Major Changes (at Major Costs) Coming to Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, per OU Regents

Oklahoma’s next big renovation project to Memorial Stadium — and perhaps Joe Castiglione’s final master stroke as OU’s athletic director — is taking shape.

The OU Board of Regents on Friday published the agenda for next week’s scheduled meeting in Norman, which include updated details on the Stadium Master Plan — at a maximum cost of $30 million.

According to the agenda, OU regents are expected to:

1, Approve the design development phase and authorize preparation of construction documents.

2, Authorize the president to contract and make payments for professional architectural and construction management services no in excess of $30 million, taking the total project cost to an expected $450 million.

3, Authorize negotiations with At-Risk Construction Management Services (with Manhattan Construction Company).

4, Authorize the administration to negotiate a guaranteed maximum price for construction, which will be presented to the board for formal approval. (See screenshot of documents below.)

Castiglione’s Stadium Master Plan was implemented in 2014, when regents approved a cost of $15 million.

This spring and summer, the agenda reads, “a vigorous project design effort has been underway” to rebuild and redevelop the west side of Memorial Stadium, as well as “gameday facilities and operational elements as well as amenities and infrastructure” to enhance fan experience.

This includes major construction to the west side of the stadium — a project Castiglione has said will be the biggest part of the overhaul of Memorial Stadium, including the bowling in of the south end zone and the Switzer Center from 2014-16, which raised stadium seating capacity to 83,489. That reconfiguration and expansion cost $160 million, according to Henderson Engineers.

Since the beginning of the Bob Stoops era, when the Sooners won their most recent national championship in 2000, Memorial Stadium has undergone a series of major renovations, beginning with the expansion of the east side, which included the addition of the upper deck and brought stadium capacity from 75,004 to 82,112.  

In 2019, renovations to widen seats and provide other fan  amenities reduced capacity to its current configuration of 80,126.

With the completion of this latest project, Sooner Nation will eventually have access to 47 suites, with 64 loge boxes providing seating to approximately 280 people. There will also be 4,000 new club seats, six club/lounge spaces for fans in the suites, loge and club seating. 

A new stadium capacity figure hasn’t been calculated yet.

The project also includes an expanded new press box — which hasn’t been thoroughly updated in decades and lags well behind the rest of the Southeastern Conference — as well as “a new sideline-oriented sports lighting system and sound system enhancements.”

Major construction is expected to start immediately after the 2027 season, according to the regents’ agenda.

FlintCo has completed more than eight phases of construction at Memorial Stadium since 2002, with construction costs totaling more than $235 million.