Report on CSU stadium will be positive

fort collins» On May 2, Colorado State University chancellor and president Tony Frank’s report to the CSU System’s board of governors on the new on-campus stadium will include documentation that the nearly completed $220.1 million project remains on time and on budget.

The draft of the report Frank confirmed he will present in Fort Collins to the board — which last met in February — lists the updated stadium budget as $222.1 million, but that still includes $5.8 million of contingency funds. The February report to the board put the budget at $221.7 million with contingency funds of $7.7 million.

On Saturday, the Rams played their Green vs. Gold spring game on the Lagoon Field north of the stadium in part to showcase the project and preview the football program’s imminent gameday return to campus after 49 seasons at the off-campus Hughes Stadium.

The first home game in the new stadium, against the Oregon State Beavers, is scheduled for Aug. 26.

Athletic director Joe Parker again emphasized the stadium project is “in good shape” on the budget front. Noting the contingency funds cushion, he also pointed out that last year, when the project seemed on track to stay well under budget, additions were made.

“We bought some things off our ‘add-alternate’ list with contingency dollars, including the practice fields on the west side and a couple of other pieces,” Parker said, also mentioning video enhancements. “The practice fields never were in the project to begin with, and that was the one thing we wanted to make sure we could add, if

we managed the project well. … It’s an almost $3 million investment.”

Frank said: “We’ve used up about $2 million-plus of our $7.7 million contingency. There were things things we thought would be nice but didn’t think vital, so we didn’t fund them. Since we kept the budget within the parameters, we’ll have a big chunk of the contingency that was included in the budget to actually use. In other words, we’ll get more stadium for $221 million than we originally scoped because we scoped it with a contingency in case expenses ran hot.”

The Alumni Center plus academic advising and classroom facilities on the stadium’s east side are separately budgeted, and Frank’s report will place the updated cost of those at $19.9 million.

The date of scheduled “substantial completion” for the stadium part of the project, with M.A. Mortenson Co. as the general contractor, remains June 9. With a two-month window for final details or adjustments, the “final acceptance date” is Aug. 10.

The report to the board again will detail that despite the lack of a namingrights partner, the total commitments in sponsorships already have exceeded the most optimistic projections the board considered when it gave the goahead to the project in December 2014.

“I don’t think anyone on campus is going to apologize for where we’re at,” Parker said. “It would be nice to know what we’re going to call the facility, but right now everyone seems more or less fine with the stadium, the new stadium, the on-campus stadium. We debated for a while a little bit internally if we wanted to make it institutional branding as far as ‘Colorado State Stadium’ or something like that, but we decided not to do that. That would have been an invest- ment of dollars that we might be redoing in the near future if we secure a naming-rights partner.”

An anonymous $20 million commitment over 30 years to transfer the Sonny Lubick Field designation from Hughes Stadium to the new stadium was crucial, as were major commitments from New Belgium Brewing for a Fan Deck and from the Orthopaedic and Spine Center of the Rockies for a Field Club.

Also, Frank noted that when construction for those types of sponsored facilities add to the actual cost of construction, the sponsors pick up the cost.

“So the total stadium budget increased, but not the amount CSU bonded or is responsible for paying back,” Frank said. “The CSU share is constant and external founders are carrying the additional scope.”

Also, the stadium’s premium seating — suites, indoor club, loge and and outdoor club — has been sold out since October 2016.

Frank’s report to the board May 2 also will include an account of the latest dealings with the Stadium Advisory Group, with members jointly appointed by CSU and the city of Fort Collins. It was formed to deal with issues tied to the addition of the stadium on the southern edge of campus the six home game dates adjacent to residential areas. CSU has committed $37,500 annually to a Good Neighbor Fund to deal with neighborhood issues tied to the stadium, with recommendations for payments made by the SAG.

Also, the report goes over the status of projects included in the stadium-related Intergovernmental Agreement with the City of Fort Collins, and potential uses for the now-abandoned Hughes Stadium property. ICON Venue Group is holding a public forum in May to update the public and receive feedback about possible future development on the site.