College Football in the west, while still very popular isn’t as hardcore like it is in the South & Midwest areas. Places like Eugene, Boise, SLC don’t need their college football stadiums to be 70-100K capacity like they are in Texas, Ohio State, Michigan or Alabama. A range of between 40-50+ K capacity is adequate for places like Oregon, Boise State & Utah.
I agree. Because you can tell by the realignment, with there being no West Coast power conference now that the PAC 12 is gone(until 2026 but not the same prestige).
It's not that the southeast or Midwest is more hardcore, it's just that they have a greater population around their college towns, Autsen stadium, like Lambough field in Wisconsin, has sold out every game for decades, people here love their ducks and would buy more seats if they were available. But, I also have to add, stadiums in the southeast and Midwest are more vehicle friendly than the UO, it makes it hard to find parking.
Amon (pronounced "Ay-mon") G. Carter is about as big as it needs to be. Keep in mind, TCU is still a small school of about 10-12k students and is in constant competition with 12 other FBS programs within the state, as well as Oklahoma, Oklahoma St., LSU, and Arkansas. This is coming from a TCU fan and Ft. Worth native...
I live in Boise. We don't fill the stadium very often. They're actually going to remodel the north endzone for more premium seating but reduced capacity.
@adriansmith5279 Back in the day the north endzone was completely open. When I had friends visit from out of town I would take them to walk on the Blue. Literally park right next to the stadium, get out of the car and walk on the field. The damn success of the program means no more midnight field walks. 🤣
When the Pac 10 was expanding to the Pac 12, Boise State was turned down because they said our stadium was too small.... the real reason was because we were too good and would've embarrassed a lot of those Pac 10 schools. (Wash. State has a smaller stadium than the Broncos.)
That is not correct. I was actually wanting the PAC to bring in BSU to go along with Utah. I wanted the Broncos over Colorado because I felt the Broncos aligned better and would be natural rivalry with Utah, and it would add one more PNW team. At the time, Albertsons Stadium wasn’t much different from Reeser or Martin Stadiums in size. There are two main reasons why the PAC didn’t extend an invite to BSU. Competition wasn’t one of them. Utah was just as successful and Colorado wasn’t far removed from their National Title and Fiesta Bowl appearances. The reason was tv market and academics. Boise, especially at that time, was considered a small tv market. The Treasure Valley has doubled in size since then, but it’s still considered small. All the PAC-10 schools are well known for their academic requirements, and BSU fell short of the R1 requirements that the conference treasures. The California schools would not budge with the idea of inviting BSU since the conference shares research studies and teams up with other members of the conference in their research. BSU not having a R1 research killed their chances, especially with Cal and Stanford.
Is that what people in Boise actually believe? Boise State wasn't seriously considered because of their small media market and the fat that the conference was trying to keep a certain academic level and alignment of the member schools and Boise State did not fit that profile. At the time Boise State was ranked 227th in academics in the nation and was in the bottom half academically of D1 football schools.
And its design is just about perfect with fans close to the field, unlike a lot of new or remodeled stadiums that have flat lower bowls and a huge area between the field and the first row of seats.
Yeah, but ND being a bowl stadium and having a very minimal regional fanbase makes it difficult for anything beyond 80K being realistic. Hell, the teams with 100K+ are struggling to fill their stadiums regularly, why would ND do that?
The death penalty given to SMU football in 1987 killed SMU football for decades. There was question whether or not it would ever recover. However, after buying their way into the ACC and making the CFP, they seem to getting back to their heyday. But the university still has a very small student body and alumni base compared to the state universities.
@@stischer47 Well, TCU was also garbage the year when the Death Penalty was lifted. They sucked WITHOUT a "Death Penalty"... but worked their way back up. SMU could have done the same if they actually tried. They're in the same area and even had the same resources... but didn't. It took NIL for them to actually *try*, again.
Yes, and the stadium is not 100 years old. After Salt Lake City was awarded the 2002 Winter Olympics the old Rice Stadium was completely demolished, only the free standing south stands from the 1970s were left, and an entirely new Rice-Eccles Stadium was built on the site. In recent years, the 1970s era south stands were demolished and a new addition to the stadium was built. Yes, there has been a football stadium on the site for 100 years, but the current stadium is in no way 100 years old.
Autzen was redone awhile back and then during some down years, stopped having sell outs. It may be on the docket to get another redo, but it will be after there is great success for a sustained amount of time. The practice facilities are already being redone again as they already have several times. The location of Autzen doesn’t bode well for too much of an increase because parking is already a nightmare and so is the shuttle system that delivers those who cannot park there.
As an Utah Utes fan that goes to games every year, I agree the stadium is too small. RES has sold out for 50+ games if I remember correctly. Even with the South Endzone being expanded and the bowl filled in, now there is no where to expand, unless they do the North Endzone to close in the bowl. Eventual they will need a new stadium all together, but there is nowhere to build a new stadium.
The situation of the stadiums being too small for college football? Has there been financial analysis done where the financial metrics come into play to validate the need for expanding the stadiums' seating capacities? The term: "diminished returns" comes to mind. Additional seating capacity is made on a stadium, but now the aspects of that expansion: Staffing (security, concessionaires, Et al), infrastructure (the need for additional restroom facilities is one of several that comes to mind), and maintenance, comes into play with a larger stadium. Would the additional attending payees offset the expense to properly operate an enlarged stadium? Especially so in 'down' years with falling attendance figures. Look at the big crosstown rival football game of USC vs UCLA in 2024: In that massive Rose Bowl Stadium of nearly 90K capacity, only 59K attended the game.
