KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The University of Tennessee Board of Trustees approved several major measures, including one that will further boost the budget for ongoing renovations to Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
The board held its fall meeting on Friday to approve several projects in Knoxville and on UT's other campuses.
UT asked the board to approve a $9.3 million increase to the Lindsey Nelson Stadium renovation project budget, which brings the total budget up to $105.1 million. The university said it ran into unexpected costs after discovering issues with soil and utility conditions.
The board approved the measure and said it would be fully funded by donations.
When the project got off the ground in 2022, the baseball stadium renovations were budgeted for nearly $57 million. That budget has now nearly doubled in the past two years after the board approved a $39 million increase in 2023 to account for "scope and cost escalation impacts."
UT said the renovations below should be completed by 2026:
Completed for 2024
- Third-baseline chairback seats
- Left-field 4-seat tabletops section
Completed for 2025
- Right-field student section
- First-baseline restrooms and concessions
- Left-field bar on the main concourse
- Right-field line 4-seat tabletop units
- Renovated restrooms behind home plate
- MVP club cushioned chairback seats
Completed for 2026
- Stadium sound system and kitchen
- Third-baseline restrooms and concessions
- Team merchandise shop and ticket office
- Renovated concessions behind home plate
- Home plate entrance and plaza area
- Mezzanine level
- Third-level suites and premium club space
- MVP room expansion
- Multiple elevators
The board also approved the affiliation agreement for UT's new athletics nonprofit that established the structure for how the university will coordinate donations, manage other finances and support the athletics program moving forward.
Earlier this year, trustees voted to create a separate nonprofit foundation specifically for UT's athletics program in Knoxville: the University of Tennessee Athletics Foundation, Inc. The new nonprofit is essentially a spinoff of UT's general nonprofit, the UT Foundation. The new agreement allows the two foundations to work together when coordinating gifts and finances for athletics.
UT leaders said the goal of the new athletics foundation is to support the university in the "fast-changing world of college athletics." It said the foundation is similar to ones set up at other Power Five universities.
It's worth noting these athletic nonprofits are being set up as a new era of "pay-to-play" appears to be on the horizon, which would further change the landscape of college sports to allow student-athletes to be paid more like professional players alongside making money on their name, image and likeness.
Universities are anticipating a future where their athletes are paid directly. Part of this is because of a class-action antitrust lawsuit that is making its way through the court system. The lawsuit sought to dismantle the NCAA's definition of "amateurism" that kept student-athletes from being paid as they played for sports that earned billions of dollars from ticket sales, broadcast agreements, sponsorships and merchandising.
This lawsuit sets the stage for revenue sharing with student-athletes. A $2.78 billion settlement was recently granted preliminary approval by a district judge this month, and one of the conditions of the settlement was to allow athletic departments in the Power Five schools to establish revenue sharing with student-athletes through a more than $21 million pool using money from television contracts and ticket sales. The final hearing for the settlement is scheduled for April 7, 2025.
