Construction underway in multi-million dollar USF Sun Dome renovation – Archive
Written by Crow's Nest Staff, Jun 30, 2011, 0 Comments
Earlier this month, USF’s board of trustees approved a $35.6 million renovation to the Sun Dome at USF Tampa, the home of the school’s basketball teams, volleyball teams, and a wide array of other sporting and non-sporting events. Already, after less than a month of interior work, most fans would have a hard time recognizing the facility.
Pictures made available by the school show heavy equipment tearing out low-level seats, walls completely ripped down and piles of concrete bricks strewn across the hallways. They announced renderings of the completed changes would be available sometime in late July or August.
“A lot of demand for renderings of what the new Sun Dome might look like,” said St. Petersburg Times staff reporter Greg Auman in a live web chat on June 30. “[Director of Intercollegiate Athletics] Doug Woolard has been emphatic in saying you won’t recognize the building a year from now,”
Renovation plans are said to include a seating rearrangement, a shift to fixed seating instead of bleachers on the lower level, the addition of a center hung scoreboard, a new concourse level with concessions and restrooms, and rejuvenation to the existing exterior concrete. The school also hopes to add a Bulls store to the outside of the facility near the baseball stadium, Auman said, allowing fans to shop for merchandise during the day even when games are not in progress.
Construction is expected to be completed in April of 2012. In the meantime, the basketball teams will play in other venues around the area, including the St. Pete Times Forum. “I think they’ll be there all season, with maybe one early game in Lakeland,” Auman said.
The school hopes the changes will extend the building’s life to give it 30 more years as an academic, ceremonial, rental and athletic facility.
Additional information about the renovation and photographs of the process are available at gousfbulls.com
