Rutgers University in New Brunswick is one step closer to increasing capacity at the home field for the Scarlet Knights football team—even though the school doesn’t have all the money currently in hand.Rutgers University in New Brunswick is one step closer to increasing capacity at the home field for the Scarlet Knights football team—even though the school doesn’t have all the money currently in hand.

The university says its board of governors approved the $102 million project to increase seating to 56,000 at Rutgers Stadium across the Raritan River in Piscataway.

Rutgers says the project will be entirely funded by revenue generated by ticket sales from the 14,000 seats to be added to the stadium, and from anticipated private donations. To finance the bulk of the project, Rutgers says it will use $72 million in bonds. The university is also counting on Gov. Jon Corzine and state Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union) to help raise the remaining $30 million through a fundraising campaign.

The expansion calls for 1,000 new mezzanine seats to be added for the 2008 season. Another 12,000 new seats will be built in the southern end zone and 1,000 bench seats will be added to the northern end zone. Rutgers expects the project to be completed by 2009.

—Tell NJBIZ blogger J.P. Ruth what you think about Rutgers’ plans. Visit The Hard Question, “Everyone Loves Rutgers…When it’s Winning.”—