Luxury Boxes a Must at Michigan
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2 CommentsAs you may or may not know, Michigan is planning a renovation to Michigan Stadium. Part of that renovation is to add enclosed seating, basically known as luxury boxes. Luxury boxes would be put on the side of the stadium opposite of the press box. Over the past few weeks, lots of Michigan faculty have publicly spoken against the building of enclosed seating, saying it would diminish the tradition of Michigan Stadium, and create a seating based on class and money. The members against the building of this seating even have a website called SaveTheBigHouse.com, and a petition for you to sign on it. Here is their reasons to not build luxury boxes:
Private luxury boxes represent the very antithesis of that tradition, dividing Michigan fans by income and undermining the unity, excitement and camaraderie that Michigan fans of all ages and backgrounds share as they experience the game together. The very idea of private luxury boxes in Michigan Stadium runs contrary to the egalitarian ideals to which the U-M is dedicated. In short, the proposed private luxury boxes just aren’t “Michigan.”
Now that you have that side of the argument, I will give you my take on this whole situation.
Michigan Stadium does have great tradition, which makes it so great. Since 1927 when it was built, renovations have not dramatically changed the appearance of the stadium. With the proposed changes in the future, the look would change a bit, but it’d all be for the good.
My question is, what does the Big House need saving from? Michigan Stadium has to continue to be updated to keep up with the changing times, and also to be one of the best stadiums in the country. Most of the big name teams in the Big Ten have built some type of enclosed seating, and have profited greatly from it. By building luxury boxes at Michigan Stadium, it would add such a big profit in the future that the entire University could benefit. Sure, they would cost a lot of money to build, but in a few years they will pay for themselves. With the profits that come in from luxury boxes, that would prevent other costs around the Stadium from going up, such as ticket prices (don’t even get me started) and the “Preferred Seating License”.
Another great reason to add luxury boxes is to increase the seating capacity, or keep it from decreasing if the seats and aisles are widened. Many stadiums are very close in reaching the capacity of the Big House, and others are on track to exceed it far down the road. My opinion is that during the next renovation, Michigan should be looking to boost the capacity as much as possible. Being the largest capacity stadium is more important to me then another half-inch of space on my seat. The Big House won’t be so big if it’s not #1.
In the quote above, the members of Save The Big House state that building luxury boxes will divide Michigan Stadium by class and income. Doesn’t that already happen though? With the Preferred Seating License, people with tickets in the end zone don’t have to pay it, but people with seats on the sidelines do. Ticket prices become higher as you get farther down or closer to the 50-yard line. Basically, seating already is divided by “class and income” if you want to look at it that way. Luxury boxes would also take fans that sit somewhere in the stadium that can afford to sit in the enclosed seating out of those seats so more fans that can’t necessarily afford to sit in luxury boxes, but now can have the chance to sit at the game period.
In today’s edition of the Ann Arbor News, Jim Carty follows-up on his article a week ago with the reader’s take on the luxury box issue. And as Carty states in the article, all of the e-mails and phone calls he received were 100% supporting the building of luxury boxes.
You can think what you want, but when the crunch time comes and the regents have to approve the building of luxury boxes as apart of a renovation to Michigan Stadium, I sure hope they do. There’s nothing worse then letting plans of something good for Michigan Stadium turning into something bad, and that isn’t going to happen by building enclosed seating.
If you are as concerned as you say about the stadium’s capacity then you would not be in favor of building these luxury boxes. In order to build them, they will eat into current seats. Additionally by adding them, they will effectively cap the University’s ability to expand in the future. As you had mentioned, many others are approaching Big House capacity. And as time goes on, many more will probably get even closer. Some will most likely pass our current capacity. The only way we can hope to continue to house the most football fans is by retaining the structure that accomodates expansion. Adding luxury boxes does not do this. Therefore based on your own concern, you should be against them.
You can still put upper decks in the endzones or even above the luxury boxes like at MSU if you had to. But how will luxury boxes eat away from the current seating? They’re not gonna tear any seats down to put these in.