College Venue News & Notes: Nebraska Unveils $56 Million Stadium Expansion

Nebraska announced plans this week for a $56 million expansion to Memorial Stadium that will add 5,000 seats and luxury suites. The proposed expansion is for the east side of Memorial Stadium, which will increase Memorial Stadium’s attendance to more than 90,000, that according the school’s website. The stadium’s current capacity is 81,091 and the school currently holds the nation’s longest sellout streak dating back to 1962 at 307 games. The added seating will be broken down by 2,000 to 2,200 seats in club seating, approximately 400 to 500 seats within approximately 30 new indoor/outdoor suites, and approximately 2,500 to 2,800 new general seats…

…The University of Louisville men’s and women’s basketball coaches see the new Louisville arena as more than just a home. They also see it as a huge recruiting tool. Men’s basketball coach Rick Pitino says recruits have been awed by the $238 million, 721,762 square-foot multipurpose KFC Yum! Center, which opened this week on the city’s waterfront along the Ohio River. When he asks recruits to grade the building on a scale of 1-10, Pitino gets high scores…

..A $152 million financing package to renovate the 88-year-old Rose Bowl Stadium was approved unanimously by city council members this week in Pasadena, California. The 89,000-seat stadium hosts college football’s annual Rose Bowl game on New Year’s Day and the University of California Los Angeles’s home football games. The arena also has hosted five Super Bowl games and soccer events during the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. UCLA and the Tournament of Roses Association, a non- profit organization that sponsors the Rose Bowl game and parade, have agreed to continue their relationship with the stadium until at least 2043, according to Ann Erdman, the city’s public information officer…

…At a single meeting this week in Rapid City, South Dakota, the state’s two largest universities will ask permission from the South Dakota Board of Regents to move forward in the planning stages of what would be the four most expensive sports facilities projects in their histories. South Dakota State president David Chicoine will present a preliminary facility statement for a new 22,000-seat football stadium and an indoor practice facility with a human performance center. The estimated costs are $55 million and $35 million, respectively. The University of South Dakota will take the floor next, presenting a preliminary facility statement for a new basketball and volleyball arena with office space plus a DakotaDome renovation that would increase seating capacity to 15,000. The early price tags on those items: $32.5 million and $20 million, respectively…

…Montana State University officials say they have just over $3 million of the $4 million needed by late November to begin work that would add 2,500 seats to the south end zone of Bobcat Stadium. MSU officials have said that if Bobcat supporters can raise $4 million by the Cat-Griz game on Nov. 20, MSU would ask the Board of Regents to approve the financing and construction plans. President Waded Cruzado has said the university would match up to $4 million with its own financing, to be paid back from ticket sales.