It's news that has been hinted at for what seems like ages now, but on Thursday night, Tom Jurich officially acknowledged that U of L plans to expand Papa John's Cardinal Stadium.
The Cardinal athletic director made the announcement at the annual 50-Yard-Line Dinner.
Tom Jurich just announced the expansion of Papa Johns Cardinal Stadium. Incredible changes. #CloseTheBowl. Wow.
— Jonathan Blue (@1CardsFan) August 28, 2015
Stadium will include state of the art field level suites, improved fan clubs facilities, and much more. $55m project.
— Jonathan Blue (@1CardsFan) August 28, 2015
No details yet on the timeline for this project (or if we'll also be getting Card Chronicle Bird Masks for all fans and a giant Howard Schnellenberger pipe blowing smoke for the team to run through), but this is certainly an exciting first step.
We asked Jurich about potential expansion on Ramsey & Rutherford back in June, and he said that he wasn't going to do it if it wasn't going to be done right.
"I'm going to continue to look and push that stadium expansion," Jurich said. "I don't want to do it until we know we can do it right and have it first-class. I want it to be something much, much more than bowling in an end zone. Anybody can do that with bleachers; I'm not going to do that.
"Because it would probably be the last thing I do here as far as an expansion of the stadium. We don't really have anywhere else to go. That would give us a great opportunity to do it right and to make it look beautiful and just top that whole thing off."
I'm just going to chalk this up as a birthday present from Tom to me. Can't prove it isn't.
UPDATE: U of L will hold a press conference Friday at 11 a.m. to make a "big announcement." Tom Jurich and Bobby Petrino will both be in attendance.
