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BEN SIMON/Daily
The Big House stands to lose a significant number of bleacher seats with the athletic department's
proposed renovations. The bleacher seats would be replaced by more expensive club seats and luxury
suites.
Stop the skyboxes
As I sat in Michigan Stadium on a gor-
geous day for the opener against Van-
derbilt, my eyes kept drifting upward to
scan the equally gorgeous setting. For
45 years I've gazed at the same oddly
thrilling sight: the top row of specta-
tors, some of them standing, silhou-
etted, behind them the sharp rim of the
bowl. Beyond that, blue sky; above it,
pennants snapping. It's simple. It's per-
fection.
And I thought: Who in their right mind
would mess with this?
Mary Sue Coleman and Bill Martin,
that's who. The new president can almost
be forgiven: She came from Iowa, where
evidently a stadium expansion is a very
impressive, exciting, big-time thing.
Martin should know better.
The monstrosities the athletic direc-
tor proposes to attach to the east and
west sides of the stadium are wrong in
so many ways that I can't believe the
idea coasted through the public pro-
cess through that any major university
construction must pass. Oh, wait - it
didn't coast. The regents' vote was 5-
3, an unheard-of level of dissent. And
oh - it was just barely public, with the
vote (their most significant in recent
history) smuggled onto the agenda at
the 11th hour. What an embarrassment
to the University.
The obvious flaws are bad enough: The
numbers that don't add up; the pathetic
embrace of a corporate/professional
mentality; the undemocratic division of
spectators into happily huddled masses
and cosseted aristocracy; the jaw-drop-
ping overreaction to easily remedied
problems of bathrooms, access and press
amenities. But worse is the violence to
tradition and aesthetics.
Martin says he's planning for the next
80 years. Explain then, please: How did
the current stadium design manage to
thrive for the past 80 years as the envy
of the country? (If Martin wanted a pow-
der room in his house, would he add a
two-story wing?)
Maybe the regents think they're
being imaginative, looking a century
ahead. Quite the opposite. They are
copying what other schools are doing.
They are bowing to -trends. They are
spending because they can. But shell-
ing out $230 million for fat cats and
new toilets can't possibly be the smart-
est way to boost revenue.
Surely there are architects (enough
have graduated from Michigan in recent
decades) who could come up with a plan
that would accomplish Martin's finan-
cial and design goals without destroying
the stadium's character.
If someone doesn't say something soon
(like just one more dissident regent),
we'll be looking at the hole that Yost
dug, Canham carpeted, Schembechler
filled and Martin ruined.
True Michigan fans don't pay tens of
thousands of dollars to watch the varsity
from cushy enclosures. We sit on cold
benches and love every minute.
The new plan dilutes the collegiate
(and collegial) experience and lays waste
to 80 years of tradition. Of course the
stadium has changed over the decades -
slightly. The shape, the outline, the feel
of the place remains the same. Compar-
ing this proposed expansion to previous
ones is disingenuous and an insult to our
intelligence.
One of the charms of Michigan Sta-
dium is the contrast between its modest
exterior and stunning interior. And since
when does the University of Michigan
have to do what Ohio State, Iowa and
Michigan State do?
The plan, in a word, is vulgar. Not the
design, necessarily - but the impulse to
chase dollars, to keep up, to show off.
I never dreamed I'd envy Notre Dame,
which has had the sense to preserve its
replica of Michigan Stadium.
Before another clandestine vote is
scheduled or a plan is rubber-simped,
I'd like to request that Mr. Martin and
Ms. Coleman sit in on an art history
class in Angell Hall to learn something
about the merits of symmetry and sim-
plicity in architecture. I'd like them
look at photos of Harmon and Chappius,
of Franklin and Harbaugh, taken from
field level, showing that clean, timeless
backdrop of bundled fans and autumn
sky, and ask themselves: What were we
thinking?
You don't add a verse to The Victors
or a stripe to the helmet. Or a cellphone
antenna to Burton Tower. (Hey, how
about maize and blue and, say, teal?
It's a hot color now; think of the money
you'll make selling new sweatshirts
and caps, Mr. Martin - just like the
NFL!)
Somebody please stop this runaway
train. Which regent will stand up? The
stadium can be improved while preserv-
ing its character. Go ahead: add rows,
build a new press box, free up those top
rows on the west rim. But don't mess
with the sublime symmetry and clean
lines of this classic bowl, which was
built for the ages. Other solutions must
be sought.
For Yost's sake, it's worth a try. Let's
slow down and do this right.
Bill Stieg graduatedfrom the University
in 1977. He can be reached at billstieg@
rodale.com.