One reason for the USC-UCLA game having low attendance is the fact that both teams are down. That's bad but what is really embarrassing is when you turn on ESPN and there are a couple of Group of 5 teams playing with four to five thousand people in the stands
@@williamford9564 There are maybe a dozen schools in this country who could sell out a 130K seat stadium week after week, year after year with no problems......But it's not going to happen. There is a reason most stadiums built these days are in the 70-80K range. A 130K people would just be too many. Like in Athens, I can't imagine an addition 40K people showing up on gameday
There aren't many new college stadiums going up these days. In most cases they just add on to the existing stadium. On the few that have been built the trend seems to be to go smaller. Most new stadiums, I've heard of are under 80k seats. Some reasoning for that is: Tickets have gotten so expensive that most people don't want to pay $300 for a ticket and sit on a bleacher seat. I can't blame them for that. But yeah, Oregon stadium is super small for a #1 team. You would think down through the years they would have built on to it.
An early theme here is that teams traditionally didn't make bowl games but then all of a sudden in the early 1990s started to make them regularly. Could that have anything to do with the fact mediocre teams with the number of bowls available expanding from 11 in the late 1970s to 34 in 2009. Now we're up to 43. Yeah, it's amazing how so many of these teams now are able to get into a bowl game.
Oregon only has an enrollment just over 23,000 and they're not that close to Portland or any other population center in the state aside from Eugene itself which only has about 380k people in its county
It's less than 2 hours from Portland, that's plenty close for many especially for a flagship university. There are plenty of schools with that kind of demographics which play in much larger stadiums just fine despite not being nearly as prominent athletically.
@@joeym5243 yeah 2 hours isn’t far esp if they’re playing like a USC when they were good a decade ago or a Michigan/ohio st/ PSU now that they’re in the big 10
Most schools have been getting rid of bench seats for chair back seats. Because it’s more comfortable and gives a better fan experience. Because not only do you have to buy tickets, but to sit comfortably you have to rent seats from a vendor which cost $25-$35 dollars. Unless you have a good lower back and willing to sacrifice comfort, then you’re renting seats. I’m a UF graduate C/96 and we just renovated Ben Hill which lowered our capacity because we selected chair back seats. Fans complained over the summer about losing capacity, but once they experienced the seats then their minds changed. Let’s also remember that NFL stadiums highest capacity is AT&T and Met Life which both have 81 and 82,000 seats. And both NFL and major flagship and private universities have the same stadium design, the only difference is that college has a higher capacity because of bench seats. I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t enjoy sitting so damn close to strangers due to bench seats. I love chair back seats
@@gregd4633 Lambeau actually has a higher cseating apacity with bench seats, (AT&T has a lot of standing room capacity) and still the vast majority of schools are using benches still.
Good video. However, how about looking at stadium sizes in specific conferences? For instance, say smallest or largest stadiums in the ACC, Big Ten, AAC, etc.
I know Northwestern has the smallest stadium in the B1G (not referring to the temporary stadium on the lakefront). The old Ryan Field had a capacity of 43,000 seats yet the new stadium being built is actually going to be smaller with 35,000 seats. But considering the difficulty Northwestern has drawing fans even in good times, this is appropriate. For many years the stadium would sell out some games but much of those sellouts consisted of fans from the opposing team, usually those from the University of Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, and Michigan State.
It’s mostly because TCU is tiny in population compared to most other “major” colleges. They punch above their weight a lot but have to get creative to fill up the stadium if they’re not super successful in a given year. TCU’s large out of state enrollment and alumni base makes it difficult to fill up the stadium week after week. The Carter looks great, has good amenities, and is correctly sized for the crowds drawn.
"If they played in a conference and had more quality opponents" makes little sense given that Notre Dame's weak opponents are BECAUSE of their affiliation with the ACC and having to play 6 weak ACC teams every year.
Yeah, that's not a valid list. The religious schools have far more fans that love those teams "in addition to" their favorite. Notre Dame, BYU, etc. command a LOT more media value dollars than you are representing here. The Big XII contract talks devulged just how valuable even a mediocre BYU team was.
@@JacksonPicklebottom , Bull Shift. Ask all the Catholics if they're Notre Dame fans, they'll say yes. Mormons, BYU. It's the reason Notre Dame (Our Lady in French, referencing the Virgin Mary) maintains a stand-alone CFB contract with NBC while Ohio State requires a 16 team grant of rights deal for all sports. You are full of it, the math doesn't add up.
Indiana fans are going to be SHOCKED by the ticket prices at Notre Dame. For many years before this, Indiana could not come close to filling up its relatively small stadium. This year, with success, they have been selling it out. But I'm sure the tickets in Bloomington are still a bargain compared to those in South Bend.
I was expecting Bowman Gray Stadium to be on this list, but maybe that's better for a list of stadiums that College Football outgrew. If not, then surely on a list of active racetracks that NASCAR outgrew.
Autzen is small in comparison when looking at capacity but ask about how loud it is.. as a 🦆 fan my theory is that in Oregon there ain’t much going on compared to say Texas or California
With the dollars that can be made from TV and web streaming exposures nowadays, and in the future, colleges/universities could be satisfied what can be earned from media revenue, and not bothering with costly expansion with their stadiums. I have one anecdotal piece of info to give some measure what is earned from TV/streaming revenues: I have family living in the Las Vegas area, one member acquainted with an official in the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Athletic department. Years ago when the UNLV football program was very dismal, talk went around about the UNLV program switching from Division One college football play to Division Two, which could improve the win/loss ratio for the team. When a family relative asked the UNLV official about that, the response was: 'No way!' As that dropping down to Division Two would mean UNLV losing a million dollars per year in media revenue from the revenue sharing in the Mountain West conference. So, with expanding stadium seating for college venues: How many stadium seating tickets needs to be sold to equal that annual million dollars media revenue?
The trend is to go smaller for stadiums to counter the people choosing to sit at home and watch on tv, while providing luxury experiences for those attending.
I attended the Armed Forces Bowl at Amon Carter Stadium on December 27th. I thought the facilities were actually better than Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium where the bench bleacher seats are getting increasingly harder to suffer. I was sitting in a folding chair seat with more leg room than I ever had any football game and access to a counter, too! The scoreboards however could do with an upgrade.
The game is starting to get dirtier which will turn off some fans. If I'm going to watch some kid worried about his NIL guarantees all season before opting out of the bowl game I'm much more inclined to stick to the TV.
