Bryce Miller

brmiller@dmreg.com

A capital campaign at Northern Iowa will fuel the first building-wide, structural changes to the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls since the facility opened in 1976.

Northern Iowa athletic director Troy Dannen said Wednesday that the iconic facility in northeast Iowa is overdue for improvements.

"The idea is to build a better fan experience and have the potential to generate more revenue at the same time," Dannen said. "The goal is, you want the Dome to last another 50 years. So you have to invest in facilities and technology that make it relevant."

Dannen said renovating the UNI-Dome is the athletic component of a broader, university-wide campaign. The project is "a couple of years" away, so it's too soon to estimate precise financial information and timetables, he said.

"It's most definitely a low eight-figure project, though," Dannen said.

Under the plan, Dannen said, concourse areas would be widened, premium seating areas would be built to create money-raising opportunities and approximately 110 stalls or bathroom units would be added.

It is not expected to significantly change the amount of total seating at the UNI-Dome, which has a maximum capacity of about 16,300.

"On the restrooms, it's just something we need to do," Dannen said. "It's not a code issue or anything. Everything is grandfathered to the time the building was built. But with that, the concourse and other things, we just need to hit the expectations of our fans and create a better environment."

The UNI-Dome, which broke ground in 1974, has hosted Northern Iowa football games, concerts, the NCAA wrestling championships, trade shows, graduation ceremonies and major-college basketball games before the neighboring McLeod Center opened.

Work has been conducted on the roof and north end zone area, while a $1.2 million upgrade of scoreboards for the dome and McLeod Center are nearing completion. The facility, however, has not undergone a large-scale, skeletal project of this magnitude.

An architect donated time to sketch out initial plans that outline options for work, Dannen said.

Most areas of the building, he said, are long overdue for modernization. Seats and the press box, for example, remain as originally built.

"The technology needs updated, at the very least," Dannen said.

Bryce Miller can be reached at 515-284-8288 or brmiller@dmreg.com. Follow him on Twitter: @Bryce_A_Miller