Everything Ray Tanner said about stadium project, field being named after him

Shortly after South Carolina revealed the early stages of Phase 1 of its plan to modernize Williams-Brice Stadium during a Board of Trustees meeting Friday afternoon — and announced that the playing surface at Founders Park would now be named “Ray Tanner Field” –Tanner spoke to the media about those two topics.

GamecockCentral was on hand and has a transcript and video below,

[See what Gamecock fans are saying on The Insiders Forum!]

Q: All right, congratulations are in order for having the field named after you. Did you know that that was coming?

Tanner: Actually, it kind of jumped up on me. We had talked about it, not we, but it had been talked about a few years ago. And it kind of got quiet and I’m thinking, that’s good, it’s all quiet. But I’m obviously extremely honored and humbled, but it’s just my name. It’s not because of me, it’s because of the administration, it’s because of our players, our coaches. The great fans that came out to Founders Park and Sarge Fry Field. I mean, that’s what it’s really all about. It might be my name, but it’s not because of me.

Q: And this Williams-Price Stadium project, this allows just for architects to come in and start doing this. But this project will be in motion sooner rather than later?

Tanner: Yes, today we received phase one approval to move forward to get some design work done with an architect, a contractor. So we’re gonna try to do our very best to move forward from the west to the east and maybe even more later on. It’s an opportunity to generate revenue and create premium space that’s been missing at Williams-Brice. If you remember a few years ago, we did the Traditions Club, the Horseshoe Club, the 2001 Club, we did the Cockaboose. They were sold out, they received extremely well. And in the big picture, we’re short in suites and premium spaces upstairs. So we’re gonna move in that direction.

Q: Is there any timeline? Today, is there a clear timeline?

Tanner: Well, the timeline is to be successful as we advance through the process. Now, things could happen. But if we’re successful Phase 1 and then back to Phase 2, we’ll have to go to the state. But in a perfect world, if we can hit all our marks and dates and dollars, that after the 25 season, okay, we’re 24, after 25, a year away. After the 25 season, we will start construction and do as much as we possibly can before the 26 kick. Would it be 100 percent complete on what we’re doing? Probably not. But we’d certainly like to have a situation where we have advanced premium space before the 26 kick.

Q: In that situation, Ray, if you were still working on the 100 level club, would the upper deck still be safe to have fans during those 26 games while the construction was still going on?

Tanner: Well, yes. We’re not gonna put anybody in jeopardy. Should we not hit our, things happen. I noticed a couple of stadiums under construction this fall where they had certain areas roped off where construction was. So those things could happen, but that’s progress.

Q: So the plan would be to start after the 25 season.

Tanner: Correct.

Q: And finish the entire thing before the 26 season.

Tanner: Well, that would be probably too ambitious. But if we were able to do, whether it’s the east side or the west side, if we’re able to do the majority of, say, the west side, that would be great. But it’s possible. But you gotta hit the marks, the weather’s gotta be right. A lot of things have to click.

Q: And where’s the money coming from for this project?

Tanner: I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. Well, that’s to be determined right now. But certainly, we have the amount of money in our salary cap. And the university’s doing some ambitious projects as well. So I defer to Mr. Walton to answer that question specifically.

Q: You mentioned in February of 23, the best case scenario was 12 to 15 months, you could have the shovels in the dirt. Obviously, that didn’t come to fruition. We didn’t get it, I was a little bit too ambitious. Was it a little bit too ambitious, or have there been delays or things unexpected that just haven’t gone your way?

Tanner: Well, sometimes… I’m a former coach, so we want things yesterday. And that’s not always the way it works in administration and the way it works in the state process. It takes time, and it’s not anybody’s fault, it just takes time. And sometimes, I get overzealous daily about getting things done, and I think that was a perfect case.

Q: The suites, is there, I mean, how much talk has there been in the last couple of years? And I think there’s people wondering, you guys are last in the SEC and have been for a while, how has this not happened sooner, the last 10, 15 years?

Tanner: Well, this is my 13th fall as an athletics director, so quite honestly, I kick myself a little bit that I haven’t been in that room next door, the board room, 10 years ago to say, hey, this is needed and it’s needed now. So I kick myself a little bit, and then you go back in time, 25 or 30 years ago, people were putting in suites, and we didn’t do it. So that’s a key piece of revenue that we haven’t been able to enjoy over the years. And also, premium opportunities for our fan base, and it’s all come together. Vanderbilt’s in the process right now of adding suites. So we need to be in the game as quick as possible.

Q: I don’t know if it’ll be in the press release or not, but there’s 18 suites now with the west side renovation, the east side, what would that number get to?

