Terry Foster: Expanding Big House Shows Faith In U-M's brand
I love a good arms race, especially when it doesn't hurt anybody.
In this case, I am talking about a seat race involving Michigan Stadium. Athletic director David Brandon is talking about expanding the Big House again, turning it into the Really Big House with a capacity of upwards of 120,000 seats.
The more the merrier. If you can get away with it, why not?
It is astonishing to think that Michigan routinely draws around 110,000 even with the bad product from the last three seasons under fired coach Rich Rodriguez. But Michigan is a brand and people here love to attend games, tailgate and root for their team to win.
Michigan is the largest stadium in the United States with an official capacity of 109,901, ahead of Penn State's Beaver Stadium (107,251), Ohio Stadium (102,329) and Tennessee's Neyland Stadium (102,037).
Even with the expansion, Michigan would not have the largest stadium in the world. Rungnado Day Stadium in Pyongyang, North Korea seats 150,000 — and drew 170,000 for a professional wrestling event.
There is nothing wrong with big, just as long as you can fill it.
This shows that Michigan's brand has not been damaged too much by the Rodriguez era. It also shows that there is great hope for the future behind head coach Brady Hoke, who has revived the spirit of Michigan again.
-- Lions coach Jim Schwartz is willing to give an autographed football to whoever comes up with the best name for his defensive line. I don't know what the best name is but the most popular amongst fans is Suh-nami. He will get a bunch of those on his Twitter account.
