Williams-Brice Stadium is about to become a construction zone. Bulldozers. Excavators. Dirt. Debris. The whole deal.

For a bit, it might be hard to see the bigger picture, to understand who, or what, these upgrades are for. It will also be impossible to show off the future amid the construction work. This isn’t exactly a startup housing development — there is no model home to show off.

So South Carolina devised a workaround.

The Gamecocks put up a wall in the center of the Bignon Gameday Center, which sits adjacent to Williams-Brice Stadium, keeping a team merchandise store on one side while building a massive preview center on the other.

It’s inside this preview center that fans and prospective suite owners get a glimpse at the future of Williams-Brice Stadium.

A look inside South Carolina’s pitch

You walk in and get handed a white towel with your name on it, then get loaded in a dark room that feels almost like the waiting area at a Disney World ride. Then the projectors turn on. It’s a 360-degree immersive view of Williams-Brice Stadium. Folks are encouraged to bop their towels as “Sandstorm” engulfs the room.

The guides then lead you through a small museum that touches on the history of Williams-Brice Stadium. You see the stadium as it was in its inaugural 1934 season, see views from the 1970s, from the Lou Holtz and Steve Spurrier eras, and some recent imagery. A 90-year nostalgia trip lasts a few minutes.

Finally, you go into a room that feels like a small movie theater. There’s a big screen at the front of the room. There are nice leathered chair backs to sit in. And, if you are so inclined, popcorn can be delivered.

Then begins a pitch about the future, which starts in the past and leads to the overarching question: Why is this renovation so necessary now? They show two slides — both are about suites.

You don’t need to read the numbers to get the effect, but the numbers are jarring.

South Carolina’s football stadium currently has 18 suites, ranking dead last in the SEC. (Six conference schools boast over 100 suits.) And, perhaps more noteworthy: Less than 6% of the seats in Williams-Brice Stadium are considered “premium” — again, dead last in the SEC by a wide margin.

From there, you see the updated renderings of Williams-Brice Stadium and can take a virtual tour though the entire suite offering.

For over a month now, South Carolina has been inviting Gamecock Club members into its innovative preview center. They technically schedule appointments, but that’s largely to ensure six groups don’t show up at once. While there are enough screens to have four parties in at once, the appointments are staggered in 30-minute intervals, and they've sometimes been scheduling over 15 groups per day.

Their goal is to get as many people inside the preview center as possible. The more people that experience the full tour with a Gamecock Club or South Carolina rep able to answer any questions, USC believes more folks will buy into the project and understand its broad impact.

“What we have found a lot of is people that come through this preview center and understand what we’re doing here, that truly believe in the project,” Gamecock Club CEO Wayne Hiott said. “Which is why some of those gift conversations have been a lot easier than we initially thought.”

Hiott continued: “Because they understand that if we don’t do this, we are subjecting ourselves to forever being at the bottom of the pack. And if we do do it, it gives us a shot.”

How many suites has South Carolina sold?

OK, so a quick rundown.

Construction begins shortly after this year’s USC-Clemson game and will continue the next offseason. By 2027, the renovated Williams-Brice Stadium will include 42 suites.

That includes two-dozen 14-person suites, six 20-person suites and 12 founders suites (40 people) that range from $77,000 to $150,000 annually. That price includes between three and five parking passes as well as unlimited food and beverage.

Purchasing a suite first requires a 10-year commitment, a drastic change given the current suite holders at Williams-Brice Stadium are on a three-year contract.

As of early November, the Gamecocks had commitments on 19 suites. They’ve sold 10 of the 12 founders suites, all six of the 20-person suites and a trio of the 14-person suites.

“We are currently tracking 25% ahead of schedule,” Hiott said.

The other thing to know: At least some, if not all of the suites, require a “planned capital gift” in order to be able to purchase the suite. South Carolina was asking for a $10 million capital gift paid out over 10 years ($1 million annually) for those looking to purchase a founders suite, The State previously reported.

South Carolina declined to share figures relating to the planned capital gifts but said in a statement: “The suite priority process provides the first opportunity to purchase suites to the top supporters of Gamecock Athletics and the Williams-Brice Reimagined Project.”

Whatever the required capital gift is, it hasn’t quelled too much interest. Out of sheer generosity, and perhaps devotion to seeing the Gamecocks succeed, Hiott said some donors have given well above the asking price.

“People believe in this project,” Hiott said, “and have contributed more than what was part of the agreement to help this facility be done.”

Even if you forget about the capital gifts, we can estimate the per-season pricing for the founders suites (likely $150,000), the 14-person suites (likely $77,000) and the 20-person suites (let’s guesstimate it’s around $90,000).

If South Carolina sells out its allotment, it will profit around $4.2 million annually on suites alone. At the moment, knowing that the Gamecocks have just 18 suites all listed at $84,946, USC could only fetch around $1.5 million for its suite inventory.

In other words: South Carolina will make about $3 million more from its suites post-renovation every year than it currently makes … and that’s before you factor in the capital donations.

It should also be known that South Carolina is selling its premium selections in a sort of top-down approach. So USC began offering its founders suites, then 20- and 14-person suites, which went on sale only a few weeks ago. And the Gamecock Club is still so early in the process that it hasn’t started to offer club seating for the renovated Williams-Brice.

The Gamecocks are trying to gauge demand, then set a price. Demand for founders suites determines the regular suite price. That demand determines the club seating costs. On and on. That same philosophy might also work with the planned capital gifts in the sense that extra donations could perhaps hold prices steady for, say, the average fan sitting on the east side.

“There are opportunities where if we over perform at the top end,” Gamecock Club Chief Revenue Officer Dan Stahl said, “then we can not charge the amounts of the pro forma (projected pricing document) say on the bottom end … to give back to the fans because we already hit the bullseye that we needed to hit to make this viable.”

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