Construction on the west upper deck of Tiger Stadium is expected to be almost finished by the first football game, Tiger Athletic Foundation CEO Maj. Gen. Ron Richard said.
“The stadium is going to be, for all practical purposes, complete,” Richard said. “It will look nice and will have all the amenities in the club area and in the concourse area. All the seats will be available; all the concession stands will be available.”
Construction, which began mid-January 2004, was originally expected to be completed before this summer, said Senior Associate Athletics Director Herb Vincent.
“Originally, without the hurricane it was supposed to be done late January, early February,” Vincent said.
After hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the construction schedule was pushed back, and simply finishing as soon as possible became the priority, Vincent said.
The biggest obstacle to overcome became finding available construction workers, Vincent said.
The last bit of construction that remains has been moving on schedule, Richard said. The only delays have been caused by August afternoon rainstorms, he said.
“The rain has delayed work on the outside, and there’s still work to be done on the outside so the rain certainly delays it,” Richard said.
Richard said the work on the outside includes exterior finishes on the stadium, including application of terra cotta and finalizing the parking lot on the west side that had been used during construction.
Richard said the parking lot will be available for the Sept. 2 game.
“The parking lot will be 98 percent complete,” Richard said. “One hundred percent complete as far as being able to park there. The part that won’t be complete is the landscaping.”
Richard said he is unsure of the particulars, but landscaping will include trees and greenery that will be planted throughout the season.
TAF payed for the stadium’s construction, including the repaving of the parking lot. TAF is a private fund-raising organization that funds projects it chooses with the cooperation of the LSU Athletic Department.
The projected budget when TAF began was $90 million, but Richard said the budget has exceeded that.
“There’s been some overage,” Richard said. “Unknown at this time, we’re in the process of reviewing all of that.”
Because the budget is still under review, Richard said he can not say how much the budget has gone over or how much can be blamed on hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
“I’m not going to comment on any of that because all of that is under review, so it would be inappropriate for me to get into the detail right now,” Richard said. “When this is all over, I’ll be happy to do that, but all this is under review, so that is as far as I can tell you.”
Barring a catastrophic event Richard and Vincent said the stadium construction is expected to be complete soon.
“I think Tiger Stadium looks as good as it’s looked in years and years,” Vincent said. “It doesn’t look like an old stadium. It looks like a newly remodeled stadium.”
—–Contact Brad K. Harrison at [email protected]