It has been said that a football program is the front porch of a university.
Tennessee’s Neyland Stadium has had a curb appeal like few others for decades.
The Vols’ storied coliseum has had its own tradition with its unforgettable games, noteworthy seating capacity and picturesque setting along the Tennessee River.
“We’ve said from the beginning of this process that our goal is to have Neyland Stadium be the centerpiece of our program for the next 75 years,’’ UT athletic director Mike Hamilton said. “That means bringing it up to speed on all fronts — from seating that meets today’s marketplace, to technology and aesthetics and accessibility and fan amenities.’’
Phase II of the $200 million Neyland Stadium renovation, now in its fifth year since Phase I began, will be complete in time for year one of the Lane Kiffin Era when the Vols kick off the season on Sept. 5 against Western Kentucky.
While most fans speculate about how different the team could look under new leadership, there will be no mistaking the $40 million in improvements and upgrades at the stadium.
Already, Kiffin has taken note.
“It’s been a fabulous stadium since we’ve gotten here, and they continue to improve it,’’ Kiffin said. “It’s an unbelievable place to play and I’m excited eight of our 12 (regular-season) games will be played there.’’
The Vols promise to make some highlights that fans will enjoy again and again on Neyland Stadium’s new $4 million, 4,500-square-foot scoreboard.
The scoreboard, made by Mitsubishi, will provide replays like few other venues thanks to another $750,000 that has been spent on high-definition cameras and equipment
The exterior has a new look as well; gone are the dated scissor-style ramps fans once marched up to get to the upper deck seats. Instead, fans will utilize seven new eight-foot wide staircases, three of the double helix variety.
Two more West-side elevators will be ready for use this season, bringing the total to four, with two more elevator shafts on the ready when Phase III of the renovation kicks in next year.
Fans also will be quick to notice five new cantilever decks defiantly jutting out of the stadium toward Phillip Fulmer Way, announcing a new look and time for Tennessee football. The decks serve as enclosed hospitality areas for the sixth- and seventh-level skybox areas and fifth-level press box area.
The fourth (club) level hospitality area features an open patio, or fans can stay inside the area to watch the game on a 103-inch plasma TV.
The third level features the yet-to-be-complete “Tennessee Terrace,’’ a large meeting area open to all fans. The Tennessee Terrace will be be open air this season but in 2010 will be climate-controlled and enclosed with a glass wall.
The West concourse, on the second level, has been renovated with new restrooms and concessions.
The outside of the stadium on the West will show more unfinished work as brick has yet to be applied, another pending Phase III inclusion.
For now, reddish-brown paint offsets the beige hue that served as Neyland Stadium’s skin for years.
“After the 2009 season we will have brick work that extends from the Southwest section to the Northeast corner on the exterior,’’ Hamilton said. “A new Gate 21 superstructure will be built, and we will re-do the Gate 21 plaza.’’
Hamilton said there will be a number of trees planted in the Gate 21 area and an amphitheater will be built adjacent to the Alumni Memorial Building. That amphitheater will be available to students throughout the year and will be used by the VolNetwork for Saturday pregame shows.
“The (Phase II) project is substantially complete, and we’re putting together the final touches,’’ Hamilton said. “The contractor should be off-site in the next couple of weeks.’’
The pending Phase III work, which includes what Hamilton referred to as the “Neyland Statue’’ in addition to the Gate 21 work and amphitheater, has an estimated cost of $30 to $35 million.
Rentenbach Constructors Inc. has handled the Phase II contracting in cooperation with McCarty-Holsaple-McCarty, which did the design work.
The Phase II construction work began on Oct. 5 and was performed each Sunday through Thursday throughout the remainder of the 2008 season.
From December on, contractors worked 24/7, racing to meet a deadline to have Neyland Stadium ready for the start of the season, and doing so with no major injuries.
Rentenbach, a Knoxville-based corporation with regional offices in Greensboro, N.C., Dallas-Forth Worth and Chattanooga, already had a deep-rooted relationship with UT.
It was founding father Thomas Rentenbach who Gen. Robert Neyland sought out to design and oversee the construction of the stadium’s South horseshoe.
