Should West Virginia Expand Milan Puskar Stadium?

I know I'm not the first to bring this up in recent years, months, weeks and probably days but I wanted to dive into whether WVU should increase the seating capacity of Milan Puskar Stadium.

If WVU were to increase the seating capacity of Milan Puskar Stadium, it would certainly bring more traffic woes to a town that already has its fair share of traffic issues.

With an increased attendance rate, Morgantown would have to have more places for those fans to stay. We all know that is also a large issue surrounding football weekends in Morgantown. Hiked hotel rates for football weekends certainly hasn't pleased anyone, but, with more competition, comes more competitive prices.

The real question is if the WVU Athletics Department were to increase the seating capacity of Milan Pusker Stadium, would Morgantown be able to handle an increase in volume of people in an already crowded town?

The answer is yes. Albeit with the proper planning.

Milan Puskar opened up in 1980 with a seating capacity of 50,000. Just five years later WVU added 7,500 seats in the south end zone. A year after that, another 4,000 seats were added in the north end zone. Finally, 10 years ago, 3,500 seats were taken out of Milan Puskar Stadium in favor of luxury suites and the final capacity has been 60,000.

Over the years, more than 60,000 fans have been shoved into the compact stadium on certain occasions when the Mountaineers have played in big games.

Milan Puskar Stadium is loud and one of the best atmosphere's in college football. Night games there are something special and that's with just 60,000 fans.

Imagine what it would be like if they could add another 5,000-10,000 seats.

If WVU were to expand the stadium, they could certainly do so by connecting the two upper decks were the jumbo tron currently is. This would make Milan Puskar more of a bowl type stadium. It would also keep the crowd noise focused on the field and being that the stadium is built into the ground and would be a bowl formatted stadium, the sound would be trapped down at the field and would be all the more louder.

As WVU has played more meaningful games and more nationally ranked opponents since its move to the Big 12, I do believe an expansion would still see the stadium filled. Certainly, the school could expand the student section from its current 12,500 seats to better accommodate the schools rising population at its current 33,000.

With better opponents, comes the rising amount of games later in the afternoon and night games at Milan Puskar Stadium. Another reason that an expansion would see the rise in fans attending the game with an expansion.

What do you think? Should WVU expand Milan Puskar Stadium?