| MAC Facilities Begin Upgrades |
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| Written by Dave Ruthenberg |
| Wednesday, July 16 2008 |
Toledo's Glass Bowl will be getting new field turf.
With kickoff of the 2008 football season just six weeks away, Mid-American Conference fans will no doubt notice upgrades at a couple of venerable facilities while fans in another MAC city will be celebrating the final season in their school's home stadium.
Work has recently commenced at the University of Toledo's Glass Bowl as the Rockets' home field gets Field Turf which has become the standard among most outdoor athletic facilities. With the installation of Field Turf, Toledo becomes the ninth MAC school to use the synthetic surface, which is made partially from a combination of rounded silica sand and smashed rubber particles providing a smooth, uniform playing surface.
The Glass Bowl's new turf installation, which will come in at just under $1 million, is expected to be completed in time for the Rockets' home opener against Fresno State on September 20 with head coach Tom Amstutz looking forward to the new surface. "Our players are very excited to get the opportunity to play on that surface. We can't wait to get on it this fall."
Field Turf is also currently in use in 21 of the 32 NFL stadiums.
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| Rendering of Dix Stadium's new vdeo board. |
Also getting a facelift this season is Kent State's Dix Stadium which will be home to a new state-of-the-art High Definition video board. As part of its ongoing upgrades Dix Stadium's new HD-X video display provided by Daktronics will measure an impressive 36 feet wide x 20 feet high and will have the ability to display one large image or be divided into multiple windows to show live pictures, statistics and animations.
The Daktronics supplied system will be the first of its kind in use in the Mid-American Conference and will also include enhanced sound. While the video scoreboard will be the most dramatic improvement, visitors to Dix Stadium will also notice several aesthetic upgrades including decorative bricks that have been added to the entrance ways and brick pillars around the stadium as part of Phase II upgrades that are expected to come in at around a cost of $4 million.
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| Akron's InfoCision Stadium |
Meanwhile fans in Akron will be saying goodbye to the Rubber Bowl after calling the old WPA era project home since the 1940 season. In its place, the Zips will begin playing their home games at InfoCision Stadium starting in 2009. Groundbreaking has already commenced on the 30,000 seat on-campus stadium which will include private suites as well as loge and club level seating. Capacity could be increased beyond 30,000 if end-zone seats are added.
Akron's new stadium is expected to come in at a cost of $61.6 million and is on schedule to be ready for its 2009 home opener. Live video can be viewed here of the ongoing construction while a video has been posted on You Tube featuring a virtual tour of the field level seating of the stadium.
The MAC football season kicks off with five games slated for Thursday, August 28 including a nationally televised contest with Miami hosting Vanderbilt.
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