May 20, 2006
- Read about Iowa’s 2006 recruiting class
- Follow the renovation of Kinnick Stadium
- The Schedule: 2006 and beyond
Is it possible for fans of the game of college football to also be fans of restrooms?
The UI Department of Intercollegiate Athletics think so mostly because they’ve been told as much by the fans of the nationally ranked Iowa Hawkeyes who have filled historic Kinnick Stadium to the tune of 17 straight sellouts.
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Planning continues on a public rededication of Kinnick Stadium later this summer.
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“One of the pieces of feedback that we’ve heard time and time again is the quantity and the quality of the restrooms available to fans who watch the games in the east and west grandstands. Not enough and what’s there is kind of Spartan,” said Rick Klatt, the UI’s associate athletics director for external affairs.
“We’re very confident that the renovation project is addressing those concerns. In fact, I think our fans are going to be delighted with the improvements.”
Klatt said the rule of thumb is 3-to-1. “Where the was one opportunity – urinal or toilet – a year ago, there is now approximately three. There also appears to be more sinks in each space than a year ago and, at the entrance to each restroom, there is now a water fountain,” he said.
The $89 million renovation of historic Kinnick Stadium continues to be slightly ahead of schedule. That works includes the reconstruction of all restroom and concessions spaces in the east and west concourses with restrooms being built behind the concourses’ interior wall (that nearest the playing field) and concessions stands in spaces behind the concourses’ exterior wall.
Work also continues on pace in the press box where visitors can now stroll 120 yards north or south on four different levels. That structure is expected to be 100 percent enclosed perhaps by as early as the end of the month.
Work has also begun on waterproofing the east and west grandstand. That process will result in the look of a fresh coat of paint on all the surfaces of concrete including the walls of the tunnels leading up from the concourse into the grandstands.
Finally, finishing touches are being added to the Krause Family Plaza. Landscaping is all but complete. All that remains is the installation of the statue of the stadium’s namesake, Nile Kinnick. That structure will be in place and unveiled at the public rededication event that is being planned for later this summer.
More than 100 picture of the progress in the press box, concourses and the Krause Family Plaza were added earlier today to the photo gallery inside kinnickrenovation.com, the official world wide web site of the multi-million dollar project. To go there, click HERE.