urbanMSP

I'm not wanting to have a 3 page debate over the number of seats the new stadium should have, but I have to ask does 65,400 seats seem small to anyone else?

I am not sure what the actual seat amount is but it will be able to hold more. I am not sure about standing room but I would bet there will be 70,000 plus for each game.

I'm not wanting to have a 3 page debate over the number of seats the new stadium should have, but I have to ask does 65,400 seats seem small to anyone else?

Given that Michigan Stadium seats over 100k and is consistently sold out -- yes.

I am not sure what the actual seat amount is but it will be able to hold more. I am not sure about standing room but I would bet there will be 70,000 plus for each game.

According to the Viking it it will fit 65,400 but it is expandable to 72,000, that's from the link on the previous page. 5,000 standing room tickets seem like a lot to me for just a regular season game.

I'm not wanting to have a 3 page debate over the number of seats the new stadium should have, but I have to ask does 65,400 seats seem small to anyone else?

Given that Michigan Stadium seats over 100k and is consistently sold out -- yes.

David Greene, for everything you add to other threads, your posts in the stadium thread are consistently puzzling.

Not worth comparing an NFL stadium to Michigan Stadium, or any of the other big college stadiums. There is no comparison. 65k is perfect for NFL. Anything bigger and you risk blackouts every Sunday. This is the same size as the dome, which had troubles selling out. Expandable to 72,000 will be for bigger events like the Super Bowl or perhaps some college games. This is right in line with most NFL stadiums.

Not worth comparing an NFL stadium to Michigan Stadium, or any of the other big college stadiums. There is no comparison. 65k is perfect for NFL. Anything bigger and you risk blackouts every Sunday. This is the same size as the dome, which had troubles selling out. Expandable to 72,000 will be for bigger events like the Super Bowl or perhaps some college games. This is right in line with most NFL stadiums.

Exactly. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cu ... e_stadiums

Anything bigger and you risk blackouts every Sunday.

Not the hugest football fan, but what I was thinking.

I'm not wanting to have a 3 page debate over the number of seats the new stadium should have, but I have to ask does 65,400 seats seem small to anyone else?

Given that Michigan Stadium seats over 100k and is consistently sold out -- yes.

David Greene, for everything you add to other threads, your posts in the stadium thread are consistently puzzling.

I'm just pointing out that for football, this stadium seating capacity is maybe about average for a medium-to-large Division I school. Given all the hype about the pro football being the most popular sport in the U.S., one would expect a larger venue. I mean, the Vikings really can't put more people in seats from a metro area population measured in the millions than Michigan can from little ol' 200k Ann Arbor?

It seems the college game is still far more popular than the NFL. It's why I thought TCF stadium made more sense than this project.

durrr

It's Minneapolis.. They go MINNE on everything. I bet they shrink the seats from 64,500 to 60,000 before it's all said and done. Don't the gophers have the smallest stadium in the big 10? ..It's Minneapolis.

It's Minneapolis.. They go MINNE on everything. I bet they shrink the seats from 64,500 to 60,000 before it's all said and done. Don't the gophers have the smallest stadium in the big 10? ..It's Minneapolis.

Would you be happier if they added 30,000 seats and added that to the taxpayer bill?

And Met Life Stadium, where the Giants and the Jets play, has 82,500 in the largest metropolitan area in the country. Soldier Field seats 61,500. Not sure what your point is exactly, but there's an idea called deliberate scarcity. Even aside from the issues with the blackouts, every NFL owner would rather have a slightly smaller stadium that they can sell out every time -- it allows them to keep ratcheting up ticket prices.

In addition, Minneapolis is one of the smallest markets to have all four major league sports. And we also have a D1 school in town that has three major revenue sports.

That whole MINNE thing sure is catchy, though. Keep it up, and I'm sure we'll all be using it.

Comparing college stadiums to NFL stadiums is apples to oranges. And you gave an example of Michigan. One of the most storied programs. In Ann Arbor, which is actually over 300,000 metro which is also a quick drive from Detroit. Not to mention 20,000+ of those seats are students. Not comparable at all. Chicago and Detroit are much bigger metros and have much better fanbases than the Vikings, and their stadiums are smaller. The Vikings have struggled to sell out the Metrodome even when the team was doing good and/or playing the Packers. Doubt it would be wise to add more seats when they are not needed. Teams make a lot of money on local advertising. Consistant blackouts would kill those deals.

TCF is NOT the smallest stadium in the Big Ten.

We have not had a game blacked out here since Dec 4 1997. We may have had trouble selling out and have gotten some local businesses to pony up a handful of times, but still that is a pretty damn good run.

The trend going forward (just like baseball did) is going to not increase the amount of seats in the stadium but to try to enhance the gameday experience for the fans. Reason being is that the cost for having HD television and whatever accomodations you want right in your own home is just too good. You get every angle, dvr'd with the ability to pause the game and go to the can without waiting in line for 10 minutes.

Lots of really good posters on this site, but sometimes some of them are too smart by half... especially when it is obvious they don't really know much about the issue.

It's Minneapolis.. They go MINNE on everything. I bet they shrink the seats from 64,500 to 60,000 before it's all said and done. Don't the gophers have the smallest stadium in the big 10? ..It's Minneapolis.

Would you be happier if they added 30,000 seats and added that to the taxpayer bill?

30,000 more seats that wouldn't be used, mind you. The Bank only sells out for games that draw a large number of fan from the opposing team as well as Gopher fans. (Wisconsin, Nebraska). If anything, it should have been a little smaller.

I couldn't agree more.. I like the fact that the gophers stadium in Minneapolis is the smallest in the big 10 and possibly the smallest D1 stadium in the country. I hope the Vikings stadium has the least seats too. I think it's fitting for a city that's always settling for less- wisely perhaps, or just tradition or both.

*Sigh* TCF is NOT the smallest Big 10 stadium - that would be Northwestern. Indiana's is not much bigger either. It's also not even close to the smallest D1 stadium in the country. It's pretty middle of the pack, and bigger than Baylor's, Stanford's, and other "football school" stadiums. There are over a dozen Divison I FBS stadiums with capacities of 30,000 or less.

Source: 30 seconds looking on Wikipedia.

Why all the angst in this thread? I don't get it. Ripping on the U, the Vikings, and fans in general. While I realize some people are not football fans, trying to tear down those of us that are and making up stats is sad and pathetic.

The fact that we have a metro with so many entertainment options should be applauded rather than spending time making fun of it. The U is trying to build a football tradition and the first step in doing that was getting out of the stale dome and bringing it back to campus. The next is trying to get what has been largely a commuter student base back to campus for the games. These things take a change in culture. With the addition of all this new student housing and trying to keep them on campus you can start to create that excitement that makes game day an event, not just a good way to kill a couple of hours.