Claremont McKenna College has opened Patrick G. Rogan Stadium, a 1,211-seat venue that gives the Stags football, lacrosse and track and field programs a new home on campus. The stadium is one of the Phase One components of the newly opened Sports Bowl at the college's Roberts Campus, which officially opened to the CMC community this fall semester.
A New Home Field With a Winning Debut
According to Claremont McKenna College, Rogan Stadium includes a lighted multiuse field, a dedicated track venue, a video scoreboard, a press box, and field houses with locker rooms, restrooms, showers and common spaces. The Claremont McKenna football team, which fields teams jointly with Harvey Mudd College and Scripps College, already christened the new turf on September 5, defeating the University of Northwestern 19-14 in its first game at the stadium, as reported by the Daily Bulletin.
Stags players were back on the field Wednesday for practice at Rogan Stadium, with head coach Kyle Sweeney and defensive coach Marvin Sanders overseeing the session, per the Daily Bulletin's report. Photographer Anjali Sharif-Paul captured images of that practice.
Sports Bowl's First Phase Brings Baseball, Softball and More
The stadium is only one piece of the broader Sports Bowl complex at the Roberts Campus. The college's Phase One completion also includes Arce Field, a 186-seat home for baseball, and Athenas Field, the new home for softball with a comparable seating capacity, according to the same CMC release. Phase One additionally brings a golf center and a soccer field into the mix, alongside the baseball and softball facilities.
The grounds themselves were designed with gathering spaces in mind. Per the college, the complex includes a courtyard between the baseball and softball fields, the Stadium Plaza gathering area southwest of Rogan Stadium, and numerous walkable pathways with landscaping woven throughout. An athletics department spokesperson, Jeremy Kniffin, said in an email cited by the Daily Bulletin that a golf training area and soccer fields will rise next, continuing the buildout beyond this initial phase.
Doubling the Campus Footprint
Getting to the new complex from CMC's main campus no longer means a long detour. The college built a new 20-foot-wide covered walking passage under Claremont Boulevard connecting the two sides, which leads to a parking structure with 391 stalls, the college's release states. Those pedestrian and parking connections are part of why the Roberts Campus more than doubles CMC's overall footprint to over 150 acres, according to the college.
CMC says the Roberts Campus projects were made possible by a $140 million gift from trustee George Roberts, funding that the college indicates will support development on the site through the next decade. The stadium and its surrounding complex sit within the Claremont Colleges system, a consortium of five campuses in the city of Claremont, and give CMC's athletic programs new facilities.
