Ohio Stadium renovations will result in loss of 2,600 seats

The lifespan of Ohio Stadium came up Tuesday during a press conference in the room Ohio State uses to host recruits on game days. Smith announced a $42 million stadium renovation project that will stretch from 2017 to 2020.

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Compared to the $194 million upgrade in 2001, this is small, but it’s necessary to maintain the stadium. The project, which still has to be approved by the university’s board of trustees, will:

• Restore the 94-year-old concrete in C-deck, the upper level of the stadium.

• Upgrade power distribution systems for the east, west and south stands.

• Improve and upgrade B-deck, adding better lighting and larger TVs and improving the sound system and scoreboard for fans in obstructed-view seats.

• Renovate the premium seating areas, turning the university suites into one suite and adding 35 loge boxes and 12 luxury suites.

The renovation will be paid for with auxiliary funds, debt and private donations. The C-deck concrete restoration will be done in phases from 2017 to 2020. The university suite expansion will be done between the end of the 2016 season and the start of the 2017 season.

Fans will notice construction when the expansion of the suites in the northwest B-deck begins in the 2017 and 2018 seasons.

The changes will result in a loss of approximately 2,600 seats, mostly in the B-deck, where the new loge boxes will be. The loss of seating will result in a loss of $1.8 million during that time frame. Ohio Stadium’s seating capacity will be 102,854 starting in the 2018 season.

“We built that into our financial plan,” Smith said. “When the suites and loges come on line, that will replace that, and that money will be used primarily to pay off our debt, to pay off the loan we used to fund our stadium project.”

Ohio State set an Ohio Stadium attendance record in November with a crowd of 108,975 for a game against Michigan State. Smith said the school isn’t chasing those kinds of numbers.

“I think we’re comfortable with where we are,” he said. “We intend to stay in this area.”