Renovations to Michigan Stadium are one step closer to fruition now that the University’s athletic department has asked eight architectural firms for bids on the design and completion of these changes.

The proposed renovations, which would dramatically change the look of the stadium, include adding premium seats through the addition of luxury boxes and club seats atop the stands on both sidelines, while also widening seats and aisles and improving amenities, such as restrooms and concession stands. The athletic department estimates that the alterations could cost $170 million.

“The initiative for doing this is first and foremost to fix the bowl — to bring it up to current standards,” Athletic Director Bill Martin said. “I want to make Michigan Stadium so that the gameday experience for every fan is improved.”

The University soliciting bids from the eight architectural firms is one of the first steps in drawing up a final plan and seeking approval from University President Mary Sue Coleman and the University Board of Regents. The athletic department hopes the regents will be able to look at the plans by the end of this year, said Jason Winters, chief financial officer of the athletic department.

Martin sees the process taking a few years once construction begins.

“After the final football game in November you could start construction,” Martin said. “Then you work up until the football season, then stop. As soon as football season ends, you go back to work and finish it for the next football season.

“The most important thing is that we do this right. So let’s take our time and let’s listen to our fans, our alums and our students. We have to reach out and involve as many of our supporters as we can in the design and planning process.”

There are several major aspects of the renovations that are meant to address the “functionally obsolete” aspects of the stadium, Winters said.

The plans that address these deficiencies were primarily drawn up by HNTB, one of the architectural firms offered a bid. HNTB, which is based out of Kansas City, has also been working with the University since 2001 on construction projects all over the athletic campus.

One major feature of the proposed renovations is the addition of luxury boxes and club seats installed along the east and west sidelines. The existing press box would be torn down and rebuilt, and 5,632 seats would be added to a new three-story structure.

Another is the addition and restoration of restroom fixtures and concession stands. This would, among other things, increase the number of women’s restrooms from 299 to 646 and increase the number of concession stands from 273 to 406.

Finally, the athletic department is also considering widening seats and aisles and even building additional concourses.

When constructed, the luxury boxes — which would bring in up to $85,000 per year per box — would pay for themselves and the improvements made to the rest of the stadium.

Michigan currently earns approximately $4 million in revenue for each home game. With the proposed changes, the revenues from each game could rise to $6.5 million.

However, all these modifications have raised concerns over the stadium’s seating capacity, which is currently 107,501. Despite the addition of 5,632 new seats, if the seats and aisles were widened to the maximum potential, the stadium could lose up to 10,500 non-premium seats. That would drop the capacity to 102,633 and apparently end the stadium’s standing as the country’s largest football-watching crowd. Penn State’s Beaver Stadium has a capacity of 107,282 and Tennessee’s Neyland Stadium has a capacity of 104,079. Texas A&M is also considering expanding Kyle Field’s capacity to as much as 115,000.

But Winters said the University does not want to compete with other schools.

“We’re not looking at what others are doing,” Winters said. “We won’t enter into an arms race.”

Athletic department officials have acknowledged, however, that the loss of capacity may not sit well with fans and have expressed the intention to keep Michigan Stadium’s capacity at its current level. According to Winters, athletic officials will make sure that Michigan Stadium will continue to have the ability to expand in capacity, though it will likely have to be in the endzones.