The area beyond an end zone is not the first place most people think of when it comes to prime seating in a football stadium. The Texas Tech football program hopes to make that location a compelling option this coming season, though.

The centerpiece of Tech’s two-year, $242-million football facilities project is the south end zone building currently under construction at Jones AT&T Stadium. It’ll have all sorts of features: a field-level club, loge boxes, concessions-laced concourse with a view of the field, coaches’ offices, luxury suites — even a party deck.

“There’s just so many aspects to it that are unique,” Tech deputy athletics director Jonathan Botros said in late January. “There’s not a single seat in that end zone that will have sun, whether it’s an 11 a.m. game, 3 p.m., 7 p.m. The sun is completely guarded in that area. We’ll obviously have amenities in that end zone that we don’t have anywhere else in the stadium.”

Having walked through it days before, Botros said, “The angle and the closeness to the field of such a premium seat is pretty cool. It’s unlike anywhere I’ve been to have a premium seat that close to the field. And even the suites, just the angle is really, really cool.”

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Texas Tech football players to make grand entrance

When Tech announced plans for the project in July 2022, one of the features that grabbed fans’ attention was a new team entrance. For years, the Red Raiders have come onto the field via a ramp at the southwest corner. Now they’ll enter directly behind the south end zone goalpost — and to get there they’ll pass through Red Raiders fans in the field-level club.

“We will just temporarily put up some rope stanchions,” Botros said. “When they come through, we will remove them so that the fans can get back to mingling in that area.

“The design and the branding of that facility will be second to none. The return of the saddle there for the guys to touch as they take the field and then they’ll continue out, just make a small little left-hand curve and still follow the Masked Rider in a similar position as in previous years.”

Adjacent to the field-level club, plans call for a game-day recruiting lounge for visiting prospects and their families. When the recruits move to their seats in the stadium bowl for kickoff, the lounge area will be opened to Tech letterwinners.

Botros said Tech currently expects to offer field-club passes and priority access to that area based on a fan’s giving level to the Red Raider Club.

“If you already have a ticket in the stadium,” he said, “you can have an additional fee and be able to get down into that field club. Obviously, the team will enter directly through that field club just like at Dallas Cowboys (AT&T) stadium, and so it’ll be unique to something that we don’t have here currently at Jones AT&T Stadium.”

Street-level pavilion to provide Texas Tech football fans view of the field

Above the field-level club will be loge-box seating with four- and six-person boxes equipped with television monitors and coolers. Tech will offer those for sale on a season basis.

Above the loge boxes will be a street-level concourse, complete with high colonnade archways. The design will be in the Spanish Renaissance architecture traditional to the Tech campus.

“So if you’re on — it’s 6th Street, but it’s really a pedestrian pavilion between the Sports Performance Center and the south end zone building — you’ll kind of be able to peek through and look down onto the field from that walking pavilion,” Botros said, “which will also be a unique aspect of the stadium.”

Plans call for the concourse level to have an indoor premium concession marketplace to buy specialty foods and general concessions.

“We’ll obviously have additional concessions, points of sale,” Botros said, “which we hope will help with lines and congestion in other parts of the stadium and allow people to move through there so we’ll see some increased concession sales.”

The next level up from the concourse is the domain of Tech coach Joey McGuire and his staff. Each of the assistants will have an office, and each of the offices will open onto a shared balcony overlooking the field. McGuire will have the corner office, in the southeast nook of the stadium, and it’ll extend into one of the two bell towers that frames the building on either end.

“Part of it is in that main row of offices with a balcony outdoors,” Botros said, “but then it also is kind of an odd L shape that actually extends out into that bell tower, and so it’s incredibly unique as kind of a coach’s office-slash-closing room.

“So you can just imagine how powerful that is — having a conversation with a young man about coming to school here and playing football here in those offices and then going out on the balcony.”

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Premium suites and a party up top

Texas Tech is projecting about $3 million to $3.5 million per season in incremental revenue from the south end zone building, Botros said, not counting commission money the department receives from concession vendors.

A key driver of that anticipated revenue comes from the top level of the building, a row of 17 luxury suites. Those 17 and the existing 85 suites already part of the stadium all are sold, according to Tech officials.

Tech also is planning to offer a suite on each end, possibly to corporate or other groups who can’t commit to a full season’s attendance. Situated in the top right and top left corners of the building, Botros described it as a party deck. Though not officially decided, Botros said Tech could rent the two suites on a per-game basis.

“We have a lot of corporations, businesses, call us and say, ‘Hey, I really can’t (commit to a full season),’ ” Botros said. ” ‘Maybe we’re out of Midland. Maybe we’re out of Amarillo, DFW. We can’t commit to coming for a whole season, but I’d love for one or two games to come entertain our clients and things like that.’ “

Targeted substantial completion dates are in June for the south end zone building and Aug. 31, the date of the season opener, for the adjacent Dustin R. Womble Football Center, which will be the team’s daily headquarters. Also planned for completion by the time of the opener are the new visitors’ locker room at the northeast corner of the stadium and a sound system and video board on the north end.

Projected costs are $4.9 million for the Daktronics video board and $3.7 million for the sound system.

Workers are currently digging and doing underground infrastructure for connection to the visitors’ locker room.

“They are slowly starting to trench that tunnel that will connect the visiting-team locker room and make its way down to the field,” Botros said, “so there’s a lot that they’re having to do. It’s not as easy as just digging a hole. They have to continually reinforce the walls on either side of that trench as they dig further down, and that’s what takes a little bit of time.”

Underground work continues on Jones AT&T Stadium visitors’ locker room

The new visitors’ locker room is scheduled to be completed just in time for the Red Raiders’ Aug. 31 season opener against Abilene Christian

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