Printer-Friendly Format     E-mail this article     Notre Dame officially will break ground on its new $5.7 million soccer stadium Saturday at 11 a.m. (ET).

 
Notre Dame To Break Ground On New Soccer Stadium Saturday

$5.7 million facility tentatively scheduled for completion in June 2009.

April 24, 2008

NOTRE DAME, Ind. - Groundbreaking ceremonies will be held at 11:00 a.m. EDT Saturday for the University of Notre Dame's new $5.7 million home for men's and women's soccer.

The ceremonies will include remarks from lead benefactors and former Irish men's soccer players Tom Crotty and Rob Snyder, Notre Dame athletics director Kevin White, deputy athletics director Missy Conboy, Irish men's soccer coach Bobby Clark and Irish women's soccer coach Randy Waldrum. Players from both the men's and women's teams also will attend.

Plans for the stadium include a lighted facility that will feature a natural grass field, locker rooms, restrooms and concession areas. The new soccer stadium will sit side-by-side Notre Dame's new lacrosse facility, Arlotta Stadium, for which ground was broken April 18 (the soccer facility will be situated further west, the lacrosse stadium further east).

Actual construction work on the stadium is expected to begin this summer, with tentative completion in June 2009. The site for the soccer facility is southeast of the Joyce Center and directly south of the former Moose Krause Stadium (Notre Dame's most recent home for lacrosse). The Krause Stadium area will be part of Notre Dame's new football practice field complex (that construction began April 1).

The soccer project is part of the long-term athletics facilities master plan that ultimately will add new stadiums for lacrosse, soccer, track and field, and tennis, plus three relocated football practice fields (two of them artificial turf), all in the area east and southeast of the Joyce Center. The most recently completed facility is Melissa Cook Stadium, Notre Dame's new softball facility that was dedicated earlier this month. Also part of the master plan is a new rowing boathouse on the St. Joseph River.

Originally from Darien, Conn., Crotty starred for the Irish from 1977-79, playing midfield and fullback in 60 games, earning three monograms and finishing with 23 career points (eight goals, seven assists). He played in Notre Dame's first three seasons of varsity soccer (under coach Rich Hunter), serving as one of the team captains as a senior in '79. He was voted MVP of the '79 Notre Dame team and led the Irish to a combined 57-14-3 record in those three years.

A 1980 Notre Dame graduate with a degree in finance, Crotty is currently general partner with Battery Ventures LP in Wellesley, Mass. He and his wife Shari live in Southborough, Mass.

From Dallas, Texas, Snyder earned two monograms while playing forward, participating in 51 games in 1980-81-83 and accounting for 68 points (23 goals - and 22 assists that rank him seventh on Notre Dame's career chart). He tied for the team lead in goals in 1981 with 12. Snyder played on Hunter-coached teams that finished a combined 54-14-3 in his three seasons (including 35-3-1 at home).

Snyder is a 1984 Notre Dame graduate with a degree in government. He's founder and CEO of Stream Energy in Dallas.

The gifts by Crotty and Snyder are components of the $1.5 billion "Spirit of Notre Dame" capital campaign, the largest such endeavor in the history of Catholic higher education.

-- ND --