EWU breaks ground on new $2M track, hoping to increase safety and visitors

Eastern Washington University kicked off a $25 million stadium renovation project with a groundbreaking ceremony Friday for resurfacing its track at the end of the football season.

With the track bordering the university’s red football field, commonly called “the inferno,” the resurfacing and other facility upgrades will cost around $2 million and be completed at the beginning of fall 2026.

“Since being here at Eastern, I have felt energy reverberate off this track. With every rep at practice, every hard effort and time trial, that energy builds both within ourselves individually and within our team,” social work master’s student and middle distance runner Rhiannon Davies said. “And it is so exciting that others will get to witness this during home competitions.”

Last resurfaced around 15 years ago, Athletics Director Tim Collins said that the track has deteriorated to the point of being unsafe to use for competition following the COVID-19 pandemic.

“If you walk the track, you can see depressions on each straightaway that make it unsafe, so we lost the ability to host meets,” Collins said. “Now, to be able to have the opportunity to bring those back is a really big deal.”

Track coach Erin Tucker said that while he cannot give a specific number of injuries practicing on the track has caused, there have been a number of stress-related injuries to runners during his three years as the head coach at EWU.

“When our athletes are training, which is going to be 90% of what we use the track for – for training – we want to be able to train on the surface. We want to aid them, not hurt them, so to speak,” Tucker said. “If you have one or two (stress injuries) a year, you can live with it and continue to take care of those kids, but you just never want to have one.”

Being able to have track meets at the EWU stadium will help athletes perform better all the way around, Tucker said.

“You can host a championship meet at home, sleep in your own bed, eat your own food, have your fans in the stands,” he said. “You’re gonna get a 15-, 20-point bump just by showing up, simply because you’re at home.”

Collins said that athletics is “quite often referred to as the front porch of a university,” and that bringing athletes to the track provides an opportunity for them to “see themselves as students here.

“We’re not the foundation of the house, but a lot of times we’re the first thing that somebody interacts with,” he said. “Specifically, the track has the ability to bring thousands of visitors – just by way of state meets, high school meets, regional meets and big meets – that are prospective students.”

2024 saw the lowest fall enrollment rates recorded for the school – 10,491 students – since 2009, the start of public data on EWU’s website.

Eastern is a Division I school in the National Collegiate Athletics Association.

“Across the entire university, we are charting an ambitious path forward because we all believe in Eastern, our incredible students, and the mission of transforming lives,” President Shari McMahan said. “So, since being here, I have not wavered on my commitment to remain a competitive, Division One university and make the necessary investments to ensure the future of our athletics program.”

EWU Athletics funding has been a topic of intense debate in recent years, with faculty urging administration to address large spending deficits in football specifically and consider dropping out of the first division.

The $25 million in funding for the stadium renovation is sourced from donations and “future facility revenue from the athletics department,” athletics communications director Matthew Kushar said via text. Eastern’s website says that the university is prohibited from spending state dollars on athletic facility enhancements.

University faculty organization president Ginelle Hustrulid said in an email statement that she is excited to see how fundraising across campus will impact the Eastern community.