odium — a dream nears reolit
The Fresno Bp Monday. July 9S 1979 GI5
By bob McCarthy
Bee Sports Writer
"We know it looks like a stadium, but think of it as a mirror — a
mirror to reflect the growth, stature and future of our San Joaquin Valley."
Those well-chosen words called attention, in advertisements and on
brochures, to the most ambitious fund-raising campaign in Fresno history. But they also represent an accurate statement of what the new $7.2
million, 30,000-seat football-soccer stadium on the Fresno State University campus will mean to the community.
Sometime in 1980, Fresno will have its newest landmark — a sunken,
bowl-shaped stadium just south of Barstow Avenue and west, of Cedar
Avenue on the FSU campus. It will be a reflection of the ambition and
vision of a community coming of age.
The dream was there long ago, but it took a bold first step — the sale
of Ratcliffe Stadium to the State Center Community College District for
$1.1 million in 1974 — to get the project off ground zero. Proceeds from
that sale provided the financial foundation for the proposed FSU campus
stadium.
But it remained only a proposal until October 1975, when a steering
committee was appointed, headed hv, Leon Peters. Russell Giffen and
^ewis Easton, to plan and implement a $4 million community fund-rais-
*mg campaign for construction of a 30,000-seat facility.
In the early months of 1976, a seat-option phase of the campaign was
adopted, with donors in the $1,250, $750 and $500 categories having the
first right of refusal for the use of those seats in the stadium over a 10-
year period. It became a major source of revenue in the fund drive
By October 1976, the goal of the capital fund campaign had risen to $5
million, but the drive was still more than a year away from beginning.
The Residents Ad Hoc Stadium Committee attempted to block construction through litigation in 1977, but the court ruled in favor of the
university and all subsequent appeals were denied.
In November 1977, a Stadium Development Office opened on the FSU
campus and Lynn Eilefson, the executive director of the Bulldog Foundation, was named administrative coordinator. Following a series of
public forum meetings designed to explain the workings of the seat-option and major donor campaign, a capital fund drive with a $6 million
goal officially began in December 1977.
The committee had hoped to wrap up the solicitation within six
months but, at the midway point (March 1, 1978), FSU football coach
Jim Sweeney resigned in what officials termed a "temporary setback."
The drive was extended and a "Fifth Quarter" campaign was launched
in September.
Then came a major setback, once which threatened the entire project.
Bids for the stadium construction were opened Sept. 28 and exceeded
the estimates of the architect, Robert Stevens Associates, by more than
$3 million.
The Stadium Steering Committee, after meeting in executive session,
held a press conference to announce that the goal would be a 20,000-seat
stadium and that the architect had been ordered to redesign the plans in
order to cut costs.
Later, the committee reconsidered its action and announced it was
still aiming for a 30,000-seat stadium. Meanwhile, the seat-option and
major donor drives were rapidly approaching their goals.
Finally, on May 3, bids on the redesigned project were opened and
the committee called a press conference to announce that the lOw bid,
from Robert G. Fisher Co. of Fresno, would be accepted. The Fisher
bid, $6.2 million, plus additional project costs, left the figure for the total
project at $7,197,843.
University officials awarded the contract to Fisher on June 1 and
construction began shortly thereafter. The contract calls for completion
within 18 months, or late 1980, but the facility could be ready for use by
FSU at an earlier date if all goes well.
More than 90 percent of the seats in the seat-option sections on the
stadium's west side have been sold. Those sections, between the 18-yard
lines, will contain 4,654 23-inch wide, chair-style seats. The remainder of
the seating will be aluminum plank.
FSU students will have 7,980 prime seats between the 20-yard lines on
the east side. Another 8,470 seats on each side are planned for reserve
ticket sections, with the remaining 8,986 seats to be sold on a general-
admission basis.
The extent of FSU's stadium planning led officials of the Pacific
Coast Athletic Association to ask the community to host a post-season
football bowl game in the new facility, beginning in 1980. The response
was positive and the non-profit Greater San Joaquin Valley Sports Association, headed by former Congressman B.F. Sisk, was formed to sponsor and promote the contest.
Late in April, the NCAA granted sanction to the game, which will
match the champions of the PCAA and the Mid-America Conference on
the second Saturday of December each year.
The bowl game will be the major attraction in the new facility, although its very existence will enable FSU to attract higher caliber opponents to its home football schedule. It is also seen as a boon to the FSU
soccer program, which has membership in one of the nation's strongest
conferences.
Exhibitions or scheduled league games of the North American Soccer
League could be played in the new stadium, as well as major prep or
junior college football games and the annual City-County All-Star football game, sponsored by the Central California Foundation.
All would benefit from the improved and added seating capacity of
the FSU stadium over Ratcliffe Stadium, currently the largest facility in
the Fresno area.
Two who played major roles in development of a football stadium at
Montana State University, outgoing FSU Athletic Director Gene Bourdet
and Eilefson, were prime movers in this project, too. Also, there were
seat-option Chairman Bud Richter, committeeman and super-booster
Bob Duncan and a number of anonymous major donors. Thousands of
others did their part with seat-option purchases.
More than $5.5 million of the project's revenues have come from the
community fund drive — ample testimony of faith in Fresno's future.
The dream was there long ago, but it took a bold first step
— the sale of Ratcliffe Stadium to the State Center Community College District far $1.1 million in 1974 — to get the
project off ground zero.
