(08-19-2014 11:23 AM)bullitt_60 Wrote: How often have y'all been selling out games under your current configuration?
Occasionally. The official capacity was 31,000, and attendance has increased to about 25,000-27,000 pretty regularly.
The major issue with the stadium is that it had virtually no renovation from its original construction and was in desperate need of a major overhaul. New press area and suites needed to be completely redone, which meant the east side upper deck basically needed to be completely redone. That meant losing about 5,000 seats during construction, so the south end zone being bowled needed to be done to provide additional seating to compensate for the loss.
If they use part of the existing support structure, the addition would be an additional 1200 club seats, 96 loge seats, and 38 box suites. If they build a totally new upper deck structure, they will add an eight story press box facility which will include (depending on the option chosen) club seats, loge suites, or box suites. It will also include a kitchen, ticket office, media support, merchandizing and a new student dining facility and administration offices.
Once all this is done the seating will wind up around 45,000. I think the seating is a consequence of refurbishing the stadium rather than specifically to increase the seating capacity. We've put 42,000 into the stadium with the current 31,000 seating capacity, and probably will again during our first game against Southern this year.
What I like best is they've finally taken the initiative to put the overall plan of what needs to be done on paper, planned the costs involved, and gone about private fund raising to be the initial phase done. Just having a state of the art APF with world class weight room and a number of amenities for the players will be big time to continue our recruiting growth. It's something that's long overdue. The link below is for the Master Plan home site.
Ragin Cajun Facilities Master Plan