MORGANTOWN — It’s been over six months since West Virginia athletic director Wren Baker presented the West Tower Project at Milan Puskar Stadium to the WVU Board of Governors. During that meeting, Baker talked about how it’d drive more premium seating, which WVU lacked, showed renderings and presented an estimated cost for the project of $156 million.
At the end of Baker’s pitch, the board approved the early steps for Baker to find an engineering firm, a sales representative and an owner representative. Since the meeting, WVU has partnered with Barton Malow and March-Westin to serve as construction managers and Legends Global to serve as the owner representative. The project is slowly coming together.
During his spring press conference on Tuesday, May 19, Baker provided some updates on the press box.
Baker confirmed the press box would start construction as early as after this football season for an expected opening date of before the 2028 season.
“That is going very well,” Baker said. “We’re quietly doing the fundraising for that. But I would just tell you that it has gone extremely well.”
The fundraising has been the mysterious part because it’s a costly project. WVU will most likely have to partner with another company, probably a local one, to name the box in exchange for a lot of the funding. Baker said there might be some information this summer about it, and as he said, the fundraising is coming along.
It’s a big project and takes time, so part of the construction will take place during the 2027 season. That season also should be crucial for Rich Rodriguez in Year 3 back in Morgantown. Baker said some ideas for temporary structures have started to form, making sure they don’t lose a major chunk of seating. It’ll take some moving around of the suites that are currently there, and will be lost during construction.
“We would look at where can we build some temporary suites in the stadium, so that people are not displaced totally,” Baker said. “To be completely candid, it allows us to keep the revenue, not go a year without revenue.”
Baker is also looking even more into the future and using these temporary suites as possible options for future changes.
“If this goes well, and people like it, we may add that as a permanent element later,” Baker said.
But, the big question that’s on a fan’s mind when a stadium renovation happens, especially with premium seating in mind, is how much the capacity will be impacted. Having the most capacity possible is always a selling point because packing a stadium shows how loyal the fanbase is to other schools.
Currently, Milan Puskar Stadium sits at about 60,000, which is the fourth-biggest stadium in the Big 12.
Baker said it’s estimated to lose only a couple of hundred seats. Oklahoma State is fifth and has around 53,000, so WVU should remain in the top four.
“I know we lose a little capacity, but it’s minimal,” Baker said. “It’s not really that much of a change capacity-wise… “When you put the chair back seating in instead of bleachers in a section, that changes it.”
When you lose a seat and make changes to the stadium, there’s less to sell, which could increase the value of tickets. Baker doesn’t expect the price of lower-end tickets to increase, but rather to improve the amount of higher-quality seats.
“Even when we have adjusted prices, generally, I will always go down on our most affordable tickets,” Baker said. “Basketball, we saw a price decrease for the cheaper seats in men’s basketball, and part of that was when we did the analysis, we were pretty high on the low end. We weren’t where we needed to be on the upper end relative to peers, but on the lower end. Our best asset, and it goes back to why we continue to do caravans, our best asset is the market share. Everybody in this state cares.”
The project is starting to come along, which is a long way from when it was first brought to the board’s attention in late 2025. Now, everyone is just waiting to see what it’ll be called and what company will take the brunt of the bill.
But, if everything goes to plan, it should open in 2028.
“If it’s not, Rob Alsop (Senior Deputy AD), is here, you can blame him,” Baker said. “But, we feel pretty good about that.”
