hey, you guys seem more like a football school than a lot of the others in the ACC. When will Carter-Finley be expanded to 80,000, like the average SEC stadium?? :)

IMO, I don't think we'll be able to fill up 80K seats on a regular basis, not unless we are a top 15 program for the next dozen years. With the temporary bleachers, C-F seats around 54K now, 57K after the north endzone is closed in. We're not good enough of a football fanbase yet to need to go beyond that at the moment.

You're really asking a lot when you ask a program in NC to have attendance that high.

Remember: NC has 5 division 1-A programs, with 4 of them in a BCS conference. Georgia has -- what -- 2? Most of the other states in the southeast have also have about 2 major programs.

State and UNC obviously have the largest fanbases in the state, but they're both getting serious pull from ECU. Wake and dook don't help matters.

-JD

JD Heel Wrote:You're really asking a lot when you ask a program in NC to have attendance that high.

Remember: NC has 5 division 1-A programs, with 4 of them in a BCS conference. Georgia has -- what -- 2? Most of the other states in the southeast have also have about 2 major programs.

State and UNC obviously have the largest fanbases in the state, but they're both getting serious pull from ECU. Wake and dook don't help matters.

-JD

I wanted to revisit this old topic, and I've been busy with other things which is why I haven't been able to post on this topic again for awhile.

I think a program in NC could have attendance that high if they really worked at it. Georgia used to have a 35,000 seat stadium. Pretty darn small if you ask me. Now we're over 90,000 in capacity. Blows my mind for sure. Here's how the SEC got to where it's at. It's time-tested formula that has worked over and over again. Put together a lot of solid seasons. Get local fanbase interested in the games. Recruit hard. Set achievable goals and try to exceed them. I firmly believe if UNC would actually put some $$'s behind their program instead of grasping at straws (i.e. John Bunting), put together a string of top 10-15 seasons, UNC's football fanbase would really grow at a rate that would startle you. UNC has shown a willingness to spend the $$'s in basketball. See UNC hiring Roy Williams from Kansas. Now, if UNC went out and snagged a "Steve Spurrier" and put some major $$ towards helping Spurrier build a major program at UNC, football would become a hot item at UNC. NC State is doing many of the things I have talked about. I believe if they keep it up and exceed expectations every once in awhile, they'll start getting an SEC-type following. F$U already has this. Clemson already has this. I think NC State will be #3 if they're able to hang onto Amato for awhile. Yes, NC has 5 div IA programs. Guess what: my home state of Alabama has 4, count them four Div IA programs. Louisiana has 5. Florida has 5 right now, soon to be 6. Tennessee has 4. Mississippi has three. Only Georgia, South Carolina, and Arkansas have two Div IA programs in their state.
Futhermore, Wake Forest and Duke are private schools and private schools are known for having small fanbases, with ND and Southern Cal being obvious exceptions to that rule. East Carolina is a legitimate competitor to both UNC and NC State, but if UF can survive with F$U and Miami, UNC and NC State can survive with ECU. It's all about getting big time boosters at NCSU and UNC to care as much about football as they do basketball. Print it.

80,000 seats would require a major revamping of Carter-Finley or a new stadium altogether. Given the present configuration, the best we could get if the north endzone is eventually filled in will be around 70,000-75,000 tops.

The press facilities and new luxury boxes are being reworked right now so don't expect any additional seats anytime soon due to budget constraints.

The Prodigal Wolf Wrote:80,000 seats would require a major revamping of Carter-Finley or a new stadium altogether. Given the present configuration, the best we could get if the north endzone is eventually filled in will be around 70,000-75,000 tops.

The press facilities and new luxury boxes are being reworked right now so don't expect any additional seats anytime soon due to budget constraints.

75,000 wouldn't be too bad.
I understand about budget constraints though. Still, I think NC State does need to plan to fill in the north endzone though in the near future (2007 maybe? )

I'll give you the breakdown of Division 1-A stadium capacities in NC:

Kenan (UNC): 62,000
Carter-Finley (NCSU): 54,000 (going off UDC's numbers)
Dowdy-Ficklin (ECU): 43,000
Wallace-Wade (dook): 34,000
Groves (Wake): 32,000

Doing the math, that's a total of about 225,000. If we only had two Division 1A programs -- like, say, Georgia -- then we could have two stadiums that seat about 112,000 each (in theory). That wouldn't be too shabby. But, obviously, that's never going to happen.

The closest an NC team is going to come to having that high of an attendance is if one team is having a lot of success, and the rest are struggling. UNC kinda had that through the 90's (although State was not a bad program during that time -- merely a mediocre one). Now, State is on top (but Wake is causing ripples, and dook shows signs of getting out of the cellar).

IMO, everyone would all benefit greatly from the demise of ECU's program. They are the non-ACC team that is really throws a wrench in everyone else's attendance. Dowdy-Ficklin holds 43,000... so even taking 10,000 or so from that would really help attendance for another school.

-JD

W-W may hold 34,000, but the actual attendance is more like around 10,000-20,000 per game, if that. :eek: Wake and State have good attendance, and UNC normally has pretty good attendance if they're playing a team like F$U or a storied rival like Virginia. Since Duke isn't really much of a factor around Raleigh-Durham, why has UNC never really capitalized on that?? BTW, methinks ECU will be back soon.

BTW, stadium capacities for Alabama schools:
Alabama: 83,818 (Bryant-Denny)
Auburn: 86,063 (Jordan-Hare)
(Legion Field)UAB: 80,591 (actual attendance more like Wallace Wade's full capacity)
Troy St: 30,000 (Movie Gallery)

232,881 fans total in the state of Alabama alone.
In Ga, it's actually under 200,000.