Concerts & Other Events Coming to Hope Coliseum and Milan Puskar Stadium?

Another path to generating more revenue is in the early stages.

WVU Athletics Communications

Thursday morning, WVU Director of Athletics Wren Baker announced some restructuring of the department.

Among many moves, CEO of Gold and Blue Enterprises, Don Robinson, will now be the liaison to Learfield’s Mountaineer Sports Properties and, most notably, will "work with staff members on the athletics department’s renewed efforts to bring concerts and events to Hope Coliseum and Milan Puskar Stadium."

“We have restructured some of the duties of our administrative team, which will align our goals and benefit the department,” Baker said in a press release. “Revenue generation is first and foremost in the current athletic climate, so that was a major emphasis in our restructuring.”

Robinson has played a huge part in the athletic department's success in and around NIL since coming on board as the CEO of Gold & Blue Enterprises in July of 2025. Having him, as well as others, working toward bringing concerts and other events toAZSXA¸ WVU will go a long way in generating more revenue for the department.

What that looks like is anyone's guess. But all over the country, bands and popular artists are doing stadium tours at the collegiate level, and if WVU can become a part of that, it would bring a whole new stream of revenue that they have never had.

The main issue right now with Hope Coliseum is that the facility does not have air conditioning. Baker told Blue and Gold News this summer that they have looked into asking the state for help funding that installation, but are unsure where they stand on it because of how steep the price is. If and when they get that taken care of, it is going to open up so many new opportunities for the university to host events, including The Basketball Tournament, which has always played in Charleston when it comes to West Virginia because of the Coliseum not having air conditioning.

Back in the spring, Baker also noted other obstacles that they will have to work through for big events to come through.

"Both of our venues have challenges in terms of loading and unloading staging material, so we're looking at working on one of our tunnels where we can at least get semi-trucks all the way to the field and not have to forklift, crate by crate, and take days to get everything on the field. We are designing and retrofitting our facilities to host some of those types of events."Knowing in '28 is when we'll be fully open, we are looking at some bigger shows in the stadium."