CU to break ground May 12 for sports facilities upgrades

BOULDER – The University of Colorado-Boulder said it will break ground May 12 on several new athletics facilities and upgrades to Folsom Field without disclosing if a required fundraising goal has been met.

The CU Board of Regents approved the facilities upgrades in December, but required that one-third of the funds for the $143 million project be privately raised prior to construction.

Athletic director Rick George, hired in August, set a goal of raising $47.6 million to serve as seed money for the project, with the balance to come from bonds. Neither tuition money nor tax dollars is supposed to be used for the project.

The groundbreaking date was announced in a press release issued Friday, and George, DiStefano and CU president Bruce Benson made a joint announcement about it at CU’s spring football game Saturday.

CU spokesman Ryan Huff said Tuesday that the athletic department continues to tally up donations, and that DiStefano and George will be making a presentation on fundraising and the project to the Board of Regents April 29 and 30.  In February, Rick George stated that the athletic department was more than halfway to its $47.6 million goal. Huff said the fundraising drive has made progress since then.

The project includes:

Construction of a 120,000-square-foot indoor multipurpose practice facility on top of Franklin Field, to include a 100-yard artificial turf football field and a six-lane, 300-meter track;

Refurbishment of the Dal Ward Athletics Center, completed in 1991, to include an Olympic sports strength training room in the sub-basement level and new locker rooms and an equipment room on the field level;

Redesigning of Dal Ward’s first floor for the expansion of an Olympic sports/sports medicine complex, a leadership development center and an end zone club with club seating and loge boxes;

Transforming the second floor of Dal Ward to triple the athletic department’s academic support system from its current 5,000 square feet to 15,000 square feet;

Building additional restrooms and concession areas on the east side of Folsom Field;

Adding a 21,900-square-foot-high performance sports center on the northeast corner of the stadium, as well as a rooftop terrace, and converting the south offices at Folsom Field to retail space.

The rooftop terrace will generate revenue by being available for rent for non-gameday events. The high-performance sports center will host collaborative research conducted by CU-Boulder integrative physiology faculty and researchers at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus.

on Facebook on LinkedIn