Liberty announces Williams Stadium renovations for 2022 season

On Thursday, Liberty announced several renovations to Williams Stadium that will be ready prior to the start of the 2022 football season.

These renovation plans include a seating upgrade for nearly every non-student seat in the stadium. All seats on the West side of the stadium will be upgraded to chairback seating while all seats on the upper East side of the stadium will be upgraded to benchback seating.

Additionally, in the South end zone, there will be 23 cabanas added above a newly graded berm that will include additional space for students and overflow seating. Each cabana will have seating for eight and a roof to protect from the weather elements. They will also be furnished with a TV, fan and heater, and waiter service.

“We did a lot of research on cabanas,” Liberty Athletic Director Ian McCaw said in a Thursday afternoon press conference. “There are a lot of schools that have had some success in marketing them, including Mississippi State, UCF, Kansas, Kansas State, were some of the ones we talked about. Georgia Southern is another one.”

The newly graded berm will allow for overflow seating for students and general public as needed. It will allow fans to bring a blanket and sit on the field turf in the back of one end zone.

“I think the South end zone is going to be a very attractive place for fans to watch a game,” McCaw said. “There are a number of schools that have done a berm. We did one when I was at Baylor at McLane Stadium, and it became a very popular area for overflow seating.”

Construction is set to begin at the end of January and will likely last through much of the summer. Liberty’s May Commencement services are still on as scheduled as construction crews will work through and around Commencement.

Since making the move to the FBS, Liberty has made enhancements to Williams Stadium nearly every year. There will also be a new field surface for the 2022 season for the Liberty football team, as well.

“Life expectancy for a field of that nature is typically in the 10-year range, so the life cycle has expired,” McCaw said of the Williams Stadium field turf. “We will be putting the new surface in, it will be the same product that you see on the practice field. We will have a few changes in terms of the field markings to enhance the overall appearance of it.”

Liberty is coming off a 2021 season where the Flames finished 8-5 with a 56-20 win over Eastern Michigan in the Lending Tree Bowl. The Flames are one of just five FBS teams who have won a bowl game each of the last three seasons joining Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, and Louisiana.

The 2022 schedule is highlighted by home games against BYU on Oct. 22 and Virginia Tech on Nov. 19. The rest of the home schedule includes the home opener on Sept. 10 against UAB, Akron on Sept. 24, Gardner-Webb on Oct. 15, and the regular season finale on Nov. 26 against New Mexico State.

The Flames will open the 2021 season on Sept. 3 at Southern Miss. Other road games include a trip to Winston Salem on Sept. 17 to take on Wake Forest, playing at Old Dominion on Oct. 1, at UMass on Oct. 8, at Arkansas on Nov. 5, and at UConn on Nov. 12.

Williams Stadium, with a current capacity of 25,000, will lose some seats when the West side goes to chairback seating, but the overflow seating on the berm will help alleviate that, as needed, particularly with the games against Virginia Tech and BYU. Liberty could eventually increase the capacity of the stadium beyond the 25,000, but that is not currently in the plans as the Flames averaged 17,608 fans in attendance during the 2021 home schedule.

“We do have the ability to increase capacity,” said McCaw. “We want to grow with the program. Obviously, Coach Freeze has done an incredible job with him and his staff going 26-11 and winning three straight bowl games. We have a great product. There is a lot of excitement. Ticket sales are growing, but we want the stadium to grow with the program. It doesn’t help to expand to 40,000 seats if we’re drawing 20,000 people. We’re going to be very judicious as we look to expand capacity, but this is a step in that direction by opening up that berm.”

Liberty has over 1,500 football season ticket deposits at this point for the 2022 schedule, and the Flames expect that number to grow to new record numbers. Fans can begin ordering season tickets this coming Monday, and season tickets may be the only way fans can attend the Virginia Tech game.

“If fans want to attend the Virginia Tech at Liberty game, they would be very well served to buy season tickets because if they don’t, they may be out of luck,” McCaw said. “We don’t expect to be able to go beyond season tickets for that game and quite possibly for BYU as well. Any Liberty fans that are contemplating buying season tickets, this is absolutely the year to do it because of the quality of the schedule and because of the quality of our program.”