BATON ROUGE — The renovation of the west upper deck of Tiger Stadium, a project that has been undertaken by the Tiger Athletic Foundation, will begin next week.
The first evidence of work began Friday with the installation of a construction fence around the west side of the stadium. Next week, contractors will begin driving test pilings on the site.
“We are excited to get this project underway and we’re pleased about getting started on schedule,” said Maj. Gen. Ron Richard, chief executive officer of the Tiger Athletic Foundation. “This is another important step in building on the success of our athletics program and keeping LSU among the leaders nationwide in collegiate athletics.”
The renovation of the west side of Tiger Stadium will give LSU approximately 3,200 club seats and a new press box. The TAF began pre-sales of the club seats last September and all seats were sold out by mid-October. The revenue from the club seating will help pay for other projects for the LSU Athletics program.
The renovation is scheduled for completion by the opening game of the 2005 season.
Construction on the support structure will continue throughout the 2004 calendar year, but demolition of the west upper deck will not begin until the completion of the 2004 football season, meaning that seating in the stadium will not be affected for the coming football season.
LSU is currently developing a plan for handling the changes to parking and entry to Tiger Stadium that will result from this construction.
“While we join the TAF in the excitement concerning this important project, we also know there are issues relating to parking changes and fan access to Tiger Stadium for the coming football season,” said LSU athletics director Skip Bertman. “We will be in communication with our fans later this spring regarding exactly how we will handle these issues for the 2004 season.”