Utah football fans have some complaints about Rice-Eccles Stadium. Here’s how the U. is improving things.

On game days, Jeff Platt keeps a watchful eye on his 9-year-old son, Pierce, while steering through a crowd of red and black at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

The lines are always long and the tight concourse of the University of Utah’s 51,444-seat stadium is always jam-packed with fans, searching for concessions, bathrooms and, finally, a way back to their seats.

“Sometimes it’s just an absolute nightmare,” Platt, a longtime Utes fan, said. “You’re waiting 10 to 15 minutes to go to the bathroom, then you’re waiting 10 to 15 minutes just to get food and then you’re waiting 10 to 15 minutes to try and swim through the people.”

If it weren’t for his son, Platt said he’d stop coming.

“I’d rather just sit on my couch and drink a beer with friends,” he said.

Platt isn’t alone.

“Between quarters or halves, I just don’t want to fight with the crowd,” said Rich Austin, another longtime Utah fan.

Alongside concerns about congestion, some fans have complaints about Utah’s game day atmosphere. Why doesn’t Rice-Eccles have LED lights? Where are the nighttime drone shows?

Especially during a losing season like last year — when the Utes failed to reach a bowl game — some Utah fans have said they want other amenities to look forward to inside their favorite college football cathedral.

“I’m like, ‘What do I talk about now, unless we’re winning?’” Josh Smith, an avid fan, said.

Utah athletic officials say they’ve heard the complaints and are working to create solutions for the fans.

“They’ve been able to supply a road map of where we need to go,” Utah Deputy Athletics Director and Chief Revenue Officer Patrick Nowlin told The Salt Lake Tribune.

“We really want to have the surprise and delight moments for our fans, because we understand that they’re very important to us.”

‘Want to see improvements’

Ahead of this season, Nowlin and Associate Athletics Director for Facilities, Operations and Capital Projects Gavin Gough skimmed through “thousands” of fan surveys to understand how to improve the experience at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

“We want to make sure that when they’re in there, they have a great experience, and then they want to come back,” Nowlin said.

Gough added: “We want people to spend as much time in their seats as possible.”

In an effort to create an improved fan experience, the Utes are relying on a mix of old and new.

The university reintroduced the Ute Walk this season, a tradition where the team walks down 500 South to the stadium, often accompanied by the spirit squad and marching band. The U. has also brought back Red Thunder, the cannon that blasts after every Utah touchdown. It was removed from the stadium from 2021-24.

Against Cal Poly, Utah had an F-35 flyover during the national anthem.

“I was honestly ecstatic to see the flyover,” Smith said. “I loved the cannon, and the fireworks after scores. There were a lot of changes happening so quickly.”

The Utes will also have their first-ever drone show during a night game, Nowlin said.

Utah also looked to improve food options for premium-seat members at the Ken Garff Red Zone.

Nowlin said in the terrace area of the south end zone club, the Utes have introduced “all you can eat” food options, so “fans can leave their wallet at home” and have “all the Pepsi, all the chicken tenders and all the hot dogs they want.”

The Utes also expanded and improved their premium food menu. One of the newest additions follows one of Utah’s most popular traditions: a dirty soda stand.

“We want to make sure we are improving, and we’re not guessing,” Nowlin said.

But what about the long lines at concessions?

“It’s difficult,” Gough said. “But, every year, we’re up to it, and we try to adjust things here and there to make that smooth and easy.”

Several years ago, Gough and the athletic department started snaking lines to try to avoid bottlenecks on the concourse.

This year, the Utes introduced dedicated mobile-ordering pickup stands. Those can be found on a map in the Utah 360 app.

“That’s really going to help those that want to skip the line or stay in their seat, order their food and get back to their seat to enjoy tough football,” Gough said.

There are also new “grab and go” stations with artificial intelligence-powered checkout areas.

Gough says that “you can grab your game day items, use that AI technology to pay and go back to your seat in seconds.”

Still, the Utah assistant AD said he knows “it takes any amount of time to go to the concourse to use the restroom or get food,” so the U. added TVs to the concession areas, so fans can continue watching the games.

Last year, Utah installed refillable soda machines near concession stands to help reduce lines, but after a wave of fan complaints, the school — in partnership with Pepsi — added more stations to cut down on wait times.

While the new mobile ordering system and other updates didn’t completely eliminate concourse congestion, Smith noted that “it didn’t feel as intense.”

“I just want to see improvements attempted,” Smith said. “It’d be more concerning if they weren’t trying anything at all.”

And there are more long-term projects on the way, officials said.

Potential for 2034 Winter Olympics funding?

Over two decades ago, when Salt Lake City was preparing to host its first Winter Olympics, the U. spent $50 million to improve Rice-Eccles. The university added the west tower, which is now visible from downtown, to prepare for the games’ opening and closing ceremonies.

Ahead of the 2034 Winter Olympics, the U. is once again creating a plan — and bids — for stadium improvements. But it doesn’t expect any financial support the state legislature this time around.

The reason? RES is already in good shape to host the next opening and closing ceremonies.

“There’s certainly no expectation that we would be getting any Utah taxpayer dollars to support hosting the games and the piece of the games that we’re hosting at the University of Utah,” Jennifer Reed, Utah’s vice president of auxiliary services, told The Tribune.

“Anything that we can do to improve Rice-Eccles from a fan-experience perspective is just going to complement our hosting of the games in 2034,” she added

The top two long-term projects, right now, are improving the often congested concourse and adding more premium seating to the west tower.

“That may include additional elevators, and it could include escalators,” Reed said of potential expansions to the west tower. “Better mobility between the lower levels and the upper levels is something that we were looking at.”

In addition to that, Utah is also looking at potentially expanding its concourse. But, Reed noted, “concourse expansion is a very large, impactful project that would be very expensive.”

Even if the project were to be funded, Reed said, it could eliminate Utah’s ability to play in the stadium for an unspecified amount of time.

“Those are two projects that I’d love to manage right now,” Reed said. “We do not have funding identified for those projects at this time.”

A short-term project Reed has at the top of her agenda, however, is adding an LED lighting system to Utah’s stadium. That has been a major ask from Utah fans for the last several years.

“Now that hasn’t gone to bid, we are in the early stages of planning that,” Reed said. “But new lighting is our highest priority right now.”

For some, the improvements couldn’t come soon enough.

“I know the university continues to act like they’re trying to do things about it,” Austin said. “But they seem to make such small strides on this type of stuff, and it’s kind of frustrating.”

Still, other Utes fans are just happy to see improvements coming down the pipeline.

“I’m noticing improvements,” Smith said, “but we have to continue stepping it up.”

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