The Cincinnati Bearcats are about seven months away from moving into their shiny new digs at Nippert Stadium. Most of the $86 million project has focused on the press box that has been towering ever further into the sky over the last year or so.
And for good reason.
Nippert is effectively upgrading every aspect of their premium seat offerings with these renovations, adding 1,100 club seats and 53 suites. This from literally a handful of luxury seats via the George Smith Society in the old press box. Plus the structure is massive, wrapping perfectly around the West side of the stadium to further enclose the field and funnel as much sound as possible down on the players and coaches below. You literally have to strain yourself to try to not see the new press box.
New Nippert Stadium renderings courtesy Go Bearcats.
But construction on the East side, while less publicized, is equally important and an update from the University of Cincinnati’s official athletics website revealed the first renderings of this portion of the project.
There’s nothing flashy about these pictures, the full photo gallery is here, but you can see the benefits that those of us who can’t afford thousand-dollar seats will reap from these $86 million renovations. The concourse has been expanded, allowing for easier movement of foot traffic, and there will be new bathrooms that were blasted out of the Varsity Village garage. If you recall in the current design, fans lined out the door to try to get into the small, outdated restroom buildings. This caused frustration from these folks and those trying to pass through. Expanding the concourse and adding larger restrooms off the main path will alleviate those problems.
Additionally, the construction crew is using the extra space provided by removing the old bathrooms to expand the concession stands on the East side. This will further reduce congestion by offering more options for fans so they aren’t forced to stand in long lines in front of just a few stands. And the extra revenue these will generate is always a good thing.
So, as mentioned, these renderings aren’t especially exciting or unexpected. However the fact that we have visual confirmation that UC is focusing on improving the game day experience for the richest and poorest fan is very encouraging.