[SpawnOfVulcan]

There's nothing wrong with impressively filling up a 55K stadium, no one is arguing against that. What we find short-sighted is building a facility that is sure to succeed only in the very near term (stadiums these days are meant to last 30 - 40 years).

Wayward, the example you post above was a very poor one... what you just showed were figures that prove a point, that Birmingham's bowl attendance is good. During each year in which the SEC had a participant in the bowl game in Birmingham attendance was been over 40,000. Since the SEC expanded, attendance has been over 42,000, and because of expansion it is MUCH more likely that an SEC team will be featured each year. If you want to use the "how much of the capacity was filled" argument, you should probably check and see how much capacity has been filled by each of the BCS games recently... not all of them have been full.

You know, it also stands to reason that a nicer facility in a nicer/safer part of town would increase attendance. Yes, this newer facility would be in a MUCH nicer/safer part of town.

Btw, next time you don't want to start a riot, you probably shouldn't say something as inflammatory or demeaning as How in the world would Birmingham outgrow 55,000? We all understand you're trying to be constructive, but it doesn't help when your initial comment is offensive.