At a press conference during halftime of the Kansas State Wildcats’ Spring Football Game in Manhattan, Kan., representatives from K-State Athletics and Kansas State University announced plans for the new Vanier Football Complex (VFC) and North Endzone Project at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
The project marks the third phase of the Bill Snyder Family Stadium master plan. Situated along the north end zone of the stadium, the state-of-the-art facility will serve all K-State student athletes as well as K-State fans for decades to come.
The $65-million VFC will encompass 132,000 sq ft of enclosed space as well as new north end zone seating. It includes a two-story weight training facility with more than 20 “racks,” 9,000 sq ft of locker room space, complete hydrotherapy and wellness programs, a large team auditorium, coaches’ offices, a “sensory theater” and more. Additionally, it will feature an Academic Learning Center that will meet the needs of all 16 Wildcat athletic teams.
The project is being designed by Populous and will be a joint venture between GE Johnson Construction Co., Denver and Colorado Springs, and Mortenson Construction of Denver— a reassembling of the team that completed the West Stadium Center last August.
“It’s extremely exciting to be bringing back the team members that produced such great results on the West Stadium Center,” said Jim Johnson, president and CEO of GE Johnson. “This joint venture brings a tremendous amount of momentum to serving K-State Athletics and the entire KSU community. We feel like our involvement in the new VFC and North Endzone project is a testament to past performance, and we can’t wait to get to work.”
Mobilization of this “flash-track” project will begin at the end of the regular football season in December, with the demolition of the existing facility. The project is scheduled to reach substantial completion in less than nine months – just in time for the Wildcats to kick off the 2015 season. The contractor says plans are in place to assure that K-State Football operations unimpeded continue during construction.
Speaking to the significant investment involved in the construction of the new VFC, KSU Athletic Director John Currie said, “It is time for a major upgrade to better position not just the football program, but also enhance the experience of all 450 of our student-athletes in our 16 sports. Their scholastic and athletic pursuits are supported from the Academic Learning Center, sports medicine, strength and conditioning and equipment infrastructure located in the north end zone. Every Big 12 school and most of our peers at other colleges have made tremendous recent investments in these areas.”
