Planning underway for major Vaught-Hemingway renovations, Ole Miss AD says
Oct. 14—OXFORD — Ole Miss is planning a major renovation to the west side of Vaught-Hemingway Stadium as part of a master plan for the athletics department, athletics director Keith Carter told the Daily Journal on Thursday morning.
The entire plan, which will consist of eight or nine different projects, will be announced in January 2022.
The news was first reported by Brad Logan.
Renovations on the west side of the stadium will begin following the 2023 season and will be a complete demolition and reconstruction, Carter said.
The plan is for it to be finished by the 2025 or 2026 season. Carter said there will "definitely be disruption" during the 2024 season. It is still too early to know whether the new west side will impact the stadium's capacity, which is currently 64,038.
The Manning Center will also undergo a $40 million renovation following the 2021 football season, with that project starting in either January or February as the first in the master plan.
The athletics department is currently working with a $250 million budget for the westside renovations and there are initial renderings, though an architect has not yet been hired and planning remains in its early stages. The project will be funded through fundraising and issue bonds, Carter said.
Carter said the cost of the entire master plan has yet to be determined.
College athletics has become somewhat of an arms race in terms of facilities — and with Oklahoma and Texas joining the SEC in the coming years, the need to keep up with the times is as crucial as ever, according to Carter.
The last major renovation of Vaught-Hemingway took place in 2016.
"This is very aggressive and it will for sure be the largest capital campaign we've ever embarked on at Ole Miss," Carter said. "When you look around the landscape of college athletics, everyone is building, everyone is improving what they have.
"It's going to be important for Ole Miss to do what it needs to do to stay relevant."
The plan for the west side of the stadium is to, "totally bring the current west side down to the slab and start over." After consulting with different planning companies, the cost to start from scratch would have been about the same as remodeling, Carter said.
The vision for the west side of the stadium is to have six or seven different types of premium amenities for fans, including loge and rail seating in addition to club and traditional suites. Improved concessions will also be a point of emphasis, according to Carter.
Carter said that the new west side will be more vertical than the current version and will put fans closer to the field.
The east side of the stadium and north end zone will also undergo renovations at some point as well, Carter said.
The goal is to have the west side renovation done "sooner rather than later," though Carter admitted it likely won't be done in a single offseason. For the 2024 season, Carter is hopeful to "get back as high as you can" so "you can get back to some mid-level."
Blueprints and defined plans for the project are not yet available, Carter said.
"I don't think we're going to be able to finish this in one offseason," Carter said. "There will be some disruption, but that's just the unfortunate part of progress."
