Arizona State to delay east side renovation of Sun Devil Stadium by one year

Arizona State fans looking forward to a completed Sun Devil Stadium reinvention project will have to wait one more year.

The program informed boosters on Wednesday via email that its plan to complete the three-phase, multi-year $268 million project by August of 2017 has been pushed back to the summer of 2018.

ASU will now demolish the east side of the stadium following the 2017 season and rebuild it from scratch, according to a source directly familiar with the plans. Work on the project started in 2014 and is now expected to be completed by the start of the 2018 season.

In the next six months ASU will look at additional design possibilities in order to optimize the final stage of the project. This is being done in consideration of the program’s relationship with boosters and potential corporate sponsorship opportunities.

“These new ideas and the new support behind them, mean making the stadium even better than originally planned,” ASU Vice President for Athletics Ray Anderson wrote in the email to ticket-holders. “We will add terrific amenities to the fan experience, create an unprecedented solarization of the stadium and increase the exciting events at the stadium throughout the year.”

Following the 2016 season, ASU will still be installing a giant 48-foot-by-118-foot video board that will be among the largest in all of college football. It will also complete the 100,000-plus square foot Student-Athlete Facility (SAF) that will house Sun Devil football, and finish the suite level on the west side of the stadium.

For the east side of the stadium, ASU officials will be looking at potential design enhancements that could yield better and more functional space, including its air conditioned areas in the suite level.

This story appears on ArizonaSports.com courtesy of a partnership with SunDevilSource.com, part of the Scout Network and home for the most detailed information on Arizona State football.