[MUSIC]

Zach, thank you so much for showing us this wonderful facility.

Memorial Stadium redone, right?

When were all these wonderful renovations done?

>> Okay, the premium seating area, this opened up in the 2008 football season.

This was part of over $120 million renovation.

>> Wow.

>> In 2008, 2007, 2008 range, this opened up.

So that was the first year for it.

And Eastern Illinois actually was our first opponent for that season.

That was the first visiting team that came in.

>> Wow, so $120 million for a place that's used six times a year.

But as I understand, this is not paid for by the tax dollars.

This is not paid by tuition.

This comes as a self-supporting entity because of both the football,

the television revenues, all the other events that you have here.

>> That is correct, yeah.

We have not only our home football games, and last year we had seven,

this year we'll have six home games here on site.

But it's used throughout the year as well for different events.

Outside rentals are used in this area currently in the preview seating

area it is usually upstairs.

The Colonnades Club especially is used for weddings, and

other outside events that people rent out the facility for.

Especially in the summer time, you'll have,

every weekend there will be a lot of weddings coming up here.

>> Wow, wow, all right.

Hey, let's go see the place.

>> All right.

>> And this is where you'd have wedding receptions and things, right?

>> Yes, so this is the main level where all wedding receptions are held.

>> Okay.

>> So there's the [INAUDIBLE] outside different groups we have our EIA all

staff meeting up here.

Currently actually as well as of today our student athletes this is where they have

their dinners in the evening.

All our student athletes would come up here.

>> Wow.

>> As well in the evening.

But yeah this is again, the Colonnade level,

it's the outdoor seating is your permanent seating.

And then you have your indoor your concession stands, bathrooms,

are all inside.

>> Yep, can we, can we get to it?

>> Absolutely.

>> Yeah, yeah!

It even stays open.

>> Yes.

>> [LAUGH] Look at this.

I love that everyone's got a cup holder, right.

>> There you go.

>> Because here, you can drink.

There's bars, right.

>> That is correct, yeah.

>> Correct.

>> The only portion of the stadium where alcohol is served is in our premium

seating level.

So our suites, 77 [INAUDIBLE] >> Now, the economics.

If I want to sit here instead of way up there,

where I'm sitting, what's the procedure?

You have to also donate money to the athletic association too, right.

>> There is a process, and I will say I am not that guy.

But a lot of each section is based off of a yearly contract you guaranteed so

many years and you'll pay a certain amount of money each year for one ticket.

>> And it's not cheap everybody.

I remember doing the math on this before especially

when we go up to the private boxes.

If you average it out per ticket per seat, not here,

but upstairs it's in the thousands per ticket per seat that you're paying.

Here it's certainly in the hundred, couple hundred, I would think.

Come out that way, you have to buy the $55 ticket too.

>> Well, yeah.

[LAUGH] >> But,

you can see that you're experienced from watching a game from here

as opposed to the 50,000 people is a premier experience.

And one of the reasons that the boxes are useful

is because they're done often by corporate entities.

Fox Development, for instance, who built many of the buildings in

the Research Park, including one my small business rents, does this.

And it's an extra bonus because you get to know Peter Fox a bit.

And every couple of years, maybe you get a couple of tickets to his box, all right?

And that's why I've been in his box, not because I ever paid for it myself.

>> [LAUGH] All right, a guest.

>> But as a guest.

And interactions and the things you can do are, and

the other people you're talking to is pretty neat.

So I can see for someone that has a large company that's in tune with the town,

why it's an important investment.

All right, and you guys, since you're not going to be paying hundreds of

dollars a seat, you get to see it today.

[LAUGH] >> There you go, right?

>> That's right.

>> It's a pretty good seat you've got the overhang so you're out of the elements.

>> I know out of the sun out of the rain.

Yeah, and what is the seating capacity now of the stadium?

>> 60 to 63,000.

>> 63,000 okay.

So the reason this is called Memorial Stadium is that it

memorialize's the veterans that died in World War I.

The World War.

At least at that point it wasn't called World War I, right?

They weren't predicting, this was the World War.

And you will see a column and you'll see their names inscribed on each column.

