Arizona State University football fans have something extra to cheer about: they won’t have to stop rooting for the Sun Devils while Sundt and joint venture partner Hunt Construction Group perform a $256 million transformation of the school’s football stadium. That’s because the project has been carefully planned to avoid interrupting the fan experience.
The Construction Manager at Risk project involves the complete reconstruction of the lower stadium bowl and the addition of many new amenities and improvements that reflect the university’s emphasis on sustainability, technology and innovation.
“All of the work will be threaded between football seasons, with construction performed in the stadium during the off seasons while the team is practicing,” says Ryan Abbott, Sundt Business Development Manager. “In order to avoid disrupting the football season, we have to control and deliver all of the massive components that will become the seating bowls, structural beds, towers, etc., on a very rigid schedule. We can do it because we’re builders. As far as the football team is concerned, it’s like Disneyland. We’re practically invisible.”
The university construction project is poised to redefine stadiums in the Pac 12 with more and higher quality amenities such as a new concourse, better seating, more restrooms with enhanced quality, a new student athlete facility, premium seating such as founder and club-level suites, better training facilities, improved concessions, a premiere video board and sound system, extensive accessibility improvements, an air-conditioned club, in-stadium technology for fan enjoyment and education, and an expanded student section on the stadium’s south end that will include about 8,000 seats.
Construction of the student section will begin in January (minutes after the Cactus Bowl concludes) and will be complete before the 2015-2016 football season next August. Next January the construction team will simultaneously go to work on the east and west sidelines of the lower bowl. Demolition work has already begun to clear space for the new student section.