It includes a football practice field, parking and room for the College of Agricultural Sciences. And while Colorado State University's athletics, agriculture and parking services departments each got something, nobody is completely happy.
"I think that for everybody involved, it's not what they hoped for, but I think it gives them what they need," Frank said. "I think the balance is a nice blend."
The football team will get one oversized practice field (it had requested two fields), parking will get some — but not all — of its wishes, and the perennial gardens will be relocated. Also, CSU's existing arboretum west of the $220 million stadium site will be upgraded.
In email communication with those three entities provided to the Coloradoan, Frank made a number of points, including:
The perennial gardens are a "great" university asset, potentially and arguably on a par with the annual trial gardens at the University Center for the Arts.
The arboretum is an "immensely underutilized and underappreciated university asset that needs investment regardless of the stadium project."
Frank remains fully committed to utilizing the area surrounding the stadium to highlight the university's land-grant roots and agricultural heritage.
Though not "overly compelled" by athletics' desire to locate practice fields adjacent to the stadium, the idea of maintaining the location of the current practice fields to join with the women's softball complex in a future hub of women's athletics with enhanced facilities for the student athletes and the patrons "makes long-term sense."
The needs for some quantity of handicapped-accessible parking adjacent to the stadium is clear, and CSU will want to balance that with ongoing efforts to push parking to the periphery of campus.
Area west of stadium site
Frank said the practice field would be surrounded by gardens and an ag heritage exhibition to the south, directly on Lake Street, and a "modest" parking area to the north. The space will be fenced to protect the turf, but designed with fencing that opens to accommodate university events.
Athletics will work with CSU's intramural program to determine how to best utilize the existing practice fields just south of Moby Arena while maintaining the potential for that to be a future "women's sports hub," which would potentially include a soccer pitch and additional parking.
Regarding the gardens and arboretum, Frank said an arboretum upgrade would not change its footprint, but be be designed to make it both a teaching and research facility, and the natural showcase represented by many university arboretums.
A block of land located directly on Lake Street, bordered to the north by the practice area, will be assigned to the College of Agricultural Sciences for the design of a space that will highlight CSU's agricultural roots.
The College of Agricultural Sciences was given three options for a new location for the perennial gardens: The northwest corner of the University Center for the Arts complex; an area adjacent to the new PERC, along Center Avenue south of Prospect Road; or a block of space on Lake Street, immediately west of the stadium.
Also at Friday's board of governors meeting, CSU Executive Vice Chancellor Amy Parsons, showed a chart of premium seating ticket sales at the new stadium, showing that 31.2 percent of those seats have been sold. That figure represents 46.2 percent of the pro forma expectation prior to the stadium's approval.