Could Rice University build a new football stadium? - Houston Business Journal (bizjournals.com)
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I enjoy watching UH play Rice at their stadium. I hope they don’t demolish Rice Stadium.
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it’ll probably be an exact copy of TDECU
seems to be their schtick lately
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They would be better served to get their stadium down to around 30k seats like Yulman Stadium in New Orleans… hard to get any energy when your stadium is only 20-30% full.
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I believe Rice Stadium is still a fun place to watch a game. If they decided to tear down the stadium and build a 30,000 seat stadium with a retractable roof, I think Rice would be in competition for some high quality recruits. Still, even at 30,000, half the stadium will be empty. I do not think the saying “If you build it, they will come” applies to Rice.
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I understand the thinking from the Rice powers about the stadium. Nontheless, I’d hate to see it torn down-its one of the very few items left from a time when Houston had some true landmarks (astrodome, shamrock Hilton, downtown hotels, movies, etc.) they’re gone now (essentially so is the dome) just like Houston does all its past history. My dad worked on the stadium when it was built, saw high school playoff and championship football games there, Oilers playing there, concerts, etc. Many Rice greats played there and on and on. If they do choose to discard it, hope they try to keep some form of its past history intact for later generations to see.
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Retractable roof?
Yes, but half joking. If Rice builds a smaller stadium they need something unique to attract talent. A retractable roof stadium would be a conversation piece at least the first few years. Maybe it would motivate UH to build a covered stadium when it is time to replace TDECU.
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They can pull students interested in service academies tbh. High quality education and no service obligation afterwards.
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air conditioning that blows up through the turf
Rice Stadium is awful in its current state imo. It makes watching the XFL intolerable compared to TDECU. I am a big architectural preservationist, so I’d love for them to innovate and find way to alter/modernize it without tearing it down in the interest of Houston’s history
Honestly they should probably try to build the most bad azz 20,000 seat stadium money can buy- fancy brick facade matching with their campus architecture, gourmet food options, all bucket seats, covered awnings, top notch WiFi, great landscaping, no seat is a bad seat, on and on. Build a specific club for player’s families and friends. It could be a pretty fun atmosphere and help with recruiting if it is swagged out to the max and the stadium feels mostly filled up. Build it as close to Rice Village as possible (like up against the property line with Greenbriar) and integrate restaurants and bars. Make it feel like somewhere people want to be. Make it flexible for other events like concerts, high school events, etc… My 2 cents
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Does Rice even have enough living alums to fill 30,000 seats ?
I think that number is like around the 20k mark.
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Rice has the opposite problem that UH has.
They have a nice fancy Rice Village a few blocks away but an aging stadium.
UH has a modern stadium with a bad area surrounding it.
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If they do a new one, it needs to be no more than 35K and that would be good for them.
lot of money to raise and spend for a stadium, for a school that has no fans to speak of, draws almost no one to their games anymore and no one cares about any more…Could be that their old stadium is in bad enough shape and enough of a ruin that they HAVE to tear it down and build a new one.
Are you describing our fanbase?
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Yeah JD …Or even smaller and more compact… 15,000 in a small 25 or 30 thousand seat stadium could at least feel like there is some sort of crowd there. They have removed seats that no one has sat in for many years, but it still seats around 48000 i think…Rice’s crumbling ruin is depressing to even sit in,these days. Considering their indifference, i am amazed they consider doing it, but they MAY have made promises to the American about improving their situation, stadium wise. That would be my guess why.
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No matter what, do not let them use our stadium if and when they’re building their new stadium. Ruck Fice!!
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Reading the Facebook post no one from rice is impressed and the cut Football talk still remains 
They’re playing sports for fun but they get brought along like they’ve done something - you can swap a swac school for rice in the aac with rice funding and get way more bang for the buck -
Rice is being propped up by women’s sports now