Original concept art for expansion dating back to 2014. Stadium ticketing has evolved. In the sepia tone by-gone days of the 1990s, most college football stadiums had two types of tickets available: bleacher seats for the unwashed masses and luxury boxes reserved our corporate overlords, allowing them to enjoy their football with well-deserved martinis in a climate controlled environment. Then HD happened.
Wealthy Tiger fans behind glass so as not to smell the common folk. The advent of high definition technology along with low-cost mega-screen, meant that the experience of going to a football game was now rivaled greatly by plopping you fat ass on your own couch at home. With games being broadcast by upwards of 20 cameras beaming a crystal clear signal into one’s home, the hoi polloi could crack open a can of Stag, crank the AC down to 65° and reasonably get a small taste of how the other half live. Obviously, ticket revenue started paying the price, and nothing gets sports marketing offices putting their creative thinking caps on like losing revenue.
Eventually some ticket office genius figured out an economic principle that the American sporting world shockingly hadn’t exploited yet. Fans come to games at not just two wealth levels (bleachers and suites) but on a scale of wealth levels. There was big money to be gained from adding tickets at a wide range of price points. The big leagues caught on first. Both the NFL and MLB realized they were going to have to enhance their game day experience if they wanted to compete with the formidable combined force of improved television viewing and America’s love of sitting on their couch.
Eventually some ticket office genius figured out an economic principle that the American sporting world shockingly hadn’t exploited yet. Fans come to games at not just two wealth levels (bleachers and suites) but on a scale of wealth levels. There was big money to be gained from adding tickets at a wide range of price points. The big leagues caught on first. Both the NFL and MLB realized they were going to have to enhance their game day experience if they wanted to compete with the formidable combined force of improved television viewing and America’s love of sitting on their couch.
A new stadium being built next to aperfectly good existing one.
Major League Baseball began bulldozing their venerable old ballparks and built new fake old ballparks with a range of different seating options. Now fans could by “premium” seats with expanded concession options, and suite-like seats that offered access to semi-private dining and boozing areas. Bleacher seats would still be there but for an additional fee you could stand in a Disneyland-esque line for a buffet meal. The lesson was clear. Come back to the ballpark. Pay a little more. Get fat with us instead of at home. The NFL jumped on the trend as well and the new model has finally trickled its way to college football.
So all of that riveting background takes us to the South end zone at Faurot. Mike Alden and Gary Pinkel began dreaming up a new section of the stadium that would serve two needs. First, the football team would get bigger, better, and fancier offices, weight rooms, training facilities, and locker rooms that would hopefully entice new recruits to Ol’ Mizzou. Second, Mizzou could build on in-Stadium revenue opportunities. With Tiger attendance perpetually hanging around 65,000 per game, additional seating was not the top priority. Squeezing additional shekels out of fans that did attend was.
In March of 2015 I sat on a focus group panel that discussed what the new expansion (that Mack Rhoades would eventually kill and Jim Sterk would resurrect) might look like. Mizzou hired a consulting firm that had planned many previous pro and college stadium builds. One of the topics that immediately caught my interest was in the area of booze. Nothing brings in money quite like selling beer at nine dollars a pop. To this point however, beer sales have always been limited to the well heeled in the suites and private lounges. The new South End Zone expansion would try to lessen this class divide a bit and also skirt conservative SEC conference policies on drinking. The plans called for a bar to be built at field level with Plexiglas separating the drinker from the player, where anyone could enter and purchase libations and enjoy them as long as they stayed within the confines of the bar area.
This plan is somewhat brilliant. Not only does it finally allow your average drunkard to pursue his passions during the game, but it brings in big bucks to the Athletic Department in a section of the stadium that was always the least desirable and least expensive. In the world of stadium marketing, this is light years ahead of the “sit in our crappy field bleachers and we’ll throw in a mediocre hot dog” approach that preceded the strategy.
So all of that riveting background takes us to the South end zone at Faurot. Mike Alden and Gary Pinkel began dreaming up a new section of the stadium that would serve two needs. First, the football team would get bigger, better, and fancier offices, weight rooms, training facilities, and locker rooms that would hopefully entice new recruits to Ol’ Mizzou. Second, Mizzou could build on in-Stadium revenue opportunities. With Tiger attendance perpetually hanging around 65,000 per game, additional seating was not the top priority. Squeezing additional shekels out of fans that did attend was.
In March of 2015 I sat on a focus group panel that discussed what the new expansion (that Mack Rhoades would eventually kill and Jim Sterk would resurrect) might look like. Mizzou hired a consulting firm that had planned many previous pro and college stadium builds. One of the topics that immediately caught my interest was in the area of booze. Nothing brings in money quite like selling beer at nine dollars a pop. To this point however, beer sales have always been limited to the well heeled in the suites and private lounges. The new South End Zone expansion would try to lessen this class divide a bit and also skirt conservative SEC conference policies on drinking. The plans called for a bar to be built at field level with Plexiglas separating the drinker from the player, where anyone could enter and purchase libations and enjoy them as long as they stayed within the confines of the bar area.
This plan is somewhat brilliant. Not only does it finally allow your average drunkard to pursue his passions during the game, but it brings in big bucks to the Athletic Department in a section of the stadium that was always the least desirable and least expensive. In the world of stadium marketing, this is light years ahead of the “sit in our crappy field bleachers and we’ll throw in a mediocre hot dog” approach that preceded the strategy.
Mizzou's existing South End Zone. Other ideas were to build a more “family friendly” common area, standing room only spaces, as well as athletic office space with field views that could be re-outfitted to become pseudo-suites on game day. New scoreboards would replace the outdated existing models and a second level of seats would be added to close in the Memorial Stadium horseshoe and allow fans the ability to walk between the East and West portions of the stadium from the South. New and larger restroom facilities would be built as well. Total capacity would only be expanded by around 8-12,000 seats. That would put Memorial Stadium capacity at around 80-85,000 seats, landing the Tigers squarely in the respectable middle of the pack in terms of stadium size. If you build it, they will come, clearly being both the recruiting and attendance strategy.
All in all, I’m happy to see Jim Sterk showing a clear boldness regarding facility improvement. Besides the hiring and firing of coaches, building the university’s infrastructure empire is certainly the most important part of the job, and arguably the most difficult part. Jumping in right away and making a multi-multi-million dollar decision like this is true leadership. Football drives the athletic program and if the new South End Zone facility is built, countless square feet of existing real estate will be freed up to help improve other important athletic programs at Mizzou. Given the recent revolving door of administrators, at this point, I’ve got my fingers crossed that Sterk sticks around a while.
All in all, I’m happy to see Jim Sterk showing a clear boldness regarding facility improvement. Besides the hiring and firing of coaches, building the university’s infrastructure empire is certainly the most important part of the job, and arguably the most difficult part. Jumping in right away and making a multi-multi-million dollar decision like this is true leadership. Football drives the athletic program and if the new South End Zone facility is built, countless square feet of existing real estate will be freed up to help improve other important athletic programs at Mizzou. Given the recent revolving door of administrators, at this point, I’ve got my fingers crossed that Sterk sticks around a while.
