The field is in place, the scoreboard is up and there are just a few finishing touches left…yes, Baylor’s McLane Stadium is nearly complete.
The moment that Baylor football fans have been waiting for is almost here. It’s a little under two weeks before Baylor squares off against Southern Methodist University in the new stadium. And up in the President’s box, overlooking the Brazos, Brian Nicholson says the stadium makes a statement. He’s the associate vice president for facility, planning and construction at Baylor.
"I’m absolutely convinced that this is the standard for college football stadiums in America," Nicholson said. "So I think we’ve set the bar for everyone to chase at this point."
There’s still a bit of work to be done. Some seats still need to be put in, a bit of painting, landscaping, general touching up that needs to be finished before opening. Jim Heley is the senior project manager with Austin Flintco, the contractor that’s in charge of the stadium construction. He says even into the season there’ll still be work to be done.
"I’m sure there’ll be a few things they want to change in the stadium and we’ll make adjustments as we go as they get used to using it," Heley said. "It’s like moving into a new house, right we’re going to find a few things we want to adjust and tweak and we’ll stick around for that."
One thing that the University will have done by opening day is a new app that lets fans watch the game from multiple angles in real-time. Louis Iaeger, he’s a senior at Baylor and he’ll be one of several “WiFi Coaches” assisting fans with the app on game day. The entire stadium will be a WiFi hotspot on game day. Even though there’s a giant jumbo-tron on one side of the field, fans will be able to go to instant replay from multiple angles in the palms of their hands.
"As soon as it’s captured on camera, it’s loaded into the application. Very dynamic, very fast," Iaeger said. "I’m actually very excited about this too. I’ve been a student here for three years and I would’ve loved to have something like this to check it out from multiple angles."
You can test out the app already by searching for Baylor In-Game in your smartphone or tablet’s app store.