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I know we're putting the cart before the horse but I've always been curious about the potential for expanding Ford. Is it possible to get to 50,000? If we someday got into a conference playing UT, OU, Tech, Okie St. and Baylor I have no doubt we could sell 50,000 tickets to those games....especially if we continue building towards a Top 25 program.

If you bowl in the horseshoe, I think it would put capacity at around 45,000, correct?

You might be able to extend the luxury boxes around the east side of the stadium, but as someone pointed out here a few months ago, the construction of the new dorms behind the bookstore might make this unfeasible because of fire department regulations.

Orsini said that they could expand the stadium to accompany ~42,000 by closing the stadium (to Mockingbird).

I'm more concerned about filling our small stadium first before thinking about expanding it :p

If we had a home schedule that included Texas, OU, Baylor, Tech, K-State we would sell out every single game. No question.

In case of a bcs conference invite, that could be a problem with a UT/OU, so to speak, and several other big 12 type schools aren't going to want to agree to play in a 42,000 seat stadium on a regular basis. If true that Ford Stadium attendance could only be increased 10,000 that just will not cut it. We would have to move back to the Cotton Bowl or Jerry's in the future for new conference games, but I was told when Ford was built that the attendance could be increased more. If SMU can't do it now because they are adding new BLDGs that would create a fire code problem for an improved attendance Stadium, that would be really stupid.

Along with closing in the horseshoe, I thought there was also a possibility for a second level on the visitors side. I personally like the grass hill in the endzone, but it would be the easiest area to expand seating.

per wiki

Baylor: 50k
Iowa State: 55k
Kansas: 50k
Kansas St: 51k
Missouri: 71k
OU: 82k
OSU: 60k
Texas: 100k
aTm: 86k
Tech: 60K

Also, how much would HP/UP zoning restrictions affect expansion plans?

Yes - you put a second deck on visitors side and fill in grass. Probably 45k

The original design for Ford Stadium allowed for the enclosing of the south end zone. That would bring the capacity to 45k, which is the right size for us to welcome Big12 visitor withthe possible exception of OU and UT. Cotton Bowl and/or Jerry's World once a year is fine. Going vertical on the east-side is always an option, but not critical IMHO.

I forgot who it was (maybe Callalen), but someone posted expansion plans that were drawn along with the original stadium design. I think max seating was 52k with the horseshoe & east side 2nd tier.

if manna were to fall from heaven so we could build it now, it would immediately change the perception of smu, put us on a much more even playing field with competitors, would be a great recruiting tool, would be needed if we joined a major conference and we might actually fill it up if the stars align for us in terms of on field performance.

yes, I realize we don't fill it up now and yes I realize we've never drawn that well. who says we're limited to perpetual poor attendance? might as well think big going forward if we had the money and yes, let's build an IPF while we're at it, the two do not need to be exclusive

PonyPlayer4 wrote:Along with closing in the horseshoe, I thought there was also a possibility for a second level on the visitors side. I personally like the grass hill in the endzone, but it would be the easiest area to expand seating.

Yes Ford was engineered and designed to eventually have another matching second level of boxes on the Visitors side as well as filling in the horse shoe at Mockingbird. First things first....beat some quality teams when you get the chance.