West Point Football Stadium Rebuild a Logistical Puzzle

The $170-million project will reconstruct and modernize the United States Military Academy’s Michie Stadium

BY: Tim Newcomb

March 5, 2024

For more than 60 years the east stand at Michie Stadium, the 38,000-capacity home of the Army Black Knights Division I college football team on the campus of the United States Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., has served the school.

That service is getting an upgrade with the Michie Stadium Preservation Project, a $170-million effort to reconstruct and modernize the east stands. The project breaks ground in April by demolishing the current stands, making way for the complete rebuild of the east stand in time for the fall 2026 football season. Football and lacrosse will continue to play inside the venue throughout the project.

“Designing for military installations comes with its complexities, but keeping Michie open for football and lacrosse during construction presented the biggest logistical challenge,” says Kevin Murphy, project manager with EwingCole.

Space and security concerns muddy the logistics further. The tight constraints will complicate delivery sequences and lay-down space for materials and being located on a military installation adds “several levels of security.”

Add in a high water table and rock outcropping to the site—along with the fact it’s the first stadium Murphy is aware of being built to a progressive collapse standard—and the Michie Stadium Preservation Project will have plenty of milestones over its two-plus years of construction.