Colorado State Stadium

Sonny Lubick Field at Colorado State Stadium (tentative name)
Location Fort Collins, Colorado
Owner Colorado State University
Operator Colorado State University
Capacity 41,200
Surface Artificial
Construction
Broke ground September 14, 2015[1]
Opened Fall 2017 (expected)
Construction cost $220.1 million[2]
Architect Populous
ICON Venue Group
General contractor M. A. Mortenson Co.
Tenants
Colorado State Rams football (2017–future)

Sonny Lubick Field at Colorado State Stadium is the working name for a stadium under construction at Colorado State University. It is set to open in the 2017 season as the new home of the Colorado State Rams football team, replacing the team's now-current home of Hughes Stadium.

Development

After a nearly 2-year process including cost and financing changes, protests, community outreach, and an inter-governmental agreement with the city of Fort Collins, the $220 million 41,000 capacity on campus multi-purpose stadium began construction in May 2015.

In 2013, the university began raising funds for a ~40,000-seat on-campus facility to replace Hughes Stadium. The project was partially driven by major decreases in state funding for CSU in recent decades. As a result, CSU has been seeking to draw more out-of-state students, whose current tuition is three times that of Colorado residents. CSU president Tony Frank included the new stadium as part of this goal saying "the new facility will help build a winning football team while advancing one of the school's highest priorities: attracting more out-of-state students".[3]

According to The Wall Street Journal,

"Skeptics, including some alumni and faculty, see the project as a boondoggle—especially for a team that plays in a relatively low-profile athletic conference and doesn't sell out its current 32,500-seat stadium off campus. The debate has sparked dueling websites, animated letters to the editor and arguments about the role of sports at a university."[3]

Many community members expressed frustration that they did not feel they were being heard at the CSU Board of Governors meeting when final approval was given. After the vote Board chair, Dorothy Horrell, thanked those making comments for their input and reiterated her feeling that

"the decision to build an on-campus stadium was made after "thoughtful and thorough examination of this issue" that is reflected in the board's records. "As my parents used to tell me, just because I ask a question and didn't get the answer I wanted, it isn't that the question wasn't answered," Horrell said. "And I would just remind us all of that."[4]

The new stadium, initially estimated to cost $246 million, was originally only to be built if $125 million in private funds had been raised by October 2014.[3] Plans were put on hold after fundraising support for the project failed to materialize as expected, according to a September 26, 2014 story in the Denver Business Journal. On November 29, 2014, Frank sent a memo to the school's board of governors recommending that the new stadium be approved without raising the 50% cost in public funds as previously planned. The memo estimated that a 35,900-seat facility would cost $195 million; building with a capacity of 41,200 would cost $220 million.[5] Frank also estimated that renovating Hughes Stadium to last 30 to 40 years would cost a minimum of $149 million.[5] The board of governors approved a new on campus multi-purpose stadium on December 5, 2014. At that time NBCSports.com writer Brent Sobleski speculated that the hiring of Rams head coach Jim McElwain for the head coaching vacancy at Florida days earlier may have swayed the board, noting, "An improving program and a new stadium could help lure another top-level candidate like the school previously did when McElwain was initially hired."[6] CSU went on to hire Mike Bobo from the SEC like McElwain before him. University of Georgia's Coach Bobo was named the nation's Offensive Coordinator of the Year in 2013 by 247Sports.com.[7] Georgia also had the top scoring offense in the SEC in 2014, Bobo's last season before heading to CSU.[8]

Construction of the new stadium, tentatively known as Colorado State Stadium, began in May 2015; the official groundbreaking ceremony was held the weekend of CSU's September 12, 2015 home football game against Minnesota. Construction of the stadium is expected to take 22 months, allowing CSU to begin playing football games in the new facility in 2017.[1]

Stadium Donations


In March 2016, the university announced that it had received an anonymous gift of $20 million over a 30-year period with the express purpose of naming the playing field at the new stadium after former Rams head coach Sonny Lubick, whose name was also attached to the playing field at Hughes Stadium.[9] It was also announced in August 2016 that New Belgium Brewing Company, an iconic, local Fort Collins brewery, is donating $4.3 million to put its name and its product on the party deck of the north end zone of the $220 million stadium.[10] This new bar area will be called the New Belgium Porch and is unique to college football stadiums.

Gallery

References

  1. 1 2 White, Rob (September 12, 2015). "CSU breaks ground on new football stadium". Coloradoan. Fort Collins, CO. Retrieved September 14, 2015.
  2. ↑ "CSU's Multi-Purpose Stadium Report – May 2016" (PDF). Colorado State University. Retrieved July 22, 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 Bachman, Rachel (September 27, 2013). "Colorado State University Bets on a Stadium to Fill Its Coffers". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved September 28, 2013.
  4. ↑ "CSU AD pledges to heal wounds opened in stadium debate". Coloradoan.com. 2015-05-07. Retrieved 2016-05-05.
  5. 1 2 "Colorado State president recommends new on-campus stadium to replace existing football arena". The Republic. Columbus, Indiana. Associated Press. November 29, 2014. Retrieved December 6, 2014.
  6. ↑ Sobleski, Brent (December 5, 2014). "Board of Governors approve new on-campus stadium for Colorado State Rams". College Football Talk. NBCSports.com. Retrieved December 6, 2014.
  7. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on May 25, 2015. Retrieved May 24, 2015.
  8. ↑ "2015 SEC College Football Team Statistics Leaders for Total - ESPN". Espn.go.com. Retrieved 2016-05-05.
  9. ↑ "$20 million gift ensures winning tradition of "Sonny Lubick Field" continues at CSU's new on-campus stadium" (Press release). Colorado State Rams. March 25, 2016. Retrieved July 22, 2016.
  10. ↑ http://source.colostate.edu/csu-new-belgium-brewing-craft-agreement-creating-new-belgium-porch-at-on-campus-stadium New Belgium Brewing craft agreement creating New Belgium Porch at on-campus stadium

External links

Coordinates: 40°34′11″N 105°05′16″W / 40.5698°N 105.0879°W / 40.5698; -105.0879

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