With the rise in students and demand for more facilities to hold the increasing population on Tarleton State University’s campus, administrators are laying the groundwork of a design for Memorial Stadium set for fall 2015. 

The renovation project for the stadium has been on the board since Tarleton raised the intercollegiate athletic fee.

 At this time, no design already published from last spring or the 2020 plan is the established design for this project. Broadest Planning, an architecture firm, has been hired to gather data about the stadium and what fans would like to see done to it. 

However, a renovation date for the new stadium has not been put into effect as of yet. 

“We are hoping to start after the 2015 football season,” Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students Rusty Jergins said. 

For the past month the admin and firm have been in the process of putting together a program requirement/planning group for this particular renovation. They’ve consulted each other on what other types of renovations need to happen at the site. 

According to Jergins, some of the questions being asked are, “What are the key elements of the stadium renovations, what is the seating capacity, what are those keys elements in the design that need to be looked at, what type of renovation to the field house, and what other amenities need to be considered a part of the total project?”

Jergins then explained, “The firm will go back and put together a program of requirements which will say we need a stadium with so many acres, we need seating capacity of x amount, and this is what the field house would need to look like. Once that’s completed then the program of requirements will be sent out to architecture firms to make proposals on to see who will be elected to design the stadium.” 

With the stadium’s program requirements board in full effect there is now more concern than ever about the parking dilemma on campus. 

Many commuter students use the visitor side of the stadium as their parking area due to the increase of students and the decrease of parking lots. 

“We are very aware that parking is an issue and we will preserve as much of that as we can. In conversations with the planning firm, we’ve talked about ways to preserve as much of the parking space we can during the construction period,” Jergins said. 

With a temporary solution to the parking issue, there is talk about a parking plan project which will soon be put into effect. 

“We are in the process of putting together a parking plan; we’re looking at what we plan to roll out for this next 2014-2015 academic year. It’s hasn’t been completely developed but we believe that a preliminary draft will be available by no later than spring break,” Jergins said.  

Although Tarleton is trying to become a part of the NCAA Division 1 Conference, Jergins said the stadium renovations are not due to a possible division ranking. The renovations are for the benefit of not only the campus but also the community. 

“What’s best for Tarleton students is what drives what we do,” Jergins said.