Stadiums That Are Too Small For College Football…

[@S_Over_Street]

College Football in the west, while still very popular isn’t as hardcore like it is in the South & Midwest areas. Places like Eugene, Boise, SLC don’t need their college football stadiums to be 70-100K capacity like they are in Texas, Ohio State, Michigan or Alabama. A range of between 40-50+ K capacity is adequate for places like Oregon, Boise State & Utah.

[@billlong8385]

Very true. The best stadium is one that fits the needs of the city and school. Sometime smaller and more intimate is better then a mega size.

[@adriansmith5279]

I agree. Because you can tell by the realignment, with there being no West Coast power conference now that the PAC 12 is gone(until 2026 but not the same prestige).

[@fixpacifica]

Autzen definitely needs to be enlarged. I'm sure a 70K stadium could be easily filled.

[@1965Grit]

It's not that the southeast or Midwest is more hardcore, it's just that they have a greater population around their college towns, Autsen stadium, like Lambough field in Wisconsin, has sold out every game for decades, people here love their ducks and would buy more seats if they were available. But, I also have to add, stadiums in the southeast and Midwest are more vehicle friendly than the UO, it makes it hard to find parking.

[@motorrunner6]

Oregon needs a big renovation, Boise needs to gradually expand as their fanbase gets bigger. Utah and TCU don’t need larger stadiums. TCU is in a really big NFL town where college football has lesser success. Utah MIGHT but the state is 50/50 Utah and BYU with both teams selling out.

[@jshock]

Didn't Utahs Stadium host the opening ceremonies for the 2002 Winter Games

[@gojenson]

They did

[@ericveneto1593]

Maybe do a video on the opposite phenomenon? Or do equivalent for basketball arenas?

[@thecatwrangler9448]

He barely researched this one, you could do it yourself a lot better Eric

[@29Texan]

Amon (pronounced "Ay-mon") G. Carter is about as big as it needs to be. Keep in mind, TCU is still a small school of about 10-12k students and is in constant competition with 12 other FBS programs within the state, as well as Oklahoma, Oklahoma St., LSU, and Arkansas. This is coming from a TCU fan and Ft. Worth native...

[@chrisbunka]

With all the competition that TCU has to contend with, I love it when TCU outshines the other schools by a country mile.

[@David9PM]

Notre dame playoffs tickets are selling for $1000+ for the cheapest seat.

[@That_Team_Out_West]

Autzen is the loudest in the country. Keep it small, keep it loud, keep it sold out

[@EthanPope-fd7wz]

Go Ducks!

[@davidbrown587]

Autzen North side needs a serious overhaul. 70k would be ideal.

[@DavidLimofLimReport]

I should do football stadiums that are just too small for their club.

[@chrisbunka]

Do it!

[@krissolson7043]

I live in Boise. We don't fill the stadium very often. They're actually going to remodel the north endzone for morw premium seating but reduced capacity.

[@adriansmith5279]

I don't live in Boise(I'm from Philly) as long as the blue turf still there, that's find by me(lol). Love the turf and blue my favorite color anyway!

[@nateburt470]

They did sell out evry gsme this season

[@bloqk16]

(in a tone of puzzlement) Gee! A major college football stadium in Texas with less than a 50K seating capacity? (TCU) That's nearly shocking to hear.

[@LawsonBowling]

ND Stadium was greatly expanded some time ago. For ages 59,075 was always the listed attendance--before the very large stadium expansion.

[@bjdon99]

Now you can’t see Touchdoen Jesus from the field any longer

[@fixpacifica]

I was walking around SMU in Dallas earlier in the year and was shocked at how small the football stadium was.

[@29Texan]

@@fixpacifica their stadium is also as big as it needs to be...

[@jarl8887]

Nice video, you should make one for colleges that play in stadiums too big

[@iancypes5911]

Oregon only has an enrollment just over 23,000 and they're not that close to Portland or any other population center in the state aside from Eugene itself which only has about 380k people in its county

[@forgottenplaces9780]

There are plenty of colleges that arent in major cities that draw just fine.

[@joeym5243]

It's less than 2 hours from Portland, that's plenty close for many especially for a flagship university. There are plenty of schools with that kind of demographics which play in much larger stadiums just fine despite not being nearly as prominent athletically.

