Work will include addition of a new football operations centre to the west and northern portion of the current Len Casanova Centre. Plans have also been devised for a new women’s soccer and lacrosse complex at the eastern end of the stadium. The Duck Athletic Fund and the athletic ticket offices will be moved from the northern part of the Casanova Centre to the adjacent Moshofsky Centre. Bulk of the department’s daily ticket operations and accompanying fund raising offices will be relocated to the northeast corner of Oregon’s indoor practice facility at the opposite end of the building’s Duck Store. The parking facility will be incorporated in the Mo Center’s southeast portion.
The project will be carried out in three different phases with the first phase comprising utility relocation of the present and future properties. Phase two due to start in August 2011 will involve construction of the soccer and lacrosse stadium. The third phase will expand the Casanova Centre and is expected to begin in October 2011.
The 130,000 square-foot Center expansion covering six floors in some spaces will feature a football facility. The facility will comprise coaches offices, nine dedicated football position meeting rooms, two team video theaters, offense and defense strategy rooms along with a larger conference suite for the complete coaching personnel.
The central portion will be flanked by office and locker facilities for coaches, staff and student-athletes, an advanced video editing as well as a distribution centre. It will also feature a full-service dining area with an accommodation of about 250, in addition to a new weight room spanning 25,000 square feet overlooking three new football practice fields. Revamped practice facilities will feature one enhanced grass practice field and two new synthetic turf surfaces with the facility’s ground floor consisting of a lobby and reception area.
Improvements to the Casanova centre will also include an underground parking structure which will enhance the present parking capacity to 206, raising it by 60. After the start of the Centre expansion, the only entrance into the Athletics Department’s primary administrative offices will be relocated to the east end of the building with the general public and employees parking moved to the Moshofsky Centre lot and the east parking lot of Autzen Stadium.
The women’s soccer and lacrosse facility will feature a new stadium to the southern side of PK Park. The facility will incorporate separate coaches’ offices and locker room suites for programmes, and a shared meeting/video room. There will be locker-room access near to the synthetic turf playing surface. The facility is expected to be ready for play in the spring of 2012.
The facility will comprise a pre-game event village including ticketing, concessions and restrooms which can be accessed by tailgaters. There will be synthetic playing surface in the facility to conduct tented tailgating opportunities inside the stadium during other athletics events.
The hospitality and tented activity areas displaced by the new soccer/lacrosse stadium, including the Duck Store game-day retail location are likely to be shifted in an area inside and surrounding PK Park during football games. The relocation of the soccer and lacrosse facilities into the Autzen Stadium east parking lot will cut down football game-day parking capacity temporarily by about 729 automobile and 43 RV spaces in 2011. Parking capacity is expected to increase in 2012 and 2013.
The project will be funded by private enterprises. The Casanova Centre expansion is scheduled to start by June 2011 with the entire project due for completion by 2013 end.
