Colorado State modifies stadium plans to meet budget

CSU significantly reduced the number of chairback seats and eliminated two of six planned elevators to serve club seating areas in order to help pay for a $1.19 million field-level club seating area at the university's new on-campus stadium.

Documents obtained Wednesday by the Coloradoan show several design modifications have been made to keep the $220 million project within budget. Additional modifications, including the size, shape and brightness of the main scoreboard in the south end zone, and what material will be used for the grandstand risers and steps, were still being discussed in weekly meetings last month.

Reducing the number of seats with backs in the west grandstands from 8,783 to 4,000 will save an estimated $472,000. Of the remaining chairback seats, 3,554 will be located in the lower bowl, according to a plan presented March 6 by stadium consultants to Colorado State University officials. Hughes Stadium, home to CSU's football team since 1968, has 3,832 chairback seats, according to a 2013 CSU report.

Reducing the number of elevators serving club seating areas in the press box structure above the west grandstands will save another $551,000, the presentation showed. It was prepared jointly by Icon Venue Group, the project manager for the stadium; Populous, the architectural firm designing the facility; and Mortenson Construction, which will be in charge of building the 644,000 square-foot facility designed to hold up to 41,000 fans.

TIMELINE:CSU stadium moves slower than similar projects

The design changes will help cover the cost of a field-level club seating area that CSU officials say will be the first of its kind in college football. Fans will be seated in an elevated area behind the home team's bench and on both sides of the walkway that CSU coaches and players will use to enter and exit the playing field.

Other design changes that have been made to help keep the stadium within budget include a simplified press box that will require fewer support columns and the substitution of less-expensive materials to replace some glass and stone pieces in less-visible areas of the stadium's facade. The press box modifications will save an estimated $2.33 million, and the facade changes another $1.45 million.

Icon has agreed to build the stadium for $220 million, including design, consulting and infrastructure costs, Tim Romani, the company's chief executive officer, told the Coloradoan two weeks ago. Mortenson agreed to construct the stadium for $170 million in a preconstruction contract signed in October 2013. An $18.5 million alumni and academic center on the east side of the stadium, added to the project in May, brings the total cost of new stadium facilities to $238.5 million.

Icon and Mortenson are expected to enter into construction contracts with the same "guaranteed maximum price" clauses by mid-August, according to a procurement plan summary obtained Wednesday.

GAINING POPULARITY:CSU football season ticket sales at 5-year high

Amy Parsons, CSU's vice president for operations, and other university officials are meeting weekly with officials from Icon, Populous and Mortenson to refine the construction plans, even as site-clearing and utility work begins at the stadium site.

"As we do modify it, we know what impact that will have on us from a cost standpoint, a schedule standpoint and a constructability standpoint," Romani said.

The modifications agreed to in March reduced the cost of the stadium structure itself to $171.4 million, the presentation showed, with potential savings of up to $6 million more.

Final construction documents are still being prepared, Romani said, and much of the subcontracting work for the project will be bid out next week and left open for bidding through the end of August, according to the procurement plan summary. Final construction documents won't be completed until mid-November, two months after a formal groundbreaking ceremony the weekend of Sept 12-13 to mark the start of excavation.

The new stadium is expected to be completed in time for the 2017 football season.

Follow reporter Kelly Lyell at twitter.com/KellyLyell and facebook.com/KellyLyell.news