The 60,000-seat stadium: Too big for OSU?
Published: 9/13/2006 1:21 PM
Last Modified: 9/13/2006 1:21 PM
Are there actually 60,000 people who will consistently attend Oklahoma State's home football games?
In two years, we'll find out.
By the start of the 2008 season, OSU's Boone Pickens Stadium will be a remarkably attractive facility. Pound for pound, there won't be a better facility in all of college football. OSU will have taken a rusted eyesore and given it a $200 million makeover. The west-end complex should dazzle recruits.
Ultimately, the stadium's seating capacity will be 60,000. The current capacity is 43,500, making OSU's ballpark the smallest in the Big 12, but there were more than 2,000 empty seats for the Sept. 2 season-opening victory over Missouri State.
The obviously improved Cowboys are off to a 2-0 start, but will there be a sellout for Saturday's Florida Atlantic game? Probably not.
In 2001-05, a period that included two victories over Oklahoma and three bowl appearances, the Cowboys played 32 home games in what then was a 48,500-seat stadium. There were only three sellouts – for the 2002 and 2004 Bedlam contests and for the 2003 Texas Tech game. There were a few empty seats when Vince Young-led Texas visited Stillwater last season.
OSU soon will have the facilities necessary to become an important football school, but the Cowboys won't have a complete program unless fans respond by purchasing tickets and filling the stadium.
The Cowboys have an attractive home schedule this season. You know the Nov. 25 Bedlam game will be a sellout, but what about the Texas A&M (Oct. 21) and Nebraska (Oct. 28) games? If OSU can't pack a 43,500-seat ballpark for conference collisions with the Aggies and Huskers, is it a mistake to inflate the stadium capacity to 60,000?
Time will tell.
-- Bill Haisten
Written by
Bill Haisten
Sports Writer
