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Home News Bulldog Stadium Undergoes Final Stage of Renovation This Summer

The Concordia football team takes the field during a 2016 season game. Photo by Abi Schroeder.

 

by Parker Hasenkamp

 

After seven years of doing various renovations to Bulldog Stadium, the final stage of renovations will begin this summer.

When the Walz Athletic Human Performance Complex was completed in 2009, the renovations to Bulldog Stadium began. Last summer, Concordia completed the renovation to the track and put in new turf on the football field. For the last phase of renovations, Concordia will renovate the fence around the stadium, the walkways leading up to the stadium and the north side of the stadium.

One part of the plan is to create a colonnade on the north side of the stadium, where teams come out onto the field from Walz.

“The idea with the colonnade is that it ties together the look of the old building. It ties the old with the new,” said Executive Vice President Dave Kumm, who has been in charge of the project since its beginning.

The colonnade will have three arches on the north side. The column on the far west side will have a cross on top of the column so people can identify the faith of Concordia University and what the college stands for. The middle arch will have an opening and closing fence with the Concordia University cross on it. This arch will also be the main walkway for teams coming onto the field. The final column, which will be located on the far east side, will have the victory bell. The victory bell is only rung when a Concordia team wins. With the current design of the stadium, the victory bell is actually located on the visitor’s side of the stadium, so this renovation will allow the home fans to get a better view of the bell.

Another renovation this summer is to put up a rod iron fence around the whole stadium, instead of the current chain link fence that stands. This will give the stadium a more professional look.

Lighting, which was a key renovation that Student Senate advocated for during the school year, is the next piece to the project. The lighting will be placed on the walkways leading to the residence halls and Walz from the stadium. This lighting will allow people to see the walkway at night.

A new sidewalk will also be put in, which will allow people to walk around the north side of the stadium without walking through the stadium. This walkway will make the stadium to be more secure, since the chain-link fence is currently open at all times.

The project was scheduled to start May 15 and is estimated to be completed by Aug. 1. All camps scheduled in the stadium this summer will still occur.

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