@@BrandanTheBroker lol can't wait for the University of Alabama Crimson Tide to relocate to a bigger metro and become.... The University of Alabama (Atlanta)
I don't like the NIL and transfer situation either, but the reality is the alumni, donors and students love the game and rooting for the alma mater and that is what is important for the schools from a ticket selling standpoint.
Notre Dame Stadium can't expand. After they built that last expansion that literally encompasses the entire old stadium, they built three large buildings that hang over parts of the stadium. One building holds the jumbotron. Seriously, look it up. They built a jumbotron and an entire new building in one structure.
Notre Dame added a video board and sky boxes in 2017 and reduced capacity by about 3k in doing this. So the school isn’t looking at sheer numbers in attendance.
Now that all games are televised, there is less incentive to go to games. Especially with high quality TVs and production equipment. Plus, if you stay home, you can watch games all day rather than fighting traffic in and out of campus.
OU alumni here, the problem with Autzen is it location and build style. Only the north side can be expanded, so additional 8-10k. Oregon needs a brand new stadium. The new stadium should have a retractable roof. I know NFL luxury retractable roofs are billions of dollars, but this is college so it doesn’t have to be so fancy. $300 Million dollars for a 65k-70k “college stadium” with a retractable roof. It’s Oregon and Nike so I sure they can come up with something cheap and recyclable. Seat cushion made of old Nike shoes. Roof made out of plastic bags and water bottles. Sell PSL for the suites. To help pay off bond debt, make it a multi use concert venue and convention center. Nike (aka Phill Knight) $100 Million University of Oregon $50 Million State of Oregon $50 Million Alumni $25 Million Lane County (for the convention center) $25 Million Private companies and partnerships $50 Million
NTSU has the largest student population than any other university in Texas, but they are in the American and don’t put money into their athletes. School size is not the primary driver for attendance and stadium size.
To answer the question on Notre Dame Stadium. Emphatically, NO. One major reason is that NDS is a bowl stadium, and expansion is extremely difficult to implement without adding just the worst seats imaginable. The Big House in Ann Arbor did that and the seats at the furthest end of the bowl are just the absolute worst. Secondly, unlike other regional powers, ND doesn't have a super strong local presence. Thousands of OSU fans live in or near Columbus. Thousands of Georgia fans live in or near Athens. Thousands of Alabama fans live in or near Tuscaloosa. ND's local fanbase in South Bend or near it is minuscule in comparison. Their fanbase is regional, thus most of their attendees are coming from out of town. Combined with the crazy asking price for tickets, and the downtick of fan attendance across the sport overall, expansion is a terrible idea for Notre Dame.
Notre Dame not being in a conference has NOT caused their quality of opponent to suffer. In fact, the ability to set their own schedule ( outside of the ACC agreement) has allowed them to have some of the stronger schedules in regards to SOS (strength of schedule). The opponents they play each season will have NO bearing on whether they join a conference or not. #CatholicsVsConferences
What about Toledo's Glass Bowl? I might be a bit biased, but Toledo has beaten the SEC, twice, has beaten several BIG 10 teams( Not OSU, though they did beat Michigan in the Big House), defeated Pittsburgh when they were ranked #9 in one of the Glass Bowl's most famous games. The only reason why it isn't sold out most of the time is because the MAC likes to play on weekdays, not always on Saturday.
…yet Fenway has been completely redone over the past 22 years to the point that literally the only thing left from before the renovations are the old wood seats that were repainted and put back in
@ how dare they put in something that prevents injuries, doesn’t wear out after one week, and is easily maintained! it’s easy to tell someone who never played on a horrible field because they make ignorant complaints about turf
The mountain west is just so spread out and less dense than the south. Football in the west is still huge- just doesn’t put the numbers of Alabama, uga, or even Clemson.
What the video failed to mention is that Oregon has almost 65% percent chair back seats in their stadium. Also new modern college stadiums have been built without bench seats, so the capacity isn’t a factor anymore. Also most new college stadiums offer better facilities for fan experience and engagement
This has to be one of the most silliest clip ever produced! Besides where are the mentioning of the visual credits? Those sized stadiums assure the universities of a sell out crowd, the provide intimidating noises for visitors to avoid, and a controlled safe environment. Besides, who will pay for these so called needed improvements? Really?
This video deserves an incomplete. Notre Dame Stadium was renovated in 2017. Also, I've been to Notre Dame multiple times. It is a perfect size. Games in November when it snows are "sold out" but not to capacity. You could say the same for every other school on this list, because it gets cold where they play. Also on you said the population is larger in these places and they should make these stadiums bigger. However, in your other list you named 3 California schools and said they should make their stadiums smaller. Cal, USC, and UCLA have an enrollment of around 45,000 where Notre Dame has an enrollment of 8,900. Notre Dame also makes more money not being in a conference, because they have their own media rights deal and don't have to share any of their profits. That's why they have never joined a conference.
Buckeyes had to tear up the running track that Jesse Owens ran on to squeeze more fans into the Horseshoe. History moving over to make new history. Hang on to your historic stadiums!
The title is wrong and misleading, reeking of click bait. Stadiums with 50,000 and 80,000 capacities are NOT "too small for college football". The title would better read something like College Football Stadiums (Maybe) Too Small for Their School" and THEN you proceed as you did with the reasons why.
Your video is assuming that because a state's population and college's enrollment have grown, that the stadium should follow suit. But NFL stadiums are trending downward, holding fewer attendees. Partly to cater to more well heeled football fans, and also the trend of some fans preferring the TV experience.
@@estebanzavala7403 is State College a large city? No. Is it near one? No. Yet it has the largest stadium in the country. There are plenty of others like that too. Weak argument…
Autzen Stadium is just the right size!! Leave it alone!! We like it this size. It make us louder!! We don’t need one for 100,000 people. And after you said Autzen, I quit watching.
im not even 40 seconds in, no autzrn stadium isnt too small. its just the right size. its loudd, it has no modern roof or arena style, it legit top notch college stadium. no changes needed. cant wait to rant about the other coming suggestion
Have you ever been to a game at any of these stadiums? I’m doubting it as your “analysis” of these stadiums doesn’t fit with how popular these stadiums are.
