Stadium size that is. A Mercer University study of Rivals.com football recruiting data has reported that recruits consider stadium size as one of the factors that rank highly in determining their selection of a university.
Figure 1. Effect of Stadium Size on Football Recruiting Rankings. (Click to enlarge)
This is the slogan used for the current campaign to increase the athletic donor base at OSU. This is certainly a laudable goal – to increase the size of the donor base is needed to maintain a competitive athletic department as the conference expands to 12 institutions. Continue reading
Bob De Carolis outlined a 3-phase plan for Reser Stadium fund-raising and construction in October 2002. He stated, “We have two additional phases that will eventually bring the capacity of Reser Stadium to 55,000, but we need to prove to everyone that we can raise the money for the first phase of the project and consistently sell out 43,000 seats before we move forward.” Thus, the announcement of Phase II construction was unexpectedly swift, and was done less than 2 years after the $80 million Phase I was completed. OSU had only recorded one sellout of the 43,300 seat stadium in the Phase I configuration, falling short of the stated benchmark for triggering construction of Phase II.
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