South Carolina Football: Ray Tanner provides update on Stadium Project
By Kevin Miller
In February, the University of South Carolina Athletic Department announced a “Stadium Project” that could revolutionize the gameday experience around South Carolina football. Williams-Brice Stadium, the surrounding area, Colonial Life Arena, and the parking around the arena could all be in for major overhauls as the University is planning for the $1 Billion+ project to upgrade everything and provide significant revenue generation.
Tons of speculation and rumors have circulated about the details of the Stadium Project. Some of this is built off of legitimate information, and some of this is just fans daydreaming. Very few actual details have surfaced since then, but according to an article from the Post and Courier’s Chris Day, Athletics Director Ray Tanner spoke a bit about the Stadium Project while addressing Gamecock fans at the Florence Rotary Club.
Tanner did not go into much depth when discussing the future plans for the project, but the small details he did mention are more than have been shared up to this point.
One specific detail that Tanner mentioned was a plan to add both luxury and club seating at Williams-Brice Stadium. According to Day’s article, Williams-Brice has the second-fewest luxury seats in the SEC. Tanner says this will change as “more suites and club spaces” will be an emphasis of the project. This was expected, but Tanner essentially confirmed this speculation.
Tanner also teased that he plans to “roll out” a more detailed plan this summer. How detailed this rollout will be still remains to be seen, but many are expecting some of the first steps to be the athletic department providing insight into from where the private funding for the project will come (the project is supposedly going to be funded primarily by private investors) and potentially some models or mock-ups of some of the early plans.
Hopefully the next “update” will be more of an update than this one from Tanner.
No one truly knows exactly what the final product of the Stadium Project will look like, even Ray Tanner. But Gamecock fans are growing both more excited and more impatient as they are forced to wait.