By JOHN E. HOOVER Sports Columnist on Jan 13, 2013, at 5:11 PM Updated on 1/13 at 5:12 PM
GAME POINT
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NORMAN — Although Bob Stoops was the one sitting on the high stool and it was a handful of writers who were plopped comfortably in the theater chairs of Oklahoma’s Adrian Peterson Team Meeting Room, we were the ones who just about fell out of our seats.
One of the questions to Stoops during Friday’s season-wrap interview session was whether he wanted to see Memorial Stadium grow and add more seats.
“No,” Stoops said. “Just a better press box.”
We all laughed, but he was serious.
“It'll make it a bigger stadium,” Stoops explained. “They just need to go end zone to end zone kind of like Nebraska did.”
While OU in recent years has paid particular attention to improving concourse amenities and video capabilities and luxury suites, the Harold Keith Press Box has become severely outdated. Press box facilities of Big 12 newcomers West Virginia and TCU — modern dining areas, superior unobstructed field views, cutting edge computer technology and unlimited television viewing options — showed just how far Oklahoma’s press box facilities have slipped.
Press row denizens have known this for years. Many in the Fourth Estate spend up to 8-10 hours in the press box on gameday, and who could be opposed to making scores of writers and broadcasters and PR personnel and NFL scouts more comfortable during their six or seven fall Saturdays in Norman?
I’ve never seen Stoops anywhere near the press box in nine years covering OU, but somehow he has become aware of it, too.
“You look at how great the east side is,” Stoops said, “you have to do something equal or better for you guys, more seating, more boxes.”
I like the way Stoops thinks.
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