A facility upgrade that has been in the works for several years is wrapping up, as Coastal Carolina University is completing its Brooks Stadium expansion project.
Work started in the spring of 2017 on a renovation that significantly expanded Brooks Stadium. The project unfolded over multiple phases and, while some finishing touches still need to fall into place over the coming weeks, the project is all but complete leading up to the 2019 season, resulting in new seating and premium areas.
With the expansion, Brooks Stadium will now offer a fixed seating capacity of 19,376 and a total capacity of around 20,000. The expansion was made to accommodate the football program’s move up to the FBS and the Sun Belt Conference, and it comes ahead of Brooks Stadium hosting the new Myrtle Beach Bowl in 2020. More from The Sun News:
“We want people to continue to buy in and believe in what we’re trying to accomplish here, as we’ve been trying to do for close to 20 years of this program,” CCU director of athletics Matt Hogue said.
The school was required to expand its stadium in 2017 for its move up from the Football Championship Subdivision to FBS and the Sun Belt Conference, and it added nearly 5,800 seats to bring the seating capacity to about 15,500.
Construction began in early March 2017 and the first phase included adding seats to completely connect seating on both sides to the field house, expanding the lower sections on both sides toward the south scoreboard, and expanding the upper deck on the east side (press box side) to match the length on the lower deck.
The second phase this year included adding a large enclosed luxury suite that can house about 350 people with an accompanying 230 outdoor club seats, and adding an upper deck to the west side with additional features such as new entrances.
Coastal Carolina begins the 2019 season with its August 31 matchup against Eastern Michigan.