The Univ. of Michigan announced a decrease in seating capacity to Michigan Stadium by just over 2,000, creating a new official capacity of 107,601. The school said that increasing the venue's accessibility and configuration adjustments for non-football events led to the decrease in the total number of seats. The most noticeable changes to seating relate to ADA accessibility, as seats had to be eliminated in order to widen aisles and install hand railings around the entire bowl with the exception of the student seating section (Michigan). In Michigan, Nick Baumgardner noted Michigan Stadium is "still the largest in America, but not by that much now -- as Penn State's Beaver Stadium comes in at No. 2 with a capacity of 106,572" (MLIVE.com, 8/7). ESPN.com's Dan Murphy noted UM "touts a streak of 258 home football games with at least 100,000 people in attendance." That streak "was in jeopardy last year during the Wolverines' 5-7 season." This year, season-ticket sales "are as high as they have been in nearly a decade thanks in large part to the arrival of new coach Jim Harbaugh" (ESPN.com, 8/7).
WHAT WILL HUSKER DO? In Lincoln, Steven Sipple writes it is a "surefire bet" that seating capacity at the Univ. of Nebraska's Memorial Stadium "is as large as it will ever get." The school's athletic department sent out notices to ticket holders stating that seats in the North Stadium's rows 80-99 "now will be 3 inches wider." NU Senior Associate AD/ Marketing & Communications David Witty said that the changes represent "one of the first examples of 'improving the overall fan experience.'" Sipple notes the changes "obviously will affect Memorial Stadium's capacity, which officially increased from 81,091 to 87,000 in the wake of the latest expansion" before the '13 season. The listed capacity "is misleading" because Nebraska's official attendance since '13 "always has been above 90,000." Witty added that it "will remain so this year" (LINCOLN JOURNAL STAR, 8/10).
