"Bowling"/closing the south endzone.

El_Gato · Post by **El_Gato** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 7:37 pm

After attending yesterday's "sellout", I'm afraid I have to say I have a new perspective on "bowling" in the south stands.

At this point in time, I'm afraid if we did that, all we'd accomplish is making ourselves look bad with a TON of brand new EMPTY seats.

Right now, there simply aren't enough "local" (Bozeman/Belgrade) fans to fill the place and I truly believe it's going to take several years of SUSTAINED success to draw a significant # of folks from Billings, Helena, and/or Butte.

Whether the griz folks admit it or not, even the almighty WaGriz doesn't fill up for every game, despite all the wins.

If there were truly 13,300+ in Bobcat Stadium yesterday, we could've easily fit in another 2 or 3 thousand with the seating we already have.

I'm not against replacing & upgrading the south grandstands and/or adding more Skyboxes on the student side, but the "bowl" idea would be a huge waste of $$ that could be much better spent elsewhere (indoor practice/event facility, Sprinturf, skyboxes), IMO.

Post by **SonomaCat** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 7:49 pm

Wouldn't a better looking stadium go a long ways towards attracting new and more fans to the Bobcat games? As of right now, the place is selling out, so if there were additional fans that might want to come, they may be discouraged against doing so when they read that the tickets are sold out or near sold out, and they just watch on TV instead.

Game atmosphere is the thing that is going to attract the non-hardcore fans (witnessed first hand here when comparing attendance at SBC Park as compared to the old days in Candlestick), and have a sweet looking stadium makes a huge difference.

I personally think that bowling the stadium would make the place look like a big-time stadium, and it sure seems like the extra seating capacity could be used for several games this year (lost revenue). For the program to continue to grow, we must be proactive and can't afford to wait until we already need the seating every game before we start fundraising and planning to build it.

wbtfg · Post by **wbtfg** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 8:16 pm

El_Gato wrote:After attending yesterday's "sellout", I'm afraid I have to say I have a new perspective on "bowling" in the south stands.

At this point in time, I'm afraid if we did that, all we'd accomplish is making ourselves look bad with a TON of brand new EMPTY seats.

Right now, there simply aren't enough "local" (Bozeman/Belgrade) fans to fill the place and I truly believe it's going to take several years of SUSTAINED success to draw a significant # of folks from Billings, Helena, and/or Butte.

Whether the griz folks admit it or not, even the almighty WaGriz doesn't fill up for every game, despite all the wins.

If there were truly 13,300+ in Bobcat Stadium yesterday, we could've easily fit in another 2 or 3 thousand with the seating we already have.

I'm not against replacing & upgrading the south grandstands and/or adding more Skyboxes on the student side, but the "bowl" idea would be a huge waste of $$ that could be much better spent elsewhere (indoor practice/event facility, Sprinturf, skyboxes), IMO.

Even though there were a lot of empty seats in the endzone, I can assure you that they were all sold.

A lot of people will buy season tickets in the endzone, and then get to
the games early enough to get a 50yd line seat in the students section. I think the first priority should be to attract enough students so the "old fogies" who are stealing the student seats are forced to sit in the seats that corresponds to their ticket.

Can you imagine the uproar if students tried to sit in someone's seat over in the booster section?

As long as these people don't try to scold the students about their language, and standing up too much, I don't have a problem with this. If the students aren't going to take advantage of their seats, you might as well let someone else use them....I wouldn't want to sit in those rickety endzone bleachers.

bobcatmaniac · Post by **bobcatmaniac** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 8:29 pm

I remember the days when that endzone WAS closed. Why did they open it up again???? I don't blame the old fogies, as you call them, to get a pepsi zone ticket and move. The tickets are over priced anyway. DO YOU WANNA FILL UP THE STADIUM??? THEN MAKE THE TICKETS CHEAP AND YOU WILL GET A TON OF SPECTATORS

Post by **SonomaCat** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 8:33 pm

If the games are sold out, then it might suggest that, if anything, the tickets are underpriced.

The endzone was never closed in the way we are talking about (bowling the endzone by the track and tearing out those awful bleachers). There used to be similar bleachers on the other end as well.

BelgradeBobcat · Post by **BelgradeBobcat** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 8:53 pm

I agree we don't need many more seats in the stadium right now, but if you're consistenly 80 to 90% full it's not a bad idea to look at adding capacity. If it's too crowded and uncomfortable some people may stay away. I would also prefer that there be more seats than raise the ticket prices. You don't want to price out young families with little kids. Those kids become grown-ups soon enough and that's where your future fan base comes from.

If we do bowl the endzone, it can be done without adding a whole bunch of unneeded seats. You simply don't go as many rows up. If more capacity is needed you add more rows later on.

My vision is something like Martin Stadium at Washington State-just at a smaller scale. I've always thought it was a pretty cool stadium. Here's a picture of what I mean:

Martin Stadium endzone

grizzh8r · Post by **grizzh8r** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 9:11 pm

Yeah BB, that looks good

Platinumcat · Post by **Platinumcat** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 9:37 pm

Belgrade bobcat,
My only thought on this is: I have heard talk of putting skyboxes up on the South end when it is bowled in. I've even heard they have commitments on those suites.
So, to me, I agree more with BAC on this.

