First impressions of the new and ‘improved’ Michigan Stadium

Michigan Stadium has come a long way from the high school-style scoreboards, Astro turf field and chain-link fence painted blue of the past. And it’s evolving further faster, as the ambitious expansion project forever changes the face of the ‘House That Yost Built’.

The stadium’s new design called for huge improvements, adding, most prominently, luxury boxes and club seating. The idea was to sacrifice the traditional cramped egalitarian seating of the current stadium for comfort at the right price. Those improvements began earlier this year, and will continue all the way into the 2010 season. To some, the planned extensions (seen in renderings) seemed jarring, permanently altering the simple bowl of the Big House.

Well, the public got their first taste of what the new stadium will look like last Saturday at the season home opener. And, from this writer’s point of view, the impact of the changes was less than predicted.

First, while the luxury box extensions do tower several stories above the stadium bowl, they don’t intrude much into the actual bowl.

Second, there is visibly more handicap seating in the stadium in response to the ADA lawsuit. That seating now includes some midfield seating where previously the handicap only had end zone options. Unfortunately, a vast majority of these seats sat empty in a packed stadium of more than 108,000 people.

Third, the new luxury box towers provide much more shade for people navigating the stadium, a welcome alternative to the sun-soaked early season games.

Fourth, the old trailer-like M-DEN stores on the north side of the stadium have been replaced with permanent brick buildings. Disappoiningly, the brick-box upgrades lack any defining architectural details. They are a textbook example of functional but ugly. While some might consider graffiti a blight, on these ugly ducklings it would be an improvement.

Writer: Jon Zemke