LSU’s Tiger Stadium Undergoing Renovations

January 23, 2012 /
LSU Reveille, Kevin Thibodeaux

http://www.lsureveille.com/news/tiger-stadium-undergoes-maintenance-1.2688290#.Tx2UgyPd43Q

LSU fans are used to a deafeningly loud Tiger Stadium, packed with more than 92,000 fans during the football season.

But when the players leave the field, not many people are familiar with the behind-the-scenes renovations that prepare the stadium for game days.

Ronnie Haliburton, senior associate athletic director of facilities and ground for Tiger Stadium, said renovations are already under way because of the short time frame to ready the stadium.

Haliburton said the Mecca of Louisiana college football undergoes a variety of rehab and renovation projects during the offseason.

Haliburton said this year the lights around Tiger Stadium will be inspected and replaced. Although the stadium lighting experienced a full replacement six years ago, he said the greater number of night games this coming season will put more use on the lights.

Haliburton noted that while most of the improvements to Tiger Stadium are small repairs that won’t be noticed by fans, this year one big renovation will have fans making a double-take.

He said the entire exterior of the stadium is being repaved to fix cracks and bubbles that have left the surface of Tiger Stadium looking worn from years of use.

The stadium is allotted money for capital projects, which cost more than $500,000. He said $1 million normally would be spent on renovations during the offseason, but most of the projects will be smaller efforts grouped together for efficiency.

Haliburton said he has a tight schedule to get the stadium prepped for football season. He must work around the Spring Game, Bayou Country Superfest and have the renovations finished by the time the football team reports for spring practice, when LSU football coach Les Miles will begin regularly holding team practice on the field.

Business freshman Kasey Catalanotto said she was inside Tiger Stadium for S.T.R.I.P.E.S. and thought the emptiness was particularly unnerving.

“It was kind of weird,” Catalanotto said. “I went for S.T.R.I.P.E.S. We were all yelling and you could hear the echoes.”

But despite the haunting silence, she said she didn’t notice any constructions or repairs.

Haliburton said his office checks every seat, including the boxes, to see which are in need of repair. This year, Haliburton said the seats on the south side of the stadium are being completely replaced and waterproofed.

In addition to damage caused by “general use,” Haliburton said Tiger Stadium is systematically painted and other scheduled renovations, like light replacement, occur every few years.

“We have a punch list of things we want to do every so often and we just start going through them,” Haliburton said.


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