When Arizona State University’s football team kicks off its season Thursday night, most of the upgrades performed by the Sundt joint-venture team at Sun Devil Stadium during the offseason will have occurred behind the scenes. But the improvements were vital nonetheless.
Our work with Hunt Construction Group this offseason in Tempe consisted of the Student Athletic Facility at the north end of the stadium and build-out of club level suites on the west sideline.
The athletic facility’s first floor includes the main lobby, weight room, loading dock and walk-in freezers. The second floor includes the locker room, plunge pool, hydrotherapy area, players’ lounge, media room, team dining area, Tillman Tunnel (which Arizona State’s players will use to enter the field) and equipment storage. The third floor has coaching staff offices, as well as the new kitchen. The roof, called the Sun Deck, is an extension of the main concourse and will be used as a beer garden on game days and is already known for spectacular views of the stadium and surrounding area.
One big addition that everyone will see is the huge new videoboard in the north end zone. The board measures 5,419 square feet, making it the eighth-largest in college football. Probably not coincidentally, it’s about 150 square feet larger than the one at the football stadium of rival University of Arizona in Tucson.
“The Hunt-Sundt team has done a great job working with us and making all this stuff happen,” Stadium Project Representative Isaac Manning told the Arizona Republic in March. “I’m really confident in their ability to deliver when they say they’re going to deliver and for us to have a natural migration so we’re not panicked and doing stuff at the last minute.”
There’s one more offseason of work to complete. After the coming season, the east side will be demolished and rebuilt, finishing off the $268 million project. The joint-venture team has worked on the stadium for the past three off-seasons.
Sun Devil Stadium was constructed in 1958. The last major renovation was in 1988.