This Tops It All: Celebrating the Stadium

For the better part of a week, players, coaches, athletic trainers, staff members and others in and around the UNH Field House were invited to take Sharpie to steel and sign the final beam to be put in place atop the new Wildcat Stadium.

At about 2 p.m. on Wednesday, in front of several dozen onlookers from the UNH community, a PC Construction forklift grabbed the beam. It was taken to the front of the stadium and from there a large crane lifted the beam to the very top of the building where – complete with American flag and a small evergreen attached – it was secured to the gable roof to complete a "topping out" ceremony.

Another milestone reached for Wildcat Stadium, due to be finished next summer and christened with a UNH football game against Holy Cross on Sept. 10, 2016.

"It has been so much fun to watch this, week over week, and even daily," said UNH president Mark Huddleston, one of many to snap a photo of the scene and post it to social media to mark the occasion. "My wife and I will walk by here and can't believe the transformation. I never would have believed we would have gotten to this point a few years ago. It's really gratifying to see it happen."

The Wildcat football team is down to three regular season games remaining – starting against Rhode Island (1 p.m.) on Saturday – and that will be it for its aged Cowell Stadium.

UNH also has home games left against Richmond on Nov. 7 (3 p.m.) and Maine on Nov. 21 (1 p.m.). A limited number of tickets remain for the games and may be purchased at http://bit.ly/1G9QanL.

A new stadium – a multi-purpose facility that will be home to the highly successful Wildcat football team – to replace Cowell has been discussed for many years at UNH.

Huddleston was one of the dignitaries on hand May 29 for a ceremonial groundbreaking for the facility. Almost five months to the day later, Huddleston, athletic director Marty Scarano and football coach Sean McDonnell were among the crowd gathered to celebrate the building's progress.

"It's dramatic," Scarano said. "It's better than I even thought it would be. The scale is impressive. Everyone I speak to is just so impressed and happy that it's going up. It's just going to be a wonderful addition to the campus."

The frame of the stadium grew quickly once steelwork began in early September.

"Literally game over game, the people who come to the Rhode Island game who were here for the last home game are going to be impressed with what they see," Huddleston said. "It's really hard to imagine next year when this thing is finished what people will think. It's going to change the whole nature of the experience."

The efforts that got the stadium to this point continue.

"There have been a lot of people behind the scenes working hard at this," Scarano said. "Now the hard work starts internally with our marketing and promotions department to get this thing sold and filled with students and fans. We have a long ways to go yet. The construction is symbolic of what's going on in the department."

A marketing campaign is under way to raise awareness of the stadium and promote football season ticket sales for 2016.

Fans can sign up now to gain a priority position for 2016 football season tickets in the new facility. Current season ticket holders are already on the priority list and do not need to sign up again.

A fully refundable deposit of $25 reserves a spot on the list that will establish priority position for tickets. A seat selection date will be announced at a later time. Fans may get on the list at http://bit.ly/1G9T9fK.

Reservation Stations will also be set up at each of the three remaining home football games this season where fans can pay their deposit and sign up in person. Reservation Stations will be set up at UNH hockey and basketball games as well.

There is much to sell with the stadium, said representatives of the design-build team on hand Wednesday.

"It's really exciting to be putting up a facility like this for the UNH community and for everyone here in New Hampshire and being able to support athletics the way this facility does," said Chris Drobat, president Lavallee Brensinger Architects out of Manchester. "It's going to be fantastic."

Lavallee Brensinger is partnered with fellow architectural firm Populous, which has offices in Boston, and contactor PC Construction on the project.

"Populous has helped us to bring some national expertise and international expertise to really design a first-class facility," Drobat said. "It's bound to be a hit for many years to come. We're excited."

Jim Swords, principal of Populous, agreed.

"I think it's really going to change the experience people have coming to a football game," Swords said. "It's going to be a really big-time college experience. It's going to start to enclose the bowl. Plus you're going to have a big, wide concourse. More seating, bigger rest rooms, more rest rooms, big concession stands with lots of choices for food. Then there's going to be a club, a few suites and a big pressbox. I can't wait until next year. It's really going to be fun."

Others share his excitement.

"I think it's hard to overstate what (the stadium) means," Huddleston said. "We've always prided ourselves on being a kind of lunch bucket, working-class place and we still are. But this is what we deserve. With the kind of program that Sean has put together here and that Marty oversees with the whole program, this is the right thing to do for UNH. It's not extravagant. It still is very much in scale with our values and who we are, but it's an appropriate tribute to the generations of players and fans that we have something like this."

Allen Lessels
@UNHInsider
Allen.Lessels@unh.edu

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This Tops It All: Celebrating the Stadium

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