Think of it this way, the Griz would have never gotten to 23,000 people/game if they had not built up their stadium to continually attract more fans. And, yes, success helps that. But, that's where we're headed as well.

KGKat · Post by **KGKat** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 9:51 pm

I am all for getting the endzone closed in - and at this time we should look at increasing capacity slightly, but we also need to have it designed for further increases. Closing in the endzone will increase the noise level to help our D, and also help the overall atmosphere. I have been sitting in the endzone this year since I am buying four tix per game vs the two I used to buy, and the bleachers have a great atmosphere, but the wife and kids are almost scared of the rickety things!

I know that this is reason enough to keep many none-diehard fans with kids away. Yesterday there were open seats, but the grass areas were full. Also, closing in the endzone would help on the cold, windy days - stop the wind from whistling under and through those bleachers, etc.

longhorn_22 · Post by **longhorn_22** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 10:06 pm

barechestcat wrote:Belgrade bobcat,
My only thought on this is: I have heard talk of putting skyboxes up on the South end when it is bowled in. I've even heard they have commitments on those suites.
So, to me, I agree more with BAC on this.

Think of it this way, the Griz would have never gotten to 23,000 people/game if they had not built up their stadium to continually attract more fans. And, yes, success helps that. But, that's where we're headed as well.

Best post on this topic I have heard in a while.

BelgradeBobcat · Post by **BelgradeBobcat** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 10:25 pm

barechestcat wrote:Belgrade bobcat,
My only thought on this is: I have heard talk of putting skyboxes up on the South end when it is bowled in. I've even heard they have commitments on those suites.

They could put up a building with sky boxes, bleachers, and storage and restrooms to replace the existing building behind the endzone stands. They could even set it up so the sky boxes looked over the track as well-that'd be pretty cool.

Adding more skyboxes makes sense. The ones we have are sold out and there's a waiting list. If that's where the demand is, that's what should be built.

CARDIAC_CATS · Post by **CARDIAC_CATS** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 8:41 am

We don't necessarilly need a lot more seats, but we do need to rip out the south stands and replace with new solid 'bowled' in seating on our south end. The boxes are what they are looking to add as that is where they make a lot of their money. If you looked up at the boxes this last game they were CRAMMED full of people. They definately need more room for luxery boxes as well as to get rid of the dangerous south stands. If they add those boxes and then maybe 3000 more seats in the south endzone that would give us about a 17-18000 capacity for now which would be just about right.

Platinumcat · Post by **Platinumcat** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 9:16 am

Cardiac,
Before I got to your post, that's exactly the seating number I was thinking would be ideal at this point.

Belgrade bobcat,
I like the idea of dual view rooms.

mquast53000 · Post by **mquast53000** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 9:22 am

I was talking to one of the ticket guys and he said that there were only about 200 tickets left at 11:30am on Saturday. It was probably a sellout, but it looks empty because a lot of season tickets holders to go to all the games, or they were in the stadium club watching to avoid the cold weather. The student section was jammed packed! Were I was standing there was NO extra room at all. Right now the Cats could use 17-18k capacity, but who knows about next year. Would we need those extra seats if the Cats had a sub 500-year? Would the money spent be justified? I know I will be at the games, but will the not so faithful show up? Especially when the weather is cold?

GavinDonos · Post by **GavinDonos** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 9:29 am

I heard whispers of some Bozeman boosters having gone so far as to draw up blueprints and proposals with the intention of paying president Gamble a little visit. Word has it they're even prepared to do a little arm twisting.

But this is all just stuff I heard with friends, over (a lot of) drinks.

mquast53000 · Post by **mquast53000** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 9:33 am

GavinDonos wrote:I heard whispers of some Bozeman boosters having gone so far as to draw up blueprints and proposals with the intention of paying president Gamble a little visit. Word has it they're even prepared to do a little arm twisting.

But this is all just stuff I heard with friends, over (a lot of) drinks.

Drunkin’ information is the most reliable isn’t it?

longhorn_22 · Post by **longhorn_22** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 10:06 am

BelgradeBobcat wrote:
Martin Stadium endzone

Hell yeah. That would be awesome.

El_Gato · Post by **El_Gato** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 10:25 am

If we do this, I like the look of the Cougs setup, but I would make the bowl taller than that.

I would also suck it right up to the field, as close as possible, and make it steeper than the existing stands. If you're going to make the bowl, you want it to create essentially an "echo chamber" that forces sound right down at the field. Teams working toward that endzone would find it increasingly difficult to communicate effectively.

In summary, our goal should not be just to create more room for more butts in the seats; just as important (if not more so) should be the idea of creating a structure that truly gives us MORE home-field advantage.

You're talking me back into it, fellas. If/when we build it, however, I'm expecting ALL of you to bring 6 new friends to the game to ensure we fill it!

CLUB 126 · Post by **CLUB 126** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 10:56 am

What ever is done just remember, if yor a young stud coming to visit on a recruiting trip, ONE of the things that matters the most to these guys is THE PLACE HE WOULD BE PLAYING IN!

To fill the place up you gotta win, to win you gotta have the players, to have players, they gotta be attracted to the program

BobCatFan · Post by **BobCatFan** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 5:51 pm

my nephew has seen the plans but he has been tight lipped. I will continue to work on him.

"Bowling"/closing the south endzone.

"Bowling"/closing the south endzone.

Re: "Bowling"/closing the south endzone.