CSU breaks ground on new football stadium

Construction formally began Saturday on CSU’s new on-campus stadium with a groundbreaking “celebration,” even as a couple of dozen protesters just outside the venue continued to voice lingering opposition.

A crowd of close to 400 gathered at the free but ticketed shovel-turning ceremony at the stadium site between Pitkin and Lake near Meridian Avenue, including 200 Ram Club members and various other Colorado State University employees or people serving in stadium-planning capacities.

The future field was lined and logoed, with “Colorado State” printed in the end zone and the Ram logo at midfield.

“I have to admit that I’m probably guilty of doing something that Coach (Mike Bobo) is telling his players not to do — to look past the current day,” said Tony Frank, CSU president and chancellor of the CSU system. “I’m looking forward to a larger celebration, where we’re not confined to an active construction site but when we’re here for a ribbon-cutting to celebrate coming home to the Colorado State University campus and a new home for many things, but especially for CSU football.”

Event attendees first entered a parking lot lined with about 30 stadium protesters holding signs expressing their continuing opposition to the project.

Some seemed ready to continue their fight, while others, recognizing they were trying to stop construction that was already underway, indicated that Saturday might be the end of the road for their protests.

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Bob Vangermeersch, founder of Save Our Stadium Hughes, continued to voice his concerns regarding financial risks involved in the $220 million stadium as well as the environmental impact of its construction.

“Unless we got the governor involved, which we’re trying to do, I doubt we can stop it,” Vangermeersch said. “We need the higher authorities to look at this.”

Said Chuck Minks, another Fort Collins resident: “To me, this is a protest to try to embarrass Tony Frank. But I’m not sure you can do that.”

Under the big tent ceremony at the stadium site, Frank twice received standing ovations.

“We want to acknowledge our friends and neighbors who continue to voice their disagreement with this project,” Frank said. “They are people who love and care about this university and community every bit as much as we do. They’ve seen the same information that we have, and they’ve arrived at a different conclusion.

“And while we might differ in how we view the outcome of this discussion, and the debate and actions around this project, I think it’s important to acknowledge that their criticisms caused us to check everything not twice, but three or four times, to sharpen our pencils, to reflect, to be careful, and I believe they made this project better in the end.”

Major construction is scheduled to begin in October on 36,000-seat stadium, which will have an overall capacity of 41,000.

Athletic director Joe Parker focused his remarks to the gathering on renewal and engagement.

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“(At Hughes Stadium), we don’t get the opportunity to experience what we did today, to drive onto this beautiful campus and experience a remarkable event,” Parker said. “After almost 50 years at Hughes ... we find ourselves in a position to create a facility that would serve the institution for five, six or seven decades.

“... I don’t want to discount the experience that we’ve had at Hughes and the memories that have been created there, but to people who have told me that they attend games with some degree of frequency I ask, ‘When was the last time they were back on campus?’ There’s usually a long pause ... and so often they say, ‘Not since I graduated.’ So we’ve lost the connection to the alma mater in the 50 years or so of the Hughes experience.”

The stadium is expected to be completed in time for the 2017 football stadium.

“I think we ought to call coach (Jerry) Kill over at Minnesota and tell them we’re going to play out here today,” CSU football coach Mike Bobo said to laughter and cheers, just three hours before the Rams kicked off against the Gophers at Hughes Stadium. “(The campus) is a special place, a beautiful place.”

The stadium will also include another $18 million worth of academic, advising and alumni space.

The ceremony was capped off by 14 people, including Frank, Parker and Bobo, turning dirt with shovels in unison.

“The main thing we’re here to do today is to look forward, to a time when the site on which we’re sitting now is transformed and in turn transforms lives and creates generational memories,” Frank said. “... Memories that may start at convocation but certainly will not end at graduation.”

VIDEO: Watch Colorado State’s on-campus stadium go up