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Just a little something to help pass the months remaining before kick-off. It seems to me that most stadiums in the SLC conference seat around 14,000 (without UCA). So do you think that Estes Stadium should be expaned...if so to how much?

School-Stadium Capacity

Texas State-15,218

Nicholls State-12,800

McNeese State-17,410

Northwestern State-15,971

Southeastern Louisiana-7,408

Sam Houston State-14,000

Stephen F. Austin-14,575

UCA-8,500

I vote that it should be...I realize that it can't happen overnigt, so I think planning should begin now because if things go well for us in D-IAA then I think the fans will begin to show up in larger number and on a more consistant (sp?) basis and so a larger stadium will (hopefully ) be needed in the future.

I like your philosophy and the reasoning behind wanting a stadium expansion. And you are also right that it would take time and money to come up with the plans...but thinking about it isnt bad that's for sure. But we have got to continually fill up what we get before it becomes totally a reality.

One thing we will need to remember to is that some/most of the SLC schools will consistantly bring more fans than any of our Arkansas schools did to Estes Stadium as well. That might help us in the 'need' capacity as well.

Very good point!

I can easily see instances like the playoff UNa game last year or tech games where our student side is huge but since the SLC schools, and maybe even Missouri St. this year, will bring a lot of people and that side will be consistantly full. And that could pose numbers crunches as well.

Oh yeah, like a BIG FAT GATE!! (finally)

yep GATE and people..no more empty East Sides

We can't even fill our own stadium with our own fans.....why do we need the stadium bigger?

While we certainly aren't going to start any sell out streaks any time soon, we have had several games the past few years where both sides were pretty dang full.

and those were just in general...except for tech. Those SLC schools, some of them will travel now they will fill it up on their own if what TT And others have been talking about is true.

SHSU gets 9000-10,000 regularly if the weather is good. If it's SFA, another TV game (as SFA is televised yearly) and great weather, we'll get 11000 to 12000 without fail. Our fans won't sit in the rain and those who do bring umbrellas!

Some SLC schools travel more so than other. We've had games against McNeese where they'll have fans with RVs outside our stadium by Friday PM. Northwestern St travels pretty good and they're the closest SLC school to you folks. I'm sure they'll bring'em in.

SHSU now has an RV club that travels to most games and will grow as it catches on. It's a mixed bag though the statement that SLC schools do a good job at filling their own stadiums is true to some extent. Texas St did the last few games as they got through the playoffs. SFA draws a bit less than Sam. Nicholls has not drawn well and SELA has gone over capacity...

so if we can start averaging out what we did for the playoffs...8-9K we should be fairly on par with most SLC schools. That is very reasonable in my opinion!

It's cool to say "my stadium holds XX thousand people" but it looks goofy if it's empty.

Once you consistently hit 90-95 percent capacity ... and I'm talking a streak of two or three seasons, then you can start looking at building on. You'd probably also want to make sure you have a spike in season ticket sales to ensure you're going to have an increasing, stable core.

And then, with news of stadium expansion, you'll get more interest that way, too, because people dig that stuff. It helps sell itself.

But as for right now ... I would start formulating different options and all that, but I would do so knowing it would be some time before I acted on it.

I agree King...I guess my poll is to cut and dry. I think that Estes should EVENTUALLY be expanded, but like you said not until we can consistantly(sp?) pack the place with Bear fans!!

Like this season with 6 home games we averaged 7,327 people per game which if you take the stadium capacity to be 8,500 multiply that by the diameter of the earth and take the square root of that and divide by the average weight of each person there and then integrate that over the surface area of the stadium you get a 86.2% capacity for the season...Ok maybe I added a few more steps than needed but it still works