The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
10 - Tuesday, March 11, 2008
BIG HOUSE
From Page 1
be removed to make room for the
addition.
The pre-settlement project esti-
mate said the stadium's capacity
by the conclusion of the project in
2010 would top 108,000, an addi-
tion of 500 seats from the start of
the project. But because today's
settlement will remove an esti-
mated 1,500 seats from the bowl,
it's unclear whether that will be
enough to make Michigan Stadium
the biggest again.
"Over time, we again expect to
have the largest capacity of any
stadium in the country," Hage said.
"We have to wait until 2010 to see
how the new seating shakes out."
The settlement also requires the
University to renovate a total of
20 bathrooms over the next three
years so they comply with ADA
regulations, designatehandicapped
spaces at nearby parking lots, pro-
vide shuttles from these lots, train
all ushers how to assist disabled
people, begin actively marketing
football tickets to disabled fans and
make sure that gameday amenities
like ticket offices and concession
stands are accessible.
Lawyers on both sides of the
table said they were happy with the
outcome of the settlement.
"All of the parties approached
these discussions with the spirit
of compromise," Hage said. "We're
very, very pleased that we were able
to reach an agreement."
NO LONGER THE BIG HOUSE?
Most students interviewed said
they were disappointed but under-
stood the need for the settlement
upon hearingthe news yesterday.
Engineering senior Steven
LaForest said he agreed that the
stadium was unwelcoming to dis-
abled fans. He said attended a foot-
ball game last year with his brother,
who needed to use a wheelchair
because he had injured his ankle.
They found it was hard for his
brother to get to his seat and to the
bathroom, LaForest said.
"It's unfortunate that we aren't
the biggest anymore but I don't
think we should let our need to be
the biggest stadium get in the way
of disability necessities," he said.
Some students were frustrated
about the settlement because the
University had frequently said
through the approval process
for the renovation project that
it wouldn't affect the stadium's
capacity.
Engineering graduate student
John Nanry said he thoughtthe Big
House "might lose a bit of its per-
sonality if it's not the biggest," but
added that Penn State's Beaver Sta-
dium already felt bigger because it
traps sound better than Michigan
Stadium.
Richard Bernstein, an attorney
for the Michigan Paralyzed Veter-
ans, saidtheUniversityhadto make
the unpleasant choice of either sac-
rificing the stadium's accessibility,
its status as the largest stadium, or
the planned luxury boxes. If the
University wanted to add wheel-'
chair-accessible seats but remain
the largest, for instance, it could
have chosen to add more rows of
seating to the top of the bowl, but
that would blocked the construc-
tion of luxury boxes.
He said the University initial-
ly intended to maintain the Big
House's size while building luxury
boxes at the expense of accessibil-
ity.
"They couldn't be the largest, be
ADA-accessible and have skyboxes
all at the same time. They could
only have two," Bernstein said.
"They made their decision when
they decided to put in their sky-
boxes."
University officials including
Athletic Director Bill Martin have
said the revenue from luxury boxes
will eventually recoup the cost of
the project. He has maintained that
the Athletic Department chose to
add luxury boxes because it was
the only plan that could improve
the stadium's accommodations for
all fans without losing money.
BEHIND THE SETTLEMENT
The settlement resolves a year-
long dispute over the Americans
With Disabilities Act that eventu-
ally dragged the U.S. Education
Department and Justice Depart-
ment into the fray.
The plaintiffs argued that the
University had failed to follow
ADA rules, which require that pub-
lic venues like Michigan Stadium
make 1 percent of seats wheelchair-
accessible and disperse those seats
throughout the venue.
Because Michigan Stadium was
built in 1927, 65 years before the
ADA went into effect, it would be
exempt from those regulations
until it underwent what the ADA
calls an "alteration."
The plaintiffs argued that the
stadium had undergone a signifi-
cant alteration in the form of proj-
ects like concrete replacement;
University lawyers said those
projects should count as "repairs,"
which don't trigger those require-
ments.
The Michigan Paralyzed Veter-
ans threatened to sue in late 2006,
after the University moved ahead
with plans to renovate Michi-
gan Stadium. Michael Harris, the
group's deputy executive director,
said at the time that the Univer-
sity's plan to add 76 wheelchair-
accessible seats to the stadium
wasn't enough.
After months of increasingly
vocal disapproval, the group filed
suit in April 2007 in an effort to
push the University to modify the
stadium renovation plans. But the
University Board of Regents voted
to approve the final construction
plans for the project by a 6-2 vote
two months later.
In late October, after negotia-
tions between the University and
the Michigan Paralyzed Veterans
failed to produce a compromise,
the U.S. Department of Education
sent a letter saying the University
had violated the rights of disabled
fans and threatened to refer the
case to the Justice Department or
withhold funding if the University
didn't repair those violations. The
letter, which outlined the find-
ings of a 15-year investigation into
Michigan Stadium, said the stadi-
um didn'thave enough wheelchair-
accessible seating and criticized
the accessibility of stadium facili-
ties, including bathrooms, con-
cessions, merchandise stands and
parking lots.
After a series of letters back and
forth, the University offered on
Nov. 19 to add removable platforms
to the stadium that would add as
many as 300 more wheelchair-
accessible seats. That was two days
after the last game of the regular
season and one day after construc-
tion workers broke ground on the
expansion project by building fenc-
es around the construction site.
The University's proposal didn't
pass muster with Department of
Education, which referred the case
to the Justice Department the next
day. The Justice Department suc-
cessfully joined the case as a co-
plaintiff a week later and began
sending investigators to document
the stadium's level of compliance.
For the next three months, the
debate went behind closed doors,
with lawyers for the veterans
group and the Justice Department
discussing a settlement with the
University.
The case was scheduled to go to
trial this fall, but it never got that
far.
FEDERAL INVOLVEMENT
Bernstein said the Justice
Department's intervention was
key to the veterans group's abil-
ity to broker a settlement.
"The DOJ made the case,"
Bernstein said. "They're like
superheroes. They come in, do
incredible work, and then they
leave. They were the key, and
that can't be disputed."
He said he thinks the agree-
ment will cause reverberations that
are heard far beyond the confines
of the Big House.
"This is going to create greater
access for people with disabilities
all across the country," Bernstein
said. "It sends a very important
message to all developers and peo-
ple in real estate that if you take an
existing structure and you alter
that structure, you've got to bring it
up to ADA code."
Although the Big House settle-
ment doesn't set a legal-precedent
because the case never went to
court, it could steer the way other
colleges and developers undertake
construction projects.
Minh Vu, an attorney who
specializes in ADA litigation,
said there's very little case law
explaining the difference between
alterations and repairs, meaning
developers have been responsible
for interpreting the law themselves
and acting accordingly. Vu, for-
merly the counselor to the Justice
Department's assistant attorney
general for civil rights, said this
case is important because it shows
what the Justice Department
expects from developers.
"The settlement is not binding
precedent for anyone, but future
litigants will certainly look at that
document for guidance as to what
the law requires," said Vu, a part-
ner at Washington, D.C. law firm
Epstein, Becker & Green. "You now
have a public pronouncement on
what the DOJ's position is."
For the next several years, the
Justice Department will monitor
the University's progress in mak-
ing the required changes. In 2011,
it will decide whether the stadium
is accessible to disabled people or
needs further work.
Bernstein said he's confident the
problems cited in the settlement
will be resolved.
"We look at this as a wonderful
win-win and a very positive out-
come," Bernstein said. "When we
reconvene in 2011, we'll be able to
see how things go from there, but
we have a long time until then."
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