Which is pretty cool.

>> Yeah.

>> So the names, their unit.

Very impressive.

And how many names are on all the columns?

>> [INAUDIBLE] >> I think it's on the order of 100.

>> Right, because you're going to have a, this is identical east side as well.

We have a whole nother stretch of columns on the east side as well.

>> Right.

>> This is you guys can access this on game days without actually having

a premium seating ticket.

>> Really?

>> The tower ramps if you go down to the bottom level you'll see a sign on

the tower ramps that say columns and the ramps will lead all the way up here.

So you could actually bring your family and

friends up here without having a premium seating ticket.

>> Wow I didn't know that.

I didn't know that.

And we get a pretty good view of a power plant which we visited and

a super computer center which we visited.

Now, like Peter Fox's suite,

the are much smaller than this which you can kind of get a feeling for.

But the cool thing is that there's a seat for each person,

if you want to sit here and watch the game.

And some of these windows actually open up partway,

not the ones in front of the stairways, by the way.

>> [LAUGH] >> Learned that.

>> But so you can get some outdoor feel and noise.

And of course there's video screens everywhere that have the game on it.

And bartenders and food, and it's neat.

I mean, it's not something I don't think I would ever pay for, personally.

>> [LAUGH] >> But once a year,

get some invitation up to one of these.

And not only do you get the wonderful experience of the game, and

the food, and the drink, but the people you're talking to right,

are also usually if you get invited here which I've never been.

But the chancellor, the president of the university talk about stuff.

>> TV is what really powers of the economics of this whole system.

>> Yeah maybe we have 60,000 people watching the game live, but there

will be millions watching it on television and those contracts are for many millions.

>> When we play a non conference school, all those Big 10 schools are kind of used

to the set up, but when we bring in LSA, Eastern Illinois or Illinois State.

When they come up here and

see kind of what they get to work out of they're fairly impressed.

[LAUGH] >> Yeah,

they're having 60,000 seat stadium.

You might not recognize that, right?

But Eastern right, everyone's heard of the school.

But the stadium for the football is more,

just like a slightly bigger version of a high school football stadium.

I mean, it's no, it's bleachers, right, on each side.

>> Right, they got a main grandstand.

>> Yeah, so this is really the big time.

>> Big 10 Conference football it is right up there at the top,

arguably with the SEC and all of them, so.

>> Yeah.

And it's a big business.

>> Yes, yeah, this is the media level.

So on game days you have, if you take a look up here, you've got about three rows

of media seatings that has got everybody covering the game.

>> Newspaper reporters.

>> Television networks.

Whoever is here covering that specific game, so

this whole stretch of area is for them.

This is also used for other press conferences throughout the week.

You ever see on fightingillini.com Coach Groce or other head coaches when they have

their press conference, they come hold it up here as well this side of the area.

You see kind of all the pictures up here, they redid.

They put kind of former Illinois athletes.

I'm sure most of you probably would be familiar with Dee Brown, Deron Williams

>> Yep.

>> That was probably the closest you guys would probably remember.

But every Sports Illustrated cover that an Illinois athlete.

>> So Dee Brown was on the cover?

>> Yep, that year, we went to the national title game, he was-

>> Yeah, and

then you can see how the things slide here.

You see better outside but of course they got the seats so

they don't get faded by the sun.

Right, well you can sit down here and see the game, or

you can be back up here eating and drinking.

You would think, that you would get free food and drink for paying so much.

Well, you do if you're a guest, of course.

But actually, the suite owner still has to buy the alcohol and the food,

and the dessert cart that comes through.

It's not free, but you don't pay anything at the time, right?

They just sort of keep track and then bill the suite owners.

And they have service people, probably staff that works for you.

You don't just have to, you'll have somebody mixing your drinks for you.

And making sure, you need this, or this, or this.

I remember we were at one, and they said my wife Marilyn is with me.

And I said what would you like to drink and

she said well do you have some Irish whiskey?

She likes Jameson and the guy was just aghast.

He says we don't, but I'll get it for you.

And she was like I'll have something else it's fine.

No no that's my job right?