Are you going to give money to the schools, because it takes 100 millions dollars to expand stadiums, 300 millions of dollars to build new ones. Folks like to talk about it, but unless you got the money to spend then give it to the schools, I know that's upgrade stadiums coast money , Texas Tech South End zone cost almost 200 million dollars. The way the economy is schools can't really spend money like that.
Most of us don't live in areas that have a pro football team. The local college or university is our team. I never went to Oregon, but have loved them since I was 7 years old (44 now). Only time I ever watch the pro game is to see how ex-Ducks are doing. There is nothing like a college football Saturday. The NFL can't touch it!
Huh nd does not play in a conference so they don’t play quality opponents 😂😂😂. FSU, Clemson, usc , uga , Texas , Oklahoma , Miami , u of m , ok dude 😂😂
oregon should build a new 100 k stadium phil knight will pay for it. the notre dame stadium is a copy of the michigan stadium. they wanted to expand but they cannot add another level. they would need a new stadium. the pope could pay for it. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 the other smaller ones should wait and see how the new procollege football minor league system works out.
This is respectfully, not a good list at all, or at least not a well titled list, you named multiple stadiums that are held in high regard. Capacity size is not the "end all" metric for a stadium
College Football in the west, while still very popular isn’t as hardcore like it is in the South & Midwest areas. Places like Eugene, Boise, SLC don’t need their college football stadiums to be 70-100K capacity like they are in Texas, Ohio State, Michigan or Alabama. A range of between 40-50+ K capacity is adequate for places like Oregon, Boise State & Utah.
Very true. The best stadium is one that fits the needs of the city and school. Sometime smaller and more intimate is better then a mega size.
I agree. Because you can tell by the realignment, with there being no West Coast power conference now that the PAC 12 is gone(until 2026 but not the same prestige).
Autzen definitely needs to be enlarged. I'm sure a 70K stadium could be easily filled.
It's not that the southeast or Midwest is more hardcore, it's just that they have a greater population around their college towns, Autsen stadium, like Lambough field in Wisconsin, has sold out every game for decades, people here love their ducks and would buy more seats if they were available.
But, I also have to add, stadiums in the southeast and Midwest are more vehicle friendly than the UO, it makes it hard to find parking.
@@adriansmith5279but a PAC-12 team from the west coast is in first place and whooping on every team in the midwest and the south!!!!
Amon (pronounced "Ay-mon") G. Carter is about as big as it needs to be.
Keep in mind, TCU is still a small school of about 10-12k students and is in constant competition with 12 other FBS programs within the state, as well as Oklahoma, Oklahoma St., LSU, and Arkansas.
This is coming from a TCU fan and Ft. Worth native...
With all the competition that TCU has to contend with, I love it when TCU outshines the other schools by a country mile.
considering that there’s two huge stadiums nearby, both with ties to the school, it’s not necessary to have a huge stadium
@@bostonrailfan2427 wait... 2?
I assume you're talking about Jerryworld. But what's the other one?
@@29Texan …Cotton Bowl, despite being in Dallas it’s still close by and usable if they truly needed capacity above 47,000
@bostonrailfan2427 oh... I really don't count that.
Honestly, TCU wouldn't use that place, anyway. Too far.
Notre dame playoffs tickets are selling for $1000+ for the cheapest seat.
That's Nuts 😜😜😜
I live in Boise. We don't fill the stadium very often. They're actually going to remodel the north endzone for more premium seating but reduced capacity.
I don't live in Boise(I'm from Philly) as long as the blue turf still there, that's find by me(lol). Love the turf and blue my favorite color anyway!
They did sell out evry gsme this season
@@nateburt470 And they will undoubtably do so next year too.
@nateburt470 They did but that's the first time in a long time. Since Kellen Moore.
@adriansmith5279 Back in the day the north endzone was completely open. When I had friends visit from out of town I would take them to walk on the Blue. Literally park right next to the stadium, get out of the car and walk on the field. The damn success of the program means no more midnight field walks. 🤣
When the Pac 10 was expanding to the Pac 12, Boise State was turned down because they said our stadium was too small.... the real reason was because we were too good and would've embarrassed a lot of those Pac 10 schools. (Wash. State has a smaller stadium than the Broncos.)
That is not correct. I was actually wanting the PAC to bring in BSU to go along with Utah. I wanted the Broncos over Colorado because I felt the Broncos aligned better and would be natural rivalry with Utah, and it would add one more PNW team. At the time, Albertsons Stadium wasn’t much different from Reeser or Martin Stadiums in size.
There are two main reasons why the PAC didn’t extend an invite to BSU. Competition wasn’t one of them. Utah was just as successful and Colorado wasn’t far removed from their National Title and Fiesta Bowl appearances. The reason was tv market and academics. Boise, especially at that time, was considered a small tv market. The Treasure Valley has doubled in size since then, but it’s still considered small. All the PAC-10 schools are well known for their academic requirements, and BSU fell short of the R1 requirements that the conference treasures. The California schools would not budge with the idea of inviting BSU since the conference shares research studies and teams up with other members of the conference in their research. BSU not having a R1 research killed their chances, especially with Cal and Stanford.
We were grandfathered in and also a main reason we’re left out of the PAC exodus
As an Oregon fan I agree. Was honestly surprised Oregon scheduled the broncos after losing to the broncos earlier.
Is that what people in Boise actually believe?
Boise State wasn't seriously considered because of their small media market and the fat that the conference was trying to keep a certain academic level and alignment of the member schools and Boise State did not fit that profile.
At the time Boise State was ranked 227th in academics in the nation and was in the bottom half academically of D1 football schools.
@ Thing is desperate times call for desperate measures. As a Cougar I am proud to add them to the ranks and lift their status. That’s leadership.
