CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The University of Illinois will permanently remove about 2,200 seats from Memorial Stadium because the temporary bleacher seats, which were installed in 1982, are getting too old to use.
On Tuesday, Kent Brown, assistant athletic director for media relations, said the move will drop the stadium’s capacity from 62,870 to about 60,600. Engineers who have examined the seats said they should be removed.
Brown said the seats are not unsafe yet, but might be in a few years.
“People who renewed season tickets will be absorbed into other areas in (the) horseshoe,” Brown said. “If for some reason renewal is high enough that there aren’t enough openings, we’ll put them in the east balcony for a year and then transfer them back into the horseshoe.”
He said the possibility for future renovation of the south end zone influenced the decision not to replace the seats. He added that future renovations will allow for the potential to “add more seats or move the horseshoe closer to the field.”
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“There’s no set plan on the south end zone,” Brown said. “I think (adding additional seating) might be a discussion point when we get to that stage.”
The Daily Illini contributed to this report
