University of North Texas Athletics
Green Gang: Rick V Talking Stadium Capacity
8/21/2009 12:00:00 AM | Return to Play
Guest Editorial from Director of Athletics Rick Villarreal, August 21, 2009, 4:11 p.m.
My excitement after the Board of Regents approval yesterday was quickly tempered by the reactions from fans and supporters concerning the 28,000 seat number that was posted in the minutes of the BOR meeting. Unfortunately that number was is not exactly accurate, but found its way to the agenda erroneously and was posted immediately on blogs and fan message boards.
First let me say that it is important to keep fans aware of as much as possible of the inner workings of the athletic department but we don't air every detail, especially when it comes to a project that is still under development. It is important to understand the difference between fixed seats and seating capacity. At Fouts Field our capacity if 30,500. The actual number of fixed seats is less than 29,000.
The number used yesterday in the BOR agenda, although still below the number currently in the plan was totally a fixed seat number. That does not include movable seating in the club level, suite level, corporate decks or the touchdown terrace. It also doesn't include the grass berm seating similar to that at Western Kentucky which will be available.
We are sure that by the time construction plans are done the combination of all these seating areas will push our capacity above the 30,000 number.
As I stated in the Denton Record-Chronicle article this morning the capacity of the new stadium will be at 30,000 or greater. It was our initial desire to start with a stadium with fixed seating between 32,000 and 35,000, but in the early stages of concept design it became clear that the budgeted amount would not support those numbers.
We made a conscious decision to build this stadium in a manner that would reflect well on the institution while maintaining fiscal responsibility. We could have moved ahead with a much larger stadium if we, like others have, were willing to build an aluminum seat on steal structure facility similar to what we have at Fouts Field today.
Some of you may say that this is not what you had envisioned, but it has always been our plan to have multiple unique seating opportunities throughout the stadium and I believe this plan has achieved it as well as any facility we have visited. It is going to be a great place to play for our team, but an even better place to watch the game for our fans. Let's take yesterday's decision by the Board of Regents and celebrate it as we should!
