Skyboxes at Michigan Stadium
Prosposed expansion at Michigan Stadium
Brian over at MGoBlog has a really good post on why he supports the plan to add skyboxes (or what athletic director Bill Martin has humbly referred to as “enclosed seating”) to Michigan Stadium.
For the record I support the plan to add luxury boxes to Michigan Stadium. The reason for me though is entirely financial. For a sport like college football where you basically play 7 to 8 games at home, there will be plenty of interest and support to fill those suites. You also need to make as much money as possible with those limited number of contests and there are no revenue streams that I can think of that can rival the amount of money those premium seats can generate. While my grasp of economics is rudimentary at best I think given the scarcity of Michigan football games in Ann Arbor (seven days a year basically) there will be a long waiting list to get in on a skybox.
The one area where I disagree with Brian is on the improved acoustics at Michigan Stadium. In theory the sound will be better captured with the suites that extend beyond the actual bowl that contains the bleacher seating. But Michigan Stadium isn’t loud simply because the lion’s share of the crowd isn’t loud. So unless you move like 75,000-90,000 people into the luxury boxes and replace them with fans who are loud and boisterous the environment isn’t going to improve much in my opinion.
Will the crowd be louder for big games or when there is a big play? Of course, but that has always been the case. I seriously doubt Michigan Stadium is going to rock when Michigan is hosting Appalachian State, Eastern Michigan, Purdue or Wisconsin. In those games you’ll get some nice roars from the crowd when Mike Hart wills himself past 3 tacklers and breaks off a long gainer (in theory: he’ll be long gone by then); you’ll get some loud cheers when Mario Manningham hauls in an over the shoulder bomb for 6; and you’ll get a pretty lively atmosphere for Michigan State, Notre Dame and Ohio State.
I don’t think the “Go!” “Blue!” chant is suddenly going to be unnerving to the opposition, and I am pretty sure there will be regular plebians who feel that paying for their seat (and PSL) entitles them to see the game to the point where they are going to say “down in front!” like they always have. If in fact the only people who say “down in front!” are the high rollers, then how on earth did they get seats behind the unwashed masses who stand during a key play or during big games?
So for me the argument about Michigan Stadium being louder elicits an “I’ll believe it when I hear it” reply. If that’s the case I’ll be more than happy to admit I was wrong in my speculation. But at this point I have to go with my gut and say the Michigan fanbase tends to be much more subdued than the fans at Ohio State and at Penn State.
So put me on the record as supporting luxury boxes. I have no doubts they will be a license to print money for the athletic department and that the money will be put to good use to further support student athletes. That’s reason enough for me.
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