Scott Davis: Opportunity knocks at Williams-Brice Stadium

Scott Davis has followed South Carolina athletics for over 40 years and provides commentary from a fan perspective. He writes a weekly newsletter year-round (the following is his most recent) and a column during football season that’s published on GamecockCentral.com. To receive Scott’s newsletter every Friday, sign up here.

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If you’re a lifelong South Carolina fan like I am, you’ve undoubtedly heard someone say it.

Man, I wish our football stadium was located on campus like the ones at Georgia and LSU are.

I’ve heard lots of people say it. Maybe I’ve even thought it a time or two.

We’ve been conditioned across the decades to believe that’s what a real SEC football stadium looks like – on-campus structures like Neyland Stadium or Bryant-Denny. Real SEC football stadiums, we’ve heard, are the ones that are crammed right next to dormitories and student union buildings.

National championships, apparently, are won by schools whose stadiums are across the street from sorority houses and calculus classrooms. Those stadiums also, we’ve been told, have all the latest and greatest amenities, bells, whistles and creature comforts.

And so we’ve accepted this idea, festering through the years, that we’re somehow deeply disadvantaged by the location of our school’s stadium and its aging condition.

But what if the opposite were true?

What if South Carolina now faced a prime opportunity to strengthen the program precisely because of the location and the condition of Williams-Brice Stadium, rather than in spite of it?

What if, indeed, the location of the old ballpark on George Rogers Boulevard was a positive for the school rather than a hindrance? What if the obvious need for improvements inside and outside the stadium offered us the chance to create an environment unlike any in college football?

Perhaps that’s exactly what Williams-Brice provides us if only we’re willing to look at the many advantages.

Fortunately, there’s plenty of energy surrounding the venerable and beloved W-B these days. There’s fresh talk of maximizing the stadium’s potential – to not just refresh it, but transform it, both inside and out.

And if we’re willing to dream about what the future could look like for Williams-Brice, then we’re also allowing ourselves to dream about a transformed football program, too.

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Downside…or Upside?

It was refreshing to hear new South Carolina athletic director Jeremiah Donati speak on the subject of Williams-Brice this week.

If you love Williams-Brice like I do and treasure the memories there, you hope to hear it spoken of like an icon that can only be enhanced, rather than as an albatross.

We’ve heard previous ADs bemoan the stadium’s lagging status in the SEC’s never-ending arms race. Butt in a wide-ranging radio interview that touched on a variety of pressing topics, Donati instead saw opportunity ahead at the football home of the Gamecocks.

“I’d be really curious if there’s anyone that’s got quite the upside we have,” Donati said.

Stadium chatter certainly preceded Donati’s arrival in Columbia. Indeed, nothing less than the very Future of Williams-Brice was already being discussed while Donati was still back in Fort Worth serving as TCU’s AD.

A comprehensive project to develop more than 800 acres surrounding the stadium along the Congaree River has been in the works for a couple of years and should continue to take shape in 2025.

The university announced back in the summer that it was seeking formal Request for Proposal submissions for the development, which has the potential to bring attractions to the area around the stadium that would be unlike anything else in college football. It would also tie the game day experience into the riverfront itself – a thrilling prospect that is tantalizing for fans like me to contemplate.

Also, prior to Donati’s arrival, the university announced long-overdue plans to create more premium seating at Williams-Brice. Somewhat astonishingly, the school had fallen behind every SEC competitor in that regard, with even Vanderbilt having nearly three times as many suites at its football stadium as South Carolina.

For his part, Donati views the challenge as an opportunity.

“I don’t know how many schools have the opportunity to build what we could potentially build,” he said during the interview.

Maybe the word we should have been zeroing in on was opportunity rather than hindrance. And maybe we’ve been asking the wrong questions all along.

Instead of wondering why we don’t have a more modern stadium in a better location, perhaps we should have taken a closer look at what’s actually available and what it could deliver.

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More Than a Football Stadium

I have a distinct memory as a child of driving back to our home in Greenville after a trip to Charleston.

It was nighttime, and I was drowsy in the back seat, but as we cruised past Columbia on the interstate to make our way home, I saw the lights of Williams-Brice in the distance. The structure rose up like a mighty fortress from the flatlands near the Congaree. It was visible for miles. To my young eyes, it felt like something important happened there.

I carried that memory with me into my first football game at the stadium, which gave way to dozens more across the years. Sure, I’ve experienced some dreadful moments in those stands, but there’s been fleeting, flickering ecstasy, too.

What I mostly carry with me is that feeling of deep, powerful energy coursing through the building, resonating inside every person who comes there. Even now, just seeing it in the distance delivers that old impression from childhood: Power, energy, awe.

After a decade of living in Atlanta, I get to fewer home games these days than I once did. That’s why the experience of seeing the old ballpark in the distance means more to me now than it ever has.

I see those palmetto trees swaying outside the walls, and I see all the flags high across the length of the Fairgrounds, and I know I’m home.

If you love Williams-Brice, then you love South Carolina, and you want the very best for it.

Hearing South Carolina’s new AD address the stadium’s future this week gives me hope that the university’s leaders know what might be possible at the ballpark on George Rogers Boulevard.

For those of us who love this school, we’ve always known what was possible there: Everything.

Tell me what you think about the future of Williams-Brice by writing me at [email protected].

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