Practice Facility

[Wxcpanther]

A new UNI basketball/volleyball practice facility is on the agenda to get approved by the BOR this week! Estimated to be an 8-10 million dollar project. Is it safe to assume, since it's rumored that we already have lead gifts in place, that we will get confirmation on how far along the fundraising process is for that with the approval?

[nadf]

Looks like they are requesting "permission to proceed with project planning."

No site picked out. 8-10 million estimated budget. Volleyball facility also.

[Born-a-Panther]

A new UNI basketball/volleyball practice facility is on the agenda to get approved by the BOR this week! Estimated to be an 8-10 million dollar project. Is it safe to assume, since it's rumored that we already have lead gifts in place, that we will get confirmation on how far along the fundraising process is for that with the approval?

I can't promise or 100% confirm but I have heard we have a very nice lead gift in place. This is a very exciting time. I think we're going to start seeing some legit progress towards all the things that we've been needing/wanting for years. This should really help with recruiting, as well.

[Wxcpanther]

Not to make light of it, but Mudd Sr. Passing away recently I would not be shocked if a big donation was made to immortalize him. That family has obviously meant a lot to the athletics program.

[clenz]

I can't promise or 100% confirm but I have heard we have a very nice lead gift in place. This is a very exciting time. I think we're going to start seeing some legit progress toward all the things that we've been needing/wanting for years. This should really help with recruiting, as well.

I have heard the same, and the lead gift would do significant damage to the total cost.

I too had the initial thought - and shared the "Debbie Downer" version of it with BAP (she can confirm) - that this isn't any different than what we had with the wrestling facility. It's a request for permission to seek funding for a potential building if people are interested in potentially donating to that future building.

Essentially it's a fancy document to say "We want to do this, can we "legally" talk about it in public with donors? Will you let us do that? Here is the basics of what we want to tell people to check on interest for funding"

However, typically on projects of this scale you don't do that until you've had OTR conversations with donors and have some people who have made their intentions known to be part of it. This will allow those people to actually "pledge officially" in private and get the planning for the building started - see renderings, plotting, etc.

It's similar to the AD search. We won't know anything, publicly, until the process is like 80% done.

So this document and proposal is both a big thing and nothing at the same time. I'm normally on the half-empty/pessimistic side of things, especially with fundraising. That's not a secret to anyone here or anyone who has seen any comments I've made on other sites. However, I genuinely think donors are infinitely more likely to want to engage in conversations for larger gifts to UNI with David gone. There is one name specifically I'm thinking of in that category who was "bad" at hiding their disdain for David - hell, they weren't even trying to hide it. I mean, there are several names/donors, and we could see it by how CFHS was getting funds from businesses and people and UNI couldn't, but there are a few names that are specific to "UNI donors" that clearly stand out over the last 7 years as being distant.

[iron panther]

Im sure the proposed site will be on a regularly used parking lot!!!

[BCPanther]

Greg McDermott just got few extra million this morning...

[FOTY]

Public confirmation from Nook on the Steele Report: “a couple donors, a few handful, of donors have stepped forward to say, we need to have a practice facility for our courts sports, in particular… it was donors who came to us to say hey, we really wanna make this happen, and they have been workin on it and it appears they are gonna make it happen.”

Practice court info starts around the 6 minute mark https://www.kwwl.com/news/our-tomorr...pxhs5lKFt0h8Ag

[BCPanther]

Public confirmation from Nook on the Steele Report: “a couple donors, a few handful, of donors have stepped forward to say, we need to have a practice facility for our courts sports, in particular… it was donors who came to us to say hey, we really wanna make this happen, and they have been workin on it and it appears they are gonna make it happen.”

Practice court info starts around the 6 minute mark https://www.kwwl.com/news/our-tomorr...pxhs5lKFt0h8Ag

All it took was getting rid of David.

[Neighbor]

Is there a way to combine the basketball / volleyball practice facility with a wresting building? Why do two separate buildings?

[BCPanther]

Is there a way to combine the basketball / volleyball practice facility with a wresting building? Why do two separate buildings?

Totally different needs. Wouldn't save any money as you'd basically have to build two separate spaces anyway.

[UNIpanther99]

Totally different needs. Wouldn't save any money as you'd basically have to build two separate spaces anyway.

Yeah, as much as it seems to make logical sense that one building would be better than two, it's a whole different world with those sports - and as much as I respect our wrestling program, it's best to leave those guys to their own domain.

Can you imagine Coach Jake, Tonya or Bobbi having to say, "why is it 87 f-ing degrees in here today?!?"

[BCPanther]

BOR gave the thumbs up.

I expect this to move fairly quickly.

[kochrab]

BOR gave the thumbs up.

I expect this to move fairly quickly.

Wow. Good on them for approving quickly! I figured they'd see our practice facilities right now and be like "Nah, you guys are good, that WRC gym is fire." *Sarcasm*

[UNIpanther99]

You have to expect the Faculty Senate to throw a major hissy fit over this one.