300 million over 10 years.
Memorial Stadium Renovation
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Beat me to it lol
Thats the budget for facility upgrades. Not necesarilly exclusive to football. Directly from Whitman from the Decatur Illini club.
Fighter of the Nightman
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Nice!! Dying to see a rendering of what the MS renovations will be. That will definitely help with recruiting.
No way they have all of that raised. What did he actually say?
Regardless, to even be thinking in that broad of terms is a darned good sign. You'd figure substantial upgrades/renovations/maybe replacements to Ubben would be part of that.
I'm thinking 300 over 10 is in line with the increase in media rights in that time span.
That is what he said. As far as I know, it isn't all raised yet. But a big part is the tv revenue. I believe part of that is for a new basketball practice facility.
$300 Million? Wow!
I doubt that much of it is raised yet - it's more likely a goal that they'll be starting a big campaign for in the near future. And that's probably when we'll start seeing renderings.
Still, it's good to see he's shooting high. Considering $100M was the 2007 MS renovation and then SFC was $160M or so I think. $300M would certainly be a huge chunk on MS, likely Ubben and an upgrade to the indoor football practice facility, and then likely some other smaller olympic sport facility upgrades as well.
I doubt that much of it is raised yet - it's more likely a goal that they'll be starting a big campaign for in the near future. And that's probably when we'll start seeing renderings.
Still, it's good to see he's shooting high. Considering $100M was the 2007 MS renovation and then SFC was $160M or so I think. $300M would certainly be a huge chunk on MS, likely Ubben and an upgrade to the indoor football practice facility, and then likely some other smaller olympic sport facility upgrades as well.
illynifan34
That's a winner!!
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Make your IFund donations now. If you already donate, up your total.
Let's get a look at what they have in mind first. I'm sure that's coming.
As far as non-revenue sports, baseball is the one that both really deserves and could really use some upgrades.
Yes, the renderings or proposal cannot come soon enough. We need to pump most (all
) of this cash into football and men's basketball. They're really the only two sports that generate revenue. A successful Illinois football and men's basketball program will generate more than enough cash to pay for all other sports. 
Thanks for the Decatur Illini Club shout-out!
I wonder if Whitman is just moving forward with the plan that Mike Thomas had in place? I can't imagine that he would have had time to start that whole process from the beginning again.
Also- If the plan is to have this SEZ done/ Facility in place by 2019, they are probably going to have to get the ball rolling pretty soon, right? (just going off the AH/SFC timeline)
Also- If the plan is to have this SEZ done/ Facility in place by 2019, they are probably going to have to get the ball rolling pretty soon, right? (just going off the AH/SFC timeline)
Tate's latest thoughts - nothing radically new but pretty much officially confirms most of what we've heard so far (aside from the $300M total number):
http://www.news-gazette.com/sports/...te-memorial-stadium-upgrades-seem-be-way.html
http://www.news-gazette.com/sports/...te-memorial-stadium-upgrades-seem-be-way.html
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Yes and yes.
In much the same way, btw, that SFC is largely Guenther's project that Thomas saw to fruition. There's a lot of room for tweaks and re-thinks in both cases, but the basic bone structure of the projects are the same.
The devil is often in the details though.
This thing is going to have to serve a lot of masters. It's got to improve the in-stadium experience for fans, it's got to be an impressive centerpiece for recruits, and it needs to make it easier and better for the coaches and staff to do their day-to-day work.
That last bit is tricky because of the kinda quirky proposed setup here. The South End Zone would be the main hub, but you also have your locker room and a lot of additional space 100-some yards away in the North End Zone, your indoor practice facility is disconnected from the stadium and kinda kitty-corner away, your outdoor practice fields (which are kinda strangely shaped as it is) are in between everything and deeply intertwined with the fan corridors of the stadium, and then the DIA's academic services building is a few blocks away up on Armory. And then there is the parking problem.
You could easily envision totally rethinking this, making MS a 7-days-a-year only place for the football team and taking some of the wide open land down along St. Mary's Rd to build an all-purpose facility for everything all together in one place.
You could then add another premium tailgating lot where the current practice fields are and re-purpose the existing indoor football facility as a massive, top-tier replacement for Ubben.
The more I think about that, the more I could see that being better. There's a massive plot of wide open land at Goodwin and St. Mary's that would be perfect.
That last bit is tricky because of the kinda quirky proposed setup here. The South End Zone would be the main hub, but you also have your locker room and a lot of additional space 100-some yards away in the North End Zone, your indoor practice facility is disconnected from the stadium and kinda kitty-corner away, your outdoor practice fields (which are kinda strangely shaped as it is) are in between everything and deeply intertwined with the fan corridors of the stadium, and then the DIA's academic services building is a few blocks away up on Armory. And then there is the parking problem.
You could easily envision totally rethinking this, making MS a 7-days-a-year only place for the football team and taking some of the wide open land down along St. Mary's Rd to build an all-purpose facility for everything all together in one place.
You could then add another premium tailgating lot where the current practice fields are and re-purpose the existing indoor football facility as a massive, top-tier replacement for Ubben.
The more I think about that, the more I could see that being better. There's a massive plot of wide open land at Goodwin and St. Mary's that would be perfect.
Well then riddle me this. It's a downpour or a deathly lightning storm or there's two feet of snow on the ground. Your locker room is now in the South End Zone. Practice is in the indoor facility. How do your fully-padded and cleat-wearing players get there?
IMO to spend nine figures and not have ironclad, foolproof answers to questions like that is just crazy, especially when you're so blessed with open land all around you.
I agree, you have to have a foolproof plan if you're going to spend this kind of money on a project. I doubt it would ever happen, but I'd love to see them reconstruct the entire Irwin/practice field area as part of the project. Choose a side, North or South, and build ALL the football team related areas (locker rooms, offices, weightroom, meeting rooms, entrance to indoor facility, etc) there. Then you can spread out the outdoor practice fields away. Basically keep all the indoor football related activities in the same building/area.
Yeah, that's another idea. Not 100% sure there's enough room, but it's worth thinking about.
Say what you like about the SFC project (and I actually have some lava-hot takes on that which I'll keep to myself), but we know that the renovate vs. new building decision was considered seriously, in-depth, and at some length and expense.
I don't think that same level of care is being used here, and that's a little disappointing. Now, what Josh Whitman would probably say if he were being 1000% truthful is that this is the shovel-ready version and between the new TV contract and the honeymoon effect for Lovie, the iron is never getting any hotter. Which I can appreciate. But you are locking yourself in for the long-long term in this project, so to the extent you don't get it right, that's an anchor you're hanging around the program's neck at a time when every other program in the conference also has the money to go big.
It's high-stakes.
The locker room doesn't need to move; it's fine where it is - same goes for the weight room we built with the last renovation. Build a tunnel from the north of the stadium to the indoor facility.
As for the south end zone, put the hall of fame there and a fan shop (they'll sell a lot in cold and rainy weather). And then put an Illini themed bar in that's open on game days. Yes, it will have to be legally sectioned off somehow from the rest of stadium for alcohol laws. But it could open up onto Kirby where the road is shut down on game days anyways. It would extend the party further around the stadium from Grange Grove. Bonus: this would be a great pre-game spot for basketball games...as opposed to the frigid 20 minute walk from campustown bars.
As for the south end zone, put the hall of fame there and a fan shop (they'll sell a lot in cold and rainy weather). And then put an Illini themed bar in that's open on game days. Yes, it will have to be legally sectioned off somehow from the rest of stadium for alcohol laws. But it could open up onto Kirby where the road is shut down on game days anyways. It would extend the party further around the stadium from Grange Grove. Bonus: this would be a great pre-game spot for basketball games...as opposed to the frigid 20 minute walk from campustown bars.
Yup, I've thought that too. Or lets get really crazy, how about an above-ground walkway leading over the area where that staircase is?
Fan amenities are great, but they should take the furthest possible backseat to giving the team itself the physical resources they need to do their work and sell the program to recruits at the highest possible level.
The only fan amenity any of us really want is wins, period.
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