I’m not a fan of Pez at this point for various things, but doing the suite thing is the right thing to do and I can’t find fault with him on this decision.
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If we can sell suites to corporations who use it as write off, I’m all for it.
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I think the trend for future upgrades across most sports stadiums should be in technology and comfort/amenities over simply increasing the seating capacity in most cases.
Just reading this thread makes me think of Northwestern going down to 35,000 and still spending massive amounts on their stadium. (for better or worse)
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I’m happy TDECU stayed at 40k instead of 50k.
The projected decline in teenagers in the next 10 years concerns me in terms of UH enrollment.
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The number of teenagers won’t go down, it’s the rate of growth that will.
In any event, college athletics attendance is down.
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Here’s a good picture from KHOU of what it will look like: https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/university-of-houston-football-operations-center/285-53ecbc98-071c-47e3-8f94-1646f3e91e90.
It doesn’t show a good view of the 3rd level, but it does show the bridges from both sides (wasn’t sure on the home side). Again, not sure about bathrooms, and I’ll try to see if I can find out, but there will be concessions up there along with about 300 seats.
Yes, it seems like we’re only appealing to the rich from a surface level, but the problem is that we aren’t regularly getting any revenue from those seats since no one was really sitting up on the 2nd level anyway. Getting the suites in there will generate revenue which the department badly needs at the moment. If we get to the point where the stadium is full and we need more seating, more seats can be added in other places around the stadium. Have to get to that point first.
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The other good thing about replacing outdoor seats with suites is that people won’t whine about those seats being empty. 
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I am not sure what is suites and what is club, they look to have done some value engineering since the end of the building and face were originally all glass now just windows. Are they filling in the entire notch with building so you cannot see the practice facility, originally it sat back and the main building was behind? As far as the roof top area there looks like there will be concession in the middle and restrooms on the sides, which is not hard to do when you are running the plumbing up there anyways and you cannot have 300 premium rooftop seats with no access to restrooms. Also the screen looks bigger then the original renderings.
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I think Pez said the new screen would be 3x the size of the one it is replacing. “sideline to sideline”. I think it will be a bit higher up too, which should look pretty cool.
About a month ago on 365 Pez added that it would be the biggest in Texas. Not sure what that means. I think UT is about to get a new one to replace the one that’s been there since the new end zone facility was built a few years ago, and I’d venture a guess that won’t be small. Hard to think our new one would be bigger than that.
BTW, I hope people don’t think that Pez had final say on this or if he was first to suggest it. But for some reason he has become a favorite target when people are upset about anything involving Houston sports, even when it is something for which Pez has no control.
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Have you seen what he’s done to the Astros? Shameful.
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I’ll take a bigger screen than Kyle Field. They need big screens when you’re in an upper deck.
How big was the original UT Godzilla tron? People raved about its size and now it’s pretty small?
Well he is the athletic director for crying out loud!
Exactly, suites have been running sports stadiums for decades. This is nothing new. toupee bud adams big big with Harris County was just that. Al Davis did the same with the Raiders. Every nfl owners licks their chops at the prospect of having more luxury boxes. psl’s have you guys heard of them?
For TDECU to get more profitable we have no choice. For anybody not liking it you have to realize that we have no to very little money. We are not a school run by the PUF.
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Yes he is, but do you think he has autonomy over big budget deals like the $150,000,000.00 stadium expansion? It takes the whole administration to swing a deal like that and what the administration is looking for is revenue generation in order for the athletic department to not need money from the school. As far as the daily operation, yes Pez is in charge of those things and he empowers people to do the things for which they are in charge. Do you really think he has the time or ability to micromanage everything in the purview of the athletic department?
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You can buy an 85" tv for $800 now days, I imagine the screen costs have dropped drastically over the years, so every screen can be bigger and more HD than the last.
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Fellow urban school downsizing as part of renovations as well
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Not surprised, I think they are one of the few schools that have more post grad students than undergrad students.
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Great move. Make it a hot ticket instead of a big stadium
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