I have to agree with Red here. The south endzone expansion will never occur. I just don't think the demand exists now, or ever will, for another what? 25,000 seats?
Actually, Joe Dean had long-range plans for just such a stadium. It will come up again someday. Tiger Stadium is 80 years old and parts of it will not last many more years. One can build a bigger, modern stadium for less than it would cost to demolish and rebuild the old grandstands and endzones where they are. It may not be anytime soon, but someday a new stadium will be built.
I'm with you Red. One day, this conversation (about a brand new stadium) will have to take place. I just hope it doesn't have to take place after a tragedy, like, say 20 years from now, an old rafter in the by-that-time 100+ year old Tiger Stadium falling and killing a bunch of people during a game. A serious reconstruction ($50 million+ in heavy duty renovation and structural reinforcement, much more than what's even being proposed right now), and you might be able to get 30-40 more years out of Tiger Stadium, but that's it. But I highly doubt it would be placed on River Road. They would probably level Tiger Stadium and build New Tiger Stadium on the old site. I wouldn't be surprised if they designed it to look eerily similar to the current one as well.
The problem I see with that is time. They would be able to demolish, clean up and rebuild a new stadium between mid December and end of August. River Road is the closest open area close to campus. It was also fit into the whole sports complex plan with everything over there.
I just took another look at the video and it definitely looks like the WUD upper level (above the club seats) will start at least 4 or 5 more rows higher than the EUD upper level (above the suites). As the camera in video glides across the North Endzone looking at both the WUD and EUD you can definitely see that there is a major difference in elevation. You can also take a look at the photo gallery section and compare the first photo on the left with the third photo on the left. It looks like there is almost twice as many bench seats above the gold back seats in the EUD. On the WUD, it looks like they have the same amount of bench seats as gold back seats. I just wanted to point this out. I am not being picky or negative about this. I think it will look nice before they eventually add the SUD. By the way, I didn't make up the SUD expansion possibility. It was mentioned by Bertman and others that were pushing for this WUD re-construciton. One of the main reasons for the re-construction besides the additional club seats and press box was to make the two sides similar to each other so that a future SUD expansion would be possible because of the matching angles. Also, I personally believe that eventually there will be enough demand for a SUD (maybe 10 or more years down the road). Like someone else stated, the upper area could be sold for less money (possibly no contribution) than the rest of the stadium. Either additional suites or club seating could be used to pay for this expansion as well. Keep in mind, if this happens, it may be 20 years down the road and the WUD and EUD will both be paid off and there should be no problem financing the SUD expansion. When I mentioned the NUD, I was thinking very long term. It is very obvious the next expansion, if any, will be on the South side.
I don't think time is that much of an issue. It has been done before, such as at Georiga Tech. They actually tore down the lower sideline bowl, leaving the upper deck, and rebuilding it from the ground up between seasons. Granted, Tiger Stadium's lower bowl sidelines go higher than at Georgia Tech, but the possibility is there to rebuild each side line between two different seasons and the North Endzone at a later date. Here is a link to the article explaining what was done at Georgia Tech . If you look at this photo, you can see on the right side where they have demolished the lower level seating and are preparing to rebuild that area.
Sweet. We could definitely do something like that, since the East Upper and the soon to be constructed West Upper will both be freestanding. We could have a whole new stadium, only constructed in stages, without moving the site. It could be possible. Because the lower bowl of Tiger Stadium is really in need of some work.
