By the time the 2023 season starts, the south end zone of Ross-Ade Stadium will have an updated and radically different look.
Today, the area is branded the South End Zone Patio and serves primarily as a party area. But that will change.
"There'll be a seating structure of some kind that will go in and around the scoreboard so it'll build up around that,” said Purdue A.D. Mike Bobinski. “It'll still have some permanent seating options in the lower part of that end zone, which right now are really popular. There's that patio behind. So, we'll retain some of that during this, but there'll be seating around.”
The renovation—phase one of a $45.4 million plan to update Ross-Ade Stadium unveiled at the Purdue Board of Trustees meeting on Friday—also will make it possible for fans to walk between the east and west stands.
“There'll be a connector that will connect the east and west stands,” said Bobinski. “So, that long-wanted opportunity to be able to make it from one side of the stadium to the other on the south end of it without having to go down and out and around will now exist.”
And Bobinski has a unique plan for the corners of the south end zone.
“There'll be sort of a terraced seating opportunity,” he said. “Right now, what we envision is lots of that seating will be sort of what they put in the Major League Soccer stadiums, that safe standing opportunity with a seat that will pull down if you choose to want to sit for a little bit.”
Another idea: Students may be moved to the south end zone.
“We will consider that as we work through this and we think there's an opportunity there that might be really attractive to create that sort of really great environment down in that end where the students sort of own that part of the stadium,” said Bobinski. “But we want to talk through that with them personally before we make that decision. It doesn't have to be that way. But it's certainly an option we want to consider.”
The goal?
“Mainly, we want to create a fairly raucous environment down there,” said Bobinski. “We want to create a little life in that south end zone and we think that that type of seating plan will encourage people to participate in the game, not just watch it.”
Expect renderings for the entire phase one project this summer.
While the south end zone changes may be most visible to fans, the change to Ross-Ade Stadium won’t stop there. Purdue will build a tunnel from the Kozuch Football Performance Complex to Ross-Ade Stadium. While that will knock out some seating in the north end zone bowl, Bobinski thinks the seat loss can be made up for in the new south end zone.
“We believe there'll be a net add somewhere in the 3-4, 3-5,000 range,” he said. “So, we will lose some in that corner when they have to do the demolition to construct the new entrance for the team and the tunnel. But we will add several thousand in the south end zone. So, it'll be a net gain somewhere between 3-5,000. That's a big range. But I think more like 4-5,000 would be my guess.”
Purdue also will add a nutrition/dining facility in the north end zone as part of the phase one project.
When could phase two start?
"We will begin the planning for phase two as soon as we put a bow on this one," said Bobinski. "We'll start to identify what we think are the right elements for phase two, get some sense of scope, magnitude, what are the dollars.
"I would hope three to five (years), something like that. Just knowing that it takes time to construct what we're going to construct. But maybe at the best, probably three years will be my sense."
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