Was dreaming about this last night. I'd think the primary goal is to generate more income. How can we increase our premium seating and thus revenue without over-expanding or spending too much on renovations? Here's what I would do, with budgets and changes to attendance thanks to chat:
- Remove all bleachers along 3rd base side and turn into reduced-capacity premium seating with Chophouse-style dining and seatbacks. That would significantly increase our premium offering and make a contiguous premium section from home plate to Champions while reusing most of the existing structure. This would unfortunately kick students to the 1st base side - the only part of my plan I'm not a huge fan of. (lose 750 seats, cost 1.8m)
- Move the entry gates all the way back to Cherry St. Add an outdoor bar with a small upper "party deck", much like the Home Depot clubhouse at Truist, in the large concrete entryway to first base. Make the party deck rentable during weekends, but during midweeks give wristbands to the first 50 students and let them take it over. (add 50 seats, cost 2.2m)
- Now we have a huge party section running basically from the left-side batters box all the way to the bullpen. But we don't want to lose a spot for families. I'd build out 3 sections of family seating behind the home bullpen, no beer allowed. Building it back here would allow limited access, a choke point to prevent the flow of alcohol, and let families bypass the party section entirely as they walk to their seats. I'd also accept a solution like the Rome Braves have, with a large picnic area for kids to run around. (add 450 seats, cost 1m)
- We want to move the students to right behind the visitors' dugout, so let's build out 2 extra sections of bleachers, with brick facade to match existing, to replace lost seating. (add 500 seats, cost 850k)
Total cost of 5.8 million, adds about 250 seats to bring us to right at 4000, nearly encloses the 1st and 3rd base lines, and basically double our current premium offering. Do we have the fanbase to support that many premium seats? Would it actually be that cheap? I don't know, but it would make for a dang fine stadium while using a lot of existing structure.
View attachment 21507
