Charleston Southern to Host The Citadel in Football for First Time in 2014
Charleston Southern is “excited” to host The Citadel, athletic director Hank Small said. But he acknowledged that 4,000-seat Buccaneer Field will need some upgrades before its ready to host a game of that magnitude.A record crowd of 6,135 fans packed Buccaneer Field last week to see CSU’s win over Big South rival Coastal Carolina. But that’s about half the size of the crowd of 12,196 at Johnson Hagood Stadium on Aug. 31 for CSU’s 32-29 win over The Citadel.
“We’re excited to have the opportunity to host The Citadel,” Small said. “It’s great for our university and for our community. We are going to do everything we can to be good hosts. We’re very concerned about seating capacity, restrooms, concessions, all of those things.” One upgrade that has already been approved is new lights for the stadium, to be installed this winter, Small said. That would allow a tentatively planned 6 p.m. kickoff for The Citadel game, slated for Sept. 20, 2014, and also would permit CSU to host FCS playoff games in the future.
Small said the school is investigating other improvements to the stadium. “Everything is being discussed, but nothing has been decided yet,” Small said. “We’re looking and investigating all areas of possible improvement. Certainly we’ve learned this season that we have an outstanding coaching staff and group of young men, and we want to surround them with a facility that can host games like The Citadel, and hopefully playoff games.”
Small noted that the record crowd at the Coastal Carolina game included fans standing two-deep around the field.“We’d like to be a little better hosts than having people two-deep around the field,” he said.
