Sun Devil Stadium sits between two mountain buttes, providing some of the most scenic views in college football. Arizona State University’s $256 million renovation of the 57-year-old facility will preserve those images for years to come.
The stadium serves a Pac-12 school boasting America’s largest on-campus enrollment of 72,000 students. Over the years, the venue has played host to Super Bowls and national championships in college football, as well as the pope and U2.
At the same time, though, ASU, which in the past was largely a commuter school with little alumni engagement, ranks among the country’s lowest in donations at a rate of about 5 percent annually, said Rocky Harris, chief of staff for the athletic department and an Arizona State graduate.
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Arizona State is in the early stages of selling naming rights to Sun Devil Stadium.
Photo by: ASU |
As a result, school officials knew they could not rely on fundraising as the primary source of financing construction, whether it was a major renovation or building a new facility, Harris said.
The cost to build a new stadium in a parking lot next to Sun Devil Stadium would have run between $450 million and $500 million, according to ASU studies. And besides the fundraising issue, environmental concerns could have delayed the project.
“We didn’t have the incentive with such a beautiful setting to disturb it unnecessarily, and then very frankly, we had the financial limitations that Notre Dame and Texas A&M may not have,” said Ray Anderson, Arizona State’s vice president of athletics and athletic director.
Ultimately, moving the stadium to a different location was a nonstarter for ASU, Harris said, which led to school officials researching multiple options and costs for renovating the stadium.
It also led to the formation of a 330-acre Athletic Facilities District in downtown Tempe, just north of the stadium, from which tax dollars generated from future development will be put into a fund to financially support the school’s capital improvement projects, including the stadium.
The school hired Oakland-based Catellus to be the district’s master developer as part of a long-term solution to help
pay construction debt over 30 years. ASU issued $200 million in bonds to initially back the renovations and set a goal of $85 million in private donations.
In addition, a first-time student fee of $75 a semester will contribute about $10 million a year toward the project, Harris said. In turn, the school has asked students for their input for how the stadium could better fit their non-game-day needs and improve their attendance at football games.
“We want to use this stadium as a community asset, and when that became the conversation, donors, students, everyone came on board with what we’re trying to do,” he said.
ASU is in the early stages of selling naming rights to Sun Devil Stadium as another funding source after Anderson hired former Dallas Cowboys marketing executive Greg McElroy in May to lead that effort. McElroy, now ASU’s associate vice president and chief business development officer, sold naming rights for the Cowboys’ stadium, among other Dallas-Fort Worth venues.
Sources say ASU is asking from $3 million to $4 million annually for naming rights.
Sun Devil Stadium has been renovated twice, once in 1978 and again in 1988 when the old St. Louis Cardinals football team moved to Arizona and became the Phoenix Cardinals. So some parts of the stadium, such as the suite tower built for the Cardinals, are still in good shape.
But in other cases, poor structural and plumbing issues required attention. Harris recalls the 2013 game against in-state rival Arizona when toilets overflowed into the main concourse, forcing ASU to redirect fans to Wells Fargo Arena next door to use its restroom facilities.
In addition, there are no restrooms at all on the northeast side of the upper deck and ticket holders sitting in that area have to go all the way around the stadium or go down one level to find a bathroom, Harris said.
The cost to bring Sun Devil Stadium up to code without making other improvements topped $100 million. At that point, school officials took a closer look at what they would need to spend over that amount to upgrade the stadium long term.
After three years of working through multiple options, ASU developed a three-phase plan to do among other things, create a new student section in the south end zone. It will face an existing student section in the north end zone.
Together, both 6,500-seat sections will be branded as the “Double Inferno,” a takeoff on the Sun Devils’ hellfire theme. Most important, when that piece opens next season, students no longer will be relegated to the upper deck to watch football games, Harris said.
The project also covers additional premium seats, including 10 high-end Founders Suites, remodeled clubs and reconfigured concourses. In the upper deck, 10 to 12 rows of seats will be removed to increase the concourse height upstairs.
All told, the total number of seats will drop to about 57,500 from the current 71,706 capacity. Technology upgrades, including a new video board, are part of the third and final phase of improvements to be completed prior to the 2017 football season.
