Indiana University Athletics Director Fred Glass on Tuesday afternoon detailed several key facilities and gameday experience improvements in relation to the IU football program.
"Football is a critical component of IU Athletics, not only as a program, but for the department and university as well," Glass said. "2018 will be a transformative year for improvements to Indiana football and the gameday experience. I am very pleased with the dynamic leadership that Tom Allen has brought to the program and very excited about this team has we head into year two of the Allen Era."
Those transformations will involve Memorial Stadium, facilities, uniforms, traffic and parking, and gameday experiences.
Memorial Stadium
The Excellence Academy's new home in the South Endzone has opened. The $48 million, 66,575 square foot project encloses Memorial Stadium.
Additionally, the Excellence Academy supports a new 91 foot by 42 foot LED video board which is 65 percent larger than its predecessor. A 168 foot by 3.2 foot video ribbon board will be added to the South Endzone to compliment the 198 by 4.1 video ribbon board in the North Endzone.
Specific to the gameday experience, the Knothole Park which faced the South Endzone is now located atop the Excellence Academy at Sample Terrace. Chocolate Moose ice-cream will be provided for free by IU AThletics for 12-and-under "Knothole Club" members. The park will also include a 3-D selfie station, mini-quarterback throwing game, mini-field goal kicking game, IU face painting booth, and stadium concessions.
IU Athletics has also added two new suites in the press box, and a "club" experience as a season ticket fan amenity in the Henke Hall of Champions. The club experience includes, theatre-style outdoor seating and inside access to all-inclusive food and beverage, and big screen TVs, among other services.
Accessibility improvements included four ADA compliant viewing platforms in the bowl and three in the press box suites, as well as two ADA compliant restrooms in the south end zone, improvements to concession areas and the east and west concourse restrooms.
The accessibility changes reduced the capacity by less than 0.6 percent, from 52,929 to 52,656.
Facilities
Construction on the 25,000 square foot, multi-million dollar Terry Tallen Indiana Football complex will begin soon. It will renovate the Trent and Julie Green Locker Room and Dr. John N. Miller training room and add a new team lounge/recruiting area, coaches locker room and enhanced equipment room. This project will be completed in time for the 2019 football season, according to Glass.
The team room is also getting a face lift, with state-of-the art seating, new carpeting and other amenities.
Football Uniforms
Multiple changes, both aesthetic and for player safety, have been made the to uniform.
Indiana spent $130,000 to outfit its players with Riddell's new Speed Flex Precision Fit helmet, which utilities two different layers of 3-D scanning technology to make a custom-made helmet for every individual player. It's the safest helmet available, according to IU medical and equipment staffs.
The new helmets will also sport a Bill Mallory helmet sticker in honor of the former IU head coach who passed away on May 25. Glass indicated the tribute to Mallory is ongoing and will not end with the decal.
Perhaps the most notable change, though, is that Indiana will strip names from the backs of its jerseys and simply wear "Indiana" on the front. "IU Athletics is about team over self," Glass said.
Traffic and Parking Improvements
All four lanes of I-69/State Road 37 will be open from Indianapolis to Bloomington in time for Indiana's Sept. 8 home opener vs. Virginia. Working with INDOT and Gov. Eric Holcomb, Glass said the paving is expected to be done in time to allow four lanes to be open, and if it isn't, there is an agreement in place to move construction equipment and vehicles off the road in order for that to happen.
Free football gameda parking is now being offered at Poplars Garage (6th street between Grant and Dunn Street) and Henderson Garage (off Indiana Avenue and South Fess Avenue between 3rd Street and Atwater Avenue. Paid parking will be available at the Fee Lane Garage near the Kelley School of Business.
IU Athletics strongly encourages purchasing prepaid parking passes (at a $5 discount) to secure a parking spot on the athletics campus on football gamedays.
A new free, gameday shuttle service is now being offered as well. It will pick up fans from the Poplars Garage and the Indiana Memorial Union and transport them to Woodlawn Avenue and 17th street. The shuttle will begin operating two hours before kickoff and run until 90 minutes after the game ends.
Indiana has also built out a command center on the 7th floor of the press box in order to help facilitate football gameday management of traffic and parking as well as other public safety issues.
New Gameday ExperiencesÂ
The first 1,000 students to arrive in the student section get a free t-shirt mirroring that week's spirit poster.
Early-arriving students will also be eligible to be chosen for exclusive pregame field level experiences, including viewing player warm-ups from the sidelines and holding the oversized State of Indiana Flag. IU Athletics staff and the Student Athletic board will select individuals and/or small groups to participate.
