Louisville fans also seem divided between those who feel it is time for a bigger stadium and those who point out they don't sell out every game as it is.
http://louisville.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=658&tid=166106173&mid=166106173&sid=923&style=2 

I don't think we will sell out every game this year, but I think we will sell out multiple games. I think we will sell out multiple games before gameday actually rolls around.

We've got Cincinnati and Kansas set to roll into Peden in a couple years. That isn't a new conference, but it is certainly an upgrade over our current home slate. Those are going to be highly anticipated games..

This is the often alluded to article on stadium expansion from a decade ago. Will we meet this standard this year? I think we will.
"Industry standards suggest adding more seats when a sports team's attendance consistently exceeds 80 percent of capacity."
http://www.ohio.edu/ohiotoday/winter00/departments/gandw/peden.html

We've got plenty of fans and alumni within 150 miles of Athens. Columbus is 73.5 miles per Google Maps and we now have a complete 4 lane highway straight there.

Lack of hotels are an issue. I mentioned that in this thread about an additional Athens hotel they are building.
http://www.bobcatattack.com/messageboard/topic.asp?FromPage=1&ForumPID=10&PID=115361

A lack of hotels doesn't change the fact that we are filling up Peden Stadium consistently NOW. Our fanbase can support a bigger stadium.

Personally, I'd like to see in in the BALLPARK of 40k. Some have said as high as 50k. Even if we only go to 30k that is still an expansion...

I think we should max out at 35k for at least the next 15 years.  Things are great now, but at some point Coach Solich will retire and what happens after that, who knows.  I'd like to think that his success will mean that the next guy will be either another proven genius or at least an up-and-coming one.  But coaching selections are always a gamble.

Hell if we are going to go to 40, let's just go to 60, and make a play for joining the Big10

1:5 odds will pay you $.40 on $2.00 bet, essentially you risk $5 to win $1 A true bettor would not take this bet because the money earned is not worth the money played. So in your bet above you would risk $100 to earn $20

My tickets for the Louisville game were only 16 dollars so suffice to say they have no business expanding their stadium when its already at 55,000 seats. They've had games a few years ago with only 25,000 in the stands when losing. That is thing when talking about capacity is you've got to factor in off years and that midweek games are going to be a fixture for a program like Ohio.  To be serious about the ACC or B1G its going to require a 50,000 seat stadium. I suppose Ohio State could pull a Notre Dame by placing there other sports in the ACC while playing an Independent schedule for football, then we could take their place in the Big Ten. Until OSU leaves the Big Ten we aren't getting into that conference and if they joined the ACC that would count us out of there too. Realistically Ohio is looking at staying in the MAC or moving possibly to the American. The average on campus stadium in the MAC seats 25,300. The smallest stadium in the AAC is 30,000 seats (Tulane & Tulsa). There is no reason to have a smaller than average MAC stadium and if the school is going to bother with expanding it may as well bring it to 30k (SRO) with an eye to the future. Some of the other numbers on here that people like to quote like 35,000 or 40,000 don't serve any purpose. They are neither here nor there. Its obvious though with the sellouts Peden needs to be larger and with better support facilities (concessions/bathrooms) just to keep in line with MAC stadium experience standards.

Central Michigan 30,255
Western Michigan 30,200
Eastern Michigan 30,200
Buffalo 29,013
Akron 27,000
Toledo 26,248
Miami 24,286
Ohio 24,000
Northern Illinois 24,000
Bowling Green 23,724
Ball State 22,500
Kent State 20,500
Massachusetts 17,000

Hey guys, Louisville fan here.  The only tickets that are $16.00 are the upper deck corners.  Lower bowl tickets are $58.00 each.  The 25,000 average the poster above spoke of was intentional to get Kragthorpe fired.  It worked. 

Regarding our stadium attendance, we actually do sell out or come darn near close to it.  Usually game day notes on Friday will stipulate less than 500 or so tickets remain.  Our problem is that while the games are sold out, we have a very high "no show" problem.  It is a two fold problem.  One is that UofL has sold it's soul to the corporations in Louisville and when the opponent is "less than stellar" those tickets will sit in some corporate office unused.  The other factor for some of our no-shows is that there are a few hundred UK fans if not closer to 1-2,000 buy season tickets so that they guarantee themselves seats when they play at Louisville e/o year.  Those same seats that have blue in them when UK comes to town historically sit empty the rest of the year.

Back when PJCS was at 42,000 we would average 39,000 or so but all the games would sell out.  We expanded to 55,000 and we now average between 50-52,000 per game.  I'm of the opinion that if we did indeed expand to 74,000 as the rumor is being discussed on our board, we would probably average 70,000 based on the historical trend.  I guess it's a good problem to have but I sure wish our university would be proactive and determine the seats that historically stay empty and go after those corporations and UK fans and remove their renewal rights.

so basically a slightly smaller version of Marshall's stadium...  

Why connect the endzones? In a stadium this small, why add bad seats?  We have plenty of room for good seats. knock down the endzones then significantly expand & renovate  the student side

Are you saying demolish the EAST side and rebuild it?

That would work too.. but cost  more money..

this is a purely hypothetical, in a dreaam world, if money was no object, wish- would love to see Peden leveled and rebuilt in the style of Louisville's stadium before the expansion when it held 42K. The way the weight room is currently situated we can't put seats past the goal line which would trim a few thousand seats and get it below 40K. Of course the tower would be on the other side but the South endzone would remain opened.

maybe some day.

Here is a pic of PJCS before expansion.  I think UCONN did something similar


Another view with our baseball field which has since been expanded and Churchill Downs in the back ground: