Michigan State’s Board of Trustees on Friday approved plans to renovate Spartan Stadium, with some of the upgrades expected to be completed in time for the 2025 football season.
The plan covers short- and long-term upgrades, and is expected cost more than $30 million.
The first phase calls for replacing the three videoboards, including the main one on the south side of the stadium, and the two smaller ones on the north side. Construction is set to begin in January, and be completed before fall of 2025.
Also starting in January will be construction on Spartan Stadium’s west tower, specifically suites on the fourth, seventh and eighth levels. Restrooms will be updated to become compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and improvements will be made to seating and concessions.
In the long-term, as part of the proposal, Michigan State athletics wants upgrades to help modernize the stadium, including to seating, concourses, concessions and restrooms. Those plans, which also will address security issues, haven’t been finalized and will come before the Board of Trustees on a project-by-project basis for approval.
“For more than 100 years, Spartan Stadium has been a gathering place for the Michigan State community,” Alan Haller, MSU’s athletic director who helped author the latest renovation proposal, said in a statement Friday morning. “Today’s action by the board is a step toward ensuring that remains a constant for the next 100 years.
“This is an exciting period of reimagining what is possible for the future.”
Michigan State officials say the investment into Spartan Stadium, which opened in 1923 and seats about 75,000, will help generate additional revenue opportunities, through sponsorships and donors at a time when college athletics needs every dollar possible, with Name, Image and Likeness and, soon, revenue sharing with the student-athletes.
These are the first major upgrades planned for Spartan Stadium in a decade, since the North End Zone project.
Michigan State opens the 2025 season at home against Western Michigan. The game is currently scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 30, though that could change to Friday, Aug. 29, as has become a tradition for MSU’s opener.