LINCOLN — Nebraska football fans are interested in a larger Memorial Stadium, an NU survey shows, but they consider the Huskers' sellout streak just as important.
That's the tightrope the NU athletic department will walk going forward.
“We want to do what our fans have told us,” said Paul Meyers, NU's associate athletic director for development. “They would like to expand, but not at the expense of losing the sellout streak. That in the end could determine how big we can go.”
Meyers reiterated Wednesday that Nebraska is only in the preliminary stages of considering expansion. There is no time frame regarding growth to Memorial Stadium, which lists capacity at 81,067 but had an average attendance of 85,888 for seven home games last season.
The NU survey has found that demand is “very strong” for additional seating and suites.
“Now we sit down and talk about all the other elements that come into making a difficult decision like this,” Meyers said. “How it affects the university, the economic climate we're in ... there are a lot of things to consider before we do anything.”
Of the more than 8,000 season ticket holders/donors who completed the survey, 75.7 percent said they liked the idea of increasing the capacity of Memorial Stadium, possibly reaching more than 90,000 and making it among the 10 largest college stadiums. Only 6.9 percent said no, with 17.4 percent responding that it didn't matter to them.
Among the more than 2,700 fans completing the survey on Huskers.com, 86.8 percent liked the idea of increasing the capacity. Nearly 2,000 of those respondents also said they would be “very interested” in regular stadium seating options if additional season tickets became available.
However, 77.1 percent of season ticket holders and 78.6 percent of fans said they considered preservation of the current 304-game sellout streak more important than ranking in the Top 10 in average attendance. Nebraska did rank No. 10 last season, but a distant 10th — the nine schools ahead of the Huskers all drew more than 90,600 fans a game.
“We asked both questions because we felt both were important and wanted to see if fans agreed with us,” Meyers said.
Meyers said suites would be a “critical element” to any project that Nebraska might consider for East Stadium. Suites previously were added on the west side in 1999 and the north in 2006.
Of the 5,290 season ticket holders who responded to a question of which seating choices they would be most likely to purchase, more than 100 said suites — either the ones that accommodate 12 to 14 people or the ones that hold 20 to 28. Those people also were asked which contracts would best fit their needs and what amenities they would like to have in suites.
An additional 296 completing the fan survey responded that they would be “very interested” in either 12- to 14-person or 20- to 28-person suites.
Before the survey was launched in late May, Meyers said, Nebraska had about 3,000 individuals on its waiting list for season tickets and about 15 it considered “legitimate prospects” for suites.
More than 2,200 fans said they would purchase NU season tickets in a new seating area if provided the opportunity. Among current season ticket holders, 55.8 percent said they would purchase additional seats if given the opportunity, while others said they were more likely to exchange old seats for ones in a new seating area.
“I guess our intent was to find out how good demand was,” Meyers said. “We assumed it was good, and I think this survey definitely confirmed it was good. What we see is information that is pretty exciting.”
Results of the entire survey can be viewed at Huskers.com.
Contact the writer:
444-1042, rich.kaipust@owh.com
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