Appalachian State's 47-year-old football stadium has a new look.
A 120,000 square-foot, seven-story athletics center behind the stadium's west stands will be used for the first time Saturday when Appalachian plays its home opener against McNeese State.
The center includes a locker room, weight room and training areas, coaches' and administrative offices, 18 luxury suites and 500 club seats for game viewing and a press box.
The boxes and suites have increased the seating capacity of Kidd Brewer Stadium to 21,650.
Appalachian has led the NCAA's Football Championship Subdivision in attendance each of the past two seasons, and, using a grass bank for overflow crowds, drew a school-record average of 28,727 for six regular-season games last year.
Coach Jerry Moore said that the new athletics center is a top-notch, state-of-the-art complex.
"I was talking to one of the Dallas Cowboys scouts and mentioned to him that, ‘We'll have one of the better facilities (in the FCS).' He said, ‘Jerry, this will be one of the top 40 facilities in the United States.' And every day that I've seen it being completed, I believe that's true. It's really a great piece of work. All Appalachian people can be proud of this."
The athletics center is the main component of a three-year renovation project, part of a $50 million enhancement program for athletics facilities.
"I think, for us, to have an athletic facility that mirrors the beauty of this campus, it's a strong statement that athletics here matter and it's integrated into the life of campus," said Charlie Cobb, Appalachian's athletics director.
"It's a building that will help our football program immeasurably, but it's also going to help the other 19 programs as well with the training center, the weight room, academic space and computer lab. It's a building that will touch every aspect of our program.
"Troy Heustess and Doug Justice on our staff, and consultant Charles Upchurch, they've really lived with this project for three years. It's nice to look back at some of the initial ideas and thoughts and drawings and see this come to reality."
Moore said that the new complex could be a recruiting asset for a football program that has made significant strides in success and exposure the last few seasons, with three national championships and a landmark victory over Michigan.
"Only time is going to tell that, but I don't know of anybody else that we go head to head with that has facilities like this," Moore said.
Appalachian's athletics staff has been moving into the new facility this week, from the smaller Owens Field House adjacent to the stadium's north end zone. Moore said that plans are for his team to use the new locker room in the athletics center Saturday.
Cobb said he'll move on to the next projects.
"We still have some teams that need locker rooms, we need to finish our commitment to the soccer facility, and we need to find a way to get some indoor tennis courts built so our teams will have a chance to practice and play during inclement weather," Cobb said. "We still have some things to do."
■ Tommy Bowman can be reached at 727-7320 or at tbowman@wsjournal.com.
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