Questionnaire

[The Impaler]

Have to agree on spacing in the bench areas. When you buy the padded cushion with backrest, and those in front of you do the same, there is literally not enough space between your own backrest and the one in front of you for you to sit without your knees pressing into the one in front of you. You literally can't move any farther back, and their knees are probably jammed so they literally can't move forward. So, you all end up sitting at an angle or manspreading, either way your knees end up violating one or both of your neighbors' 18" of allotted personal space, and they're also already dealing with the same spacing issues as you. It's not great.

Hence, lots of standing.

That's why simply adding chairbacks should be a no go. The risers in the old stadium are too narrow. I've had the fortune of sitting in the chairbacks at club level in west stadium. Not comfortable at all. You're cramped and sitting straight up. They'd have to tear out the old risers in east and west and rebuild those. Which maybe wouldn't be a horrible idea because you could move fans closer to the bench. I just don't know how feasible that really is.

 

[HuskerBLM]

Have to agree on spacing in the bench areas. When you buy the padded cushion with backrest, and those in front of you do the same, there is literally not enough space between your own backrest and the one in front of you for you to sit without your knees pressing into the one in front of you. You literally can't move any farther back, and their knees are probably jammed so they literally can't move forward. So, you all end up sitting at an angle or manspreading, either way your knees end up violating one or both of your neighbors' 18" of allotted personal space, and they're also already dealing with the same spacing issues as you. It's not great.

Hence, lots of standing.

I have to agree. We like to stand in our area and yell, so that helps. All the season ticket holders in our area have gotten to know each other, so kind of feels like family, so nobody really minds the "knees to the back" and a lot of shoulder overlap. I can say its ideal, but we try and have fun with it.

 

[Husker In Oklahoma]

About a decade or more ago there was an article about the bench seat spacing in Memorial stadium. At that time there was about 18" of seat space allocated per ticket in bench seating areas.

18 inches!!!!

Anyone who has been to a game or wandered around Lincoln knows that 18 inches is not much space for the average person in Nebraska. Even guys like myself who have managed to stay at my 180 lb, 6' college frame, 18 inches is not much space.

Forget about the 250 lb, 6'4" farm boy from Mead or Grandma Kolache from Dwight squeezing into 18 inches.

Perhaps they increased the butt space when they expanded. If not, that should be the first order of businesses is creating more butt space per ticket.

This will reduce overall capacity, which may be need to keep the sell out streak going if UNL football continues to choke on corn cobs.

Serving alcohol at Memorial Stadium is a liability nightmare that UNL should continue to avoid at all costs, IMO.

I’m 6’, 180 lbs as well. I’ve been crammed against fat people several times. They seemingly take up 30” instead of 18”. It sucks. At the Miami game in 2014, I had a fat person on my right, who was sweating in the heat and smelled. Terrible b o. Dude was breathing heavy just sitting there. I’m still trying to figure out how he navigated all the steps up in north stadium. Definitely be nice to have more room. Take out 5000 seats, rearrange, and have a capacity of 81,000. Standing room only total of 83-84,000, instead of 91,000. It would be so much better.

 

[Husker In Oklahoma]

That's why simply adding chairbacks should be a no go. The risers in the old stadium are too narrow. I've had the fortune of sitting in the chairbacks at club level in west stadium. Not comfortable at all. You're cramped and sitting straight up. They'd have to tear out the old risers in east and west and rebuild those. Which maybe wouldn't be a horrible idea because you could move fans closer to the bench. I just don't know how feasible that really is.

Blow it up, build a modern, new, fan friendly stadium. 68,000, state of the art. The stadium is 100 years old. I’d say they got their money’s worth out of it.

 

[coherbie]

Potential Enhancements to the fan experience? = more wins

 

[JBOCON]

If you read between the lines, sounds like alcohol is coming. Adding revenue through the sale of beer will keep some folks away. I don’t need to be drunk to have a good time at the game. Not looking forward to the guy in the row above me spilling his Budweiser on me when we score either.

 

[JBOCON]

Blow it up, build a modern, new, fan friendly stadium. 68,000, state of the art. The stadium is 100 years old. I’d say they got their money’s worth out of it.

If we don’t start winning soon, we will have a problem even filling a 68,000 seat stadium. Fortunately I have already started to drink the new 2022 kool aid!

