Southwest endzone project.jpg

A rendering of the proposed $28 million facility project at Jordan-Hare Stadium. (Auburn University)

(Auburn University)

Jordan-Hare Stadium will get a $28 million addition.

The proposed 44,000-square-foot multi-story gameday support facility in the southwest corner of the stadium, including renovations to the 16,000-square-foot Auburn football locker room, was approved by the university's Board of Trustees at its meeting on the campus of AUM Friday morning.

The new facility will include recruiting space for football and Olympics sports, club space and a new press box, which will relocate from the west side of the stadium, as well as renovation of the home locker room.

"It's all about recruiting and also fan experience, so this project covers both of those," Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs said. "... This structure in the South end zone will provide both of those: a great fan experience, great student-athlete experience, so it accomplishes a lot of our goals."

The project is slated to begin in May and conclude in July 2018, in time for the 2018 football season.

"I'm excited for our football program as this project will be a tremendous enhancement for our football players and very beneficial in recruiting," Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said in a statement. "I appreciate our leadership's commitment to the future of Auburn football and really look forward to these renovations to Jordan-Hare Stadium."

Jacobs said the renovated locker room, which was last renovated in 2009 after tripling in size in 2000, will be "almost double" its current size.

"It's really tight in there when we put 70 or 80 guys in there," he said. "This will give us the opportunity to be able to spread out. Pregame each coach will be able to talk to his players. Halftime you get the defense together, the offense together. It'll be a lot more comfortable atmosphere.

"Quite frankly what we've done there has served us well but now we have an opportunity to grow it bigger and make an even more productive game day, but also from a recruiting standpoint, a 'wow' factor for our locker room as well as our recruiting lounge."

Auburn opens the 2018 football season against Washington at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Sept. 1 in Atlanta, so the earliest possible date for the home opener that season is Sept. 8.

When the project was discussed by the board's property and facilities committee, associate vice president of facilities Dan King said the board could "anticipate there will be a separate project that will be brought to the board to probably renovate the existing press box" once the new facility is completed.

Jacobs said the plan is to convert "about 70 percent" of the current press box into "as many as 150 high-end club level seats" but likely will not include suites due to limited space.

"This was the first step, getting this approved, so we could make these changes in the press box and also provide great accommodations for (the) press," Jacobs said. "And then take the 50-yard line seats and give our donors an opportunity to buy into those. That's what the plan is.

"One step at a time. But it is a progression of our strategic capital projects plan to renovate that space and also do other projects as we move forward. We really appreciate the board's support in what we're trying to get done."

The gameday facility and locker room renovation project will impact the proposed North end zone renovation project, which is on hold indefinitely.

In November, Auburn's Board of Trustees approved a $1.9 million project to widen the north concourse of the stadium.