The Citadel moves ahead with plan for field turf, new stands at Johnson Hagood Stadium By Jeff Hartsell May 22, 2018 Updated 14 hrs ago The Citadel is moving ahead with a plan for a new artificial turf football field, new east side seating and 50,000 square feet of office space at Johnson Hagood Stadium.
The plan calls for the new turf field and seating for 3,000 spectators on the east side to be in place in time for the 2019 season, with construction of office space behind the stands to follow.
The price tag for the new seating and the turf field comes to about $5 million, said Jeff Kidd, executive director of The Citadel Real Estate Foundation. The new stands will cost about $4 million and the new field about $1 million, he said.
The military school's operations and risk management committee on Tuesday approved a motion that will allow the Real Estate Foundation to lease 4.75 acres of land at the stadium, including the football field itself, from The Citadel.
The lease will allow the Real Estate Foundation "to make progress toward finalizing the project" and would provide flexibility in financing the construction, Kidd said. The land will likely be gifted back to The Citadel at some later date, he said.
The construction of 3,000 seats on the stadium's east side will bring the capacity of Johnson Hagood Stadium to about 14,000 seats. The east side of the stadium was demolished last year due to concern about lead paint and other issues. Temporary stands seating about 1,000 spectators were used on the east side last season.
Construction on the new turf field and new east side stands are slated to begin in late 2018, with the goal of being ready for the 2019 season.
The office building, projected at four stories high with 50,000 square feet of space, would come later as the second stage of the project.
The full Board of Visitors will consider the matter at its June 1 meeting. |