Comments about ‘Utes football: No changes imminent for Rice-Eccles Stadium’

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Published: Tuesday, May 14 2013 3:35 p.m. MDT

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Surfers Paradise, AU

Why would they change something they can fill anyway? Works fine the way it is.

Magna Ute Fan
Magna, UT

Boo! I think we are wasting some great opportunities right now. I would buy season tickets again if they were available. Students are graduating from the U, and hence from the MUSS. Many of them want to buy season tickets and continue going to games. But, they can't. So they will form other buying habits and many of them will be lost as potential customers.

Come on Dr Hill! Let's get this done!

Cottonwood Heights, UT

@Pavalova: "Why would they change something they can fill anyway? Works fine the way it is."

What fantasy world are you living in?

RES listed capacity 45,017

2012 attendace average 45,149
2011 attendace average 45,459
2010 attendace average 45,156
2009 attendace average 45,155
2008 attendace average 45,352

5 straight years of averaging over listed capacity Utah IS filling their stadium, that is why so many Ute fans are beating the drum for expansion.

Highland, UT

@magna ute fan

If chris hill, and other university officials, really thought a stadium expansion would lead to a major increase in attendance, and therefor revenue, then they would do it as quickly as they possibly could. But they realize the utah fanbase is about topped out and although expansion would make room for more people it wouldn't automatically translate into enough of them to be worthwhile. They have seen how quickly the hc has emptied out with the demise of the basketball program and also know that the football program is on its way downhill so they wisely are waiting to see how much that will affect attendance.

If utah can keep attendance fairly static over the next few years with the coming poor seasons then they will probably consider expanding the stadium. But they aren't going to do it now based on the ample evidence of utah's tenuous, at best "fan" base.

They know that there are only about 20-30,000 "real" utah fans out there. The rest are simply "fans" and have a lot to prove.

Naval Vet
Philadelphia, PA


"...they realize the utah fanbase is about topped out..."

Not so little bro. It isn't the "fanbase" that's been "topped out". It's the money. Stadium expansion would be the most expensive endeavor at this point, and we won't be 100% revenue sharers until the FOLLOWING season. The article was quite clear about it:

"Utah Athletics Director Chris Hill noted there are other projects that need to get done at this time...Even so, Hill acknowledged that, 'Yes, there are things on the books about the stadium.'...Initial drawings with major changes to the south end of the stadium have already been created."

Case closed.

You panicked again, didn't you? Don't be so frantic and emotional.

Salt Lake City, Utah

Chris Hill is smart enough to know that it's not wise to waste millions expanding a stadium that could easily become another vast sea of empty red chairs, just like the Huntsman.

As usual, despite the grandiose "plans", the Utes are all talk, but no walk, on stadium expansion.

Orem, UT


BYU averaged over 46,000 in 1981, the year BEFORE LES was expanded.

For the last 30 years, BYU has averaged 60,000+.

Call us when U have your first 60,000+ average attendance season at RES.



LOL at your "lack of funds" frantic and emotional whining. Utah fans have been telling us for years that the Utes would be swimming in cash as soon as they joined the PAC.

It's interesting that WAC member BYU was somehow able to raise enough private donations to expand their stadium to 65,000 way back in 1982, BEFORE BYU won its National Championship, but PAC member Utah still can't scrape together enough to expand RES AFTER two BCS bowl wins.

Obviously, all of the talk about Utah's fanbase rivaling BYU's fanbase is just a bunch of idle prattle.

Baltimore, MD

The howling wind that U hear is all of the hot air being let out of the RES expansion balloon.

Duckhunter was correct in his assessment that there are only about "20-30,000 "real" Utah fans out there; the rest have already proven their "loyalty", or lack thereof, with Utah's basketball team.

Highland, UT


You are of course "frantically and emotionally" wrong about this. As I stated if chris hill and the rest of the utah administration really thought the utah "fan"base would actually fill an expanded rice eccles then they would do it since that would hypothetically generate far more revenue than they are currently getting and help fund all of those other things they are doing that you claim are keeping them from expanding the stadium. In otherwords if you were correct stadium expansion, and its resulting increase in revenue, would fund those other projects you claim are keeping the money away from stadium expansion.

