Sam Houston State opens renovated Elliott T. Bowers Stadium
Key Highlights
- The renovation includes a new press box supporting contemporary broadcasting and game-day operations, enhancing the stadium's functionality.
- Premium hospitality areas and a VIP lounge provide versatile spaces for events beyond football, including campus gatherings and private functions.
- Circulation improvements and new amenities foster better movement and connectivity within the stadium, benefiting athletes and fans alike.
- The project exemplifies how older athletic facilities can be modernized for multipurpose use without complete replacement, maximizing investment value.
- The redesigned stadium aims to meet evolving expectations by supporting athletics, student services, community engagement, and revenue-generating events year-round.
Sam Houston State University recently announced that it has opened the renovated Elliott T. Bowers Stadium in Huntsville, Texas, as part of a modernization project aimed at addressing aging infrastructure, accessibility needs, and the many changing expectations for collegiate athletics facilities today. Originally built in 1986, the stadium has been updated by Stantec in partnership with DLR Group to include a new press box, premium hospitality areas, improved circulation, and upgraded amenities for fans and student-athletes.
The renovation replaces the stadium’s existing press box with a facility designed to support contemporary broadcasting and game-day operations, as well as new hospitality areas and circulation improvements that are intended to create a more flexible venue that can support athletics as well as other campus and community programming.
“College athletic facilities today have to support much more than the game itself,” said Scott Klaus, principal and Sports & Recreation global leader at Stantec in a press release. He said the project was designed to improve movement through the concourse, strengthen connections between athletes and the field, and create spaces that can serve the university throughout the year.
Stantec served as the prime consultant and led site design and exterior architecture while also contributing to interior design, construction documentation, and construction administration. DLR Group served as sports consultant on the project, providing program design, sightline studies, and portions of the interior design.
New spaces support year-round use
The newly renovated venue adds premium hospitality and flexible gathering spaces that can accommodate uses beyond football games. For example, a VIP lounge can double as a dining space for student-athletes, and an adjacent patio deck expands gathering space and connects directly to the concourse by a bridge, providing views of the field and stadium activity. University officials also envision using the venue for campus gatherings, corporate events, wedding receptions, and other functions outside the football schedule.
“From day one, the goal was to create a more engaging and versatile stadium experience that meets the evolving expectations of today’s student-athletes and fans,” said Greg Garlock, principal and Sports Design leader at DLR Group in the release.
Garlock added that the renovation improves movement and connections throughout the venue while adding amenities that can support both athletics and broader campus use.
Why this matters
The Bowers Stadium demonstrates how facilities teams can modernize athletics venues built several decades ago without replacing them entirely. It also illustrates how colleges are increasingly evaluating major athletics investments through a multipurpose lens—designing stadiums and arenas not only for game-day performance, but also for student services, events, donor engagement, and other revenue- or community-generating uses.