 

[The Impaler]

Blow it up, build a modern, new, fan friendly stadium. 68,000, state of the art. The stadium is 100 years old. I’d say they got their money’s worth out of it.

I mean. I hear what you’re saying. But the stadium needs to be in the same location, it’s so much of what makes it special. So do you play somewhere else for 2 years? I say you demolish and build in stages. Start with south stadium. The east west north. But so much has been added on east and west I think you keep the outer facade and retrofit the old portion. Hell, I’m not an engineer. I wouldn’t know if that’s even possible.

 

[Husker In Oklahoma]

If we don’t start winning soon, we will have a problem even filling a 68,000 seat stadium. Fortunately I have already started to drink the new 2022 kool aid!

I haven’t ever drank the kool aid. I agree with you though. 68,000 might be the norm soon, and it’d go down from there.

 

[Husker In Oklahoma]

I mean. I hear what you’re saying. But the stadium needs to be in the same location, it’s so much of what makes it special. So do you play somewhere else for 2 years? I say you demolish and build in stages. Start with south stadium. The east west north. But so much has been added on east and west I think you keep the outer facade and retrofit the old portion. Hell, I’m not an engineer. I wouldn’t know if that’s even possible.

Yes, tear it down, and build another in its spot. Have to play somewhere else for a few years. We all might be gone, but someday, it will need to happen.

 

[huskernut]

No positive options? That's not slanted at all

Who are you, Dean Martin?

 

[SunsetRed]

I’m 6’, 180 lbs as well. I’ve been crammed against fat people several times. They seemingly take up 30” instead of 18”. It sucks. At the Miami game in 2014, I had a fat person on my right, who was sweating in the heat and smelled. Terrible b o. Dude was breathing heavy just sitting there. I’m still trying to figure out how he navigated all the steps up in north stadium. Definitely be nice to have more room. Take out 5000 seats, rearrange, and have a capacity of 81,000. Standing room only total of 83-84,000, instead of 91,000. It would be so much better.

If we're winning, who cares...lol

 

[SunsetRed]

If we don’t start winning soon, we will have a problem even filling a 68,000 seat stadium. Fortunately I have already started to drink the new 2022 kool aid!

Don't need Kool-Aid... just looking forward to positive changes that bring positive results.

 

[HuskerWeatherman]

I am a season ticket holder for Austin FC (MLS team).

The stadium was brand new in 2021. Capacity is 20,000, though it would be at least twice that much if they structured it like Memorial Stadium in Lincoln. Instead, all seats are chairback with arm rests with cup holders. And I can completely extend my legs in front of me and not be anywhere near touching the person in front of me.

There's open concourses that overlook the field, some sections with standing areas where you can place your food on a table in front of you, eat, and watch the match -- sipping on a beer and downing barbecue. But it's also quite convenient to take your food and drink to your seat. And the bathrooms are very nice, spacious, no lines, and clean.

It takes me about 10 minutes to get to the stadium and about 30 minutes to get home.

I enjoy it quite a bit -- so much so that I can't imagine dealing again with the number of inconveniences Memorial Stadium offers. A lot of sports teams are going to have to come to the reality that in order to keep fans coming, you've got to make the experience enjoyable. You can't control the outcome of games, but you can make everything else pleasurable.

 

[fjbfour]

Just submitted my responses to the questionnaire. Got a link via email that required me to enter my email to access the form. I believe I got the email because I have an account with the athletic department due to being on the season ticket waitlist. It failed validation the first time I tried to access the survey, so I waited a couple of days to try again and then it worked.

Someone seems to be really pushing for alcohol sales. I think this is a bad idea and said so.

The survey started talking about proposed special (expensive) seat options, and after answering that I would not buy (and then answering on the next page that the reason for "no" was "can't afford"), it offered another special proposed seating thing. By the time the third special proposal came up, I was annoyed. I think in the end there were five (maybe six) new proposals for spendy seats that are out of reach for 99.9% of us, and by the time I finished saying no and why all those times, I was honestly feeling offended, especially because at no point did the survey ever even hint at the idea that improvements might be on the table for the average plebian Nebraska fan suffering in their 18" space in the bleachers. Nary a bone thrown for them. IMO this is a HUGE miss, totally ignoring the average ticket buyer's in-game plight.

In the comments, I directed the department to check this thread, and also the other thread referenced earlier about notes to program staff.

Not holding my breath, though.