By: Noah Allison

The expansion of Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium is officially underway. U of L Vice President and Director of Athletic’s Tom Jurich made the announcement official late last week. The expansion will be based upon enclosing the north end zone and expanding the Schnellenberger complex.

Approximately 10,000 chair back seats will be added on top of 1,000 modern club seats, 65 new premium loge level boxes and 10 exclusive field level suites.

The project will is estimated to cost 55 million dollars and will be raised primarily through private donations. Upon completion Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium will house just over 65,000 fans.

“We’ve been working on this for a long time,” Jurich said. “We’ve got a great foundation here. We’ve got a great coaching staff and the conference is great. So I think the stars are aligning. We didn’t just wake up one day and say we want to expand; we really gave a lot of thought to this.”

While the funds are still being raised, the timetable for the beginning of construction is “as soon as possible.” Upon start of construction the project is estimated to take 18 months and ideally Jurich would like to have the project completed before the start of the 2019 season.

While the project is for the ultimate fan experience, there is no doubt that the base of the expansion is for the growth of the football program.

“First and foremost its for recruiting. It’ll help bobby so much in recruiting,” Jurich said.

“Every time we bring a recruit here and they see what we have already they are so impressed. The thing that is exciting for us is when we bring young men and their families to our campus they get to see that our administration is completely committed to the student athlete,” head football coach Bobby Petrino said.

“We have a great home field advantage. This is jus going to make it that much more difficult. It’s going to be louder and more exciting. I can’t wait,” Petrino added.

This football stadium expansion is just the latest in a long line of Jurich’s ground-breaking moves for U of L athletics. There is no doubt that the moves Jurich has made is not simply for the improvement of U of L athletics, but for the betterment of the University and city of Louisville.

“I think we’ve been able to grow together and I think it’s awesome to see how the community has responded,” Jurich said. “We could never have done any of this were it not for the community. When we went to the ACC it was great for the athletic department. But I think its much better for the community.”