Autzen might be “too small” but it’s straight up a top ten most loud stadium so I think it being “small” is okay
And its design is just about perfect with fans close to the field, unlike a lot of new or remodeled stadiums that have flat lower bowls and a huge area between the field and the first row of seats.
Same with Utah! I've been in that stadium when I could not hear my wife, who was yelling in my ear.
Now this meets the high standards and quality we’ve come to rely on with this channel. Very well done! Wasn’t that long ago Notre Dame was only 59k.
Yeah, but ND being a bowl stadium and having a very minimal regional fanbase makes it difficult for anything beyond 80K being realistic. Hell, the teams with 100K+ are struggling to fill their stadiums regularly, why would ND do that?
ND Stadium was greatly expanded some time ago. For ages 59,075 was always the listed attendance--before the very large stadium expansion.
Now you can’t see Touchdoen Jesus from the field any longer
I was walking around SMU in Dallas earlier in the year and was shocked at how small the football stadium was.
@@fixpacifica their stadium is also as big as it needs to be...
The death penalty given to SMU football in 1987 killed SMU football for decades. There was question whether or not it would ever recover. However, after buying their way into the ACC and making the CFP, they seem to getting back to their heyday. But the university still has a very small student body and alumni base compared to the state universities.
@@stischer47
Well, TCU was also garbage the year when the Death Penalty was lifted. They sucked WITHOUT a "Death Penalty"... but worked their way back up.
SMU could have done the same if they actually tried. They're in the same area and even had the same resources... but didn't.
It took NIL for them to actually *try*, again.
It can’t get any bigger because the area is too crowded
Didn't Utahs Stadium host the opening ceremonies for the 2002 Winter Games
They did
Yes, and the stadium is not 100 years old. After Salt Lake City was awarded the 2002 Winter Olympics the old Rice Stadium was completely demolished, only the free standing south stands from the 1970s were left, and an entirely new Rice-Eccles Stadium was built on the site. In recent years, the 1970s era south stands were demolished and a new addition to the stadium was built. Yes, there has been a football stadium on the site for 100 years, but the current stadium is in no way 100 years old.
Yes, it did. And it will host the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2034 Winter Olympics.
Nice video, you should make one for colleges that play in stadiums too big
Start with Kent State.
@@williamford9564 "Can't" State....😉
Autzen was redone awhile back and then during some down years, stopped having sell outs. It may be on the docket to get another redo, but it will be after there is great success for a sustained amount of time. The practice facilities are already being redone again as they already have several times. The location of Autzen doesn’t bode well for too much of an increase because parking is already a nightmare and so is the shuttle system that delivers those who cannot park there.
As an Utah Utes fan that goes to games every year, I agree the stadium is too small. RES has sold out for 50+ games if I remember correctly. Even with the South Endzone being expanded and the bowl filled in, now there is no where to expand, unless they do the North Endzone to close in the bowl. Eventual they will need a new stadium all together, but there is nowhere to build a new stadium.
The situation of the stadiums being too small for college football? Has there been financial analysis done where the financial metrics come into play to validate the need for expanding the stadiums' seating capacities?
The term: "diminished returns" comes to mind.
Additional seating capacity is made on a stadium, but now the aspects of that expansion: Staffing (security, concessionaires, Et al), infrastructure (the need for additional restroom facilities is one of several that comes to mind), and maintenance, comes into play with a larger stadium.
Would the additional attending payees offset the expense to properly operate an enlarged stadium? Especially so in 'down' years with falling attendance figures.
Look at the big crosstown rival football game of USC vs UCLA in 2024: In that massive Rose Bowl Stadium of nearly 90K capacity, only 59K attended the game.
One reason for the USC-UCLA game having low attendance is the fact that both teams are down. That's bad but what is really embarrassing is when you turn on ESPN and there are a couple of Group of 5 teams playing with four to five thousand people in the stands
Believe me, schools like Texas and Michigan could expand their stadiums to 130,000 and the returns would multiply even more.
@@williamford9564 There are maybe a dozen schools in this country who could sell out a 130K seat stadium week after week, year after year with no problems......But it's not going to happen. There is a reason most stadiums built these days are in the 70-80K range. A 130K people would just be too many. Like in Athens, I can't imagine an addition 40K people showing up on gameday
Maybe do a video on the opposite phenomenon? Or do equivalent for basketball arenas?
He barely researched this one, you could do it yourself a lot better Eric
There aren't many new college stadiums going up these days. In most cases they just add on to the existing stadium. On the few that have been built the trend seems to be to go smaller. Most new stadiums, I've heard of are under 80k seats. Some reasoning for that is: Tickets have gotten so expensive that most people don't want to pay $300 for a ticket and sit on a bleacher seat. I can't blame them for that. But yeah, Oregon stadium is super small for a #1 team. You would think down through the years they would have built on to it.
An early theme here is that teams traditionally didn't make bowl games but then all of a sudden in the early 1990s started to make them regularly. Could that have anything to do with the fact mediocre teams with the number of bowls available expanding from 11 in the late 1970s to 34 in 2009. Now we're up to 43. Yeah, it's amazing how so many of these teams now are able to get into a bowl game.
College football is so bipolar. “We want the regular season to matter.” “And you get a bowl game and YOU get a bowl game and you get a bowl game…”
@@clintmatthews3500 They pretty consistently just want money.
Oregon only has an enrollment just over 23,000 and they're not that close to Portland or any other population center in the state aside from Eugene itself which only has about 380k people in its county
There are plenty of colleges that arent in major cities that draw just fine.
It's less than 2 hours from Portland, that's plenty close for many especially for a flagship university. There are plenty of schools with that kind of demographics which play in much larger stadiums just fine despite not being nearly as prominent athletically.
@@joeym5243 yeah 2 hours isn’t far esp if they’re playing like a USC when they were good a decade ago or a Michigan/ohio st/ PSU now that they’re in the big 10
Most schools have been getting rid of bench seats for chair back seats. Because it’s more comfortable and gives a better fan experience. Because not only do you have to buy tickets, but to sit comfortably you have to rent seats from a vendor which cost $25-$35 dollars. Unless you have a good lower back and willing to sacrifice comfort, then you’re renting seats. I’m a UF graduate C/96 and we just renovated Ben Hill which lowered our capacity because we selected chair back seats. Fans complained over the summer about losing capacity, but once they experienced the seats then their minds changed.
