Seventy-five years after its first contract to work on the University of Tennessee Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Michigan-based The Christman Co. is tackling a sprawling program of updates to equip the facility for its next decades of football.

The current scope of work began in 2018, then described as a $120-million project to be completed over 34 months, says Nick Lawrence, contractor vice president. Administrative changes and fan input expanded scope and cost, increasing it overall to about a $260-million, four-year project.

Lawrence has worked at Christman for almost 20 years and has worked at the stadium since the current project's start. But the firm's history with the now nearly 102,000-seat stadium dates to a design project in 1947.

While Lawrence says the current construction manager at-risk project now has a slight decrease in the official stadium seat count, it adds standing-room capacity as well as other venues It also will not change Neyland status as one of the country’s highest-capacity college football stadiums.

With 101,915 seats, it ranks sixth, according to the ncaa.com website, just ahead of the University of Alabama’s 101,821-seat Bryant Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa and just behind Louisiana State University’s 102,321-seat Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge. The University of Tennessee says that the football team’s home games during the 2024 season were sold out, with all 101,915 seats occupied for each of the seven home games.

Beginning in the 2020 offseason with addition and replacement of speaker clusters and sound systems in the stadium, the current renovation project has included a new video board for its north side that was added in 2021 as well as a new bar and social deck beneath.

Subsequent work included replacing original 1920s-era seating with luxury chair-back rows behind the home team sideline and a 16,000-sq-ft indoor club space.

The characteristic V-O-L-S letters atop the stadium, referring to school team name Tennessee Volunteers that were a mainstay from 1966-2009 but later removed, were added back in 2021. In 2022, Christman completed a premium club seating area and began major infrastructure work, including a new steam and condensate loop and $12.5-million WiFi system.

Ongoing work includes reconstruction of old dormitory structures on the south side of the stadium into a wider Concourse 1 with new restrooms, first aid areas and concessions set to be open for the 2025 season.

Replacing the fan-favorite V-O-L-S letters atop Neyland Stadium was an early part of the project.
Photo courtesy Bruce Mccamish/The Christman Co.

Campus Complexities

Campus construction is one of the most challenging environments, Lawrence says. “Working in and around an active campus, that’s one thing, but working in an active campus and then on a stadium is another challenge.”

That challenge comes from preparatory activities that have to happen before each game day, event, concert or other function if work is to continue safely, he explains.

Any stadium construction that has to navigate around game schedules will require multiple shifts, and this project is no different, Lawrence says.

With a 253-person Christman workforce on the site at peak activity, moving workers in and out and keeping work productive in the compressed time frame presented several challenges, he says.

“Making sure there’s seamless handoffs between shifts is very, very involved. That takes a lot of teamwork, a lot of good communication,” Lawrence says, especially with the technically complex nature of the work and coordination with the owner’s operation of the space—all of which has to be working seamlessly together to complete the project on a compressed schedule.

It also requires a thorough understanding of stadium infrastructure that can’t be disrupted between games or events and the need for multiple shifts to complete as much work during the offseason as possible.

The project is broken up into expedited work packages that are instrumental in a multiphase effort such as this, Lawrence says. In this case, work on elements such as utility reroutes can make or break momentum of a project at this size.

Christman worked with the owner and with designer Cope Architecture to be prepared for any utility conflicts with existing facilities, such as a 42-in.-dia. storm sewer line that runs diagonally under the field. The project team lined it with an epoxy lining to help it handle added flow from other lines that were rerouted into it for the stadium improvement work. New steam, domestic water and fire water lines added to the stadium also created redundancy.

 

In With the New

Among the most interesting aspects of the project, especially from a technical perspective, has been the field club level on the stadium’s west side, Lawrence says.

Crews first removed an old section of the stadium, cutting a trapezoidal shape from the concrete from goal line to goal line, nearly the entire length of the field, before building back a new structure to accommodate space underneath the seats for the field club, then constructing new seats back on top. Other work includes the multi-year south concourse expansion, which is nearly finished and is aimed at enhancing the flow of pedestrians and staff to give them more room and to access the amenities there, Lawrence says.

Christman refinished the east and west sky boxes and added extensive back-of-house upgrades, including a new loading dock and a new production kitchen, which is a first for Neyland Stadium.

The most elaborate additions for the project are the new founder suites on the west side, Lawrence says, where six rows of existing stands beneath the terrace level were removed for construction of the new donor spaces that will be “the heavy lift for this particular offseason.”

Today, as he continues to work on the stadium renovations, Lawrence has on his desk a chunk of old square rebar—a paperweight made by the senior superintendent on the project.

“It’s nothing fancy,” he said during an interview last year. “It’s something that reminds us where we were in 1947, and here we are in 2024 working right back in the same area and on the same stadium. It’s just a constant reminder that things come full circle.”