Rentenbach has been involved in 16 more projects in Neyland Stadium since then in addition to 42 projects on the UT campus, including the Cumberland Ave. Pedestrian Bridge and Hodges Library.
“I don’t think Mr. Rentenbach had any idea when he did the horseshoe that it would evolve into a 100,000-seat venue,’’ said Brent Blalock, the company’s vice president. “We have been very pleased to have been involved in the evolution to its current state. Neyland is special to us.’’
In addition to the various West side upgrades and renovations, a great deal of new construction has been performed, particularly from the club level up.
Walls, ceilings, floors, carpet, seats, plumbing, doors ... even the glass — made in America and shipped to Germany for special tinting — is new.
The spoils of the skyboxes on Level 7 (26 of them) and Level 6 (14 more) spare no expense. The university also has its own 144-seat executive suite at midfield on Level 6, adjacent to its catered hospitality area.
Tennessee's signing class for 2012
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Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group
Comments » 26
TSNSD4UT writes:
Lets hope the product on the field is an upgrade also.
coalvol writes:
That's a bit rich coming from a Florida fan....you guys continually lower the bar on how bad collegiate fans can behave.
stevefrommemphis writes:
Anybody who can't SIT (not stand) out in the bleachers for 3.5 hours watching the game probably doesn't need to be at Neyland Stadium in the first place.
As much as I dislike Notre Dame, I must admire them for being the only holdout left where you can experience college football the way it was everywhere just 20 years ago -- no *#%$ Jumbotron blaring commercials during every time out, no luxury boxes -- nothing except the game, the fans, the bands, and excited students.
The old Neyland Stadium was like Wrigley Field. Spending $200 million on "upgrades" is destroying the beauty of the place, alienating long-time fans (in the west upper deck especially) who are being ejected in favor of those who must have a club seat, alienating contributors to the academic programs who are now being told their payments to the Tennessee Fund can be designated for academics (when it will probably just be used to compensate the school for athletic department tutors -- KNS, get on this story).
"It has been said that a football program is the front porch of a university." If that's true, Tennessee has a gold-plated front porch out in front of what continues to be a shack.
pdhuff#552644 writes:
I'll settle for a win.
bigaldaddy writes:
Only soccer hooligans are worse than than those in sandland. They did not even have an SEC championship until a Tennessee boy lead them. I flick my boogers at them.
tennezz writes:
This shack with the gold-plated porch looks alot better than that out-door toilet at memphis!!!
stevefrommemphis writes:
Don't misunderstand, because I agree with you. My idea is that the University of Tennessee shouldn't be happy simply being better than Memphis, but rather should be striving to be as good as the University of Virginia and the University of Michigan. We have a long way to go on that front and don't even appear to be making any effort to try.
rockytopatl writes:
I do hate the constant bombardment of the paying fan with advertisements and endless promotions via the PA system. I used to think going to the games allowed one to avoid the TV commercials. But at Neyland and other stadiums these days, you get them, just through a different medium. As Walter Cronkite said for 20 years or more, "And that's the way it is." Que sera, sera.
tennezz writes:
How long since you have seem our stadium? Must have been a long time!
trollhair writes:
.....and I thought the Education program was the front porch of the University.
smokymtman writes:
AMEN to that! The average fan cannot afford to keep giving more and more money every year in order to own a club level seat or skybox. How about they make some improvements to our hot or cold (depends on the weather)aluminun 12 inch bleacher seats? I guess if the football team can't be the showpiece on the field, then the stadium will fill that void for us fans.