Tanner: Ultimately, we’d like to get just inside of 90 when all is said and done. But on the west side specifically, you talked about, there’s 18. That would double, that would be the first part of that project. We would double that space to 36. And you can call it a renovation or rebuild, it’ll be redone. We won’t use the current space that we have for those suites. The location, yes, but we’ll start completely over. It won’t be like the old suites and the new suites. It’ll be 36 new ones.

Q: What does that mean for regular seating in this?

Tanner: Possibly some of the upper seats in the lower bowl will be affected because we’ll chair back those seats. They’re currently not chair backed. We’ll chair back those suites. Anytime you chair back, you will lose some seats. But those chair back opportunities put them in a club space. They can go underneath as well, back behind their seats. So there will be some seating displacement potentially. But we hope that there’s a lot of opt-in from those people in those seats. Keep the price points at a place that they’ll be happy with that. But certainly, relocation is a possibility for some people. We hope not to affect very many people though.

Q: What will this do to the total capacity?

Tanner: Looking at the project, it would reduce it. We’re around, what, 77, 78 right now. We would not go under 70, probably low 70s when it’s all said and done, if we do the whole thing.

Q: Yeah, you’ve mentioned parts of the east and the west end. Is there anything with the north and the south behind the end zones coming?

Tanner: There’s certainly, we’ve had many ideas on what we’d like to do. One of the things that I always think about, I want to create an opportunity for our students that doesn’t happen anywhere else in the country. We talk about the Cockaboose Club. I’d like to see our students have a special space as well that’s heated and air conditioned. And you can’t do everybody because you can’t have a space that big. But to have that opportunity for especially maybe the upperclassmen, we’re talking about doing some. Some of those things as we move forward as part of this overall project. I hope we can get to that point.

[Win two tickets to the South Carolina-Texas A&M football game]

Q: I don’t know, I can’t remember what the rendering showed, but I don’t remember any field level suites. Like what did your guys’ market analysis tell you?

Tanner: We’ve looked at the field level. I wouldn’t say field level is completely off the table. But right now we’re focusing on the east, west, and the north end zone.

Q: Development as a whole, how do you think it benefits both the institution and the surrounding city?

Tanner: Development of the project? Well, it’s an opportunity to have a great stadium. We had the soccer event, right? One of the biggest events we’ve ever had here. We almost didn’t get that because of our premium space. They wanted more premium space. They said, that’s all the suites you have? We said, that’s it. That’s one of the things that they requested, that we didn’t have an opportunity. They sold for enormous amount of money because of that soccer, that international soccer event. So that’s the kind of things that you put yourself in a better position to bring in great events, concerts, you name it. We can use it for certainly more things than seven Saturdays a year.

Q: For the students who are like, “I’m never gonna be able to afford a suite. I’m a college student; I can barely afford ramen noodles.” What do you have to say to them and how this is gonna impact them?

Tanner: Well, they’re the ones that are gonna be out in the workforce pretty soon. So eventually they come back, it all works out. I mean, it’s a price point that really, you know, we hope that a lot of people can engage. And just because you can’t afford, you know, a suite necessarily, the three of us together might be able to do it, and that happens periodically.

Q: So we’re just gonna get the reporting done by one of the papers about how the university was turned down for a bid to host the NCAA tournament because of hotel space. Are you talking with the city or is the university doing anything with the city to try to get some of those premium hotels built?

Tanner: Yes, actually, the mayor and I, I talk regularly about what we’re doing at the university and what he’s doing. And as you’re well aware, he’s all about people coming to the city of Columbia and the University of South Carolina. So we talked about when we didn’t get a host site, because we had one before. And we knew that was a challenge, and that was one of the reasons that they stated. But he’s invested in making sure that happens going forward, getting some hotels, full-service hotels. So I think that’ll be the case going forward.

Q: The revenue aspect, potentially more revenue from the premium seating, how important is that given just the overall college athletics landscape right now with potential revenue sharing and all that?

Tanner: Extremely. I mean, revenue generation in intercollegiate athletics is at a time that we’ve never experienced. I was talking to the board members earlier today, I think my first ten years as the athletics director. We easily made our budget; our revenues exceeded our expenditures. The challenges moving forward are greater than ever. So we have to, field logos, whatever. I don’t know that we’ll ever become NASCAR, but the fact that you have field logos, and they could be field logos of softball, baseball going forward, signage. All those things are important to generate revenue. Revenue sharing, the preliminary settlement has been let, so now we’ll see where it ends up, but it’s extremely important that we generate revenue in athletics.

Discuss South Carolina football on The Insiders Forum!