40-Year Facelift

Athletic administrators at Cal State Northridge considered remodeling portions of the school’s football stadium for years, and the Jan. 17 earthquake has forced them to finally act on it.

The stadium, which is more than 40 years old, sustained major damage to the covered west bleacher section and press box above it during the 6.8 temblor.

“The back four braces pulled out of the ground and the structure was bent and falling forward,” Northridge Athletic Director Bob Hiegert said. “There was the possibility of fixing it if the steel and footage passed inspection, but the structural engineers were very concerned.”

So this week that portion was dismantled and removed by cranes.

The east bleacher section has some cracks but no major damage, Hiegert said, so it will remain.

“The stadium was a concern of ours for years,” Hiegert said. “It was a temporary facility when it was put in and it needed serious attention. Nobody really knows how old it is except that it’s more than 40 years old, maybe even 50.”

The school’s graduation ceremony will be held in the stadium in June, by which time the rubble will be gone, Hiegert added.

It is hoped that the press box and covered bleachers will be rebuilt before the start of the football season in September.

As yet there is no cost estimate, but most of the money will come from athletic department fund-raising.

In the meantime, the stadium’s best feature remains its adjacent parking lots, which used to be dirt. They were paved and used for student parking after the school’s main parking structure collapsed in the quake.