CORVALLIS, Ore. (KOIN) — In light of the last week of tumult, OSU athletic director Scott Barnes began the tour of the brand-new west side of Reser Stadium tour on Tuesday in a way you might expect.
“Today is about celebrating this wonderful facility that so many had a part in,” said Barnes, noting that the tour was set up long before the college football world devolved into chaos.
Overall, the west side has 8,925 seats, putting Reser’s capacity at 35,548. That can reach over 36,000 with standing-room-only tickets.
“I feel ecstatic,” said Barnes of the building that will have its first game on September 9th. “So many people (were) involved in making this happen. I can’t thank Beaver Nation enough for all their work in this. The campus community coming together to make this happen. What we have is one of the real relevant stadiums in all of college football today. I’m super excited about that.”
Below, we’ll detail a few of the main features of the new west side.
BEAVER STREET
Beaver Street is an open concourse concept where people can still watch the game while ordering concessions.
It is also what connects the entirety of Reser Stadium for the first time in the building’s existence.
“We’re able to accommodate all fans in a 360 concourse for the first time in the history of Reser Stadium,” said Senior Associate AD Sara Elcano. “So, as you’re looking at Beaver Street, this is not just for fans with tickets on the west side, this is for everyone in the stadium.”
The area will feature six different food varieties and also has a bar.
On each end of Beaver Street there is also opportunities to take photos—or as Oregon State has labeled them “arrival moments”.
On one end an orange plastic cutout of the state of Oregon.
The other is a Beaver logo with wood accents.
“This one is unique in that every game there will be a wood cookie that will have our logo and the opponent that we’re playing along with the date,” said Elcano of the Beaver logo arrival moment. “The idea is that fans are able to stop there, take their photo, and always remember, ‘I was at that game when we ran the ball 19 times and got a victory,’ for example.”
Right off of Gate F, where the above arrival moment is located, is where the Kids Zone has been located in years past and will remain.
It has been expanded and there will be more activities for kids including inflatables, arts and crafts activities, and yard games.
Most importantly for parents though, they have added more televisions to the area so the parents can still take in the action.
WELCOME CENTER
The front of the west side features a welcome center that is multi-use.
During football games, it will be used as a lobby for premium seat holders, who can get to their seats from the area via stairs or elevators.
At all other times though it will be used by the university’s enrollment management team to recruit students.
“They’ll start their tour in this facility,” said AD Scott Barnes. “They’ll go up the Cascade level club and have their orientation and then begin their campus tours from here.”
Barnes credited the innovative approach of adding the welcome center as something that helped push the project through in the dark days of Covid.
“The fact that this is a year-round use facility, not just football game day, really helped galvanize this campus community in getting it done,” said Barnes.
Outside of the welcome center is a 52-foot wood structure that stretches the height of the stadium. It is made up of smaller pieces of wood to make one large log-like display. One percent of all capital projects in the state of Oregon must go to art projects, and this project was a part of that 1%. It is also an ode to the state’s history with lumber and OSU’s forestry program.
PREMIUM SEATING
The premium seating section features several different seating areas including the Cascade, Coastal, and Founders clubs.
The Coastal Club is on the right side of the west side when looking from field level. The Cascade side is on the left. The two clubs are named after the two mountain ranges the Willamette Valley sits between. The Founders Club is in the middle and is reserved for those who gave a million or more dollars to the west side project.
“We are, for all intents and purposes, sold out,” said Barnes of all the premium seating. “We’ve got a couple contracts to finish. We’ve held a couple premium seats for our own use, but we’re essentially sold out. Really excited about how Beaver Nation has embraced these products.”
Members of the Coastal and Cascade Clubs have access to their own club area that includes multiple big-screen TVs and a premium-level chef’s table including marble-top bars in each club. The Founders Club room is exclusive to those ticket holders and features the highest level of premium food in the stadium along with cocktails.
There are also several Loge and Living Room Box seats.
The Loge Boxes are a recreation of the Loge Boxes on the east side that allows you to bring four wine bottles to be dropped off before gameday for personal storage. The Loge Boxes on this side also feature a 51-inch TV.
The Living Room Box seats are four seats together that can be reclined like in a movie theater. They also feature 17-inch TVs in the box, small locker and fridge space, and in-seat wait service.
Overall, there are 318 Coastal and Cascade club seats combined, 168 Loge seats, 128 Living Room Box seats and 60 Founders Club seats.