But of course they don't think utah "fans" will fill it, they know they are pretty much topped out and they have ample evidence, which you conveniently didn't mention, by the last several years of little to no attendance at the hc.

No plans to expand mean just that, no plans to expand. It is hard to be any more clear than that.


Pocatello, ID


presumably grown men comparing the size of their stadiums.

Must be compensating.

Mildred in Fillmore
Salt Lake City, UT

Duckhunter is right. Our stadium is bigger than yours and we have more fans. Now if we could ever beat U, we'd be set.

West Jordan, UT

The stadium expansion has been reported to cost at least 60 Million. This is more than a complete tear down and rebuild of the stadium. The expansion would reportedly add about 10k seats. Considering the season ticket price for that approximate area for this year these seats would produce about 1.75 million a year.

Considering there are other facilities that desperately need upgrades and there are other PAC 12 schools that are looking at ways to downsize their stadiums, I am glad that Dr. Hill is being cautious with expansion plans. The demand is there. The challenge is justifying the cost vs the income expansion will bring in. I do think it will happen eventually but for now there are other priorities.

Naval Vet
Philadelphia, PA


Stadium expansion plans would add an extra 11,000 seats. How many more "millions" did you expect those extra seats would be expected to add this season? You didn't do the math did you? Nope. You were just being desperate, frantic, and emotional. Typical.

West Jordan, UT

There will be 60,000 y fans looking for a new team, when they drop football down south.

Area 52
Tooele, UT


Wow, that UofU mentality is why Y fans will never be Ute fans! Since your so smart, why would the Y drop football?

Ernest T. Bass
Bountiful, UT

I'm with Mildred and Duckhunter. Their's only like too dozen ute "fans" at the games. Everybody else is just their to boo when they hear the byu score because byu is always winning. The u should take down half the stadium and they still couldn't fill it.

Y's little brother
Sandy, UT

Maybe this will tone down some of the "revenue" chest-beating we constantly hear from the kids on the hill. When the Utes can't even afford to address their most glaring disparity in facilities, it's obvious that the PAC 12 gravy train isn't contributing nearly as much to Utah's athletic coffers as Ute fans claim.

It's going to take years, perhaps decades, perhaps never, for our little brothers to match the facilities already in place in Provo.

Highland, UT


The wonderful thing about the internet is you can go right to the state auditors website and get a full report on utah's athletic department, its revenue and its expenses.

If as you claim the expansion would add 11,000 seats then it would add approximately 3.3 mil per year in added ticket revenue as an "average" season ticket cost $300 per season. Concessions would also increase by around 1 mil per year for an increase in revenue of 4.3 mil per season. That means a stadium expansion could pay for itself, with no donations at all, in about 14 years.

But according to chris hill all of these upgrades have to be 50% paid for by donations which means that it would only take 7 years to pay for the expansion if added revenue went to that purpose because donations would offset half of the cost.

That is a relatively short time frame and the money would not need to be taken from any other projects.

So who isn't doing their math?



Little brother Y, the fact that you think the stadium was the Utes' most glaring disparity in facilities shows exactly how little you know about the school, and brings your credibility on the subject into question. And that's just your comment, your username already removes all doubt as to your lack of credibility.

Mesa, AZ


"The truth is, if the Utes had a fan base capable of regularly filling a larger stadium, RES would have been expanded years ago. Money isn't the main issue here. Having a large enough fan base to fill a larger stadium is the real issue."

I'm uncertain of why you and your fellow byu-fans insist on consistently making claim, but you clearly haven't done your homework, if you believe UTAH doesn't have a seemingly endless waiting-line for season tickets, miles-long. Filling-out their expanded-stadium isn't even remotely the issue here. On the contrary, it's 100% as Naval Vet so eloquently stated it when he referenced our portion of our conference's revenue-sharing. Attempting to dispute this irrefutable fact in no way renders it untrue, whatsoever.

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