By Russ Brown
Special to NKyTribune
LOUISVILLE — Louisville football coach Bobby Petrino believes the Cardinals already have a significant “homecourt advantage” playing in Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium, and it’s about to get even better.
Call it a “close the bowl” expansion plan.
UofL officials announced Friday a $55 million project to enclose the north end zone, adding 10,000 chairback seats for a capacity of approximately 65,000. The plan also includes enlarging and improving the Howard L. Schnellenberger Football Complex that serves as a training facility, along with coaches’ offices and meeting rooms.
The expansion will make PJCS the largest football stadium in the state, surpassing the 61,000 seats at the University of Kentucky’s Commonwealth Stadium after its ongoing enhancements are completed.
“I kinda believe a little bit in the ‘if you build it, they will come’ motto, but I think you’ve got to have wonderful facilities to attract top coaches,” UofL athletics director Tom Jurich said during the press conference. “You’ve got to have great facilities to attract top recruits, so I’m not thinking out of the box here. That’s pretty normal business.”
Jurich set no deadline for completion of the expansion, but added that “in a perfect world, we’d like to open in two years.” The team will continue playing in the stadium during construction.
Jurich said funds for the project will be raised through sponsorhips, private donations, ticket sales and possibly other sources.
The expansion will include 1,000 club seats, 65 new premium loge level boxes and 10 field-level suites, with the club seats providing a VIP gathering area that will provide viewing access to the field.
It will be the second major improvement for the stadium in less than a decade. PJCS was completed in 1998 at a cost of $79 million with a seating capacity of 42,000 and was expanded to 55,000 seats at a cost of $63 million in 2009.
Louisville’s home attendance has exceeded 55,000 nine times since the first expansion, including three times last season — a record 55,428 for the Cards’ ACC debut against Miami; 55,414 for Florida State; and 55,118 for a season-closing win over UK.
Louisville averaged 52,972 fans for its six home games in 2014. UofL was 5-1 at home last year and is 17-3 in PJCS over the past three seasons. During Petrino’s first stint as coach, the Cards lost just one home game from 2003-06. They owned a school-record 20-game winning streak that was snapped with a 38-35 upset loss to Syracuse in 2007, Steve Kragthorpe’s first year as head coach.
“We have a great homecourt advantage,” Petrino says. “I think that’s one of the things that’s awesome about playing here at home is when it’s third down and our defense is on the field, it’s hard for them to get the ball snapped. So we have to take our hats off to our crowd.”
The football complex at the north end of the field will also undergo a major expansion and face lift. The Cards’ weight room and conditioning center will double in size, creating a total of 20,000 square feet. An enlarged players’ lounge, improvements for coaches’ offices and the team locker room, plus new theatre-style meeting areas will also be included.
Jurich said he and his staff have been working on plans to enlarge the stadium for about three years. He said UofL stole some of the design ideas from AT&T Stadium in Dallas, home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys, and Seattle’s CenturyLink Field, where the Seattle Seahawks play.
“The challenge was the end zone part because we wanted to do it great,” Jurich said. “This is really the home for all of our (football) athletes and coaches, so we wanted to make sure we just didn’t throw things up. “So we looked at a lot of places. There’s probably a lot of Seattle in it and a little bit of the Dallas stadium in it.
“There’s going to be a lot of things incorporated (from AT&T Stadium) because they do it right down there, there’s no question about it. The Seattle stadium is spectacular also, so we kind of stole from those two areas.”
UofL will open its 2015 season against No. 6/7 Auburn on Sept. 5 in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. Then the Cards will play three straight home games — Sept. 12, Houston; Sept. 17, No. 12 and ACC rival Clemson; and Sept. 26, Samford.
“We have a good, young team right now,” Petrino says. “We had some success last year, but not the success we want, not exactly where we want to be. I’m excited to get started and see exactly where we’re at, and I think we can continue our momentum in the recruiting.”
Russ Brown has covered University of Louisville athletics for over 30 years, including 15 for The Courier-Journal in Louisville. He is senior writer/editor for the Louisville SportsReport, which he helped found, and also writes for Cardinalsports.com.