Is Houck Stadium Too Small To Host Playoff Games?

The stellar season of the Southeast Football Redhawks may have created a problem for the University:

Houck Stadium may be too small to be considered a host for future playoff games.

Yes, I know this is the first time in the team's 104-year history that they have ever made the playoffs at any level. I also know that this may be one of those times when the right-blend of talent and coaching and luck resulted in the record-setting year of football and that this season may be a total fluke. It's possible that SEMO may be destined for another 100-year playoff drought.

But then again, maybe not.

Perhaps, this is the start of a Football Dynasty and winning seasons and playoff games will be what we should expect for years to come. It could happen.

However, I would not expect SEMO to host too many playoff games with Houck Stadium as it stands today. I think it is too small and not nice enough. Playoff games generate lots of revenue for the participating universities and the NCAA, and the bigger and nicer your stadium, the more money the institutions will make. In short, a school's stadium matters.

Now some of you may think that Houck isn't so small. After all, Roos Field, the stadium at Eastern Washington University the Redhawks will be playing at this weekend, only seats about a thousand more than Houck. That is true, but it is not the whole story.

Roos Field also has a distinctive red artificial turf new for this season. Houck's boring old green turf is ten-years-old. Roos Field has luxury suites for donors with big checkbooks to lease. Houck has none. And EWU has a plan to enlarge the seating at Roos Field to over 20,000. If SEMO has a similar plan they are keeping it quiet.

And frankly, if SEMO were to try to expand the seating at Houck, it would be a challenge. To the south is Bellevue Street and Houck Field House. To the west is a residence hall. The east end of the field is home to tailgating where a number of big boosters like to convene for games. I don't think any of them would like that area to go away. That just leaves the north side. I suppose some additional seating could be carved into the hillside, but why bother? We'd still be left with an aging stadium.

No, I believe if the University is to have a shot at hosting playoff games in the future, then SEMO needs a new stadium.

Unfortunately, this raises another problem. Where would you put it? The current campus has no place big enough to locate one. And while the University could partner with the Cape Girardeau Public School System to enlarge Cape Central's yet-to-be-built-but-already-funded football stadium it's just too far away from the main campus. The University likes their properties as close to Normal as possible.

However, I may have found the perfect location. What about upper-downtown, the area bordering the 400 through the 700 blocks of Broadway? I think it is perfect. The area is fairly level with lots of space for a stadium and parking, and it's very close to campus.

In addition, this area is often criticized as being run down as the illustration below verifies. Is this really what we want our upper-downtown to look like? I think not.

If the University is entering a veritable football renaissance and we are witnessing the birthing of a Football Dynasty, then Southeast needs an appropriate-sized football stadium and upper-downtown is the ideal location.