On March 13,1974, a Muscatine man, Roy Carver, gave UNI a credit of 750,000 dollars. This amount of money gave the university enough money to begin construction on the proposed dome. Before the university could start construction they had to get permission from the State Board of Regents. In May the State Board of Regents started to take construction bids. On July 24th the board approved bids from John Miller Construction. The university found out later that they got a great deal by having Miller Construction do the construction work on the dome. After construction Mr. Miller admitted that he made a calculation error on his bid and he ended up losing over a million dollars. The university and state of Iowa got essentially more than a one million-dollar discount on the UNI-dome.

    The university had to divide the dome project into two parts in order to stay within their budget. The first part of the dome project was projected to cost 4.8 million dollars. This phase included constructing all the seats on the West Side and development of the concourse and ancillary spaces between. The expected capacity after this stage was completed was 8,342 people. The second phase would be completed after enough money was raised. This stage was estimated to cost 700,000 dollars. The second stage consisted of putting in East Side seating and developing the north end of the stadium. Total capacity at the end of this stage was expected to be close to 18,000 people.

    On Friday July 26, 1974, the University of Northern Iowa held a groundbreaking ceremony at the "south forty" yard-line for the start of construction on the UNI-Dome. Iowa Governor Robert Ray, Mary Louise Peterson, President of the State Board of Regents, and other dignitaries were present at this July ceremony.²⁵ Mrs. Peterson told the crowd present at the ceremony, "I compliment the UNI Foundation for putting forth the dreams for their centennial drive."²⁶ After the ceremony it was time to begin construction on the dome.