Boone Pickens Stadium, renamed from Lewis Field after the historic gift from the OSU alum, officially opened a new south side in 2004, a new north side in 2006 and construction is ongoing on a multi-year project that will put OSU’s stadium among the nation’s elite.

Currently on display is the ongoing west end zone project. When completed, Boone Pickens Stadium will feature 60,000 seats in a horseshoe setting with modern-day fan amenities, while maintaining perhaps the closest proximity to game action in all of football.

The west end zone project will also include a new multilevel football operations center. Some of the features of the project will be new football offices, meeting rooms, speed and conditioning center, locker rooms, equipment room, athletic medicine center, media facilities, hall of fame area and training table.

The final touches at the top of the stadium will raise OSU’s suite total to more than 100, with the total of club seats remaining at 4,000. Four video boards will be featured along with a ribbon board that will encircle the interior of the stadium.

The wheels were set in motion on the stadium project when OSU alum Boone Pickens made the single-largest gift in school history in 2003. His $70 million gift ($20 million of which was earmarked for stadium expansion) spurred the “Next Level Campaign”, which generated more than $100 million in gifts and pledges and involved more than 2,500 individuals, making it the single-most successful campaign in OSU history.

Pickens capped the fundraising effort in 2005 with his momentous gift of $165 million that will not only benefit Cowboy football, but will aid with the development of OSU’s planned multi-million dollar athletic village. The gift is the largest ever received by a university athletic department.

It’s not just the stadium that is changing. In 2005, the playing surface was replaced with Football Pro, a surface created by Millennium Sports Technologies that is considered the best and most durable synthetic surface available. OSU’s practice field has also been completely reshaped and covered with a new natural surface that ranks among the best in college football.

The new surfaces, in addition to renovated locker room and weight training facilities, were made possible through gifts by Pickens and fellow OSU alum Sherman Smith that totaled $3 million. Smith, another generous OSU alum, will have his name on Oklahoma State’s new indoor practice facility.

The west end zone project has become perhaps the signature construction phase of the entire Next Level campaign. When completed, this massive structure serve as the new headquarters for the Cowboy coaching staff with offices at the club level. The west end zone will also house a new OSU locker room, speed and strength center, equipment room, hall of fame, athletic training center, theater room, meeting rooms, video operations, media center, and dining area. The west end zone is so inclusive that Bullet will have his own stall.

Seating and fan amenities will be available in the west end zone for the 2008 football season. The entire project is scheduled to be completed in time for the 2009 season opener when the Georgia Bulldogs visit Stillwater.

The completed horseshoe will raise seating capacity to 60,000 and will put in place more than 100 suites around the rim of the stadium. Current plans call for four video boards and a ribbon board that will encircle the stadium. The site of the new dining area that will be utilized by OSU’s student-athletes will offer views of the stadium as well as the OSU campus. It will seat at least 300. The team theater room will accommodate as many as 200 and can be utilized for a variety of special events. The facility will include surround sound and can serve in a variety of ways from a movie theater to a classroom.

A state-of-the-art athletic training facility will be located just steps from the Cowboy locker room and will encompass 8,000 square feet with four pools for hydrotherapy.

Offices for the coaching staff will be housed on the club level of the west end zone and will feature stadium views and balconies for game-day seating.

The entire west end zone project will feature 1.1 million square feet, including 700,000 square feet with conditioned space.

The project will include a 12,000-square-foot locker room that is located just steps away from the speed and strength center, athletic training center, equipment room and meeting rooms. The locker room will be big enough to host the team as well as offensive, defensive and special teams meetings during halftime. The locker room size will double OSU’s current dressing quarters.

The players’ custom-designed lockers will include equipment and shoe ventilation, as well as embossed glass name plates that players take with them upon graduation. The football only speed and strength center will cover 20,000 square feet and will include a sprint track for timings, etc. A mammoth equipment room, covering roughly 14,000 square feet, will be a model of efficiency and organization for the players as well as coaches and staff. The history of Cowboy football will be prominently displayed on several levels of the west end zone, including a vestibule near the Cowboy locker room, as well as a 5,000 square foot football gallery located near the main entrance of the football operations center.

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