Vanderbilt AD Eyes New Football Stadium

NASHVILLE, TN — Vanderbilt University athletic director David Williams says it is long past time for the Commodores to get a new football stadium.

In an interview with The Tennessean, Williams said demands for a new stadium pre-date even his arrival on West End in 2003, and later this month, he will take up the issue with university leaders and financial officials.

The last major renovation to Vanderbilt Stadium came in 1981, but even that was just a refurbish of the facility that was built in 1922; cosmetic renovations like the installation of new video screens and turf have done little to modernize the facility. The other 13 members of the Southeastern Conference have all performed major renovations to their stadiums in the last 15 years.

Williams told The Tennessean a new stadium is a "top priority," and while he would not totally rule out an off-campus facility, he prefers the Commodores continue to play on campus. Remaining on campus virtually guarantees the stadium will remain in its current footprint, which is essentially landlocked, shoehorned as it is between Natchez Trace, Jess Neely Drive, Hawkins Field and Memorial Gym. That provides precious little room for any kind of expansion beyond the current 44,000-seat capacity, though Vandy averaged less than 35,000 fans per game last season.

Williams ballparked the cost at $60 to $90 million and meetings with university finance officials should provide an answer on how the project will be paid for, before Williams goes to the chancellor and Board of Trust with an online later this month.

Williams told the newspaper his priority is to bring a modern facility, not necessarily a larger one and that a football stadium is clearly the next item on the athletic department's capital projects list, as upgrades to Hawkins Field and the McGugin Center are in their final stages.