CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The University of Illinois will raise the curtain Saturday on a renovated Memorial Stadium after adding $121 million worth of flash and polish to the 85-year-old home of Illini football.

Red Grange wouldn't recognize the place.

Illinois' athletic department and a small army of construction workers have been working for two years transforming the west side of the column-ringed stadium into a high rise decked with luxury suites. The work is intended to spruce up the home of a resurgent football program and hand its coaches a recruiting edge, all the while giving fans more reasons to buy tickets.

"The biggest thing that everyone says is the sight lines are incredible," Warren Hood, the associate athletic director who is leading the project, said this week. "We're in the end zone and — you can tell — it's still a great seat. That's what we're trying to sell."

Illinois is the latest Big Ten school to add suites, club seats and other high-end features to tradition-rich stadiums the past few years, following the lead of Michigan, Ohio State, Iowa, Wisconsin and Penn State.