Alabama athletics launches 10-year plan to renovate, modernize facilities

Alabama Athletics announced a six-hundred million dollar fundraising and development effort, dubbed ‘The Crimson Standard’ at a press conference Thursday afternoon.

Alabama Athletics goal is to raise funds to renovate and modernize its facilities, including Bryant-Denny Stadium and Coleman Coliseum. The effort, announced at a press conference with multiple head coaches present, will seek to raise $600 million dollars over the span of ten years. Bryant-Denny Stadium, Coleman Coliseum and the Mal Moore Athletic Facility are all slated to receive upgrades.

According to AL.com, the capacity of Bryant-Denny would be reduced to a seat total under 100,000. Work is not expected to begin until after the 2019 season. It’s all part of phase one of the development initiative, which also includes enhancements to the golf and softball facilities.

What exactly is changing?

Renderings of the plans are available on the Crimson Tide Foundation’s website.

It’s hard to imagine Bryant-Denny Stadium could ever have been upgraded with any more seating and that was never the goal. However, Alabama Athletics revealed significant changes will be coming to BDS.

Many seating areas of the Bryant-Denny will be renovated. The plan adds three new club-level areas and just under 4,000 premium seats. The press box is getting moved and the concourses will be expanded to help with traffic flow. The concourses will also receive improved concession stands, although the specifics were not detailed. There will also be a massive video board placed where most of the South Upper Deck endzone seats are right now.

As for Coleman Coliseum, it isn’t slated to be renovated until phase two of the Crimson Standard, which is scheduled to begin in the 2021-2022 season. However, the updating is far more significant. The seating bowl will be completely redone from the ground up. The seats will be closer to the court. New lighting, ribbons and a video board will be added. New premium seating will also be added. However, capacity is expected to drop around 4,000 from its current 15,000.

Future Impacts

It’s no secret that there is an all-out race to have the biggest and the baddest facilities in college athletics. Every school is making an effort to improve upon facilities to attract both fan attention and recruits.

If Alabama made this $600 million dollar effort 15 years ago, you would have laughed the entire Athletics staff out the door. Today, the amount is significant but it is not unrealistic. Alabama Athletics has never been in a better position to make these kinds of efforts. It is not farfetched to raise $600 million dollars over 10 years.

As for the improvements, most of the changes look tremendous. The expanded concourses and new video boards for Bryant-Denny are cool. The renovations to Coleman should have any fan excited. The capacity loss isn’t that big a deal either, considering filling up the stadiums and arenas is hard to do these days.

However, the focus on premium and club-level season may have many fans feeling that Alabama football may become a luxury they cannot afford. Athletic Director Greg Byrne would be wise to consider additional fan-friendly changes. The same effort Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta made to reduce the price of concessions was appreciated by fans.

There is a lot of reason to get excited at the University of Alabama. Once completed, Bryant-Denny could become the finest campus facility in the nation.