A precision shovel team led by UC Davis Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef, student-athletes, coaches and other campus representatives broke ground Saturday on a new $29.75 million multi-use stadium that will be the crown jewel of the Aggies' recently completed sports facilities when it opens in fall 2006.

The stadium complex will serve as the home field for both the UC Davis football and women's lacrosse programs. It will also provide a venue for community events, such as high school athletic events, concerts and commencement ceremonies. The initial concept design calls for permanent seating for 10,000 to 12,000 spectators and space for an additional 4,000 to 6,000 spectators, along with basic amenities such as locker rooms, a club room and an enclosed press box.

"The multi-use stadium will make a real difference across campus and throughout our community," Vanderhoef said at Saturday's groundbreaking ceremony. "It will surely provide a high-quality venue for athletic events but also for such activities as concerts and commencements. We owe lots to our students and to our donors who worked together to provide the funding necessary for this long-needed facility to become a reality."

The stadium complex is one of the projects funded by the 1999 Facilities And Campus Enhancement Initiative (FACE). Student-based fees from the FACE Initiative account for almost two-thirds of the $29.75 million project cost, with the remaining funds comprising private donations and other revenues.

The stadium's design will be expandable to accommodate up to 30,000 spectators and will eventually include lighted practice fields and an enclosed club room. It will be located on the western edge of the main campus, at the corner of Hutchison Drive and LaRue Road. When it opens, it will be the latest state-of-the art sports facility to open on campus, joining the year-old Activities and Recreation Center (ARC), the new Marya Welch Tennis Center, the year-old Ted and Rand Schaal Aquatics Center -- the largest swimming facility in the UC system -- and the James M. and Ann Dobbins Baseball Complex.

"It's exciting to see the stadium move toward the next phase of its development after a lot of hard work and planning," said Greg Warzecka, director of athletics and master of ceremonies at Saturday's ceremonies. "The stadium is on its way to fulfilling what students dreamed about when they passed the FACE Initiative."

Joining the chancellor and Warzecka at Saturday's groundbreaking celebration were Judy Sakaki, vice chancellor for student affairs, Brian Rocca, 1999 FACE Initiative student leader, Elaine Jones, women's head lacrosse coach, Bob Biggs, head football coach, and members of the Aggies football team and women's lacrosse team.

"We're very excited about the stadium," Jones said. "It's going to be great for recruiting and for our schedule because we'll have a top-notch facility. We'll be able to attract some teams from back east to come out here and play us. The future looks really bright and we're excited."

Added Biggs, "It's just been a dream that many of us involved in UC Davis football have had for decades. It's kind of the final piece in the puzzle -- we're moving to Division I-AA, added grants-in-aid and now have a facility that represents how we all feel about the program. We'll have a facility that reflects the direction that we're heading. It'll continue to help in recruiting. It already has. Just the fact that we've had models to be able to show recruits of what we're going to be building and have them visualize that they're going to be playing in this stadium as early as 2006.

"I think the students now can feel very good about having a stadium that reflects how they feel about a major university that they're attending here at UC Davis. Secondly, it'll attract more fans that are going to want to come and be part of what we're doing."

UC Davis, a longtime powerhouse in Division II intercollegiate athletics, is in the second-year of a four-year transition to Division I status. The campus's first year of active membership in Division I will be the 2007-8 academic year. UC Davis has won the prestigious Directors' Cup six times for Division II athletics. The award is presented each year to the most successful athletic programs at each of the NCAA Division I, II and III levels, as well as the National Association for Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). Points are awarded to schools whose teams advance to NCAA or NAIA championship play.

Saturday's ceremony follows the UC Regents vote in January to approve both the design and external financing plan for the $29.75 million complex.

The Athletic Development office launched a capital campaign in July 2001 to raise the needed private funds for the stadium's initial phase. Naming opportunities are still available for numerous stadium features, including the press box, main gate and stadium box seats.

Today, the stadium fund has a little more than $3.5 million, including more than $2.5 million in gifts, pledges and accrued interest and $895,000 from a UC Davis campuswide beverage agreement with Coca-Cola. The university signed a non-exclusive agreement last year with the Sacramento Coca-Cola Bottling Co. for the rights to sell soft drinks in campus vending machines and student housing dining areas for 10 years. In return, the campus will receive $5 million over the 10-year life of the contract, with a portion of it going to the stadium project and the balance managed by Student Affairs to help support Memorial Union services and other activities.

UC Davis has engaged the architectural firm of Ellerbe Becket to consult in the early concept designs and stadium renderings. Ellerbe Becket has served as primary and design architect for such sports facilities as Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix, Ariz., the Fleet Center in Boston, Mass., and the Walter A. Haas Jr. Pavilion on the Berkeley campus.

Other campus projects funded by the 1999 FACE Initiative are the Schaal Aquatics Center, which became fully operational in January 2004, and the Activities and Recreation Center (ARC), which opens its doors in April 2004. The ARC has become a major student center on campus, currently averaging daily attendance of nearly 4,300.