DATE: Monday, September 1, 1997             TAG: 9709010207

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY HARRY MINIUM, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   94 lines

NEW STADIUM SITS WELL WITH SPARTAN FANS

As a child, Curtis Cole would often sneak into Norfolk State University's diminutive football field to watch the Spartans play.

``Still got a mark on my leg from climbing the fence to prove it,'' said Cole, who played basketball at Old Dominion University and graduated with a degree in engineering. ``I used to play in the gym with (NSU stars) Bobby Dandridge and Charles Bonaparte. It's where I learned to play. ``This campus was like my home.''

Saturday, Cole surveyed the scene where his leg was scarred as a child and marveled at the change. Gone is his old neighborhood, Liberty Park, replaced by the upscale Middletown Arch.

And in place of the small, splintered set of stands where Cole watched the Spartans now sits the $15 million, 28,886-seat Dick Price Stadium, which opened Saturday to rave reviews.

A crowd of 33,872, the largest to see a sports event in Hampton Roads, jammed into the stadium to watch the Spartans take on Virginia State in the seventh annual Labor Day Classic. It was the largest home crowd attracted by a college football team in Virginia other than Virginia and Virginia Tech.

The home team was crushed by Virginia State 36-7 and nearly 5,000 fans were forced to stand, but they seemed to love their first night in the new stadium nonetheless.

Thousands milled underneath the stadium in large, open breezeways designed for fans to socialize. Some never made it up into seats as they renewed acquaintances, met new friends and enjoyed the vendors, whose wares sold briskly.

Six concession stands did a steady business in everything from fish sandwiches to chicken wings and pizza. As is traditional at NSU games, about a dozen kiosks were operating that rivaled a Middle Eastern market. Fans could purchase items from T-shirts, some priced as low as $5, to jewelry, home alarm systems and incense.

``This isn't a football game,'' said Anita Jones of Portsmouth. ``This is a party.''

Back up in the stands, fans stood four rows deep at the bottom of the end zones. Again, the stadium was designed for people to stand and chat. The front row is elevated so people sitting could see over those standing.

All who were interviewed pronounced the new stadium superior to Foreman Field, the 25,400-seat stadium at ODU where NSU had played most of its football games since the 1960s.

``There's much more of a college feeling here,'' said Winston Odom, a Chesapeake resident who attended the game with his wife, Sandra.

``It's a wonderful stadium.''

There were remarkably few problems, NSU officials said, given the size of the crowd and the fact that it was the first game at a new stadium. However, one problem was apparent even before the opening kickoff.

Most fans purchased the $13 general admission tickets rather than the $18 reserved seats. As the general admission seats filled and then overflowed, thousands of reserved seats, all between the 40-yard lines, remained empty. Finally, midway through the first quarter, the NSU student ROTC members charged with crowd control were told to open the reserved seats to everyone.

Fans then poured into the seats.

``That's something we've got to look at,'' said NSU athletic director Dick Price, for whom the stadium is named. ``Do we have too many reserved seats? I don't know. It's something we've got to talk about.''

Even opening the reserved seats wasn't enough for Mel Jones, a former NSU player and assistant football and track coach at Williamsburg's Lafayette High School.

Jones says there was as much socializing in the stands as there was in the breezeway. Because so many fans were standing and talking in the stands, he walked underneath the stadium and stood on a walkway, watching the game through a security fence. He could not see the scoreboard and one corner of the far end zone, but pronounced his vantage point ``the best seat in the house.''

He says the crush of the crowd didn't spoil the game for him.

``I love this stadium. It's going to make the Norfolk State program take off,'' Jones said. ``This stadium is so much better than what the competition has. When kids come on campus for recruiting visits, they're going to want to play here. This will sell Norfolk State.''

That was evident to Cadillac Harris, an NSU graduate and head football coach at Elizabeth City State, who eyed the stadium enviously.

``It's an awesome stadium, and a very comfortable one,'' he said. ``It's well laid out. It's a real tribute to Dick Price and his staff.''

Ray Jarvis, an NSU graduate and former NFL player, drove from his home in King of Prussia, Pa., to see the opener. Like Cole, he recalled the days when the Spartans played in a more spartan facility.

``Everyone who played here before and helped build this program helped build this,'' he said. ``This brings tears to my eyes to see this facility and all of these fans here. This is my stadium.''

In a sense it is also Cole's. Curtex Construction, which Cole owns, did the $3 million first phase, including construction of nearly 4,000 seats, the press box and the 400-meter, 8-lane track, all completed in 1995.

``This was a very special project to me, obviously,'' Cole said. ``You know, they measured the track, and it was within one one-thousandth of an inch of being (exactly 400 meters). We wanted this to be as perfect as we could make it.

``We have a motto at our firm, that we build a better tomorrow. Well, a better tomorrow is here at Norfolk State today.''

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