End zone addition on track
Plans for the south end zone expansion of Tiger Stadium are “progressing very well,” LSU Vice Chancellor and Athletic Director Joe Alleva said Friday.
The tentative, still-in-the-works design would connect the east and west upper decks and add roughly 6,000 seats, Alleva said, which would mostly be in the club and luxury levels. If completed, the addition would push Tiger Stadium to nearly 100,000 seats.
“The preliminary numbers look like it’s very feasible,” Alleva said, noting that he was looking at some new financial estimates Friday morning.
But he declined to comment on dollar amounts of the project that is largely going through the private, nonprofit Tiger Athletic Foundation. Alleva estimated the construction time at about two years.
The key is to focus on maintaining LSU fan demand over the ticket demand, Alleva said while speaking to LSU graduate students as part of the Flores MBA Program Distinguished Speaker Series. Alleva has an MBA from Lehigh University.
LSU football games are always sold out in recent years, he said, but only three times has every seat actually been filled.
“We’re looking to expand Tiger Stadium. But, I say to myself, ‘Do we really need to expand? Is the demand really there?’” Alleva said. That is why the focus is on luxury and club-level seating, rather than squeezing in as many seats as possible.
On the topic of supply-and-demand, Alleva, who previously was the athletic director at basketball-crazed Duke University, said the Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium only seats about 10,000 people, nearly half of whom are students.
So, in order to make revenues, the other 5,500 or so tickets are sold for more than $100 per game. “I set those ticket prices,” Alleva said.
As for the potential Tiger Stadium expansion, LSU is working with Dallas-based HKS, Inc. architects that recently oversaw the design of the new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Alleva also touted the upcoming, TAF-funded plaza improvements to the north and west sides of Tiger Stadium that would create new “Champions Plaza” entrances and gating.
He also spoke highly of the Tiger Stadium window-replacement project, which he bemoaned took him three years to get done because of bureaucratic “red tape.”
“The first time I saw Tiger Stadium, I said, ‘Wow, this is really big,’” Alleva said. “The second thing I said was, ‘Wow, this is really ugly.’”
As for the LSU coaches, Alleva favorably compared LSU football coach Les Miles with longtime Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski. Alleva said they are both great coaches who are hyper competitive, but also good family men who have not let their egos or success change them. Both coaches surround themselves with good people and delegate authority.
“Les Miles, whether you like him or not, he’s a darn good football coach,” Alleva said.
Alleva equated such traits of competitiveness, loyalty and affability as keys for succeeding in the business world. He also said it is important for successful people to remain even-keeled, whether they are being promoted or laid off.
“I don’t get too excited when we win; I don’t get too depressed when we lose,” Alleva said. “I just stay the same.”
Winning is important, he said, “But winning is having our young people graduate and go on to be successful ...
“Although if we don’t win, our coaches won’t be here, and I’ll probably be fired too.”