Let’s also remember that NFL stadiums highest capacity is AT&T and Met Life which both have 81 and 82,000 seats. And both NFL and major flagship and private universities have the same stadium design, the only difference is that college has a higher capacity because of bench seats. I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t enjoy sitting so damn close to strangers due to bench seats. I love chair back seats
@@gregd4633 Lambeau actually has a higher cseating apacity with bench seats, (AT&T has a lot of standing room capacity) and still the vast majority of schools are using benches still.
Good video. However, how about looking at stadium sizes in specific conferences? For instance, say smallest or largest stadiums in the ACC, Big Ten, AAC, etc.
I know Northwestern has the smallest stadium in the B1G (not referring to the temporary stadium on the lakefront). The old Ryan Field had a capacity of 43,000 seats yet the new stadium being built is actually going to be smaller with 35,000 seats. But considering the difficulty Northwestern has drawing fans even in good times, this is appropriate. For many years the stadium would sell out some games but much of those sellouts consisted of fans from the opposing team, usually those from the University of Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, and Michigan State.
I should do football stadiums that are just too small for their club.
Do it!
(in a tone of puzzlement) Gee! A major college football stadium in Texas with less than a 50K seating capacity? (TCU) That's nearly shocking to hear.
It’s mostly because TCU is tiny in population compared to most other “major” colleges. They punch above their weight a lot but have to get creative to fill up the stadium if they’re not super successful in a given year. TCU’s large out of state enrollment and alumni base makes it difficult to fill up the stadium week after week. The Carter looks great, has good amenities, and is correctly sized for the crowds drawn.
"If they played in a conference and had more quality opponents" makes little sense given that Notre Dame's weak opponents are BECAUSE of their affiliation with the ACC and having to play 6 weak ACC teams every year.
College football programs with largest fan bases: 1. Ohio State - 11.26 million, 2. Notre Dame - 8.21 million, 3. Texas - 7.82 million, 4. Penn State - 6.36 million, 5. Michigan - 6.26 million, 6. Florida - 5.89 million, 7. Oregon - 5.45 million, 8. Alabama - 5.34 million, 9. Wisconsin - 4.57 million, 10. USC - 4.46 million.
Yeah, that's not a valid list.
The religious schools have far more fans that love those teams "in addition to" their favorite.
Notre Dame, BYU, etc. command a LOT more media value dollars than you are representing here.
The Big XII contract talks devulged just how valuable even a mediocre BYU team was.
@@kingbaldwiniv5409Notre dame is the 2nd largest fanbase its well known ohio state is the largest
How could you possibly calculate this?
@@JacksonPicklebottom , Bull Shift.
Ask all the Catholics if they're Notre Dame fans, they'll say yes.
Mormons, BYU.
It's the reason Notre Dame (Our Lady in French, referencing the Virgin Mary) maintains a stand-alone CFB contract with NBC while Ohio State requires a 16 team grant of rights deal for all sports.
You are full of it, the math doesn't add up.
There were a lot more fans from Boise than Penn St at the recent Fiesta Bowl in AZ.
Indiana fans are going to be SHOCKED by the ticket prices at Notre Dame. For many years before this, Indiana could not come close to filling up its relatively small stadium. This year, with success, they have been selling it out. But I'm sure the tickets in Bloomington are still a bargain compared to those in South Bend.
I was expecting Bowman Gray Stadium to be on this list, but maybe that's better for a list of stadiums that College Football outgrew. If not, then surely on a list of active racetracks that NASCAR outgrew.
Autzen is small in comparison when looking at capacity but ask about how loud it is.. as a 🦆 fan my theory is that in Oregon there ain’t much going on compared to say Texas or California
With the dollars that can be made from TV and web streaming exposures nowadays, and in the future, colleges/universities could be satisfied what can be earned from media revenue, and not bothering with costly expansion with their stadiums.
I have one anecdotal piece of info to give some measure what is earned from TV/streaming revenues:
I have family living in the Las Vegas area, one member acquainted with an official in the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Athletic department. Years ago when the UNLV football program was very dismal, talk went around about the UNLV program switching from Division One college football play to Division Two, which could improve the win/loss ratio for the team. When a family relative asked the UNLV official about that, the response was: 'No way!' As that dropping down to Division Two would mean UNLV losing a million dollars per year in media revenue from the revenue sharing in the Mountain West conference.
So, with expanding stadium seating for college venues: How many stadium seating tickets needs to be sold to equal that annual million dollars media revenue?
The trend is to go smaller for stadiums to counter the people choosing to sit at home and watch on tv, while providing luxury experiences for those attending.
I attended the Armed Forces Bowl at Amon Carter Stadium on December 27th. I thought the facilities were actually better than Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium where the bench bleacher seats are getting increasingly harder to suffer. I was sitting in a folding chair seat with more leg room than I ever had any football game and access to a counter, too! The scoreboards however could do with an upgrade.
The game is starting to get dirtier which will turn off some fans. If I'm going to watch some kid worried about his NIL guarantees all season before opting out of the bowl game I'm much more inclined to stick to the TV.
Let's just be happy that the university can't threaten to relocate if the city doesn't build them Allegiant Stadium... for now...
@@BrandanTheBroker lol can't wait for the University of Alabama Crimson Tide to relocate to a bigger metro and become.... The University of Alabama (Atlanta)
I don't like the NIL and transfer situation either, but the reality is the alumni, donors and students love the game and rooting for the alma mater and that is what is important for the schools from a ticket selling standpoint.
😂😂😂😂 I'd give up on sports all together if that ever became a possibility @@joeyjangler9834
Wow. Insightful and delivered by a real human. Thanks. I think you pronounced tcu stadium incorrect no biggie
Notre Dame Stadium can't expand. After they built that last expansion that literally encompasses the entire old stadium, they built three large buildings that hang over parts of the stadium.
