forward on seat fees for season tickets.

...For FCS its not increased attendance, but a different kind of attendance.

Schools (like EWU, Poly, Davis) deciding to not expand seating capacity, but raise revenue by encouraging a small group of donors to attend by adding "luxury" suites.

It would be great if Davis could do both - suites and seats....but I completely understand the reasoning. Programs like SLO, Davis, Cheney currently don't have the interest to increase capacity by a substantial amount.

FCS is becoming "small" college football....and its getting smaller. Schools are having to get creative to compete (and survive)...with body-bag games, luxury suites, and gimmick hires / publicity stunts.

I’m curious about who buys the suites. Is it donors who want to attend and entertain themselves, or is it businesses who want to enhance customer relationships. The functional difference is the later requires the game to be attractive to clients who may have no tie to the school. I suspect random people in South Dakota have more interest in attending a game, than random people in Sacramento Metro area. My limited experience with suites was as a guest at the AT&T suite at then AT&Tpark, where not too many AT&T clients wouldn’t want to see the Giants, so it was useful as a sales tool.

Depending on what the package costs, I could see myself and half a dozen other people going in on a suite for a game. Obviously, the nicer the suite the better the experience...and once word gets around on/if the amenities are nice, they will sell out fast.

I would use a suite once a yr to entertain Sac area clients for sure

Montana, I think, is the leader in the clubhouse in this area which explains their 8 home games and no FBS. They have 47 suites (sold out) that start at $14k. Add on the revenue from sold out season tickets and 24k capacity stadium, and their revenue dwarfs the others.

https://upwithmontana.com/seating/washington-grizzlies-stadium/