NCAA - Coastal Carolina University

Coastal Carolina U. Unveils New Logo

New Logo, Field Bids Unsealed

Melinda Waldrop, Staff Writer, The Sun News

CONWAY, S.C. — On the day Coastal Carolina University introduced the new logo that will appear on the helmets of its first-ever football team, a major step toward that club's 2003 kickoff took place.

On Thursday, CCU officials unsealed the seven final bids submitted by construction companies to build the Chanticleers' new stadium, and will select one as early as this morning.

The bids ranged from $9,192,860 to $10,439,000, with the low bid coming from Hill Construction Inc. of Mount Pleasant.

"Typically, it is the lower [bid], but not always," said Stan Godshall, CCU's assistant vice president for budget and facilities management. "... They were pretty much in line with what we were expecting."

Godshall estimated Coastal has raised 80 percent of the money needed to build the stadium, including $4 million allocated by the state legislature.

"We have the majority of the funds in hand," Godshall said. "We'll be issuing institution bonds early in the fall for the balance."

The bid amounts - complete with subcontractor listings for bleacher installment, heating and air conditioning, plumbing, electrical work and the natural grass playing surface - do not include the cost of long-range plans for a field house in the north end zone of the stadium, Godshall said.

Coastal football coach David Bennett listened to the bids being read moments after watching the unveiling of the Chanticleers' new logo - a fierce-looking, teal-and-bronze rooster with a prominent comb and a clenched fist.

"It's a very exciting time," Bennett said. "But it's going to be more exciting when July 15 comes and somebody's actually out there working."

That's the day construction on the field will begin. Exactly a month later, CCU's inaugural recruiting class will report.

Those players, who will redshirt in 2002, will sport black helmets with the new logo. The team will wear teal jerseys, similar to those of the Jacksonville Jaguars, at home, and white ones on the road, CCU athletics director Warren Koegel said. The Chants' white pants will feature a teal stripe.

Koegel said the new-look logo, designed by Chris Henwood Designs in Appleton, Wis. - the same firm involved in the designing of the Myrtle Beach Pelicans' logo - was spurred by the addition of the football team, which will begin play as a Division I-AA club, and by the success of CCU's other sports programs.

"We sat down as the entire university and decided that this would be something that we would really benefit from," Koegel said. "... It's going to help our marketing and development and get Coastal Carolina University even better recognized than it is right now."

The logo is the fifth in CCU's history and replaces the Chanticleer crowing above the word "Chants" that was adopted in 1995.

"A sharp logo is essential to creating good brand identity," said Matt Hogue, Coastal's assistant director of athletics for marketing. "With the advent of football, the time was appropriate to give our Chanticleer image a face-lift."

This article was taken from www.coastal.edu.  All rights reserved.