Photo supplied, Dennis Montgomery

Newly available digital renderings show the anticipated finished look for the reconstruction of Weber State University’s Stewart Stadium.

The process of completely replacing the stadium’s east side bleacher structure, field and track has been ongoing for seven months and the new conceptual images add some color to what fans should expect to see come fall.

The renderings were created by Salt Lake City firm VCBO, which has provided architecture and design for the project, and were supplied to the Standard-Examiner by Weber State Athletics.

Fans will get to see the new additions on Aug. 31 when Weber State opens the 2023 season by hosting Central Washington, though they won’t get to sit on the east side as finish work will likely still be taking place.

WSU President Brad Mortensen told faculty and staff in a virtual town hall meeting on July 7 that all fans will sit in the west bleachers for the Aug. 31 game. WSU athletics confirmed that expectation and said the following three-plus weeks will have the east side ready to go for the Sept. 23 Big Sky opener against Montana State. The Wildcats are on the road at Utah and Northern Iowa between Aug. 31 and Sept. 23.

Photo supplied, Weber State Athletics

The renderings show the new east-side structure still matches previous reporting: the side will be split into two levels with a concourse/walkway splitting the seating lengthwise. It’s likely that concessions will be available there as a small service road will connect to that concourse from the north.

Overall, not much else changes except the newness of it all, plus slightly elevated sightlines for fans.

The field will feature the updated cat-head portion of Weber State’s primary logo at midfield, an improvement from the italicized Weber State wordmark that lived there for the past 12 years. Purple end zones that say “Wildcats” in gray flank the turf, and the green between goal lines alternates shades for a faux mowed-grass look.

Renderings show the new track is gray with purple exchange zones.

A complete teardown of the concrete poured into the hillside on the stadium’s east side began in December 2022. As of early July, the reconstruction progress of the concrete substructure appeared to be halfway complete.

Photo supplied, Weber State Athletics

The new east-side layout that includes the north-to-south concourse is expected to decrease total seating by 1,000 to 1,500 seats to somewhere around a capacity of 15,000.

The east side of Stewart Stadium was more than 60 years old and believed to have been the oldest remaining original structure at Weber State. It now joins previous improvements to the home of WSU football that included adding the Youngberg Football Center (new locker room, meeting rooms, coaches’ offices and weight room) and a large videoboard in 2019.

The field surface and track were last replaced in 2011 when the football field was converted from natural grass to artificial turf. Both are being installed by the company FieldTurf, as is a new artificial practice field to the west on the “lower” part of campus.

WSU athletic director Tim Crompton previously told the Standard-Examiner that the university selected the highest quality turf field available to install at Stewart Stadium. The improved quality is likely to be noticeable to fans even from their stadium seats.

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