Oregon State’s Reser Stadium will have an official capacity of 35,548 this upcoming football season following a $162 million west side renovation.
Sara Elcano, OSU senior associate athletic director for external operations, said the school produced an official number Wednesday. That doesn’t include tickets for standing room, which gives Oregon State the ability to go beyond 36,000 spectators for a football game.
Reser’s seating capacity prior to the remodel was 43,363.
Some 8,000 seats – which includes benches -- were removed during the renovation and replaced with chair back seats and premium seating. Fewer seats allows Reser to offer closer proximity to the field, more amenities – the concourse area Beaver Street will offer a wide variety of food and beverage options – and increased restrooms.
Oregon State fans are showing interest, as season ticket sales for the 2023 season are promising. The school has seen a 20 percent bump over last year’s season ticket sales, to about 16,700.
Elcano said OSU’s season ticket goal was a 20 percent increase. With more than seven weeks until the Sept. 9 season opener against UC Davis, Elcano says the school is now shooting for 30 percent growth.
Season ticket mini-plans went on sale Monday. Oregon State begins selling single-game tickets for non-conference games against UC Davis and San Diego State on July 31. The home conference games (Utah, UCLA, Stanford, Washington) go on sale Aug. 14.
If Oregon State reaches 30 percent season ticket growth, and student gobble up their allotment of 6,000 tickets, about 11,000 single-game tickets will be available for sale.
“We’re going to land somewhere between 20 and 30 percent growth. I don’t want to say too high. We could have 30 percent because of the momentum and the stadium,” Elcano said. “Everything beyond 20 percent is icing on the cake.”
Last year, Oregon State sold 13,925 season tickets. Since the school began keeping records on season tickets in 2010, the high was 22,450 season tickets sold in 2013.
While the west side is the stadium’s shiny object, Elcano said “what’s been great to see is there’s demand all across the stadium. The Terrace looks great, and the south end zone looks good. The east sideline has always been our anchor and it will be strong again.”
Fans can tour Reser Stadium on Saturday, Aug. 19 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Spectators can check out the entire stadium, buy or change seats to ones that are available, and sample food and drink concession items that will be available during the football season.
--Nick Daschel | ndaschel@oregonian.com | @nickdaschel