Danny White: Neyland Stadium will be one of top stadiums in college football

Tennessee‘s football program crossed the century mark last season. Volunteers fans have passionately cheered their team on for the last 100 years, and now they’re going to get the complete SEC college football experience any time they head to Neyland Stadium for a Tennessee home game from now on.

Neyland Stadium has been under construction since the day after the Volunteers final home game of the 2021 season and is set to be remodeled with a party deck, sports bar, as well as a new video board thanks to a $180 million renovation package.

“By the time we’re done with this pretty massive renovation, we want to have one of, if not the best, stadium in college football,” said Tennessee Athletics Director Danny White. “That means thinking proactively about the future and modern fan experience. And in less exciting ways, it means fixing some stuff and renovating some stuff that’s really outdated.” 

This isn’t the first time Neyland Stadium has undergone renovations recently, as the stadium was upgraded with a state of the art LED lighting system before the 2021 season that showed off some awe-inspiring lighting displays before Volunteer home games. Firework machines were equipped on the roof of the north end zone as well as west and east skybox rooftops to provide more emphasis on celebrations for Tennessee touchdowns and victories.

“We tweaked some things that I think really respond to what we’ve been getting from a fan survey standpoint at Tennessee for the last several years, but also are in line with what we’re seeing at new modern facilities across the country, both new construction and renovations across the SEC and college football and the NFL,” White said about the renovations.

Tennessee is accomplishing two things with the project, according to White. Implementing a video board in Neyland Stadium has been discussed for years and is much-needed for all of the Volunteers’ patrons sitting on the south side of the stadium. They don’t have a video board experience, and this improvement will be able to provide that in a prominent way. But it’s also creating what White envisioned to be a sports bar. He wants a fun, high-energy standing-room-only kind of area with party decks underneath a humongous video board that are seen in stadiums across the country in modern venues.

The renovations are the reason Tennessee did not have a spring game this offseason. In the spring game’s place, and intra-squad scrimmage took place on April 9th, which was only open to media, recruits and players’ family members — meaning the scrimmage was off limits to the public.