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Topic: CWS Renovations
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UKFan_22
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Member # 6216
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posted 11-27-2013 06:21 PM
What did you guys think of the renovations?
Posts: 1313 | From: Evansville, Indiana | Registered: Aug 2011
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catmandoo
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Member # 1284
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posted 11-27-2013 10:09 PM
22, It sounds like it's going to be very special but a little smaller than the 66,000 in now holds. Here is a article that gives some information on the new stadium.
A reduced capacity from 67,000 to 61,000. The goal is to create better seats, not more seats, officials said.
"We've got to create an environment that's fun for people to want to come," Barnhart said. "And I think this is the right size for us. And if there's someone else in 15 years that disagrees with what the old guy did, then so be it. But for now, I think this is the right size for Kentucky."
■ The student section, with a reduction of seats as well, will hold between 4,000 and 5,000 students and UK band members and they all will be centrally located in the east end zone. The reduction in seats was based on an average number of student tickets sold in recent seasons, officials said.
In the current setup, students and the band are allotted a combined 10,000 seats. Since 2008, there have never been more than 9,091 student tickets purchased for a single game, according to a Herald-Leader open records request.
In 2012, the largest number of student tickets sold for a single game was 5,755.
Adding to the student-section experience will be the addition of a central tunnel beneath the area, through which the team will run onto the field.
The student section will surround a glass-front recruiting room and an attached patio area unlike anything Barnhart has seen in the nation.
■ The long-coveted recruiting room, which can hold up to 200 people, will have flat screen televisions and other decorative details.
A group has been working with UK on "a total concept for us in terms of the entire stadium, in terms of our graphics and signage, all those other pieces, decorative stuff," Barnhart said.
The recruiting room also can be used as a multi-purpose space for campus meetings, corporate events, even a wedding or two in the off-season.
"You can envision saying, 'We're going to do this for one price to rent the room, and here's for the food and we'll turn the scoreboards on for this (cost),'" Barnhart said. "That's a piece of the deal. Companies want to do that. They want to put their names up in lights."
■ The south side of the stadium will be dramatically different in scope and size, with a press box at the highest level atop another level of 28 suites, then club seating and the loge level of VIP seating. Twenty of the suites will be available for sale, with the remainder for UK's use.
The loge level is a cross between a club seat and a suite with seating for four or six (depending on space) where fans can order food to their seats, which will be possible using multimedia devices on which they can also pull up statistics, updates from other games and replays.
Below that will be a mezzanine-level club area and a field-level club area.
There will be roughly 2,300 seats at the club levels.
Patrons in all of the new premium areas within the stadium will be able to purchase alcoholic beverages, but it has to remain in the premium areas and suites, UK spokesman DeWayne Peevy explained last week. It's a loophole in the current Southeastern Conference rule.
■ Instead of the current "VIP entry" now consisting of chain-link fencing, Kentucky has created a specialty space with decorative touches like reclaimed Kentucky barn wood.
The wood is used throughout various levels in a cohesive way. Coupled with Kentucky limestone used at the base of the new rounded façade, Barnhart hopes it adds a "little bit of Kentucky flavor" to the stadium.
"We want to make that feel like Kentucky," Barnhart said.
That sentiment was echoed by UK President Eli Capilouto in his remarks during Monday's news conference.
"This project will represent the elements of the people of the Big Blue Nation, details that will chronicle this facility will live up to its status as the Commonwealth's stadium," he said.
■ Other improvements include swapping the current stadium lights on poles and putting in banks of lights.
Where the current President's Room sits, there will be an expansive space that will be used as a new dining area for the football team and other student athletes near the new full-service kitchen.
"So rather than having to cart food from across campus or other places, we will have the ability to cook on site and a full-service kitchen that allows us to cook the meals right there for our kids, which is a huge change for us," Barnhart explained last week.
Upgrades for everyone
Once construction is underway — some will start less than a week after UK's final home game against Tennessee on Saturday — the major change next season will be the displacement of roughly 2,000 seats from sections 219 through 232, rows 22 through 39.
A member of the Kentucky staff will contact those ticket holders to help them relocate, officials said.
Kentucky will be re-ticketing the entire stadium, although officials said they have not yet determined pricing for tickets or for the premium and suite seating.
"We'll also probably reconfigure the way we do the numbers, new numbering system and everything like that for the stadium itself, which will be a part of this," Barnhart said. "And then, obviously, we'll have a new seating plan."
Roughly 25,000 seats will come with K-Fund donation requirements of $100 or less. Tickets in 2015 will be pricier, Barnhart said, but that will be based on UK's eight-game home schedule for 2015.
UK officials don't want the changes to excite only big-budget donors. They want each person who drives up to the stadium and enters its new doors to be excited.
"One of the more unique pieces of this renovation is the effect it has on every patron in the stadium," UK associate athletic director Jason Schlafer said last week. "Everyone will enjoy wider concourses, new concession stands, new restrooms, so there's an upgraded piece for everyone who attends the game."
Link
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http://www.ukfightsong.com/
Posts: 186363 | From: st. augustine florida 32092 | Registered: Mar 2001
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UKFan_22
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Member # 6216
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posted 11-27-2013 10:39 PM
Here is the link to renderings and video of everything that will renovated. I can tell you right now recruit reactions from the news of the New CWS was really positive. New CWS
[ 11-27-2013, 10:40 PM: Message edited by: UKFan_22 ]
Posts: 1313 | From: Evansville, Indiana | Registered: Aug 2011
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