Stadium Update

One reader of this blog asked for a football stadium update.

Since the contractor working on the stadium began work last school year, the goal has been to have the stadium complete and ready for this Fall 2007 season. As recently as last week’s weekly meeting with the contractor, we have continued to use September 29th as the target.

Unfortunately, the reality of various issues that have caused delays throughout the project – verifying that we were not disturbing native American artifacts, soil remediation issues, structural concerns with adjacent properties, and various weather events -- have caused for the timeline for completion to be ever-changing.

There has been substantial work completed to date. I believe that what you see there today would impress you. The new stadium will be exciting.

The sod for the playing field is scheduled to be started later this week. Other big hurdles that remain include getting the foundation of the new track completed and finishing the poured concrete bleachers and associated stairs.

Most of the items necessary for opening for football will be finalized in the next couple of weeks. There are some timeline issues that remain that will need to be worked out more completely with the help our construction management group.

We have made back-up plans to have some of our early home games played on Rowan University’s turf field. At this point, it appears that this will be necessary. Our plan at this time is to target the Homecoming game for our official home opener (October 20th).

Two of our first three home games can be accommodated at Rowan. For the other game, will play on the road – at Lindenwold.

That’s the update. Not perfect, but progress is being made; and our plan allows for us to at least be on a neutral site for a couple of those opening home games.

I will post more details as we receive updates that impact the timeline in any significant way.