Rice-Eccles Stadium Expansion Wish List

Chris Hill announced a couple of weeks ago that the University will begin exploring options for expansion of Rice-Eccles Stadium. That essentially means that within the next three or so years that Rice-Eccles will be getting a facelift and some new additions. That’s got me thinking, what’s on my wish list for the expanded/renovated Rice-Eccles? Here are some thoughts:

10,000 more seats: I think bumping Rice-Eccles by about an additional 10,000 seats, maybe a bit less, say 7500, would put it at about the perfect size of around 57,000 people. The demand is still there for people to get into the stadium, and hopefully it will drive the costs of tickets down a little bit (dream on, right?). That puts the capacity of the stadium at around the same as Autzen, arguably the other loudest stadium in the Pac-12.

New locker rooms: This is the no brainer, and the one that is going to happen, Dr. Hill said as much. The locker rooms in the stadium are bad. If you’ve ever seen them you know what I’m talking about, especially compared to what’s at the football facility.

Media center: Similar to the locker rooms, the post game availability for the coaches and players to meet with the media is not good. Usually it’s just standing outside of the locker room, or people crammed into a small space. This could get a major facelift with the reno.

Rest rooms and venders on the concourse above the stadium: This is likely more of a dream than anything, but when you sit near the top of the stadium, like I do, it would be a major relief to be able to walk up just a couple of rows to use the bathroom or grab a drink. This would also ease the tension on the rest rooms down on the main concourse and the lines for food.

Integrating the Olympic cauldron into the game: USC does this and I think it’d be great if Utah would integrate the Olympic cauldron into the game experience. It’s such a unique thing that is at Rice-Eccles, and I think could enhance the experience… certainly better than a drum before the 4th quarter (which I didn’t hate).

Those are some of my “wish list” items, what would you like to see added to Rice-Eccles?