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A midfield celebration, punctuating between a lacrosse match and football game, will mark the completion of the new, 5,000-seat, multi-million-dollar facility — the new home for both sports. The stadium’s gently sloping bowl, individual chairback seating and food and drink concourse create a new level of fan experience. The training and conditioning equipment and space put ���Ҵ�ý in the top tier of facilities and create dazzling new tools with which coaches can recruit new players. 

���Ҵ�ý Stadium, anchored on the northern-most end of campus, already enjoyed a soft open by hosting three lacrosse games over the past month. The complex houses an expanded sports performance center and a top-of-the-stadium box, Gallery 18, that serves as a versatile hospitality space with innovative, accordion windows that can slide away and open to the sights, sounds and smells of the game. 

“The new facilities change the way we’re now going to operate the program, the way we can function day-to-day,” he said. “From the time they wake up in the morning as scholar-athletes, as football players, until the day ends, the workouts, our practice, the ability to get some extra study time in here, the ability to relax, get some extra nutrition — it’s really something that we thought we could only imagine, but now it’s real, and it’s better than we ever imagined.”

That centralization of operations is a common thread among the players and coaches of multiple sports. ���Ҵ�ý field hockey will not play its games in the new stadium but is benefiting with new locker room space adjacent to its home turf, Carol Grotnes Belk Turf Field. Already, the facility’s proximity is paying dividends.

“We used to be lifting in one spot, and our locker room was in one spot, and if we wanted to do film, it was in another spot,” said field hockey coach Zoe Almquist. “Then we had to come out to practice. So now having everything right here together just saves them so much time, and I think time is such a valuable currency. So, to have everything centralized in one spot just makes everything much more efficient and lets us do a lot more work.”

The new stadium is also proving to be an easy pitch for recruits. Prospective Wildcats see a spacious sports performance center that, at 7,000-square feet, is two-and-a-half times larger than the previous one. They see a brand-new artificial turf field, with bright lines, an interlocking DC at midfield and black and red end zones. And they can imagine themselves taking advantage of the fueling station, study areas, training rooms and team lounge. 

“The traction we’re getting,” said Abell, “with the amount of visits in recruiting and the next generation of scholar-athletes that want to see this facility, I’m excited about what that means for us and our future.”