ASU: New club seats unveiled at Sun Devil Stadium.
Maybe you’ll never watch an Arizona State football game from the Founder’s Club, with its $10-million price tag for a suite. Or the Coach’s Club, where the going rate is $500,000.
But those major donors are responsible for paying for much of the $268-million renovation of Sun Devil Stadium and upgraded amenities for all ASU fans.
ASU showed off the high-end clubs and suites on the west side of the stadium Friday, among the key projects this off season in the phased reconstruction of the 60-year-old stadium.
The club spaces were not finished a year ago when the west side of the stadium was rebuilt so that work became a priority after the end of the 2016 season along with finishing the new home for football at the north end of the stadium and installation of one of the largest video boards in the nation.
“Until you actually see it put together, it’s just not real,” ASU Vice President for Athletics Ray Anderson said of the clubs/ suites, including the comparatively more affordable Legends’ Club ($12,500), which is 92 percent sold out and will house mostly former loge season ticket holders.
“Last year we had most of it sold out without having club space at all,” said Rocky Harris, ASU athletic chief of staff. “What the architects tried to do is make it a very Arizona look with garage (style) doors you can open on nice weather days.”
Decor in the Coach’s and Founder’s clubs will include a wall displaying ASU helmets from various eras.
Anderson and football coach Todd Graham are paying Coach’s Club members.
Five of nine Founders’ Club suites still are available although three of those were purchased then donated back to athletics to in essence be re-sold for another $10 million fund raising campaign donation.
Anderson said the clubs will be used for events other than football games in keeping with Sun Devil Stadium 365, an initiative to make the stadium usable for the community all year long. He also expects the public to be able to tour portions of the new football facility, which coaches are being moved into starting July 3.
“People will get a real appreciation that they’ve got an elite venue (Sun Devil Stadium overall) that is theirs,” Anderson said. “In time, they’ll understand this isn’t just where they play football. This is where they’re going to have a lot of events in line with the 365 concept. This belongs to the public. It’s not just ASU Sun Devil athletics.
That’s why it’s being designed to have a big public component to it. People will be coming through here regularly and in droves if we have our way in the not too distant future.”
Reconstruction of the east side was postponed for a year, until after the 2017 season, to allow for more planning regarding possible year-round uses. It could include a convertible space for banquets as large as 500 people.
Anderson said a running track will be installed around the entire stadium concourse once it is fully connected and that there could be pathway through the stadium connecting to Tempe Town Lake.
Installation of the ANC video board — 47-feet high x 113-feet wide — will be completed by the end of July. It is now awaiting speakers and side sponsor boards.
Anderson reflected on the death Thursday of Frank Kush, ASU’s winningest football coach, in the context of the stadium.
“Hopefully he’s looking down on us proud,” Anderson said. “Coach Kush would walk through these facilities and be very proud. I’d like to think he’d be most proud of the new locker room and weight room down there. He would beam with pride that from the humble beginnings he was so responsible for, here we are now in one of the country’s most magnificent facilities. He was a big reason for all that.”
ASU left the stadium lights on until 2 a.m. Friday in honor of Kush, whose statue stands at the south end of the stadium that houses Frank Kush Field.
There are plans in the works to honor Kush when the football team is training July 31-Aug. 5 at Camp Tontozona and during one of the early home games, perhaps against San Diego State on Sept. 9.