Alabama shows off upgraded stadium

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama’s Dre Kirkpatrick and Chris Jordan trotted onto the field and couldn’t stop smiling about the upgrades to Bryant-Denny Stadium shortly after the latest expansion was completed.

“This is nice,” said Kirkpatrick, a sophomore Crimson Tide cornerback.

“Man, this is going to be loud,” agreed Jordan, a junior linebacker.

Indeed. One of college football’s biggest programs now has a stadium to match.

A $65 million expansion has pushed capacity to 101,821 and made Bryant-Denny the nation’s fifth-largest stadium. The South end zone work added 9,683 seats, including 36 luxury boxes.

“We’re all just very proud and pleased as to how it has turned out,” Tide athletic director Mal Moore said. “If you sit on the 50-yard line and look North, then look South, they’re identical.”

Now, the defending national champions’ stadium stands behind only Michigan (109,901), Penn State (107,282), Tennessee (102,455) and Ohio State (102,329) in seating capacity. It features new video boards, along with a wrought-iron fence and brick-lined avenue along the sidelines. Red and white camellias are expected to bloom in the fall.

The “nosebleed” seats are 158 feet high. All told, the project took 22,380 cubic feet of concrete, 175,000 bricks and 16 months.

“I think the stadium looks fabulous,” Tide coach Nick Saban said. “I think we had one of the best venues in college football before we made the addition of the end zone. Now we’re over 101,000 people, and I think now that we may be among the top two or three venues in terms of a place to play college football of anywhere in the country. I think it’s a beautiful stadium, I think it’s a great place to watch a game.”

Fans will get their first experience inside the bigger Bryant-Denny on Saturday against San Jose State.

It’s the second expansion of the last four years.