Practice Facility

[BCPanther]

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*

Hey, they built a half wall in there and re-finished the floor. It looks better than it did. lol.

[Wxcpanther]

How long does it take to get renderings? I'd imagine the timeline is somewhat quicker given the technology that's now available. Also wouldn't shock me if they already had some preliminary ones.

[clenz]

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

About what? This is going to be 100% funded by donor funds. No AD funds. No general funds. No university subsidy. No state funding.

If they have a problem with it they can **** off and go find donors to give them 10 million dollars.

[BCPanther]

About what? This is going to be 100% funded by donor funds. No AD funds. No general funds. No university subsidy. No state funding.

If they have a problem with it they can **** off and go find donors to give them 10 million dollars.

You're greatly underestimating the faculty senate's ability to be offended by things that have nothing to do with them.

[CyCarp]

How long does it take to get renderings? I'd imagine the timeline is somewhat quicker given the technology that's now available. Also wouldn't shock me if they already had some preliminary ones.

I'm assuming this is going to be a trimmed down version of the plans they release in 2017-2018ish? The price tag on that was $26.8m, and it certainly hasn't gotten cheaper since then.

[Wxcpanther]

I'm assuming this is going to be a trimmed down version of the plans they release in 2017-2018ish? The price tag on that was $26.8m, and it certainly hasn't gotten cheaper since then.

That was also with DH at the controls, so who knows how accurate that number was. He claimed it was going to cost several million to replace the West Gym roof

[UNIpanther99]

It could also be Bowlsby playing by the book he (and others) played well at Iowa and ISU. Get the BOR approval at a low price and then it costs whatever it costs later on.

[UNIpanther99]

And now this from Pete Moris:

https://twitter.com/PeteMoris/status...00884868985303

Just waiting for some potentially BIG
@northerniowa
news this afternoon!

The post was made after the Board approved funding, but maybe they are just planning a more formal announcement.

Or.... Maybe it's something entirely different?

[achrist70]

I think that was also going to be to attach it to the McCleod Center, which in my opinion wouldn't be a good look. Personally I would like to see it where the old softball field was.

I also wouldn't mind the idea of making it a practice center for MBB, WBB, VB and Wrestling, and if that is a location have a space for athletic trainers to use for football practice as well with the football practice field being right there. I don't know if the coaches would want to put all four sports together, but in my thinking building 1 larger structure is less expensive then building two smaller ones.

[UNIpanther99]

I would think they would want to also keep using the team rooms and other facilities they've made use of within the McLeod, so I think it makes sense for it to be really close if not attached.

[Wxcpanther]

That McLeod attached facility was also going to eliminate the premium parking by the McLeod, which I'm sure would have been more expensive removing all that concrete. That was really the only spot they could put it and "attach it" to the McLeod, but that in general would not be a good idea.

[clenz]

The previous facility cost was as high as it was in no small part because part of the plan was to "blow a hole" in the west side of the McLeod and connect the two. Retrofitting is always more expensive than building stand-alone.

The cost also may have been listed as high by DH to try to generate more donations and also make it unattainable at the same time.

There isn't a single school, that I'm aware of, that has built a practice facility to house both basketball/volleyball and wrestling. They have very different wants/needs as far as space and amenities. I'd bet it wouldn't be cheaper to build one vs two and get the wants/needs met to the level the programs want/need/deserve.

The idea of "premium parking" is a bit laughable when we have the spaces that we do for making parking premium and making it accessible, though I get what is meant by it.

The best reason to build it connected/right next to McLeod is the money spent on offices, locker rooms, team rooms, etc. inside McLeod and having those housed right next to the practice floor/rehab rooms. Building a building with all new offices, team/locker rooms, etc. seems redundant. Though it wouldn't render the McLeod facilities obsolete for game days. I'd bet there could/would be a way to create an actual media area rather than throwing a table in the north suite.

However, if we want to save parking the facility has to go where the softball field is, since we seem to have no interest in bringing softball back to campus. Or we could bring softball back and throw it where the baseball field is since we know damn sure that is never happening no matter what.

As for Pete's tweet? He tagged the university account and not the athletics account. It will have nothing to do with athletics. Probably a big donation/progress for the PAC or other parts of Our Tomorrow. If it is athletics related, at all, it will just be the BOR approved the plan and the university is proceeding with the facility funding and planning committee.

[UNIpanther99]

The tweet was indeed about the formal announcement of the project, along with quotes from all three coaches:

https://insideuni.uni.edu/campus-community/university-northern-iowa-approved-plan-court-sports-training-facility?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=iuni&utm_term=2024&utm_content=

Bowlsby is setting the table for what our programs need to be successful...
Football, get the Dome renovation done and create more manageable non-conf. schedules.
MBB/WBB/Volleyball, practice facility
Wrestling, practice facility

What does it take to do all of that? Money. What should be the role of the next permanent AD? Fundraise and develop corporate sponsorships to get all of that accomplished. It's not rocket science, but he's making it crystal clear what needs to be done. A candidate who isn't interested in doing that need not apply.

[BCPanther]

Jake's statement in that release all but confirms this thing is happening sooner rather than later.

Just an outstanding day to be a Panther.

[skydog0784]

This is a great thread and news! Thanks all… Please keep us informed as the project progresses (particularly us out-of-staters who don’t hear the news first hand).