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Seating For Football At The Alerus


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Question..................The Alerus Center seats 13,500 for football (always said they made it to small). I have heard that with the move up to Dl, that the minimum seating for Dl is 15,000. Is this true? and if so, how will the Alerus expand and add 1,500 more seats? Can't go up and there is no room in the end zones.

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Question..................The Alerus Center seats 13,500 for football (always said they made it to small). I have heard that with the move up to Dl, that the minimum seating for Dl is 15,000. Is this true? and if so, how will the Alerus expand and add 1,500 more seats? Can't go up and there is no room in the end zones.

The 15,000 seat requirement is for DI-A, not DI-AA, which is where UND is headed in football. Somone please correct me if I'm wrong.

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Thanks for the quick responce. I remember back before they even built the Alerus center and were going around town with the models of the Alerus for the public to view and ask questions. I brought up right away to them that they were not building it big enough or for the future (usually buildings are designed to meet demand for the next 50+ years). Not sure where they thought the population of UND/Grand Forks was going to be in 50 years. It's good that the seating isn't going to be an issur in the Dl move, that would have been intersting though on what they would have done.

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How do you know that seating still won't be an issue in the future?

Even at NDSU some people are thinking that 18k isn't going to be enough when NDSU starts hosting I-AA playoff games.

I'm sorry, but this if far too easy. I could navagate an aircraft carrier through that opening.

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... how will the Alerus expand and add 1,500 more seats? Can't go up and there is no room in the end zones.

From the Attachments to the DI Report:

Note: Investigate options to increase seating capacity to include additional suites.

I'll agree with you on the "up" but I'd think you could add south end seating if you moved the south wall. Some creative engineering and it'd be possible I'd think.

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From the Attachments to the DI Report:

I'll agree with you on the "up" but I'd think you could add south end seating if you moved the south wall. Some creative engineering and it'd be possible I'd think.

And who is going to PAY for that? I doubt that the city is going to kick anymore in!

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And who is going to PAY for that? I doubt that the city is going to kick anymore in!

Patience, lad, patience; First you talk about what you'd like to do; then you see if it's possible; then you raise the funds and do it.

UND has merely taken that first step.

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That's just it though, why does there have to be some "creative engineering" to add more seats if needed? Why the hell couldn't they have built it to seat more people in the first place? I know why...........they (city) mainly wanted their convention center. They had proposed the convention center numerous times before the Alerus Center and it was voted down big time, then they added the arena and and it was voted in finally. It wasn't long after that that Hal Gersman proposed cutting down on the size/seating to save money (shows how important the arena and it's size was to the city) but that didn't fly.

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If UND football games were selling out regularly and the demand for season tickets was greater than the supply, then I'd buy your "they built it too small" argument. But because that's not the case, I can't agree. Plus, there was no discussion about UND going DI at the time the Alerus Center was built.

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That's just it though, why does there have to be some "creative engineering" to add more seats if needed? Why the hell couldn't they have built it to seat more people in the first place? I know why...........they (city) mainly wanted their convention center. They had proposed the convention center numerous times before the Alerus Center and it was voted down big time, then they added the arena and and it was voted in finally. It wasn't long after that that Hal Gersman proposed cutting down on the size/seating to save money (shows how important the arena and it's size was to the city) but that didn't fly.

I wasn't living in GF when the Events Center was finally approved by the voters, so I don't know the details of arena vs convention center. That being said, aren't stadiums always being expanded? Use the University of Montana as an example. Their stadium was built in 1985, expanded in 1995, again in 2002 and 2003. From what I've heard there is another expansion planned. Why didn't the Univ. of Montana just build a stadium for 30,000 to begin with? You have to start somewhere and grow.

It sounds like at that time, 13,500 was all that could be afforded. They are now investigating options for additional seating. Maybe they will find a way to make it grow.

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I wasn't living in GF when the Events Center was finally approved by the voters, so I don't know the details of arena vs convention center. That being said, aren't stadiums always being expanded? Use the University of Montana as an example. Their stadium was built in 1985, expanded in 1995, again in 2002 and 2003. From what I've heard there is another expansion planned. Why didn't the Univ. of Montana just build a stadium for 30,000 to begin with? You have to start somewhere and grow.

It sounds like at that time, 13,500 was all that could be afforded. They are now investigating options for additional seating. Maybe they will find a way to make it grow.

Geauxsioux,

Univ of MT's stadium is an outside stadium and it is a lot easier to expand its seating, they will have a really hard time expanding the seating in the AL but I am all for it. Hell, I wish we would play outside again but that will never happen.

The new gopher stadium they just passed is being built to seat 50k but they say by the time it is built it will end up closer to 80k. They used the 50k to get it passed and then plan to add on to it right away.

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Your right, UND isn't selling out for every football game and I'm sure UND going Dl wasn't figured in when the Alerus was in the planning stage..............still, like I had stated before, when buildings such as the Alerus Center are built, they are usually configured to meet the demand for the next 50+ years. Speaking of selling out, I've been to a couple of games out at the Alerus that I would have swore were sellouts or close to it, UND/NDSU and the UND/Cal Davis playoff game. The final attendance was around 12,000 it was announced............I looked around and wondered where the 1,500 vacant seats were, looked pretty packed to me.

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Geauxsioux,

Univ of MT's stadium is an outside stadium and it is a lot easier to expand its seating, they will have a really hard time expanding the seating in the AL but I am all for it. Hell, I wish we would play outside again but that will never happen.

The new gopher stadium they just passed is being built to seat 50k but they say by the time it is built it will end up closer to 80k. They used the 50k to get it passed and then plan to add on to it right away.

You're right that indoor is much more difficult to expand. I believe that is why Sicatoka said some "creative engineering" may be required. My point is you need to start somewhere. Hopefully there was some mindset during design that expansion could happen in the years to come.

As for playing outside, I think you would see the attendance fall back down. When I lived in GF I never missed a game, no matter what the weather, but back in the 80's and 90's attendance was a far cry from where it is now. I went to the Potato Bowl last year and it was great to be indoors. The crowd was great, the atmosphere, the noise. I don't remember Memorial rocking like that for a many years (with the exception of the Bison games), even when we had good teams.

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There's one other detail lost in this.

The 15000 isn't just seats it's (from the 2004-2005 DI manual):

20.9.6.3 Football-Attendance Requirements. [i-A]The institution annually shall average at least 15,000 in actual attendance for all home football games. (Revised: 4/25/02 effective 8/1/04)

I believe the NCAA has revisited this since then. I'll look.

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