Saturday, March 8, 2008

In case you were wondering..

.. what Michigan Stadium is going to look like come fall, boy are you in luck.

MGoBlue has been kind enough to show us what we're going to be looking at on opening day in Ann Arbor. It's not pretty, but not distracting, either. And hopefully it ends up being worth all the hassle.

Here's what it should look like when fans pile in to the Big House this fall:

 

Courtesy MGoBlue.com

In case you're thinking "What's the difference? That just looks like the regular Michigan Stadium that's been there for eighty years!", MGoBlue has some information for you:

The most obvious additions are the massive steel superstructures that eventually will support multi-story masonry structures as well as elevated concourses on the east and wide sides of the "Big House."

See any differences now? Yeah. Those huge rust-colored steel supports on either side of the stadium. Those weren't there before.

What will go on in terms of construction during the season, you ask? MGoBlue has you covered:

While the stadium will be ready in September to welcome more than 100,000 fans each game day, construction work will continue Monday through Thursday prior to home games. "We will use Friday as a clean-up day for the game," added Stevenson. "When the team is on the road, we are going to work seven days a week."

That's always good. My guess is that it'll still be a bit of a mess compared to Saturdays past, but who really cares as long as you get to go watch Michigan play in Ann Arbor?

And for the really, really observant readers out there that noticed the two buildings at the northern end of the stadium, here's the deal:

Visible in the rendering at the north end of the stadium are two new buildings. The one on the west (right) side will house a medical facility, the department of public safety headquarters and lavatories. The east building includes space for the M-Den (merchandise sales) and game operations as well as additional lavatories for men and women.

Also not a huge deal. They look nice in the computer projected image, and you can never have enough bathrooms. So I guess it's a good idea, all in all.

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Now I'm not going to dive too far into this right now. At another time, maybe, but for now I'll just put my opinion out in as few words as possible.

I'm all for stadium renovations. I know there's the whole tradition aspect of the uncomfortable benches throughout the stadium, the one level of seating, nothing outstanding in the stadium but the scoreboards and the press box, etc.

But the Big House is known for it's lack of volume, and while we're the biggest stadium in College Football, Tennessee and Penn State are gaining on us. Imagine the big house with another level. 140,000 seats. More, even. It would hold in sound better, hold more people, and it could be a state of the art stadium like so many in college football are these days.

Michigan Stadium is obviously my favorite stadium in the world, and I'm not trying to take anything away from its magnificence, but it could be better. It might not be the good ol' one-leveled, steel-benched girl that we've come to know and love, but maybe with the old style of Michigan football should go the old style of Michigan Stadium.

Let me know your view on the topic in the comments.

Go Blue.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

i agree 100% with your veiw. less make it the big house forever.

Austin said...

Amen. It's called the Big House for a reason.

Thanks for reading!

UMICH said...

You can vote the new Michigan Stadium slogan today.