And in 10, 15 minutes later, boy, there was a bottle of Jameson there.

And, well, very good event staff.

>> [LAUGH] Yeah, it's all of the catering last season was ran by University Housing,

so they handled all of that.

Actually down on the second floor, I believe,

is the kitchen area, and that's where the run all their

operation out of, so they- >> I'm not sure how much Peter Fox had to

pay for that, by the way, but- >> [LAUGH]

>> Man, for his guests it got there.

>> Right!

>> So right, yeah.

This is pretty, okay, let's see the field.

So I gotta tell you something about the field.

This is artificial turf, but it looks like my God, there's dirt!

But this is the coolest stuff.

It's rubber dirt.

Something like ground up tires, better than that.

And so it has the feel of real grass,

because this is actually I think it's 6 inches deep.

>> Yeah it is a whole lever.

>> Yeah so 6 inches deep and

the artificial grass that comes through is that long.

You have all this dirt with the grass coming through just like you would

real dirt so your cleats dig in and everything.

And it has some cushion and give to it and it drains.

So that's the most important thing because below that are drainage channels, right.

So when it does rain, all the water will drip through.

And you won't have a muddy mess and break legs, and everything else, so.

Yeah, so you can take some.

You've gone to a coal plant and gotten coal.

And you can take some dirt, in quotes, from Memorial Stadium.

>> Rubber pellets.

>> [INAUDIBLE] There's no painting required.

This is all just set.

>> If you ever want to change the logo it's a lot work.

>> [LAUGH] Yeah.

There's, if you want to actually.

>> Right around the edges, getting that all out.

>> Right now they're being taken down from the marathon.

Yes during most of those are up.

>> But it is cool that the marathon will end right here.

>> Yep!

>> At the 50 yard line.

>> Right across.

>> And again that's one of the other, nice uses of the field.

>> Right!

>> You no longer let the intramural football league play here though?

>> Yeah, I don't know about that, I don't handle that but.

>> No, No, >> I think they play the indoor

>> Yeah.

>> Sometimes during the winter time the indoor.

>> Long when this was long before the remodeling, long before the fancy field.

Like I said, I've been here a long time, but 25 years ago they'd also use

the field for the intramural flag football and they had it arranged.

>> Yeah we're still involved with intramurals with the indoor facility

during the winter time.

Every night acutally- >> You use the indoor facility.

That makes sense.

>> For different rec sports.

>> Well this is a very impressive facility and I think it shows and

illustrates that maybe you watch a sporting event or

football game, but to actually see the stuff not being used.

It's massive.

The scale that has to be done.

The number of people that have to work here and to get everything ready for

that one short event.

>> Yeah. >> And then cleaned up.

>> Right, it is a process.

It takes, we run back to back weeks during the fall, but it's kind of fun.

When you finish one game you're wrapping up Monday morning and

then you're planning for that next Saturday.

And it takes the entire athletic department involved every single

department within the DIA, has a hand in football game days.

>> And when the Bears were here, there was that one weekend where we had

a game on Saturday, and a Bears game on Sunday That was amazing.

>> I was not here for that.

But I've heard stories.

>> And my son was in high school football and

had a high school game on Friday night, and then on Monday night,

he was on the JV game, right, so I had four football games in a row.

But the contrast was astounding, going from high school, to college to pro.

And even the changes in the stadium, because they sold beer in the stands for

that season.

The Soldier field, the professional stadium in Chicago was being remodeled, so

the Bears relocated here.

And you had bus loads of fans It was.

>> Yeah.

>> It was amazing.

>> I've heard some interesting stories of when the Bears were in town.

We love to have them, but it was- >> Took some effort.

>> Took some effort for sure, yes.

>> Took a state law change too, to be able to sell beer in the open stadium area

>> Really, okay.

>> Yeah, so well, that was good.

Well, thank you very much.

>> Yes!

>> I really appreciate this.

>> I'm glad that we could show you around.

>> We got to see a little more about how a big college stadium works.

[MUSIC]

How Things Work: Behind the Scenes at a Football Stadium

Energy, Environment, and Everyday Life

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