[@bryantsteury8910]

@@joeym5243 yeah 2 hours isn’t far esp if they’re playing like a USC when they were good a decade ago or a Michigan/ohio st/ PSU now that they’re in the big 10

[@gregd4633]

Most schools have been getting rid of bench seats for chair back seats. Because it’s more comfortable and gives a better fan experience. Because not only do you have to buy tickets, but to sit comfortably you have to rent seats from a vendor which cost $25-$35 dollars. Unless you have a good lower back and willing to sacrifice comfort, then you’re renting seats. I’m a UF graduate C/96 and we just renovated Ben Hill which lowered our capacity because we selected chair back seats. Fans complained over the summer about losing capacity, but once they experienced the seats then their minds changed. Let’s also remember that NFL stadiums highest capacity is AT&T and Met Life which both have 81 and 82,000 seats. And both NFL and major flagship and private universities have the same stadium design, the only difference is that college has a higher capacity because of bench seats. I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t enjoy sitting so damn close to strangers due to bench seats. I love chair back seats

[@joeym5243]

@@gregd4633 Lambeau actually has a higher cseating apacity with bench seats, (AT&T has a lot of standing room capacity) and still the vast majority of schools are using benches still.

[@mls515]

The game is starting to get dirtier which will turn off some fans. If I'm going to watch some kid worried about his NIL guarantees all season before opting out of the bowl game I'm much more inclined to stick to the TV.

[@BrandanTheBroker]

Let's just be happy that the university can't threaten to relocate if the city doesn't build them Allegiant Stadium... for now...

[@joeyjangler9834]

@@BrandanTheBroker lol can't wait for the University of Alabama Crimson Tide to relocate to a bigger metro and become.... The University of Alabama (Atlanta)

[@bloqk16]

The situation of the stadiums being too small for college football? Has there been financial analysis done where the financial metrics come into play to validate the need for expanding the stadiums' seating capacities? The term: "diminished returns" comes to mind. Additional seating capacity is made on a stadium, but now the aspects of that expansion: Staffing (security, concessionaires, Et al), infrastructure (the need for additional restroom facilities is one of several that comes to mind), and maintenance, comes into play with a larger stadium. Would the additional attending payees offset the expense to properly operate an enlarged stadium? Especially so in 'down' years with falling attendance figures. Look at the big crosstown rival football game of USC vs UCLA in 2024: In that massive Rose Bowl Stadium of nearly 90K capacity, only 59K attended the game.

[@larryhatcher8927]

One reason for the USC-UCLA game having low attendance is the fact that both teams are down. That's bad but what is really embarrassing is when you turn on ESPN and there are a couple of Group of 5 teams playing with four to five thousand people in the stands

[@larryhatcher8927]

There aren't many new college stadiums going up these days. In most cases they just add on to the existing stadium. On the few that have been built the trend seems to be to go smaller. Most new stadiums, I've heard of are under 80k seats. Some reasoning for that is: Tickets have gotten so expensive that most people don't want to pay $300 for a ticket and sit on a bleacher seat. I can't blame them for that. But yeah, Oregon stadium is super small for a #1 team. You would think down through the years they would have built on to it.

[@jayminbernhardt4952]

Autzen might be “too small” but it’s straight up a top ten most loud stadium so I think it being “small” is okay

[@jeffreyevans5785]

Good video. However, how about looking at stadium sizes in specific conferences? For instance, say smallest or largest stadiums in the ACC, Big Ten, AAC, etc.

[@728huey]

I know Northwestern has the smallest stadium in the B1G (not referring to the temporary stadium on the lakefront). The old Ryan Field had a capacity of 43,000 seats yet the new stadium being built is actually going to be smaller with 35,000 seats. But considering the difficulty Northwestern has drawing fans even in good times, this is appropriate. For many years the stadium would sell out some games but much of those sellouts consisted of fans from the opposing team, usually those from the University of Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, and Michigan State.

[@TheNewChevyRoll48]

I was expecting Bowman Gray Stadium to be on this list, but maybe that's better for a list of stadiums that College Football outgrew. If not, then surely on a list of active racetracks that NASCAR outgrew.

