A contract for a permanent, on-campus stadium structure (with dormitory complex) was awarded by the state board of education on November 14, 1938. The new stadium was to be completed along the field's west sideline by creatively taking Works Progress Administration funds that were earmarked to build a student dormitory and then building the dorm in the shape of a grandstand—a technique that was possibly borrowed from Skipper Heard's 1931 expansion plans for Tiger Stadium at nearby Louisiana State University (the University of Tennessee similarly had dorm rooms incorporated into a Neyland Stadium expansion project around this time period as well).