I imagine that as old as Nippert stadium is the infrastructure was probably in poor shape and needed repair. I believe that once you cross a certain line in renovation that the ADA requirements kick in and you lose seats from the original layout due to wider aisles and other requirements. Therefore, while the total capacity is increasing by "5,000", they are probably adding more than 5,000 in the new section(s).

to be fair to UC, because of renovations they didn't get to play home games in Nippert last year. The trend over the last 10 seasons looks like this-

28,840 - '14 (9-4)
31,771 - '13 (9-4)
29,138 - '12 (10-3)
32,293 - '11 (10-3)
35,067 - '10 (4-8)
33,957 - '09 (12-1)
31,965 - '08 (11-3)
30,246 - '07 (10-3)
20,373 - '06 (8-5)
22,423 - '05 (4-7)

Wow, I guess you could argue if they were playing Big 12 schools all the time that their attendance would sky rocket

The UC powers that be don't want to play at PBS, citing the desire to be on campus. I can appreciate that, though I don't see the necessity for football. In fact I argued that being downtown for football might have been better for a gameday experience - more to do before and after. Still, Nippert is going to become a tough, and very loud place to play with the renovations.

I was at that UC vs Oklahoma game, and it was an outstanding atmosphere & game. These are interesting conversations, particularly on this board where we obsess about attendance. It does show that scheduling "big games" sells tickets.

Enrollments:
UC - 43,691
OU - 38,857


Even though enrollments are similar, OU has to work harder to get more money from alums because with UC's location, I would assume they can get a lot more from private businesses.

Have any of you actually seen the renovations of Nippert and around the facility. It's absolutely amazing and their upgrades have been very impressive.

UC's numbers are closer to the norm for most Universities in this time. The numbers for Ohio are outstanding. I doubt if there are 20 Universities in the country at any level with a faster rate of endowment growth over the last decade.

I have to assume some of that endowment "growth" is just recovery from the last market down turn. As for Nippert, Billy is right it is an amazing change and looks really big time (not like a glorified high school stadium).

You also have to remember that UC has big Med and Law schools. I also assume that is where a lot of the money comes from. Add in hometown banks and SP 500 companies and, yes, UC does have resources that OHIO doesn't.

As for enrollments, I love those numbers. Headcounts, including branches vs. FTE, are sorta meaningless as far as I am concerned. Funny thing is many UC students are part timers. As I recall, OU actually has a higher fte with less bodies since most are residential vs. UCs commuters.

Law schools don't bring in any money. Med schools do when its a research hospital for a large metro market like Cincinnati. There is some potential for corporate sponsorship but it will take a lot longer in a small market like Athens. Building up the football program has taken forever with small private donations here and there to get the facilities. The facilities are additive so getting within 90% of the big schools in weight room, IPF, Academic Center, videoboard will make the school nationally competitive in recruiting. Its becoming regular for a 3/4 star player to sign with the Cats lately. What I think could make the stadium look interesting is adding an excessively large upper deck to the student side. Something slightly bigger than the lower deck to give the stadium a big school feel. A stadium that will look distinctive on TV.

Wes, there are some really big time lawyers and doctors who are also big time donors to UC. One lawyer that comes to mind (like him or not) is Stan Chesley. He has given big bucks and (I think) was even on the Board of Trustees at one time. It's tough making generalizations (one way or another) about lawyers and or doctors but those that do give are really big time supporters. All I know is UC has a lot more of them in their Alumni base than OHIO.

And, seriously, is there a 5/3 bank or Kroger HQ or PG or one of many other possible corporate sponsors in Athens? I doubt OHIO ever gets that kind of corporate backing primarily because it doesn't exist there. That is exactly the market all those nice new expensive sky boxes are going to try to attract on an even larger scale than now. The real tough nuts for UC to crack are the Bengals and Reds who are looking to rake in the same dollars.

OCF, seriously...is OHIO either VA TECH or PENN STATE in Athletics/football? Do we put 60-70-80-100,000 butts in the stands? Are we followed by most everyone in our state? IMHO, that is probably the dumbest response you have given to any post (and I enjoy your perspective! :)

Please look back at the history of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. They didn't always have that kind of draw. In fact, not long ago they were a distinct second fiddle to U. Va. in the Old Dominion. As fellow grey beard you need to have some historical perspective. A number of years ago I was on the search committee for Ohio's Sports Information Director. This was when Mack was AD. We ultimately chose a man who had grown up in Blacksburg as SID. He had also worked as student worker in the VaTech AD's office. The clincher in his sales job as to why he should be the successful candidate was the analogy he drew between VaTech and Blacksburg and OHIO and Athens. Not a perfect analogy to be sure, but he sold us on the idea that he knew what it was like promoting a big university in a small rural location. I guess all three of us on the search committee and Mack were as dumb as rocks! ;-)

Casper I can see an impact of having those local lawyers and doctors donating to Cincinnati. With a research med school and a law school you would think they would have more of them in their alumni base than Ohio. More engineers too that have stayed in SW Ohio for work. A few of years ago I was talking to a former senior fundraiser at UC turned faculty director at private school I was involved with. Anyways he felt the story of UC was (like a lot of Ohio colleges) it was a place where a parent could send their kids back in the 60's and 70's away to school from the East Coast with the idea of they could graduate and do okay back home working in a family business. When UC got into the Big East he said it was huge for donations and interest from alumni along the East Coast. My mother who was from NYC and a student at OU said one summer about this guy she went on a few dates with from Villanova who was planning to graduate from there to end up back in his father's business. I just think the idea of going back to school to work in a family business was fairly common. I have met older Ohio alumni that fit that mold but younger alumni are steered to go to school for a specific profession. Athletics is a window to reach alumni that otherwise wouldn't otherwise pay attention.