Could FC Expand?

I’m so much happier seeing ~7,000 UH fans inside a 7,100 seat UH BB arena (today) than ~1,000 UH fans inside a 10,000 seat UH BB arena (in years past). IMHO, we’re RIGHT where we need to be!

If you went up to Indiana for our Final Four run a couple years ago and sat in those facilities at Indiana University, Butler University and Lucas Oil stadium, then you too would appreciate the Fertitta Center as a vastly superior arena due primarily to its smaller seating capacity with closer, better views.

2 Likes

From the looks of the student section against A&T, I wouldn’t count on it…but hey, they did show up for the Alabama game…unless, of course they sold their tickets lol

If only money grew on trees!

I would support FC going to 10,600 (a nod to Hofheinz Pavilion), but UH has too many other priorities related to sports to justify expansion of FC at this time.

Another option I would support is through private donations, but I do not sense any momentum for that option currently.

If UH is successful in the B12, I would revisit this issue in a couple of years to see if the momentum has changed.

2 Likes

Well, if we’re that hard up for extra seats maybe the Rockets owner can let us use his place. :sunglasses:

Less is more when cooking gumbo. Just saying.

How about a MTE at Toyota though. That could be fun too if it involves say a Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina, Villanova, LSU, Arkansas, UCLA, Notre Dame, BYU, even horns and aggy once in a while. We could use the extra seats then :sunglasses:, edit: but only then

2 Likes

I want to see the game. I sat in tbe club in the Toyota center one game and was too dar away.

8k is a perfect number. More than that would be too risky because you don’t always play good teams at home.

1 Like

No idea how feasible/realistic it is, but I wish we could add more concourse area. Mainly for more food and beverage & bathroom. The food/concession quality and options are below par, to put it nicely. The concourse is also really narrow, thus there isn’t anywhere to expand currently. Ive never been a eat at the game guy, but with current traffic conditions, leave the Heights at 6:15 to make a 7PM game. So its either eat at 5 pm (if I’m done with work) like some 80 year old, or not eat until after the game.

I wonder if we could add space between melcher or the AAC.

Just remember that UT has a 10k arena and when they play the Texas St of the world it’s not full at all no matter how good a team may be.

Only like 3 schoolsthat come to mind like KU, UK & UNC can filled a big arena game after game.

We put almost 7,800 in there for Bama. I see no need to expand. But, if we ever did the most obvious place to me would be to remove the loge box seats at the top of the club. You could probably add 2 more rows of club seats. You could also remove the leather recliner section in the “upper deck” and replace with two rows of seating. That would get us to 8,000 with SRO but you might piss off donors and lose a bit of revenue.

The other thing I thought of but don’t know if it’s structurally possible is to put two “SRO party decks on those walls of exposed concrete on either side of the club. Maybe only adds 20 “seats” but that could be cool. Like the sky decks at TDECU.

UNC had 5,500 empty seats vs The Citadel. Kentucky draws huge crowds but hasn’t technically sold out a game yet. And UK removed about 3,000 seats to add premium areas.

1 Like

No expansion until we have a waitlist of season ticket holders for a few years.

Who know how the attendance figures will be after CKS is no longer coaching.

5 Likes

So you must be like 78!! :joy::rofl::laughing:.
Only 2 more yrs n you’ll be able to eat dinner at 5:00. :grin:

1 Like

Excuse I heard was the students were gone home for winter break . . . . .from a student in attendance . . . . .

Jesus, if you folks think the food is bad and the concourse is small, what we’re you looking for? Steak and Lobster rolls? Maybe we could start playing in the Brown? The hallways there are massive.

Something other than the food you get a little league baseball game would be a good start. Well there is Chick Fil A, but other than that; stale hotdogs, sub taco bell nachos, cold pizza. You have a captive audience for 2-2.5 hours, take advantage of that to sell them stuff.

1 Like

So many Coog fans have the mentality that Fertitta Center and TDECU Stadium should have the same amenities as Toyota Center, MMP, and NRG Stadium.

Well, when they charge the same as the pro stadiums, you expect the same level of quality?

3 Likes

That is not too far off from what the original compacity of Hoffeinz was before they added the so called wood luxury boxes.

Bulding out toward the AAC is the only way I could see UH having room too add additional seats if wanted too. The Guy V Lewis Facility which no doubt was needed also unfortunately blocked room for much addition of space outwards for the build out required add seats. I am not sure architecturally if did want add seats how could do it.

We could at least add a Frenchy’s kiosk up on the concourse!!!

5 Likes