Colorado State University opens 2017 football season in nation’s newest stadium
Contact for reporters:
Tony Phifer
tony.phifer@colostate.edu
(970) 491-7712
The very first game of the 2017 college football season will be played in Colorado State University’s brand-new on-campus stadium.
The Rams, coming off a fifth-consecutive bowl appearance, host Oregon State in a 12:30 p.m. MDT game. The early start gives the Rams and Beavers the honor of kicking off the 2017 season at Sonny Lubick Field at CSU Stadium.
“This stadium is about so much more than football, because it brings our alumni and the community back on to campus, to see how our entire university has been transformed in recent years through investments in facilities, faculty, and student achievement.” said President Tony Frank. “We are investing in excellence in all areas of the university and our new stadium is an exciting part of our commitment to keep building on CSU’s momentum as a top performing public research university.”
The multi-use stadium, which seats 36,500 and has a capacity of 41,000, makes its debut just 22 months after ground was broken. The $220 million project – spearheaded by Populus, ICON Venue Group and Mortenson – was built on time and on budget, giving Colorado State fans their first on-campus game-day experience in 49 years.
The only new college stadium opening this season, CSU’s state-of-the-art facility features a number of amenities unique in college football:
• The New Belgium Porch, sponsored by New Belgium Brewing in Fort Collins, offers fans a chance to view game action while enjoying premium beers in a relaxed setting. It is the only space of its kind among college stadiums.
• The Orthopaedic Center of the Rockies Field Club provides fans with a field-level view while enjoying food and beverages. The 6,300-square-foot space also includes the Hall of Champions, a tribute to Colorado State’s greatest athletes. Like the New Belgium Porch, it is unique in college football.
• In-stadium Wi-Fi easily accessible for all fans.
In addition to those features, CSU Stadium also includes a massive (84 feet wide by 50 feet high) high-definition scoreboard; state-of-the-art LED lighting and sound systems designed to enhance the game experience while minimizing the impact of light and noise outside the facility; 23 private suites; indoor and outdoor clubs with a combined 1,113 premium seats; and 224 loge boxes.
The LEED Certified facility perfectly aligns with Colorado State’s commitment to sustainability; in 2015 Colorado State was the nation’s first university to earn a STARS Platinum rating for sustainability, a feat repeated in 2017.
While the primary goal of the stadium project was to provide a game-day experience that would reconnect alumni and the community to campus following 48 years at an off-campus facility, CSU Stadium also provides a permanent home for the CSU Alumni Center, 80,000 square feet of academic space for classrooms and counseling, and state-of-the-art locker rooms, meeting rooms, offices, and training and sports medicine facilities for the football program.
“We are very proud of the campus and community collaboration that has resulted in this incredible addition to the Colorado State University campus,” said Joe Parker, director of Athletics. “The new multipurpose stadium was designed to engage our campus with the broader community, and it is doing this in a multitude of ways.”