College Athletics Construction Roundup: September 2015

The “College Athletics Construction Roundup” is a monthly series on the construction of intercollegiate athletics facilities. Each month we’ll provide a list of announced, in progress and recently completed athletic construction projects from around the country. You can view previous editions of the “College Athletics Construction Roundup” here.

Master Plan

Ohio State will spend $67 million on three major facility projects. $30 million will go towards a new home for Olympic sports and will replace a much smaller wing of the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. The $30 million Covelli Arena will host wrestling, volleyball and gymnastics. The final $7 million will be used for a new training center for the wrestling team.

Northern Iowa includes four projects on its five-year capital improvement plan. A football operations center will be constructed in the south end zone of the UNI-Dome. The Dome is expected to have the turf replaced. A new turf soccer field will be constructed as well as a new Performance Center to be used primarily as a basketball practice facility. The four projects have an expected cost of $17 million.

UAB launched an athletics facilities campaign with a goal of improving facilities across multiple sports. Plan highlights include a two-story football operations building, a new track & field complex, baseball & softball enhancements and new facilities for beach volleyball, golf and tennis.

Memphis announced it has raised enough funds to begin construction on practice facilities for both its football and basketball programs. The 76,000 square-foot football facility features an indoor practice field, nutrition center and dining hall and an academic support center. The 58,000 square-foot basketball facility includes new practice courts, academic center and weight training facilities. Completion is expected for both facilities by the 2017-2018 academic year.

West Virginia AD Lyons provided an update on the several athletic facilities improvements ongoing at the school. Projects include Milan Puskar Stadium renovations, football practice field enhancements, an addition to the Olympic Sports weigh room and a new practice facility for men’s golf.

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Football

Kansas State opened the Vanier Family Football Complex. The 132,000 square-foot building features a new strength & conditioning center, sports medicine area, individual position meeting rooms and coaches’ offices. The project was completed early and under budget.

Prairie View A&M unveiled plans for a new stadium and sports complex. The $60 million stadium will feature 15,000 seat capacity, a 55,000 square-foot field house, suites, a press box and room for expansion. The project is expected to be complete for the 2016 season.

Notre Dame announced it will install a video board atop the south end zone as part of the current construction project. The university will also add ribbon boards along the east and west sides of the stadium, though no advertising or commercials will be displayed. All work is expected to be complete by August 2017.

Louisville announced a $55 million expansion of Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium at the north end zone. The project will add 10,000 chair back seats and additional premium seating. New video boards will also be installed. Once ground is broken, construction is expected to take 18 months.

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Basketball

Georgia State will install a new center-hung scoreboard at Sports Arena. The four main displays are each capable of variable content zoning, allowing for one image or multiple zones.

Eureka College is renovating the Reagan Athletic Complex. The school will spend $2 million to rebrand the facility the Christine Bonati Bollwinkle Arena and Convocation Center. The arena features a wall-to-wall playing floor, a temporary stage for graduation and other events and will be the only DIII facility with complete chair-back seating.

Arkansas will spend $4 million to upgrade the video scoreboard and sound system in Bud Walton Arena. The new scoreboard will feature four LED screens while the new sound system will enhance volume and clarity.

Morehead State unveiled its new court design. The school conducted a twitter campaign asking fans to vote on one of two designs.

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Olympic / Other Sports

Williston State College is partnering with the Williston Parks and Recreation District on a new softball field for the 2016 season. While the field is under construction, the school will begin raising funds for brick dugouts and a backstop featuring school logos.

San Francisco began a significant renovation project to Benedetti Diamond. The two-phase project includes re-orienting the field (moving home plate to the current left-field corner), installing field turf, new dugouts, a team clubhouse and a hospitality deck for guests and donors.

Liberty University will build a new track and field facility. The 130,000 square-foot facility will include a hydraulically-banked track, accommodations for field events, locker rooms, office space and seating for 1,500.

Vanderbilt approved $10 million for enhancements to baseball’s Memorial Gym. The project will relocated the batting cages and expand the weight room. Other improvements include classroom space, cardio areas, office space and an expanded professional locker room for the program’s returning pro players.

Wisconsin expanded its use of StadiumVision into the UW Field House for volleyball matches. The project will enable the facility’s 20 TVs to show the match action as well as enhance the facility’s WiFi.

Rutgers will spend $3 million on a new practice facility for its baseball and softball programs. The facility will include batting cages, pitcher’s mounds and a full-turf infield.

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Academic & Multi-Use Facilities

Georgia State will build a new practice facility. The $1.5 million will be constructed in two phases and is scheduled to open in 2016. The school’s volleyball program will also use the facility once completed.

Texas Tech received a gift to be used towards a new Sports Performance Center. The facility will include training facilities for both football and track and field: strength & conditioning space, sports medicine facilities and a nutrition center.

Holy Cross is working to renovate and expand the Hart Recreation Center. The project includes an indoor turf field, strength & conditioning area, locker rooms, an ERG area for rowing, an auxiliary gymnasium for basketball and volleyball practices, sports medicine area and office space. The $90 million effort will also include renovating the university field house, which will include basketball courts, exercise studios, new locker room and shower space and health & wellness programming space.

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Other Notes of Interest

Coastal Carolina has indicated the school will look to expand Brooks Stadium upon accepting an invitation to join the Sun Belt Conference. Initial planning is looking at doubling the stadium capacity over two phases, with each phase adding roughly 5,000 seats to the stadium.

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