WereInTrouble writes:
The Warden's cover guy, Homer Hamilton, is downgrading the stadium by shrinking it. What a jerk playing right into our competition's hands.
coalvol writes:
I concur. But I had one of your drunk fans grab me by the collar at Neyland in 1992 for simply laughing at something funny he said. But on the other hand I had a very nice female Florida fan at Neyland in 1996 tell me that Florida fans throw stuff at each other in Gainesville...LOL
bemami writes:
Good point, Steve. UT should try to be an excellent university, something like UVA, UNC, or Michigan. But Tennessee residents prefer to compare themselves only to other football factories such as Florida and Alabama. Result: education in Tennessee is usually listed in the bottom five states in every category. That's true from elementary school through colleges. Just pathetic. And the football team isn't even that good.
blitzshoot writes:
Good to see the upgrade. Have they added any brand food eateries?
blitzshoot writes:
What do you think funds many of the buildings and upgrades on the campus. Moron.
etsuvol99#227561 writes:
I disagree about the upgrades. Walking around inside some parts of the stadium in the 90's was like a dungeon. As for the jumbotron, I like the ability to watch replays more than I dislike having to hear commercials.
I'm curious about the stairs installed in place of the "scissor ramps." It was tiring enough to walk back and forth on the ramps' gentle grade all the way up to the upper deck, and now it's going to be stairs instead? I'm in decent shape and I want no part of walking up that many stairs, to say nothing of the older people who sit up high.
richvol writes:
The ramps were done away with because they felt stairs were more compact and looked better...it had nothing to do with ease of use for the fans just like shrinking the seats to an impossible width.
I like some of the improvements but as I have said before UT is really skating out there on some very thin ice with the constant prodding of the fanbase for more and more dollars. The way they have treated some of their most loyal and faithful fans these last 20 or so years is unwise. Even the younger alumini are upset with the way they are being milked constantly for donations. I remember seeing 30,000 to 40,000 people in Neyland in the Dickey years and with this economy pounding families into submission it wouldn't take much to bring UT back down to earth. As a lifelong Vol fan I hope to never see that day but you can't keep expecting the average fan,that make up most of the 100,000 that show up every Saturday,to keep absorbing UT's demands.
UTBudgetCritic (Inactive) writes:
These articles about the ongoing renovations at Neyland Stadium always put such a happy spin on the work that was done, and point out how great the new things will be for fans. There is, however, another side to this story.
The stadium construction crews have subjected several academic departments to loud noise levels, vibrations, disruptive racket of many kinds, and dust during the spring and summer semesters. This has been stressful and disruptive. The stadium is right there in the heart of campus, and is surrounded by academic buildings. Also, there are a number of departments and offices located in the Stadium Hall buildings underneath the stadium. These departments endure even more disruption than the surrounding buildings every time UT Athletics launches another major stadium project. This isn't fair to those programs' students who have steeply paid for a good education and have to endure this construction racket for months.
The number of people who were directly affected by this project is in the hundreds, counting faculty, staff, and students.
UT should spend some of the Neyland Stadium $200 million to build a couple more academic buildings to house the Stadium Hall programs, get them out of the very substandard space they occupy currently, and then UT Athletics could tear down the Hall buildings and do whatever they want with the Stadium.
Then there's the major issue of this project's blocking of Philip Fulmer Way in the stadium vicinity. That is a major thoroughfare in the heart of the UTK campus. It has been closed just about this entire year with the big skycrane. It's still closed, with a week to go until the students arrive. Hopefully it will be reopened this week. The road closure wrecked the traffic flow in the central campus.
Yes, I hope UT football fans enjoy the new renovations, but bear in mind there were many other costs to UT and its students to build them, other than the financial ones. The fans will show up for the WKU game and be all gaga over the new Jumbotron and all the new facades and boxes and things, but they won't have any clue how this project damaged the quality of life on campus in the stadium vicinity- for eight months! Be aware - it most certainly did.
