... so will be part of the current fanbase.
Ticket prices the same for football, but required donation for the lots is up
- Thread starter wheezer
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... so will be part of the current fanbase.
Boxes would absolutely come first
My understanding is the 2nd deck endzone edition would come before the north endzone regrading as the supports are already in place and it would generate more money (additional seats) and likely be less expensive
There were also rumors of knocking down the upper decks and rebuilding them, but not sure if that's still on the table
I think eventually it will happenYeah. Sure.
Whether it's 60k, 62k, 68k, i think we'll end up in the 60s
In a perfect world, that's what happens
But $$$ could prevent that
Playing devils advocate...What if we started building a consistent winner? Getting to Rose Bowls, etc and the sacrifice was different parking. Would that segment of the fan base leave and never return, b/c parking is different even though fb is successful?
No matter what you are selling once you lose a customer it’s very hard to get them back. But that doesn’t mean that RU wouldn’t be able to fill the seats with new ticket holders.
I understand the allure of tailgating
It's a huge reason I go to the game
But I'm still there for the game itself
I don't tailgate and stay out in the lot
So if the football teams improves and my tailgating lot is worse (e.g. I go from Green to Light blue), that's the trade off for success, and I'd happily sign up for that
I dont see this happening and i dont even see an argument to even consider it
If we use the last 20 years as a timeline, we went from 42k to 52k
That was pre Big Ten, with 2-3 seasons of decent success
Assuming on a low end, 5 seasons of decent success in the next 20, but playing a Big Ten schedule, and slowly building the fan base up along with additional renovations (boxes, regrading the south endzone, etc.), I don't think 60k is out of the realm in that span
If we have 2006 level success for some semblance of that time frame, it could be more
Like I said, I'd expect it to eventually cap out in the 60's - although not anytime in the near future
The problem with your scenario is the events are happening backwards.
They are likely removing parking first and then saying “trust us - we’ll be competing for Rose Bowls in the future”.
Which makes the short term future state a mildly improving football program (hopefully - it’s not unreasonable to expect the program to top out at 5-8 wins for the foresees future) and worse parking situation.
No..our stadium capacity is fine
I agree
To my determinant, I always think things will turn out ok for things I trust and believe in .
To your point, there's no guarantee Rutgers will ever be consistently good
To that end, we have no reason to beleive they will be after years of futility either
I guess I'd just take my chances and roll the dice b/c whether I park in Green, the Rac, or in Edison, I love football too much to let something like that prohibit me from attending
For now it is
But if we get to the level where I truly believe we can get to (Wiscy, Iowa, Sparty), capacity needs to, and eventually will, have to increase to satisfy demand
There is a structural limit of 80K, which is the ultimate goal. But youre right, we’ll probably be in the 60’s for a while. Luxury boxes are the low hanging fruit which will be done first, probably in the next five years.
80k would be great, but with the new trend of less seats / more comfort, and without generations of success, rabid alumns and many things to do in the tri state area, I'd be shocked if we ever got to that capacity l in our lifetimes
Probably would have happened if Schiano had stuck around. Nebby to B1G in imstead of RU 2011 essentially killed any hope of it happening in my lifetime anyway.
It's just digging a hole and adding one or two floors to the sub-structure.... how bad can that be in NJ?? LOL Plus it keeps everything football nice and close together.
This.
We can’t even fill it now.
And no expansion could ever be possible until the Parking issue is resolved.
What does age matter? Are you bigoted against people who are older than you?
You put a good product out there, and people will show up at of the woodwork . There are thousands of dormant fans out there waiting to be resold.
Yes, originally the upper deck over the south endzone would have been the second option, but the situation has changed so they may not be considering that second at this point. Regrading the north endzone was in the original expansion project, but got cut when they were forced to pare the budget from $132 million to $100 million. At least that's what I was told. Truthfully, I could see just the luxury boxes getting built along with redoing the press box in the next 15 years.
No, the rumor wasn't about knocking down the upper decks, it was about expanding them to what their original footprint was supposed to be. Back in 1994, like everything that gets done here, they cut back the project because of financing as the upper decks were supposed to be bigger. That would add approximately 5K seats per side.
