Take one look around the campus of Winston Salem State University, and it’s obvious that the school is undergoing a facelift. The football program is set to join the expansion with the completion of the new field house at Bowman Gray Stadium.
The building carries a price tag of $5.1 million and is on schedule to open Thursday, Nov. 1. The new field house is a joint venture between the city of Winston-Salem (which owns Bowman Gray Stadium) and WSSU. The university is contributing about $3 million toward the cost of the new field house.
“All of the sports administrative offices as well as the athletic director and sports medicine offices will be moving to the new facility,” said Chris Zona, WSSU’s sports information director.
With such a hefty price tag, the city and university are banking on the field house being a first-class facility. The two-story building will have 20,000 square feet of space. It will have locker rooms and training rooms for the home and visiting teams, a referees’ locker room, and a weight room. It will also have a large banquet room, along with a kitchen and conference rooms. A new video scoreboard, measuring 18 by 23 feet, will be built into the field house.
WSSU head football coach Kermit Blount spoke about the excitement surrounding the opening of the field house on Nov. 1.
“This is a big step forward for the program,” he said. “It will provide a huge step up in our recruiting efforts. We need the facility as we move forward into division 1 football.” Non student-athletes will not be allowed inside the field house unless they’re attending a conference, workshop, forum or special event such as a ball.
As for the football players themselves, Blount says they are excited as well.
“The kids are looking forward to the new field house.”