New facilities are tip of the spear for Davidson athletics

DAVIDSON ATHLETICS

Davidson’s state-of-the-art $54.5 million athletics facility includes a 5,500-seat football stadium, field house, strength training space, locker rooms and coaches offices.

DAVIDSON – Davidson athletics is all in on a glittering new era.

The $54.5 million Davidson College Stadium on the north end of campus represents a major investment in upgrades as well as a vehicle to grow its reach across the region. In an era of growing facility competition in collegiate sports, Davidson’s building for athletic aspirations while maintaining its academic mission as a liberal arts campus.

“We orient everything we do with facilities around the scholar athlete,” athletics director Chris Clunie said. “This really was the culmination of looking at our previous facilities and create more enhancement and capacity around their wellness. This transforms everything we do; this transforms everything our scholar athletes are looking for and puts us on par with other bigger institutions in terms of the facilities they’re able to provide.”

The facility includes a state-of-the-art field house, offices and performance center.

The ground floor is dominated by 12,000-square-foot Bazos Sports Performance Center, which includes strength and conditioning stations, nutrition/hydration station, sports training facility and cardio court that will be utilized by all 21 school-sponsored sports teams. The upper level includes a coaches’ suite, player lounge locker rooms for football, lacrosse and field hockey as well as Gallery 18, a hospitality area.

“It’s all about moving forward,” Clunie said. “We wanted to get better, better every day and this facility helps make us better in so many ways.”

The 5,500-seat stadium will host football and lacrosse games and connects with the adjacent field hockey and baseball fields to create an athletics complex. The lacrosse team has already played there as part of a soft opening for athletics and the football team debuts Sept. 7 against Catawba. The facility hosted its inaugural concert recently with a packed house for the Indigo Girls.

“There’s a lot of great things this space can do and accommodate,” Clunie said. “The concessions are fantastic, the food service we can provide. Beyond athletics, provides a really cool space for events and different opportunities. We wanted to create a space where we could bring people [together].”

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