Well it looks like its under consideration

You mean like this

I bet he meant like this

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Apr 9, 2024, 10:20 AM

CLEMSON UNIVERSITY
Clemson exploring concert options at football stadium. Here’s what we know
BY CHAPEL FOWLER
UPDATED JULY 05, 2023 10:32 AM

Fans use their cell phones to light up a darkened stadium, before the start of the fourth quarter at Memorial Stadium in Clemson, South Carolina Saturday, October 1, 2022. KEN RUINARD USA TODAY NETWORK

As Clemson concludes $70 million worth of renovations to Memorial Stadium next month, university officials are already thinking about what’s next for Death Valley.

And they’re doing it with a musical twist.

In an effort to “activate” the school’s 81,500-seat football stadium outside of the seven home games and spring game it hosts every year, Clemson is actively exploring entertainment and concert opportunities for the venue, athletic director Graham Neff told The State.

Memorial Stadium hosted six major concerts in 10 years from 1989 to 1999 – including The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd and Elton John and Billy Joel – but it hasn’t hosted one since then as the Tigers’ football team has grown into a national power and won two national championships.

“We’re looking to activate Memorial Stadium beyond just seven Saturdays and the spring game,” Neff said. “So other entertainment, concert opportunities. We hear about a lot about that. And I know there’s been a lot of history and awesome events there, or shows. So we’re exploring that: how to just continue to drive revenue and engage with the community.”

Clemson’s revisiting of concert possibilities at Death Valley, which has no specific timeline, comes as the school wraps up a two-year, two-phase renovation of its 81-year-old football stadium that began last summer.

As part of a Phase I renovation plan approved in summer 2021, Memorial Stadium got a massive, state-of-the-art videoboard as well as LED lighting and a new premium seating area ahead of the 2022 football season.

Memorial Stadium Phase III, from November 30, 2022 to August 1, 2023, includes work involving Tiger Walk and Lot 5 adjacent to the stadium, and affecting traffic along Centennial Boulevard, according to Clemson University news services reports. It includes a wide pedestrian walkway meant to be more fan-friendly and inviting way to navigate through the mid-level of the WestZone to other areas of the stadium, according to Clemson University.
Memorial Stadium Phase III, from November 30, 2022 to August 1, 2023, includes work involving Tiger Walk and Lot 5 adjacent to the stadium, and affecting traffic along Centennial Boulevard, according to Clemson University news services reports. It includes a wide pedestrian walkway meant to be more fan-friendly and inviting way to navigate through the mid-level of the WestZone to other areas of the stadium, according to Clemson University. Ken Ruinard USA TODAY NETWORK
Phase II of those renovations focused on revamping Clemson’s locker rooms and locker room entrances for both teams and turning the Tiger Walk, one of the program’s top pregame traditions, into a permanent walkway and display as opposed to a temporary one.

Clemson is expecting to finish Phase II renovations and the Memorial Stadium renovation project at large by the time the school year starts this August, Neff said, and well ahead of the football team’s 2023 home opener against Charleston Southern on Saturday Sept. 9.

A number of the completed or soon-to-be completed renovations line up with Clemson’s stated goal of making Memorial Stadium a 24/7 venue – that is, a place fans (or perhaps concertgoers) can visit and enjoy year-round as opposed to exclusively on fall Saturdays.

Outside of adding the country’s eighth largest videoboard, last year’s Phase I renovations also raised the bottom of the video board 20 feet off the ground, opening a 365-day view of Memorial Stadium for visitors.

This year’s Tiger Walk renovations will do the same for a longtime pregame tradition instituted by coach Dabo Swinney in which the team walks through the Rogers Family Lot west of the stadium and greets fans on its way into the stadium.

Though nothing’s official, Neff said Clemson has already “picked up the pencil, so to speak, on what’s next at Memorial Stadium” renovations-wise.

“Getting into concourses, restrooms, concessions, Wi-Fi … all the amenities for a stadium that was built, at least the bones of it, in the ’40s,” Neff said. “So just that continued growth of experience. The discretionary dollar for our season-ticket holders, our fans and our IPTAY donors has never been more at a premium.”

Considering the level of artists it brought in during the 1980s and 1990s, an upgraded Memorial Stadium would certainly make for a desirable concert/entertainment venue and, by proxy, a significant economic opportunity for the university and the city.

Lead singer Paul “Bono” Hewson of rock band U2, sings on stage on The Pop Mart Tour stop at Memorial Stadium in Clemson May 16, 1997.
Lead singer Paul “Bono” Hewson of rock band U2, sings on stage on The Pop Mart Tour stop at Memorial Stadium in Clemson May 16, 1997. Ken Ruinard USA TODAY NETWORK
The Rolling Stones (1989), Pink Floyd (1994), Elton John and Billy Joel (1995), Eagles (1996) and U2 (1997) all visited Death Valley for tour stops in that timeframe, per the website setlist.fm; in 1999, Clemson also hosted the day-long George Strait Country Music Festival.

Since the turn of the century, dozens of entertainers and musicians including The Avett Brothers, Kid Cudi, Kesha and Kevin Hart have performed at Clemson. But they’ve done so at Littlejohn Coliseum, the home of the Tigers men’s and women’s basketball teams which seats about 10,000 people, instead of Memorial Stadium.

Coincidentally, Neff got a reminder of the demand for concerts in Death Valley back in April when he attended a Kenny Chesney concert in Greenville with Swinney, Clemson offensive coordinator Garrett Riley and Southern Cal coach Lincoln Riley, Garrett’s older brother.

That Clemson group was hanging out with Chesney post-show when, as Neff recalled during a recent appearance on the Gramlich & Mac Lain podcast, Swinney broached the topic of the country music star holding a future concert in Memorial Stadium.

“Swinney’s like, ‘Hey, you need to come play in the Valley,’ and Kenny’s like, ‘That’s awesome. I’d do that’ …” Neff said. “And they’re looking at me like, ‘Hey Neff, make this happen.’ I got Chesney and Swinney leaning on me.”

“I was like, ‘All right, let me work on some things.’ So no promises for the Valley, but that was a discussion that recently ensued.”

CONCERTS AT CLEMSON FOOTBALL’S MEMORIAL STADIUM

Major concerts via setlist.fm

November 1989: Living Colour

November 1989: The Rolling Stones

May 1994: Pink Floyd

April 1995: Elton John and Billy Joel

June 1996: Eagles

May 1997: Rage Against the Machine

May 1997: U2

March 1999: George Strait Country Music Festival

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Re: Concerts and Events at Littlejohn and Death Valley

The truth about Littlejohn is that the renovation was done in a way that makes setting up a large concert on the floor nearly impossible. Where the old tunnel would allow a semi-trailer back up all the way to the floor to unload equipment, the new "tunnel" begins at a loading dock on Avenue of Champions and then winds through about 500 feet of steep ramps and turns before getting to the court. Also, the rigging net above the catwalk was removed which is how things like speakers, curtains, and lights were hung from the rafters before the renovation. There was zero consideration of using the Coliseum for anything other than sporting events and graduation, which is hard enough to setup as it is. You need at least double the manpower for a large concert and with the tight schedules that most concert tours are on, there is little appetite to go through the hassle of something like that.

Concerts and Events at Littlejohn and Death Valley

Because Death Valley and Littlejohn are located in

Re: Because Death Valley and Littlejohn are located in

You mean like this

I bet he meant like this