[@henrygrootenify]

60k to see kids play sports isnt a small amount and every major sports league in the world has too small a stadium for their fanbases

[@fightingirishinohio]

Notre Dame not being in a conference has NOT caused their quality of opponent to suffer. In fact, the ability to set their own schedule ( outside of the ACC agreement) has allowed them to have some of the stronger schedules in regards to SOS (strength of schedule). The opponents they play each season will have NO bearing on whether they join a conference or not. #CatholicsVsConferences

[@BrandanTheBroker]

Oregon wins the Natty you gotta wonder if Phil Knight opens the checkbook even more and builds them a college stadium that'll rival NFL stadiums

[@corderajones]

OU alumni here, the problem with Autzen is it location and build style. Only the north side can be expanded, so additional 8-10k. Oregon needs a brand new stadium. The new stadium should have a retractable roof. I know NFL luxury retractable roofs are billions of dollars, but this is college so it doesn’t have to be so fancy. $300 Million dollars for a 65k-70k “college stadium” with a retractable roof. It’s Oregon and Nike so I sure they can come up with something cheap and recyclable. Seat cushion made of old Nike shoes. Roof made out of plastic bags and water bottles. Sell PSL for the suites. To help pay off bond debt, make it a multi use concert venue and convention center. Nike (aka Phill Knight) $100 Million University of Oregon $50 Million State of Oregon $50 Million Alumni $25 Million Lane County (for the convention center) $25 Million Private companies and partnerships $50 Million

[@adriansmith5279]

I remember over in College Basketball, here in Philly. After Villanova won those two National Title, they ended up getting getting a new arena.

[@DomoftheDeadd]

None of these are too small. They're perfect as is.

[@CCOS1214]

Quality product, seat less, charge more

[@jamesellis2530]

Oregons stadium size is just fine! Don’t mess with it!

[@puffdutchtwo]

Autzen is small in comparison when looking at capacity but ask about how loud it is.. as a 🦆 fan my theory is that in Oregon there ain’t much going on compared to say Texas or California

[@Hogtownboy1]

I never understood college football popularity. Maybe getting drunk and betting explains it.

[@bearnunnemaker5453]

No that would e the NFL. College ball is way better. More exciting !!

[@michaellong6336]

Wow. Insightful and delivered by a real human. Thanks. I think you pronounced tcu stadium incorrect no biggie

[@lauraroby2749]

Buckeyes had to tear up the running track that Jesse Owens ran on to squeeze more fans into the Horseshoe. History moving over to make new history. Hang on to your historic stadiums!

[@geoffreylee5199]

This has to be one of the most silliest clip ever produced! Besides where are the mentioning of the visual credits? Those sized stadiums assure the universities of a sell out crowd, the provide intimidating noises for visitors to avoid, and a controlled safe environment. Besides, who will pay for these so called needed improvements? Really?

[@forgottenplaces9780]

@@geoffreylee5199 the ones that should be are in the description, and others i pay for, aside from that your comment is silly

[@gregd4633]

What the video failed to mention is that Oregon has almost 65% percent chair back seats in their stadium. Also new modern college stadiums have been built without bench seats, so the capacity isn’t a factor anymore. Also most new college stadiums offer better facilities for fan experience and engagement

[@o0Raine0o]

im not even 40 seconds in, no autzrn stadium isnt too small. its just the right size. its loudd, it has no modern roof or arena style, it legit top notch college stadium. no changes needed. cant wait to rant about the other coming suggestion

[@forgottenplaces9780]

Your welcome.

[@ericrizojkd]

...And Stadiums Too Big For High School.

[@thecatwrangler9448]

More “named teams than ever before” what are you talking about? The Pac-12 had no problems with being in the public consciousness?

[@Stacie45]

Boise State has won 3 Fiesta Bowls, not 2. ...Hopefully soon to make it 4...

[@Worldsportstalk24]

Notre dame has plenty of quality opponents. that dig is so stupid and factually incorrect

[@fightingirishinohio]

^^^FACT^^^

[@bearnunnemaker5453]

Autzen Stadium is just the right size!! Leave it alone!! We like it this size. It make us louder!! We don’t need one for 100,000 people. And after you said Autzen, I quit watching.

[@davestrang8585]

It's all money

[@jamesthomas7405]

America has more pressing issues to deal with instead of building bigger playpens.

[@FSUSZN]

College football is everything.

[@jmulvey371]

Stupid hot take.

[@forgottenplaces9780]

Your Welcome.

[@fjfjfurjrnfncnnxxn]

There’s nothing wrong with any of these stadiums. Building 100,000 seat stadiums to watch 19 year old college amateurs is the weird thing.

[@matthewgagliardi8429]

This what people love just because you think it’s dumb doesn’t mean the 3.5 million people that attend games every weekend think so

[@Lilllingstoner]

Autzen is perfect

[@byro4475]

This is respectfully, not a good list at all, or at least not a well titled list, you named multiple stadiums that are held in high regard. Capacity size is not the "end all" metric for a stadium

[@forgottenplaces9780]

Did I say they were bad? No. I said they were too small…

[@bmosk94]

Too bad ND is never actually any good 😂