300 million over 10 years.
300 million over 10 years.
Thats the budget for facility upgrades. Not necesarilly exclusive to football. Directly from Whitman from the Decatur Illini club.
Thats the budget for facility upgrades. Not necesarilly exclusive to football. Directly from Whitman from the Decatur Illini club.
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.
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.
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.
Thats the budget for facility upgrades. Not necesarilly exclusive to football. Directly from Whitman from the Decatur Illini club.
— AD Josh Whitman is openly optimistic about it as he goes full-bore on a project that could exceed $100 million.
— Whitman announced the hiring this week of Brett Stillwell as senior associate AD for capital projects and facilities. Stillwell is a licensed architect with a background in design and construction management. He will oversee capital projects.
— Scout.com reported that UI football recruits are being told the structure will be finished before the 2019 season.
— The expectations of Big Ten media rights reaching $45 million to $50 million in 2017-18 provides an annual backstop if the necessary funds aren’t raised.
— Purdue is making use of future media rights by moving swiftly toward a $65 million Football Performance Complex to be completed by next August. The debt will be funded by the anticipated increase in Big Ten payments. How to use this extra money is a subject of discussions throughout the Big Ten.
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)
I thought I'd read in the past that the plan was to have the locker rooms moved to the South end as well.
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.
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.