FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) Colorado State coach Mike Bobo stood in a large campus parking lot 3 1/2 hours before kickoff against Minnesota on Saturday and jokingly issued an old-fashioned dare to the Gophers and coach Jerry Kill.
”I think we ought to call coach Kill at Minnesota and tell him we’re going to play out here right now today,” Bobo said.
The Rams haven’t played on their campus since 1967. But they broke ground Saturday on a new on-campus stadium that will open in 2017.
The Rams will play out the next two seasons at Hughes Stadium three miles west of the main campus.
”I don’t want to discount the experiences we’ve had there, the memories that have been created there,” athletic director Joe Parker said. ”But, people have told me that they attend games there with some degree of frequency. And the next question I ask them is, `When was the last time you were back on campus?”’
After a long pause, they usually tell him not since graduation.
”So, we’ve lost this connection to the alma mater,” Parker said.
The 41,000-foot stadium financed by donors and investors will include 10,000 student seats and a 78,000-square-foot covered concourse.
Among the amenities are 208 men’s toilets – an increase of 97 from Hughes Stadium – and a jump of 186 women’s toilets, bringing their total to 314.
So students can look forward to shorter walks to the game and shorter lines in the restrooms.
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AP college football site: http://collegefootball.ap.org
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Follow AP Pro Football Writer Arnie Melendrez Stapleton on Twitter: http://twitter.com/arniestapleton
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