With new engineering and physics labs still being built on the south side of campus, attention also has turned to the north, where crews have begun work on constructing a new stadium for ACU’s successful soccer and track and field teams.

A live webcam is tracking the progress of the stadium, which is the second of five facilities to begin construction in the historic Vision in Action initiative.
Fundraising continues for Vision in Action, but ACU’s Board of Trustees has given approval to use funds already received to begin work on the Engineering and Physics Laboratories at Bennett Gymnasium and the as-yet-unnamed new stadium. Groundbreaking on larger projects – construction of Wildcat Stadium and Halbert-Walling Research Center, and the transformation of Foster Science Building into the Robert R. and Kay Onstead Science Center – will not begin until money for them has been raised.
James “Jim” Orr (’86), J.D., vice president for advancement, told the Optimist this month that about 75 percent of the projects’ $75 million budget has been raised thus far.
The new track/soccer stadium also will feature space for some field events, with other venues to be located north of Ambler Avenue, and a new track and field fieldhouse alongside the current fieldhouse shared by the soccer and softball teams. Construction is projected to be complete in the spring, in time for a mid-April NCAA Division I track meet to be hosted at the stadium.
Along with closing Oliver Jackson Boulevard and a portion of the parking lots surrounding the site, construction has displaced the soccer team, which is playing home games in Shotwell Stadium this fall and practicing at Action Zone.