Even though the football season has ended, the dust is still flying at Autzen Stadium.
The University Athletic Department, with help from state bonds and private donations, is funding an $89.7 million renovation of the home of the Ducks, which will increase the capacity of the stadium from 41,698 to approximately 53,800 seats.
The day after the Dec. 1 Civil War game, demolition crews began the work, which included the removal of the press and coaches boxes, adjoining canopy and all of the seats on the south side of the stadium.
To design the new look of Autzen, the University hired the architectural firm Ellerbe Becket, a company that has designed sports complexes around the world, including the Rose Garden in Portland and the Fleet Center in Boston.
The project manager for the design team, John Poston, has maintained the single continuous-seating bowl design that Autzen has always had, but the “new” Autzen will include 32 luxury suites (which will each be leased for $30,000 per year) in a three-story luxury suite/press box area that will sit on top of the south rim. The new structure will actually look down at what is now the taller north side.
The 12,000 new seats will include 3,000 “Club Section” seats, most of which are underneath a canopy, and 2,000 “Sideline Preferred” seats — both sections will be theater style seats as opposed to the bench style in the remainder of the stadium.

The viewers in the club seats will have access to the Club at Autzen, a 20,000 square-foot all-purpose lounge, which will be located underneath the three-story tower. The Club will include concessions and bathrooms solely for the people in the luxury areas.
“Autzen Stadium, as an existing stadium, is such an unique stadium that it demands a unique design solution for its expansion,” Poston said. “We very much made our expansion design conform to the original spirit and intent of Autzen Stadium.”
The 6,000 student seats will remain on the north side, which is the side the Oregon team stands on during the game. The NCAA has a rule that the student section be on the side of the home team, so student Duck fans will remain in the same location.
“I’m not sure that the student body would be interested in moving anyway,” Assistant Athletic Director Steve McBride said. “The ones in the largest of those sections are pretty prime seats, and we want to maintain that just as much as the students want to keep that yardage.”
The construction of the renovation is in the hands of a joint venture between the Hunt company of Phoenix and Wildish from Eugene. Hunt-Wildish has hired many subcontractors to complete specialized work including three local companies — John Hyland Construction, who will build much of the poured-in-place concrete; Twin Rivers, a plumbing company; and L.H. Morris, an electric company.
Also working for Hunt-Wildish is the Gale Roberts company, which is the same company that built Autzen in 1966. It has now been subcontracted to build some of the site buildings, or unattached structures next to the stadium, including ticketing and maintenance buildings.
Currently, 65 to 75 workers are on site at Autzen, but project manager John Norton expects the number to reach up to 500 people in order for the field to be ready by the Ducks’ first game on Aug. 31.
The renovation will be accomplished in what Norton called a “phased completion,” with the concourse level and seating bowl ready for the first game against Mississippi State. Construction of the press boxes and skyboxes will continue through the season, which features an Oregon record eight home games, and probably finish some time in the spring of 2003.
In two weeks, two more cranes will be brought to the site in addition to the crane already there. The new cranes will assist in piecing together the new seating bowl on the south side.