Saturday, August 4, 2007 1:02 AM CDT
This season, a taste; next year, the finished product
By MARK TUPPER Staff Writer
mtupper@herald-review.com
CHAMPAIGN - For decades, the playing field has been called Zuppke Field, and it’s designated by a large, limestone engraving located along the far north wall of Memorial Stadium.
And yet few Illini football fans are aware, nor can they recall, having ever seen the Zuppke Field sign.
A large block of stone, mined from the same Indiana quarry that produced the limestone used to build the original distinctive Memorial Stadium colonnades, has sat in the far northeast corner of the stadium since 1994. That’s when it was christened “The Grange Rock,” honoring legendary Illini running back Harold “Red” Grange on the occasion of the stadium’s 70th anniversary.
And yet few Illini football fans are aware, nor can they recall, having ever seen “The Grange Rock.”
But when fans gather inside Memorial Stadium on Sept. 8 for the season’s home opener against Western Illinois, the Zuppke Field engraving and The Grange Rock will be positioned prominently, highly visible reminders that the venerable old stadium is in the midst of a stunning $120 million renovation project.
This season, fans will get a taste of the dramatic facelift that is bringing Memorial Stadium into the 21st century. Next season, fans will bask in the finished product, surrounded by a modern inside look that has managed to preserve the integrity of the building’s exterior.
Already, though, visitors getting a sneak peek - and that includes this summer’s potential recruits - are being wowed by changes that will significantly alter the way the stadium looks and the way it sounds.
Warren Hood, Illini associate athletic director in charge of overseeing every step of the project, has a few more gray hairs these days.
“I haven’t slept in two years,” Hood said during a stadium tour on Thursday. “It never escapes you.”
And yet Hood is smiling, anxious to show off the progress that has been steady, on time and on budget.
By the time the Western Illinois game rolls around (“I’ve got 36 days,” Hood said on Thursday), the massive north end zone structure, which will accommodate 5,000 student season-ticket holders (as well as the Block I and the Marching Illini), will be completed, as will much of the infrastructure work throughout the Great West Hall.
Fans may be shocked to see there will be no spectator seating in the west balcony this season. Indeed, many of the seats and the concrete that once held them in place have been removed, exposing steel girders that abut the press box. That has reduced capacity to about 57,000 this season, down from 69,249 before the project began.
They’ll notice that the scoreboard has been moved to atop the south horseshoe.
And season-ticket holders can watch the massive construction project continue through the coming season, noting the advances that unfold between the Sept. 8 opener and the Nov. 17 finale against Northwestern. “We’re working six days a week, 12 hours a day,” Hood said. “The only day they’ll be taking off is game-day Saturdays.”
Once the Illinois High School Association state championship football games are completed on Nov. 24, the press box will be dismantled, and the rest of the renovation project will shift into high gear.
And by the time Illinois plays its home opener in 2008, the monstrous structure housing the luxury suites and press box will completely transform the look of the west stands.
When completed, Memorial Stadium will have new restrooms, new concession stands, graphically inviting concourses, a capacity of about 62,000 and an enclosed north end that will push the students and the noise they generate 100 feet closer to the field.
As much as anything, that will change the dynamics of Memorial Stadium this season.
“I think it could be very intimidating for a visiting team to be driving the ball toward that north end zone,” Hood said. “That entire section is reserved for student season-ticket holders, the Marching Illini and re-cruits. They’ll be standing and making a lot of noise. It’s going to change the environment in here com-pletely.”
The permanent north stands are more than just a place for students to sit, however. It’s a complex unto itself, housing one of the largest football-only weight rooms in the nation, a recruiting lounge and a con-course with concessions and restrooms devoted entirely to the students seated above.
“At first, some of the students were skeptical when we said we were moving them to the end zone,” Hood said. “But we’ve had some of them up here, and their opinion has changed. I think this is going to be a pre-mium ticket. The whole area is all theirs. They can stand and make noise, and they won’t be in anyone’s way.
“And when we’ve brought recruits in here, we’ve put them in a hard hat and said, ‘That’s where the weight room is going to be. It’s going to be yours.’
“When they hear that, they just say, ‘Wow.’ It’s a lot more effective than a coach showing them a draw-ing.”
With 24-foot ceilings and loads of windows providing streams of natural light, the weight room would have pushed the project over budget. But an anonymous donor tossed in a check for $5 million to make it all pos-sible.
And that “Grange Rock?” It’s located right outside the tunnel through which the Illini team files by on its way to the field. So expect the new tradition to be one where each player touches the rock for a measure of good luck.
The largest inconvenience this season will be for fans filing in through the west entrances. The Great West Hall has been reduced to a collection of exposed beams and a dirt floor. But by Sept. 8, Hood said concrete floors will be poured and other safety measures will be put into place.
Still, concessions and restroom trailers will be positioned outside the west wall, requiring fans to go to greater lengths than usual.
“We’re asking our fans to be understanding,” Hood said. “And I can’t say enough about our fans. We’ve had to re-seat everyone on the west side, and they’ve been great. I think they realize that, in the long run, this is going to be worth it. And we want them in here to help Coach Zook’s team through their turnaround.”
The university has tied the two renovation projects together. The stadium renovation and the rebuilding of the Illini football fortunes go hand in hand, and improvement by the team will make it easier for fans to tolerate structural inconveniences.
And looming in the not-too-distant future could be another phase of the renovation.
If another $30 to $50 million dollars can be raised (the entire project is being privately funded, in large part by money fans are dishing out for club seating and luxury suites), a second project is likely to reshape the south horseshoe.
“We could bring those seats in as tight to the field as we’ve done at the north end,” Hood said. “We’d take it up fairly high, and that would add another 3,000 or 4,000 to our capacity (putting it at about 66,000). Then down the road, if we wanted, we could put an upper deck on the south end and push the capacity to about 80,000.”
Prolonged success on the field, and years of sellouts at 62,000, would need to happen to justify that expan-sion, however.
For now, Hood is smiling because the current project is moving along on pace. And because the university already has sold some 35,000 season tickets - albeit by offering discounted six-game, $60 season tickets for the existing horseshoe seats.
“Single-game ticket sales are under way. and there are only limited seats for the Michigan game (on Oct. 20),” Hood said. “Stuff has been flying pretty fast. Like I said, our fans have been great. They want to be a part of this.”
Mark Tupper can be reached at mtupper@herald-review.com or 421-7983
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