Arizona State announced dramatic plans to renovate Sun Devil Stadium in a Wednesday press conference during which two renderings were released to the public.

The venue, originally built in 1958 at a cost of approximately $1 million and largely unchanged structurally since expansion increased seating capacity to 70,000-plus in 1977, will remain open air but have a fixed shade canopy made of fabric. Its new playing surface will be artifical FieldTurf.

School officials hope financing plans are in place by June, with a current cost uncertain but likely to be in excess of $300 million according to mulitple sources familiar with the plans. The seating capacity isn't determined, but will be between 55,000 and 65,000.

"We're extremely excited about this, and what it does is show our commitment here," first-year football coach Todd Graham said. "We want to have this program be about winning championships and it puts us up there and puts it out there, especially for the recruiting aspect of it. For our players, motivation for our staff that we've got a tremendous support and a tremendous visions here to be champions, and this facility is going to be one that's going to enhance recruiting big time and have one of the best collegiate facilities, stadiums, on the west coast."

An estimated timetable for completion is 5 years in the most desired approach, which would allow the stadium renovation to be done in phases while the team continues to play in it. A second, less desierable approach would see ASU move out of the stadium for several seasons. It could take less time but costs estimates are similar in either scenario, new Vice President for Athletics Steve Patterson said.

"Ticket prices are going to change, it's just a fact of life," Patterson said. "They have to change if we want to continue to be competitive in the Pac-12. We have operated around the bottom three in the conference in terms of revenues and quite frankly we've got to get them up. We're not going to dodge that. But it's a matter of, 'Do people get value to their ticket purchase?'

The shade should allow for temperatures to be 15 degrees cooler than in the sun and permit earlier games during the first half of the team's schedule in order to accommodate television in an effort to maximize revenue, Patterson said.

"We want to continue to have the outdoor feel to the facility and to have it be open to Tempe Town Lake, so you'll be able to get more breeze through there and have an outdoor feel," Patterson said. "Two super tresses around from one end of the football stadium to the other, and then the fabric is suspended across the top and then would be hooked to the outside of the upper bowl on either side.

"You're talking about different amenities, far more restrooms, far more concession stands, vertical transportation with elevators, escalators, ramps that are [Americans with Disabilities Act] compliant; a service culture that right not we're working with the Disney Institute to put into place for this upcoming season. Having nice clubs and suites, the kind of things that we haven't traditionally had."

The lower bowl of the stadium could remain, albeit with a different seating configuration, or be replaced, but it will depend on cost and other factors, Patterson said.

"We are looking at completely replacing it in one of the phases," Patterson said. "If we do go with a phased approach in the early phases, it probably would stay intact because you could build around it and try to maintain your seating capacity. Certainly over the course, if we do this over four or five years, seating capacity is going to vary year to year. But replacing those seats compared to the rest of the building is fairly inexpensive because it's slab on grave. But we'll also probably have certain historical issues to deal with as we look at that as well."