By Tyler Mayforth
Daily Record Sports
—
Nearly one year to the day of completing the first renovation to Bobcat Stadium, Texas State University announced plans to expand the stadium even more.
The plans, detailed by President Dr. Denise M. Trauth during a donor luncheon Wednesday afternoon, call for 13,500 seats to be added to the stadium to bring its capacity up to nearly 30,000.
“We engaged a firm in February of this year and asked, ‘What can we fit into bowling the north end zone?’” Trauth said. “They worked with Heery Architects and about 30 days ago they delivered renderings to us of the north side complex and what we could do. We were really excited to see what they believed we could do in that space.”
Construction is set to begin at the end of the 2011 football season and will cost an estimated $32 million.
Texas State will fund the construction with bonds, contributions from private donors and student fees. The school will in turn use current and future revenue to pay back the bonds.
“We’ve had tremendous success selling our seats and club seats and that helps,” Texas State Director of Athletics Dr. Larry Teis said. “Our West Side Complex, which has generated enough revenue along with our student fees, has allowed us to continue expanding our football stadium.”
Texas State began renovating Bobcat Stadium last summer with the new West Side Complex that bears the name of Jerry D. and Linda Gregg Fields, who donated more than a third of the cost necessary to finance the construction.
While the West Side Complex included 15 suites and 450 club seats, the North Side Complex will create a horseshoe around the playing field with the addition of 13,500 general admission seats. In order to bring the fans closer to the action, the running track around the existing field will be removed.
Not only will the complex feature more seats, but crews will add new concession stands, ticket offices, rest rooms, service and support areas, a visiting locker room and a University Bookstore/Fan Shop.
“We want to do it all,” Teis said. “Hopefully getting this big start, we can get a lot of it done right now and be prepared immediately following the last football game in 2011.”
The new complex won’t only help attract better college teams to San Marcos to play Texas State, but potentially University Interscholastic League state championship games, special events and concerts.
“This is going to allow us to bring in hopefully some big games down the road and it’s a show piece,” Teis said. “When you drive down IH-35, you see our football stadium. People flying in airplanes see our football stadium. It’s a great showcase and it’s something we need.”