One building holds the jumbotron. Seriously, look it up. They built a jumbotron and an entire new building in one structure.
Notre Dame added a video board and sky boxes in 2017 and reduced capacity by about 3k in doing this. So the school isn’t looking at sheer numbers in attendance.
60k to see kids play sports isnt a small amount and every major sports league in the world has too small a stadium for their fanbases
Autzen is the loudest in the country. Keep it small, keep it loud, keep it sold out
Autzen North side needs a serious overhaul. 70k would be ideal.
They need a decent sized stadium tho. At least one that holds 85k
@@Usernameishere-j8p for who? Their are only like 200,000 people in Eugene. No way half the population of the town would go to every game
@@That_Team_Out_West half of the ducks fans that go to the games live in Portland
@ It must not be a committed fan base then
Now that all games are televised, there is less incentive to go to games. Especially with high quality TVs and production equipment. Plus, if you stay home, you can watch games all day rather than fighting traffic in and out of campus.
Oregon wins the Natty you gotta wonder if Phil Knight opens the checkbook even more and builds them a college stadium that'll rival NFL stadiums
OU alumni here, the problem with Autzen is it location and build style. Only the north side can be expanded, so additional 8-10k. Oregon needs a brand new stadium.
The new stadium should have a retractable roof. I know NFL luxury retractable roofs are billions of dollars, but this is college so it doesn’t have to be so fancy. $300 Million dollars for a 65k-70k “college stadium” with a retractable roof.
It’s Oregon and Nike so I sure they can come up with something cheap and recyclable. Seat cushion made of old Nike shoes. Roof made out of plastic bags and water bottles. Sell PSL for the suites.
To help pay off bond debt, make it a multi use concert venue and convention center.
Nike (aka Phill Knight) $100 Million
University of Oregon $50 Million
State of Oregon $50 Million
Alumni $25 Million
Lane County (for the convention center) $25 Million
Private companies and partnerships $50 Million
I remember over in College Basketball, here in Philly. After Villanova won those two National Title, they ended up getting getting a new arena.
These schools are keeping up with premium pricing tickets due to stadium size.
I don’t think Oregon can expand Autzen. But, having been there, that place gets LOUD because of it’s architecture
TCU is a tiny school, hence the small stadium. I’ll give them credit because it’s really nice
NTSU has the largest student population than any other university in Texas, but they are in the American and don’t put money into their athletes. School size is not the primary driver for attendance and stadium size.
Dude, ND’s schedule is consistently one of the toughest in the country.
To answer the question on Notre Dame Stadium. Emphatically, NO. One major reason is that NDS is a bowl stadium, and expansion is extremely difficult to implement without adding just the worst seats imaginable. The Big House in Ann Arbor did that and the seats at the furthest end of the bowl are just the absolute worst. Secondly, unlike other regional powers, ND doesn't have a super strong local presence. Thousands of OSU fans live in or near Columbus. Thousands of Georgia fans live in or near Athens. Thousands of Alabama fans live in or near Tuscaloosa. ND's local fanbase in South Bend or near it is minuscule in comparison. Their fanbase is regional, thus most of their attendees are coming from out of town. Combined with the crazy asking price for tickets, and the downtick of fan attendance across the sport overall, expansion is a terrible idea for Notre Dame.
That Oregon stadium looks a lot bigger than the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers stadium. The Gophers stadium holds 55,000 something like that
Notre Dame not being in a conference has NOT caused their quality of opponent to suffer. In fact, the ability to set their own schedule ( outside of the ACC agreement) has allowed them to have some of the stronger schedules in regards to SOS (strength of schedule). The opponents they play each season will have NO bearing on whether they join a conference or not. #CatholicsVsConferences
What about Toledo's Glass Bowl? I might be a bit biased, but Toledo has beaten the SEC, twice, has beaten several BIG 10 teams( Not OSU, though they did beat Michigan in the Big House), defeated Pittsburgh when they were ranked #9 in one of the Glass Bowl's most famous games. The only reason why it isn't sold out most of the time is because the MAC likes to play on weekdays, not always on Saturday.
Glass bowl is just fine at 35k capacity.
Notre Dame stadium is like Fenway YOU DO NOT TOUCH IT
…yet Fenway has been completely redone over the past 22 years to the point that literally the only thing left from before the renovations are the old wood seats that were repainted and put back in
Tell that to the dopes who put artificial turf in it. Terrible.
@ how dare they put in something that prevents injuries, doesn’t wear out after one week, and is easily maintained!
it’s easy to tell someone who never played on a horrible field because they make ignorant complaints about turf
The mountain west is just so spread out and less dense than the south. Football in the west is still huge- just doesn’t put the numbers of Alabama, uga, or even Clemson.
What the video failed to mention is that Oregon has almost 65% percent chair back seats in their stadium. Also new modern college stadiums have been built without bench seats, so the capacity isn’t a factor anymore. Also most new college stadiums offer better facilities for fan experience and engagement
How are Ticket prices used to manage demand?
Autzen is built small so the sound echos 🤣 we will keep our stadiums size thank you very much🦆🔛🔝
Oregon's Stadium Looks like the Liberty Bowl.
The reason autzen stadium hasn't been expanded is because it's shaped like the Oregon O.
Quality product, seat less, charge more
don’t forget charlotte football!
This has to be one of the most silliest clip ever produced! Besides where are the mentioning of the visual credits? Those sized stadiums assure the universities of a sell out crowd, the provide intimidating noises for visitors to avoid, and a controlled safe environment. Besides, who will pay for these so called needed improvements? Really?
