Football fans, season ticketholders and athletes gathered Monday to learn details of the plans for the new stadium project.

The first of two local town hall meetings was held Monday Jan. 13 in the Volstorff Ballroom. The purpose of the meetings is to get out and explain the project to the community. “It is a complex project with a lot of moving parts,” said SDSU Director of Athletics Justin Sell. 

Globally, we are looking at what it can do for the state of South Dakota said Chair of the Intercollegiate Athletics Board Christopher Chase.

The two main topics Sell discussed were the facility elements and the funding plan. 

“I’ve been a football fan and have a reserved seat for many years. I wanted to find out details about the stadium and really support athletics,” said Brookings community member Harry Birath.

The better part of the last two years was spent doing a financial analysis that would help make good decisions to know the project can be funded and be sure it is not a burden on students or the state, Sell said. There was also time spent traveling and looking at other facilities on the same scale.

The financial plans call for one-third to be funded by private support and two-thirds to be funded by revenue and bonds, which will come from premium seating sales, general ticket sales, concessions, parking, etc.

The fundraising goal is now $27 million, rather than the original $20 million, to bring bonded amount down. 

Ticket sales need to be at 13,251 for premium games such as the Hobo Day game, NDSU or USD and at 5,470 tickets for non-premium games. Loge and club seat sales need to be at 85 percent. 

“The key for us, if we stop today this project won’t move forward,” Sell said.

When asked by a member of the audience about ticket prices, Sell said that it is still in the works but they are working on trying to put pricing together in order to get the information out to the masses in order to have the ability to compare and figure out where they want to sit.

“Prices will go up a bit if you’re going to sit on the 50-yard line, but there will be tremendous opportunities for season ticket holders too,” Sell said.