News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Demolition on the westside of Tucker Stadium slated to begin in mid April as just a few more weeks of removing equipment from the facilities under the stands remains.
Tennessee Tech Athletic Director Mark Wilson said the biggest part of the movement centers on the stadium audio and video operations. Those are being moved to the east side of the stadium for the next two seasons.
“The planning is going very well, engineering design is going very well,” Wilson said. “But I think once people see it come down and then start to see it be rebuilt, that’s when they’re really going to get excited. But I’m excited now because I know that we’re in the process of moving things out.”
That’s down to the smallest items, Wilson said, as officials will decide if they want to remove any surplus equipment such as electric switches or automatic flush valves for toilets. Wilson said the multiple departments who operate on that side of the stadium have until mid-March to be out of the facility.
Wilson said the demolition, itself, will be a bit more complicated than the average person might realize.
“And as you look at the size and magnitude of West Stadium and the amount of concrete and steel and everything that’s there, that is a huge magnitude,” Wilson said. “So we’re really excited to get that underway and we’re doing our part to try to get everything out of there as expeditiously as possible to meet all the deadlines that have been set by the designers, contractors.”
Wilson said fundraising and planning continues for the project. He said the current construction environment has made the project a bit more challenging.
“Do some value engineering to get the project, keep it within a reasonable budget,” Wilson said. “So there has been value engineering, and that’s taken a little extra time, but we’ve taken that time to make sure that we get it right and that we get the end product that we want or the amount of money that we desire to spend.”
Wilson said there’s a lot of pride in a facility that has served the university and the greater community since 1966. But he said, it has never really had a major upgrade.
“I think the fans are the ones that really should be excited because there’s going to be chairback seating, club seats, low seats, suites,” Wilson said. “So for whatever price point that a patron wants to purchase a ticket for, they will be able to have a different experience at Tucker Stadium rather than just sitting in regular bleacher seats. Bleacher seats will still be available on the east side of the stadium, but the whole west side will all be premium seating.”
