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OREM — Nearly two years after Utah Valley University announced a groundbreaking $20 million donation from Utah Community Credit Union to fund a state-of-the-art soccer stadium for the men's and women's soccer programs, the Wolverines finally rolled out the equipment and put shovels to dirt.
Construction prices have gone up, but the university and the credit union with ambitions to match the school that is projected to reach as many as 50,000 students in the coming years levied their significant investment by rolling out a pair of backhoes and cranes Tuesday afternoon behind the ceremonial shovels reserved for donors and university officials on the other side of Clyde Field.
Tuesday's groundbreaking wasn't just a celebration of sport or the school, but of community, UCCU's Bret VanAusdal said.
"We are excited for what the stadium will do for the university, and for the community as a whole," said the president and CEO of the local credit union with over 240,000 members with assets exceeding $2.6 billion. "UVU means a lot to this community. … The valley needs more wholesome activities, and this venue will provide that."
The 22,000-square foot venue will provide an addition 400 chairback seats for the roughly 3,000-seat soccer stadium on the current site of Clyde Field, as well as eight luxury boxes — four of which had already been sold before shovels hit the ground, UVU athletic director Jared Sumsion told KSL.com — and a plaza area with overhead coverings and dedicated staff for both home and visiting locker rooms, a team lounge, athletic training room and state-of-the-art press box on the west side of the stadium that overlooks I-15.
"One of the things I'm most excited about is the plaza area that will have restrooms, concessions and a team shop," Sumsion said. "For a while, it's been a shack for a number of years supporting thousands of fans with their No. 1 complaint being no concessions or long lines for the restrooms. We're servicing that for the entire stadium, as well as a smaller concession area in the stadium itself. It's going to be everything you need for a top-tier NCAA soccer program."
The stadium, which will be constructed through the summer and fall with a formal opening to open the 2025 regular season, will be home to the university's women's soccer team that has become a mid-major regional power and the only NCAA Division I men's soccer program on the Wasatch Front (one of two in Utah, with the promotion of Utah Tech from Division II in St. George).
It could also soon be home to a semipro men's and women's soccer club, as well as high school events such as state tournaments "in multiple sports," Sumsion told KSL.com, with construction funded by a $28.5 million deal with the university that will see UCCU's naming rights through at least 2050.
But first and foremost, it will be the home of college futbol on the Wasatch Front at a school that doesn't boast a college football program.
"We look at this as an investment in our student population. I get asked the football question every week, almost every day. But we have futbol, the world's No. 1 sport," Sumsion said. "Our students come back from the summer, and this is a place where they can gather, where they can get together and support student life at UVU. The beauty of that is that we've been so good — and we've only been at this for 10 years. The future has come really quickly, and we're already creating history in a place where we are doing things in women's soccer that people take notice."
The state-of-the-art facility is already being used as a recruiting tool.
"We're lucky to have the Wasatch Front in the background here, so that when recruits see our games, they see the beautiful mountains right away," Utah Valley men's soccer coach Kyle Beckerman said. "If we can build a stadium to match that, it's an extra bonus. We want players to come here and feel a professional environment. … It opens a lot of doors, and I think it will put a lot of eyes on the university."
It is, in many ways, the front porch to the university — with a metaphorical billboard for UCCU available near the University Parkway exit on I-15, and a literal billboard on the west side of the stadium that will feature the sponsoring financial institution.
It's also the front porch of recruiting efforts for Beckerman and UVU women's coach Chris Lemay, whose program has won back-to-back Western Athletic Conference regular-season titles and just signed its first player in the National Women's Soccer League in Washington Spirit midfielder Heather Stainbrook.
That program is only getting better from here, Lemay said.
"I think it would be a disservice to the program and the university to create any glass ceilings," Lemay said. "We want to compete on a national stage. We want to be in the NCAA Tournament, year in and year out. I think there are a lot of programs across the country whose goal is to get there; our goal is to get there and then win games — and make deep runs. We don't think that anything is impossible."
The new stadium will match those ambitions.
"We're a mid-major, and we're competing against Power Four schools for players," Lemay said. "But one thing in recruiting battles that Power Fours had and we didn't was a facility like this. Now that we get to battle against them with an even better facility, there's nobody in the country that will be out of our league. We think we can provide as good of an experience as any other program in the U.S."
