The CHIMES

Issue date: 9/11/09 Section: News

Excavation has begun on the new multi-use athletic stadium. The football team will play all its home games off-campus this season, but will look forward to the stadium opening in Fall 2010. Photo by Wendy Vair, '11 | Staff Reporter

Digital rendering of what the new stadium will look like once it is complete. While it will be open in the fall, the structure will not be completely finished until spring 2010. Rendering by HMH Site & Sports Design.

Morrisville State College first looked at moving to the National Collegiate Athletic Association eight years ago. At that time, the college's task force suggested that MSC build a new football stadium.

Now with the plans set and construction of the football stadium underway, Athletic Director Greg Carroll said the field-turf playing field should be ready by the end of the fall season and the press box, bleachers and locker rooms finished by late spring.

Out of 30 submissions, HMH Site and Sports Design from Ithaca was chosen to design MSC's football stadium. "They have worked other SUNY projects and their track record is excellent," Carroll said. The contracting firm that built Utica College's stadium, Gaetano Construction, won the bidding out of three general contracting companies that bid on MSC's project.

The stadium was not supposed to cost more than $5 million, but with the added lights and hospitality suite, Carroll said the stadium is going to cost closer to $6 million. Vice President for Administrative Services Richard Carreno said the extra money came from an Education Facilities Capital Plan, a five-year plan for SUNY. He said the stadium project is only one of the projects currently underway on campus.

For this season, the Mustangs will have to play their home games at nearby Colgate University's Andy Kerr Stadium. Scott LoMonaco, a recruited freshman from Dallas, Texas, considers playing college football to be a privilege. "My job as a player is to go out and represent our team, our school, our coaches, our community and my family, no matter where we are," he said.

Dow said the team will be "going from the outhouse to the penthouse," when the project is complete. He said the old football field was, "God-awful" and often dangerous and unplayable, even though the grounds crew worked hard.

Carroll said he expects the new stadium to make a real statement: "We are the Mustangs." Dow said there are benefits of playing in a stadium; "The look and feel brings much more energy and excitement to the game, and the team will undoubtedly feed off of that."

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