If the unexpected comes to pass, and suddenly demand far outstrips supply, the quickest bang for the buck would be building the upper deck in the south endzone. That would add an extra 8500 seats. BUT.......you'd need an act of god for that to happen anytime in the foreseeable future. Don't get me wrong, I would love to see us at that level, but right now the cards are stacked against us.
well I'm a diehard and I'll be damned if I'm taking a bus and parking at the rac to go to football. Now imagine the casual fan; it's a hassle. If RU doesn't fix the parking, attendance is going to suffer. RU needs to make it easier, not harder to get to games
last time i took the bus from RAC was 2013 vs razorbacks.. Parked there because large group took 2 hours to get back to RAC. .then leaving...ill spend the extra 50+ bucks a game to keep my blood pressure intact...
Again we need to make it easier for the casual fan so they become season ticket holders...and season ticket holders concerns need to be heard or addressed...
If the town wanted to screw Rutgers with parking, pass an ordinance that parking a non resident car on impervious land is prohibited for longer than 4 hours without a permit ...then parking will be addressed by rutgers..
I get that, but would you do a further walk? E.g. if you currently park in green, but were forced to light blue. If the product was commensurate w/it's current form or better, would you make that sacrifice?
What is happening in this thread? 60k? 80K? We can't fill 45K. In fact, I haven't seen a true 40K in years. (And yes, I know what's been announced.) There is no demand for this team. Why on earth would you spend 10s of millions of dollars to add more empty seats?
Real question. Just wondering if you were referring to timing. Like when people say not my lifetime.
Nobody's talking about now
Nor are we talking about expanding without considerable more success
I merely stated that if we reached out potential, which is now entirely possible due to the corporate aspect of NIL, we will see capacity in the 60's in the next 15-20 years, and to Al's point, possibly higher if we continued on the upward path
lets suppose that demand increases to 25K season ticket holders. that's a 20% increase.......it would still take a windfall of donations and the Administration will to justify expanding seating...when budget is tight....and what's the appetitive over the next 10 years after football/lacrosse facilities, JMA renovations......
Yes updates to seating with backs and maybe some more lipstick , but a new "luxury section" and added seating?... i cant see happening for 10-15 years as part of what to do with Hale Center after Football practice facility is all completed....I'm sure the majority will agree that when we have 40K for the big games, logistically Rutgers cant execute ticketing/concessions/parking i could only imagine how 15K more seating will be a better experience and part of the reason besides the consistency of program why season ticket base will not increase to 25K for many years.
If someone drops all their tickets now they lose their PPs. I have friends doing this. If they come back they will be at the bottom of the list and parking much further away. They won’t be back.
In a small surprise, nobody in our group complained much about season tickets going up about $160 per full season ticket from the increase in yellow lot pass prices. We have our group of 12 again...
Rutgers aint dumb and I've found the people in RFund and ticket office better than ever and that wasn't always the case.
The gameday experience is good enough at this point that people that truly enjoy going won't flinch at a small increase.
Parking is a huge detriment to attendance. Every casual fan that I know is pleasantly surprised at the tailgating and atmosphere of game day, but they all say the same thing - the bus from JMA is terrible. They don’t come back or if they do, rarely.
That’s casual fans. I turn down court side Nets and Knicks game because it’s of late (7pm) tipoffs. Can’t worry about them.
NFL and College football becomes flag football before Rutgers ever expands to 80k+.
Other than luxury boxes, I don’t see Rutgers football expanding seating by any amount in the next 10 years. And why would they? Build a winner. Sell out (real sell outs obviously) the current capacity for 2 years in a row, then let’s consider expansion.
We gotta be averaging about 25k actual fans in the building for the past 30 years. Suddenly 53k not enough!
Other than luxury boxes, I don’t see Rutgers football expanding seating by any amount in the next 10 years. And why would they? Build a winner. Sell out (real sell outs obviously) the current capacity for 2 years in a row, then let’s consider expansion.
We gotta be averaging about 25k actual fans in the building for the past 30 years. Suddenly 53k not enough!
