Inside K-State’s game plan for a state-of-the-art athletics campus
Immediately after announcing its facilities master plan in 2018, K-State Athletics got to work on the $200 million-worth of additions and renovations outlined within it.
The $126.5 million in donations generated by the Building Champions capital initiative spurred progress by funding the completion of football’s Shamrock Zone at Bill Snyder Family Stadium and Shamrock Indoor Practice Facility east of the stadium. It also gave us volleyball’s Morgan Family Arena and the multisport Morris Family Olympic Training Center.
As one of fewer than 10 programs in the nation that receive no support from university or other state sources, K-State Athletics relied on the Ahearn Fund to complete the upgrades athletes and fans now enjoy in our soccer, baseball, and outdoor track and field facilities.
The endgame is a centrally located “athletics campus,” and when the final master plan projects are complete, K-State will have all the training and competition spaces needed to win — the contest and the recruitment game.
Here are some highlights of the K-State Athletics facilities master plan:
Projects that are in the books
Morris Family Olympic Training Center:
This facility helps K-State provide the ultimate student-athlete experience for 12 of the university’s 16 teams. It offers training space and equipment as the name suggests, but it’s much more than that. There are areas dedicated to hydrotherapy, nutrition, rehab, and mental health and wellness. Burpees and biofeedback, all under one roof!
Football: Shamrock Indoor Practice Facility
This indoor football practice site and accompanying outdoor turf field, combined with the stadium and Vanier Football Complex, create the ultimate K-State football experience and enhance recruitment.
Football: Bill Snyder Family Stadium Shamrock Zone
This project is behind the newly covered concourse between Bramlage and the Bill, the new video boards, restrooms, concession areas, event space, premium seating, a new sound system and more.
Tour Bill Snyder Family Stadium
Volleyball: Morgan Family Arena
The K-State volleyball team now enjoys a much-deserved 3,100-seat arena with locker rooms, offices, training spaces and team theater. Plans to renovate the team’s former home at nostalgic Ahearn Fieldhouse were considered, but a new space among the other athletic facilities was the more competitive and fiscally responsible option.
Baseball: Tointon Family Stadium
The baseball stadium hit it out of the park with new bullpens, a new artificial turf surface and top-of-the-line clubhouse, locker room and player lounge. Its new training, equipment, nutrition and office spaces are nothing to balk at, either.
Tour the Tointon Family Stadium
Baseball: Brandeberry Indoor Facility
The Bat Cats have the advantage of training year round in one of just a few indoor baseball practice facilities in the nation. Upgrades include outdoor patio seating and a new lobby entry, lift doors, lighting and graphics.
View the Brandeberry Indoor Facility gallery
Soccer: Buser Family Park
Improvements to this K-State Women’s Soccer facility include locker rooms, a player’s lounge, and space for training, rehabilitation and equipment storage. The park seats 1,400 Cat fans and features a field with one of the top playing surfaces in Division 1 soccer.
Track: R.V. Christian Track Complex
This outdoor track and field area got a new track surface, press box and new lighting to complement the adjacent indoor track facility, which served as the football practice location prior to construction of the Shamrock Indoor Practice Facility.
Tour the K-State Track and Field facilities
Projects on deck
Basketball: Bramlage Coliseum
Big changes for Bramlage! In fact, this renovation is the master plan’s biggest project. The Octagon of Doom gets a new grand entry, ticket office, administrative offices, club seating and much more.
Tour the K-State Basketball facilities
Track: Indoor Track Complex
The former indoor football facility gets a new track, lobby, locker room and meeting spaces, among other amenities. Work on the transformation began in April 2023.
Tour the K-State Track and Field facilities
Indoor Tennis Center or Soccer Practice Pavilion
South of the Brandeberry Indoor Facility, there’s space for one more facility to supplement either the Buser Family Soccer Stadium or the Mike Goss Tennis Stadium (located near the K-State Recreational Services Complex). The area may add tennis courts and spectator seating and/or a turf soccer field — stay tuned!
These master plan facilities join several great existing venues, including the Ice Family Basketball Center, Intercollegiate Rowing Center and Vanier Football Complex, in a new-and-improved athletics super campus where you’re sure to find K-Staters “fighting ever fighting for a Wildcat victory.”
Learn more about contributing to the transformation through the Ahearn Fund.
