By Dr. Michael Vienna
SU Athletics Director
Since 1986, Salisbury University’s athletics teams have brought home 18 NCAA Division III team championships and 16 individual national championships. Soon, they will have a championship stadium to go with those victories.
Last October, during SU’s Homecoming and Family Weekend, President Janet Dudley-Eshbach and I joined some 200 fans at a groundbreaking to celebrate construction of the new Sea Gull stadium. Work begins in earnest this year, and the impressive, four-story facility opens in spring 2016.
Fans immediately will notice a big difference in the stadium’s size. SU’s existing team building could fit into the lobby of the new facility, measuring over 30,000 square feet. It will be a considerable upgrade over our current one-story cinderblock structure from 1980.
Four home-team locker rooms will serve field hockey, football, and men’s and women’s lacrosse, with others for visiting teams and for referees. (The current locker rooms, located across Route 13 in Maggs Physical Activities Center, are shared by multiple teams.)
Accessible from the lobby/concourse area on the ground floor will be a retail shop selling SU gear and souvenirs, a full-service concession stand, ticket office, public restrooms, and support facilities including equipment and storage rooms.
On the second floor will be an athletic training clinic and a classroom for game preparation, team meetings and video anaylsis. The third floor will have VIP seating areas and suites for special guests.
The Draper Athletics Communications Center will be on the fourth floor with the traditional press box; game operations including areas for the sports information directors, scoreboard staff, announcers and clock operators; technical facilities for video recording for the Sea Gull Sports Network; coaches’ booths; and two radio studio booths for local and visiting broadcasters.
Bleacher seating will accommodate nearly 5,000, some 2,800 on the home team side. Two towers, nearly 80 feet tall, will anchor the building, and provide stairways and elevators.
The 400-foot façade along Wayne Street will have enhanced lighting. Immediately south will be a small park where spectators may gather. Nearby will be parking for visiting team and guest buses.
Architects are GWWO, Inc. of Baltimore, which is working in consultation with 360 Architecture of Kansas City, MO. 360 specializes in sports facilities and its projects have included MetLife Stadium, NJ. The contractor is Whiting Turner of Baltimore.
The project would not be possible without the support of the Sea Gulls’ No. 1 fan, President Dudley-Eshbach, who has envisioned a campus with the high-quality facilities that students, and student-athletes, deserve. As a Division III school, we do not offer athletics scholarships. What attracts student-athletes, first, is the excellent education they will receive. Beyond that is the opportunity to play for our skilled coaches and be part of our great athletic traditions. But they also want to play in good facilities.
Once constructed, the new stadium will be on par with the better stadiums in all of Division III, and will allow our coaches to recruit and retain the best and the brightest student-athletes.
Funding for the $19 million project is coming from institutional, not state, dollars, as well as gifts from generous donors.
“University athletics and recreational programs often foster a sense of community among alumni, area residents and campus students, faculty and staff,” said T. Greg Prince, SU vice president of advancement and external affairs.
Benefactors and donors who already have stepped forward include Draper Holdings, Lili Afkhami and Michael Kelly, and others are giving anonymously. Those who would like to be visible partners in SU Athletics and Sea Gull Stadium are invited to do so by contacting the SU Foundation, Inc. at 410-543-6175.
Regardless of where they play, our Sea Gulls always compete at a high level, and now they will be able to compete at an equally high-quality facility. I hope you’ll join me on the sidelines, cheering them on this spring and next, once the new stadium opens. Go Gulls!
