Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium is slated for a facelift. Built in 2005, the facility was the first D1 Lacrosse-only stadium in the US but twenty years later, the facility is ready for updating. A multi-million dollar donor-funded capital project is intended to improve the current experience for fans and players alike over the next two years.
Over the past several years, Denver has been continuously upgrading the facility. DU is currently replacing the scoreboard after installing new artificial turf two years ago. Prior to this work, upgrades were made to the men’s and women’s locker rooms.
The new capital plan includes converting and expanding the press box structure on the upper concourse to include a multi-use facility with dedicated space for the press/media adjoining a separate space devoted to lacrosse team meeting space for the men’s and women’s teams. “Think of it as a player lounge and meeting space on non-game days,” said Berlo, Vice Chancellor of DU Athletics. The press/media area on the east end of the building will be enhanced and offer improved sight lines for broadcasting both lacrosse and soccer and improve production and broadcast capability. The stadium sound system, outdated by today’s standards, will also be upgraded.
During game days, the player lounge area will be converted and act as a Gold Club dining/eating area along with added rail seating between the current Gold Club structure to the west and the lounge. A covered west concourse will offer heat lamps on cold game days and windbreaks along the south side concourse. The Gold Club building on the west end of the stadium will be reconfigured, upgraded, and rebranded to emphasize the stadium’s unique lacrosse focus for recruits and visitors.
Stadium capacity, always a hot topic for LetsGoDU readers, continues to be evaluated but will not be included in this current plan. “We prioritized our capital needs and maximized the project for the benefit of our fans and student-athletes. While expanded seating is not a part of the current capital plan, we continue to explore options to expand capacity.”
DU is also piloting reserved seating this season and will evaluate any changes or revisions to that program after this season.
Denver Athletics sees these investments as a way to cement DU’s national competitiveness and reputation in lacrosse while upgrading the fan and player experience: “These investments will allow us to compete with other top facilities around the country, enhance the game day experience, support our student-athletes and for men’s and women’s lacrosse to continue as the Lacrosse Capitol of the West.”
Sounds like improvements for deep-pocketed donors, not fans…
Idiotic to spend all this money without increasing capacity. May the administration be beheaded.
As a reminder, this is donor-supported. The cost to add seating is substantially more costly than this two-year project and will take significant financial participation from DU. As we have discussed, DU is currently tight on capital funds so seating expansion is not at the top of the list for now.
Wasting monies on a foo-foo lounge only further delays the needed seating expansion. Makes abssolutely no difference where the funds come from…
I understand your point and appreciate it. However, everyone benefits with new turf, new scoreboard, and new sound system. Players will benefit from a new meeting area, wall ball, and a branded recruiting space in the west building. Again (my last comment on this) – this is donor funded. No doubt, non-revenue sports are going to continue to need revenue producing projects to compete long-term in DI athletics. That is the reality if we want DU to compete for DI championships.
More seats are not revenue-producing? And this is MY last comment on this: it makes ZERO difference where the funds came from, if not intelligently spent. You seem to be a shill for the administration, so be it.
This is about as helpful to the fans, as making the championship banners in the hockey arena invisible to most of the crowd. Some genius people making genius decisions.
Sometimes donors insist their money goes a certain way, sometimes advancement can persuade to change a bit. We’ll likely never know if donors insisted on the funds going this way or if advancement ( DU) nudged this way. A nice improvement for sure, but a way to boost revenue (seating capacity) is really needed for athletics and all operations at DU. DU does not have the funds of their own to spend on this now and athletics hemorrhages money ( like at most all schools). But, absent more seats, trying to ensure lax remains nationally relevant IS a way to keep the revenue portion of the equation up
Overall, it’s a positive
Nice to have an upgrade but this is directed at the top end, not for the typical fan. Perhaps that’s how the donors wanted it to be spent, but would have been cool to see some increased capacity
If those who donate are not happy where their money is going they stop donating.
Why is this so hard to understand?
The responders on this forum are not the donors, but the fans. Why is THIS so hard to understand?
Did they move the hockey banners so that the donors eating roast beef sandwiches in the gold club would have the banners right in their faces? Who made that decision?
Like the word “Josh” in the third paragraph in front of “Berlo”…something is missing from this stadium improvement plan
I’m sure Brownie had some things on his wish list that weren’t ignored.