BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) LSU will add new seats to Tiger Stadium, in a south end zone expansion that will near the football stadium’s capacity to 100,000 people and make it among the largest university stadiums in its conference and across the nation.

The Board of Supervisors backed the proposal April 27 without objection, approving a $100 million construction plan that includes the stadium enlargement and other athletic facility projects.

The plans include adding 60 suites, approximately 3,000 club seats and general seating for up to another 1,500 people above the existing south end zone seats for Death Valley, where the LSU Tigers regularly play to sold-out crowds.

“It satisfies a demand. We have a demand out there for more suites and clubs and for more tickets,” said Athletics Director Joe Alleva. “It will provide for a better fan experience.”

Tiger Stadium has a listed seating capacity 92,542. The expansion will give LSU one of the largest stadiums in the Southeastern Conference, he said.

“It hasn’t been exactly defined yet, but it will approach 100,000, and that will put us in the top three of the conference,” he added.

Only Tennessee and Alabama in the SEC will have larger stadiums. And if the seat projections are met, LSU is expected to have the seventh-largest university stadium in the nation.

Construction is set to begin this fall with completion scheduled for the summer of 2014. Along with the expansion, the scoreboard and video board currently atop the south end zone seats will be removed and replaced with two new video boards.

Borrowing for the construction will be done by the Tiger Athletic Foundation, the fundraising arm of LSU sports.

The stadium enlargement is expected to cost around $80 million. Alleva said he expects any remaining money from the borrowing to be directed to pay for new tennis courts, a new gymnastics practice center and locker rooms for the track and field teams.

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