UNC Department of Athletics
A UNC Board of Trustees committee on Wednesday signed off on the second phase of expansion to Kenan Stadium. The full board approved it today.
CHAPEL HILL -- A UNC Board of Trustees committee on Wednesday signed off on the second phase of expansion to Kenan Stadium. The full board approved it today.
The privately financed, five-story addition to Kenan will be built in the stadium's east end zone and will house club seats, individual suites, a visiting locker room, the academic support center for athletes, the Carolina Leadership Academy and a strength and conditioning center for the school's Olympic sports.
Athletics director Dick Baddour said Wednesday the school will add a second video board with the expansion.
Construction will begin immediately and is expected to take about 15 months to complete in time for the start of the 2011 football season. The addition, named the Center for Excellence, will replace Kenan Fieldhouse, which was built in 1927.
Sales of club seats and suites began in October of 2009 and will provide about half the funding of the $70 million project. Private donations will supply the rest of the funds, and the athletic department will not use state funds in the project.
"The Carolina Center for Excellence will help us provide exceptional academic support to our nearly 800 student-athletes," North Carolina athletic director Dick Baddour said in a statement. "It also creates a new source of revenue that over the next 30 years will help us maintain the broad-based, 28-sport program we have long enjoyed."
