GO POKES!
North Side of Boone Pickens Stadium Rapidly Coming to a Finish for Football
STILLWATER – The look inside Boone Pickens Stadium will be different now that the north side is near completion as the first phase of the two-year $55 million Boone Pickens Stadium upgrade, The project is now being lumped in with the projects announced earlier this year as part of the Athletics Facilities Vision Plan.
This project started as soon as the final home game with West Virginia was completed last season and it included pulling out all of the chairback seats and belachers in the lower bowl of the north side and then redoing the core concrete and steel infrastructure, which badly needed to be done. The work appears to have been accomplished ahead of schedule. Associate Athletic Director for Facilities Kyle Waters told us several times that he was pleased with the pace of the project and the quality of work he was seeing.
Another big part of the project was lining up the entires (portals) to get into the stadium from the concourse at both the 200 and 300 levels of the stadium. You can see in the story cover picture how those now line up with each other.
The rows on the 200 and 300 level are getting an increase in leg room, but that adjustment was not possible on the 100 level.
Finally, the bleachers and chairback seating needed to go in. The chairbacks have been expanded to include more of those seats. The new look is because of those seats. I believe the manafacturer of the new mesh facric seating is 4Topps out of Winston Salem, N.C. They are the innovator and leader in breathable mesh outdoor stadium seating. The decision was made to go with black over the orange that fades and becomes somewhat of a salmon/peach/pink color. The black is supposed to hold up better. Also, I thought they might be hot in the sun, but I went up and tried a seat and found it comfortable in both temperature and feel. I think the new seats will be a hit.
Boone Pickens Stadium is scheduled to undergo a similar, but even wider expanse of the same work on the south side immediately following the 2023 season.