@@geoffreylee5199 the ones that should be are in the description, and others i pay for, aside from that your comment is silly
This video deserves an incomplete. Notre Dame Stadium was renovated in 2017. Also, I've been to Notre Dame multiple times. It is a perfect size. Games in November when it snows are "sold out" but not to capacity. You could say the same for every other school on this list, because it gets cold where they play. Also on you said the population is larger in these places and they should make these stadiums bigger. However, in your other list you named 3 California schools and said they should make their stadiums smaller. Cal, USC, and UCLA have an enrollment of around 45,000 where Notre Dame has an enrollment of 8,900. Notre Dame also makes more money not being in a conference, because they have their own media rights deal and don't have to share any of their profits. That's why they have never joined a conference.
Buckeyes had to tear up the running track that Jesse Owens ran on to squeeze more fans into the Horseshoe. History moving over to make new history. Hang on to your historic stadiums!
The title is wrong and misleading, reeking of click bait. Stadiums with 50,000 and 80,000 capacities are NOT "too small for college football". The title would better read something like College Football Stadiums (Maybe) Too Small for Their School" and THEN you proceed as you did with the reasons why.
Your welcome, Merry Christmas.
Oregons stadium size is just fine! Don’t mess with it!
app state, jmu, ucf, tulane could be there too
Oregon desperately needs 30,000 more seats.
3 BSU Fiesta wins. Just started a remodel of north end zone.
Your video is assuming that because a state's population and college's enrollment have grown, that the stadium should follow suit. But NFL stadiums are trending downward, holding fewer attendees. Partly to cater to more well heeled football fans, and also the trend of some fans preferring the TV experience.
@@davebo9615 not really same comparison for college football
bro you should check out Hawai'i's football stadium, it literally only holds 15,000
Notre dame has plenty of quality opponents. that dig is so stupid and factually incorrect
^^^FACT^^^
Autzen stadium capacity is fine
Eugene is a small city with not that large of a population that warrants an expansion
@@estebanzavala7403 is State College a large city? No. Is it near one? No.
Yet it has the largest stadium in the country. There are plenty of others like that too. Weak argument…
Ole miss NEEDS to get a bigger stadium
None of these are too small. They're perfect as is.
I think the Ducks definitely need to upgrade the building its too old fashion needs more high tech
ND will be forced to join a conference for football, unless they never want a 1st round bye in the playoffs.
Boise has played in three Fiesta Bowl’s.
Kennesaw State just 8500 seats.
Autzen Stadium is just the right size!! Leave it alone!! We like it this size. It make us louder!! We don’t need one for 100,000 people. And after you said Autzen, I quit watching.
im not even 40 seconds in, no autzrn stadium isnt too small. its just the right size. its loudd, it has no modern roof or arena style, it legit top notch college stadium. no changes needed. cant wait to rant about the other coming suggestion
Your welcome.
Boise State has won 3 Fiesta Bowls, not 2. 3-0 and soon to be 4-0.
More “named teams than ever before” what are you talking about? The Pac-12 had no problems with being in the public consciousness?
Have you ever been to a game at any of these stadiums? I’m doubting it as your “analysis” of these stadiums doesn’t fit with how popular these stadiums are.
@@DuckRon626 is this a stadium review?No, its an opinion based on data and facts get over it…
Are you going to give money to the schools, because it takes 100 millions dollars to expand stadiums, 300 millions of dollars to build new ones. Folks like to talk about it, but unless you got the money to spend then give it to the schools, I know that's upgrade stadiums coast money , Texas Tech South End zone cost almost 200 million dollars. The way the economy is schools can't really spend money like that.
If it generates a return than theyll get it back in time.
I never understood college football popularity. Maybe getting drunk and betting explains it.
No that would e the NFL. College ball is way better. More exciting !!
Most of us don't live in areas that have a pro football team. The local college or university is our team. I never went to Oregon, but have loved them since I was 7 years old (44 now). Only time I ever watch the pro game is to see how ex-Ducks are doing. There is nothing like a college football Saturday. The NFL can't touch it!
a 54,000 seat stadium is not too small most NFL stadiums are around 60,000 the overrated NFL are their stadiums too small
@@dus1009 college is not the nfl, there are many college venues that are far larger than pretty much all nfl venues, not a good comparison…
Autzen Stadium is just fine
...And Stadiums Too Big For High School.
You need to update the Notre Dame picture from your story. The stadium and surroundings have been recently renovated. GO IRISH!
Boise State has won the Fiesta Bowl 3x.
Huh nd does not play in a conference so they don’t play quality opponents 😂😂😂. FSU, Clemson, usc , uga , Texas , Oklahoma , Miami , u of m , ok dude 😂😂
oregon should build a new 100 k stadium phil knight will pay for it. the notre dame stadium is a copy of the michigan stadium. they wanted to expand but they cannot add another level. they would need a new stadium. the pope could pay for it. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 the other smaller ones should wait and see how the new procollege football minor league system works out.
Who cares? They are college stadiums, not NFL stadiums, how big do they need to be?🤔
College stadiums are often bigger than nfl stadiums
All that Nike money and autzen is a dive
Boise State 3 Fiesta Bowl wins not 2
2006, 2009, 2014
Autzen inky dinky too small
Oregon power house 😂? What power house has 0 national championships?
Helloness!
Boise State has been to the Fiesta Bowl three times and will be fourth in a couple weeks.
It's all money
There’s nothing wrong with any of these stadiums. Building 100,000 seat stadiums to watch 19 year old college amateurs is the weird thing.
This what people love just because you think it’s dumb doesn’t mean the 3.5 million people that attend games every weekend think so
They aren't amateurs anymore (NIL)! People waste too much money on these semipro teams now.
This is respectfully, not a good list at all, or at least not a well titled list, you named multiple stadiums that are held in high regard. Capacity size is not the "end all" metric for a stadium
Did I say they were bad? No. I said they were too small…
Boise State has won 3 Fiesta Bowls, not 2. ...Hopefully soon to make it 4...
America has more pressing issues to deal with instead of building bigger playpens.
College football is everything.
Not sure this video has any credible data to support the opinions of the narrator. An 80,000 seat stadium is not small.
@@davidadamsmusic d1 attendance data, its in the description, and yea its credible
Stupid hot take.
Your Welcome.