coalvol writes:
Is that not what makes the SEC so great! I know we go at each other pretty hard but I think that is what makes it such a great conference!! :) (And for the record I did pull for the Gators in the National Championship game)
Regulator writes:
This is just my opinion, but we can gripe and complain about stadium upgrades and all of the costs that go along with them, costs both measured and not measured. Fact is, it's just the way it is. Neyland Stadium's upgrades are someone else's interstate highway of 40 or 50 years ago, a necessary evil. For folks to gripe about the inconvienience the work has caused them, it's akin to biting the hand that feeds you, as contributions from athletics to support the academics at the university cannot be denied. As far as inconvieniencing the fans through cramped seating and price increases, that's happening around the country as well. A buddy of mine has season tickets at Clemson, has had them for years. His seats got moved a couple of years ago after he didn't pay out extra money, so we're not alone. If the product on the field is good, people will show up to support it. We got our season tickets back for this season, but they're not were we've been seated before. Our last tickets were in SS under the press box, which is part of the new club seating, so now we're in the stadium seats in XX. No big deal, assuming the product has improved. The tipping point was reached last year. Back to my friend with Clemson tickets. For those of you unfamiliar, their "ticket club" for lack of a better description, is IPTAY. I Pay Ten ($10) A Year. That's what tickets cost when IPTAY was created. Needless to say, tickets are a bit more than that now. I'm sure ClemsonVol or whatever his/her screen name is can clear up any errors I've made in that description. My point is that costs go up every year, but there are still plenty of seats available for us "common" fans, and short of putting a roof over Neyland, most of those seats are going to be uncovered, and in order to put as many people in the stadium as possible, seats are going to be cramped. But if the product on the field is exciting, we'll all be standing most of the time, yelling and cheering like crazy, and the weather will be of little concern.
UTBudgetCritic (Inactive) writes:
Regulator, I think you completely missed the point. You're a football fan, but not a UT employee or student who has had to endure the construction this year. And no, these ongoing Neyland Stadium upgrades are not a necessary evil. They aren't necessary at all. They are what they are, an extravagant expense in the face of the UT system financial crisis, and a degradation of the quality of campus life in the area around and under the stadium. Stop looking at this situation only as a football fan and consider the impact it had on the campus and life there while it has been going on.
Second_Year_Vol writes:
I actually loved going to class and seeing Neyland in the morning sun. Even if it was under construction. There was one time in particular when the sun was coming up behind it on my way to an 8:10 class. It was fall, the leaves were all sorts of colors, the air was crisp. It was glorious. I have a great deal of pride when I see the stadium.
Also, as a student I had no problems whatsoever with the construction. It wasnt a distraction in any of my classes, nor did it interfere with me getting to class. Yes its a large expense, but correct me if I'm wrong, but hasnt this project been in the works for years? Perhaps this plan was drawn up and finalized BEFORE the economy tanked. One more thing, it may be a minor blemish to look at now, but once its done I think it will rival any stadium in the country. Once the plan is finished, I cant wait to see it.
UTBudgetCritic (Inactive) writes:
Okay, one more comment, because this article has already rolled off the active articles on govolsextra.com (dammit, Scripps!)
There is no way that anybody can look at the newly revised Neyland Stadium looming out over Phillip Fulmer Way toward the UT Hearing and Speech Center and not think that the freaking UT Athletics/football program is not out to destroy the the UT Audiology and Speech Pathology program.
I was there today, and looked at how the additions to the stadium jut out across Phillip Fulmer Way toward the Hearing and Speech Center, and thought, my God, the UT football program is going to destroy the heart of the University of Tennessee!
The Audiology and Speech Pathology program goes back to the 50's. The little building that was the East Tennessee Hearing and Speech Center back in the 50's is basically falling apart, with structural problems, roof leaks, mold problems, and many things going on which will probably not be addressed by the uncaring UTK administration since the stupid decision by the Board of Trustees was made to foist this fine and historic program off the UTK campus to UT-Memphis' Hearing and Speech Center's bankrupt program.
Again, the contrast between the gory new facade on the Phillip Fulmer end of the stadium and the rotting and falling apart Hearing and Speech Center was simply astounding to see today.
The UT System has become a depravity to allow the UT Athletics / football complex to become such a horrific complex at the expense of the historic academic departments who are simply falling apart due to lack of funding.
UT football fans can no longer simply ignore what is going on for the sake of the football program. The football team has not even been reasonably competitive in years, and it certainly does not deserve millions of dollars in enhancements to the aging stadium complex.
Regulator writes:
D*mn, you're bitter.
UTBudgetCritic (Inactive) writes:
Stupid UT Athletics. I mean this whole system is screwed to hell and back.
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