Delaware Stadium will undergo renovations and expansion to include more seats, luxury boxes and a new press box, according to conceptual drawings released Saturday. The project will add an estimated 8,200 seats to the stadium, which currently seats 22,000.
Athletic Director Bernard Muir announced the plans in a videotaped message shown to alumni at the town hall meeting.
The sketches show a 7,500-seat addition to the North End Zone, configured in a horseshoe shape and bordered by red brick.
A 50,000-square-foot, multi-story addition to the home-side stands will house 17 luxury suites, 700 club-level seats, a club lounge and new press facilities.
Other improvements to the 58-year-old stadium will include widening of aisles, installation of handrails and construction of new bathrooms and concession stands. In front of the stadium will be an expanded plaza area, intended to entice fans to spend time around the stadium before game time.
In addition, a 96,000-square-foot student performance center will be built under the North End Zone and will house a strength and conditioning center and sports medicine facility, to be used by all student athletes. The building will also contain football team locker rooms, team meeting areas and a university athletics hall of fame.
Also part of the university’s South Campus plans is a 51,000-square-foot addition to the Bob Carpenter Center that will house two gymnasiums and additional team meeting areas. The addition is intended to give the varsity basketball and volleyball teams more space to practice and provide gym space to club sports.
The addition to the Carpenter Center is expected to begin later this year and could be finished as early as Fall 2011. The project will be funded by a $100-per-semester increase in the Comprehensive Student Fee, which was approved by the Board of Trustees last month.
Less clear, however, is the timetable and cost estimate for the other improvements to athletic facilities. Muir touched on neither during his presentation Saturday, but has indicated previously that the timetable will depend largely on when large financial donations can be secured.
“This is only a snapshot of what the future can hold for UD athletics,” Muir said in the video. “With your financial assistance we can build a first-class athletic program, one that UD student athletes and fans deserve.”
Yeah, just saw that henfan had that over on AGS - certainly one example of how not having GoHens really slows down the information sharing.
My thoughts are that this actually looks like something that will happen in the relatively short term (i.e. 5 years). They are already scheduled to break ground on the improvements to the basketball arena (the Bob) that sits in the South End Zone part of the stadium. And the University has been scrambling to start taking in as much money as possible lately - the real introduction of the UDAF (the athletic fund that is similar to many other FCS schools, just 10 years later than most people started theirs), they've really started to jack up the student activity fees (used to be tiny compared to other schools, now they're talking about tripling the fee or more), and now they have an established President and AD whereas they were transitioning from a President/AD team that combined had been at the school for somewhere around 60 years.
The fact that they are putting this out now, and that it dovetails very well with what they say has been the goals for improvement (support building in the north endzone, club seating and pressbox on the home side, horseshoeing in the north end zone) then this seems to be extremely realistic.
I like the 30k+ capacity as well - they could've been getting crowds around 25k (on average) if they had the capacity right now. Growing to 30k wouldn't seem to be too difficult, assuming the product on the field improves.
Looks great! The last pic (from field level) looks a little unusual in that the horseshoe part doesn't connect to either side and seems freestanding. 30K would be huge......
With the new club/press area behind the west stands and horseshoe of the NEZ added to the already highly pitched stands, the Tub is going to be very, very loud.
Although it would be even more awesomer if the new deck connected to the sidelines. Didn't realize how far it was until I saw the last shot
I wouldn't worry about that - renderings have a way of exagerrating things. If you've been to the Tub, you'll realize the footprint itself is pretty small - everything is right on top of the field. The gap between the horseshoe and the sideline sections couldn't be very significant. Seeing where it ends related to the field you're talking maybe 10 yards or so - pretty small for a building that size.
Although it would be even more awesomer if the new deck connected to the sidelines. Didn't realize how far it was until I saw the last shot
Watercolor has a way of exaggerating distances. Something I picked up in my class at the Learning Annex.
1) How much is this going to cost and 2) How much of our billion dollar warchest can be alotted to this AKA how much money do we have now & 3) How are we going to get the rest? I think this looks great, but it'd be nice to hear some of the nitty gritty.
Love the drawings & all the plans surrounding the new building. Does a "Save the Wall" or at least bring the concept to the new stadium movement need to be started ? I know they've been soliciting corporate donors so hopefully with this release it means they're getting closer. Now hopefully before the calendar year ends they can stick some shovels in the ground. Perfect size & like the new proposed amenities.
Very Awesome! Now they should start getting some real donations from fans. To address the comment about not touching the sideline stands. I believe based on modern day codes, no new structure is allows to touch the current structures because they are too steep by modern specs.
I love the horseshoe. That's what I've been hoping for all along. Should be deafening in there with the slope of the stands and the bowl. Quarterfinal Lax will definitely be on-site in the near future as well with these rennovations.
I thinnk they are intentionally not connecting the sidelines for ADA reasons.
They would be smart to design the structure so that they can replace the old sideline sections with new ones that will connect to the endzone if they ever want to. That is probably what they'll do.
But as someone else said - artist renderings are never really all that accurate. the design could completely change when it goes to the engineer.
With the new club/press area behind the west stands and horseshoe of the NEZ added to the already highly pitched stands, the Tub is going to be very, very loud.
danefan wrote:I thinnk they are intentionally not connecting the sidelines for ADA reasons.
They would be smart to design the structure so that they can replace the old sideline sections with new ones that will connect to the endzone if they ever want to. That is probably what they'll do.
But as someone else said - artist renderings are never really all that accurate. the design could completely change when it goes to the engineer.
Actually, it says in the article that they plan on widening aisles and adding handrails to the existing grandstands, so they may be bringing it into compliance anyway. Might just be too hard to match the slopes of one stand to the other that may be for the reason not to connect the sides.
I agree - the fact that they are breaking ground this year on the Bob modifications tells me that they are serious about enhancements. And they would love to have this place be possible to host NCAA lacrosse playoff games as well (hence the need for something pretty big - doubt they'd ever get the Final Four, that's for NFL stadiums now, but quarterfinals could be here). It's just a question of when they start putting shovels in the ground now.
I know they've been soliciting corporate donors so hopefully with this release it means they're getting closer. Now hopefully before the calendar year ends they can stick some shovels in the ground. Perfect size & like the new proposed amenities.
