Despite coronavirus shutdown, Williams-Brice renovations to continue
While South Carolina’s football activities and the university campus are shut down in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak, the work on Williams-Brice Stadium will continue on.
The $22.5 million in work to add new club seating areas was projected to be finished in time for the season to start in September. Crews are deep into that work, which started before last season even ended.
“There’s no one out there that’s lending any money for athletics, so we’re going to finish that project up and then delay our athletics debt incursion until the market returns,” Ed Walton, the school’s executive VP for administration, said at a USC board of trustees meeting Tuesday.
Overall, the school estimated a financial hit of $20 million to $40 million across the board from the virus’ effects. Other projects, which have not yet started construction, were delayed.
The renovations will add four club seating areas and impact around 8,000 seats. The project was projected to bring in a million dollars in revenue annually.
Questions loom about how long the outbreak will last and if it will impact fall sports after shutting down much of the spring season. The Gamecocks football program lost two-thirds of its spring practices, including the spring game.
This story was originally published March 31, 2020 at 6:00 PM with the headline "Despite coronavirus shutdown, Williams-Brice renovations to continue."
