If Colorado wanted out from under the arms race in the Big 12, it won’t find much cover in the Pac-12. Schools in the Buffaloes’ new conference are going all Architectural Digest on their facilities, particularly for the football programs.
And, it isn’t just Oregon, where alum Phil Knight, who just happens to be chairman of Nike Inc., helped provide the Ducks with state-of-the- art facilities in the 1990s that conference schools have been trying to keep up with ever since.
Colorado’s major upgrades of late have been the addition of a new football practice bubble and the newly completed basketball practice facility.
Colorado athletic director Mike Bohn knows that more needs to be done. That’s why he’s rejecting fans’ overtures to add sports, such as baseball, when the Buffs begin collecting the estimated $21 million annual average take from television revenues in future years.
Bohn wants work done on Folsom Field. He wants video boards and renovation on the west side, possibly including the addition of seats. Then he looks to upgrade the 20-year-old Dal Ward Center.
He’s working with key donors and campus administrators and hopes to announce priorities by summer’s end.
“There are aspects of Boulder and our campus that create a premier campus experience in many aspects outside of athletics, coupled with our community, our state, aspects associated with our weather,” Bohn said. “We’re ahead in that area. But we do have some aspects we need to catch up on, and that’s why our strategic plan and our efforts to address that is so timely.”
Here’s a school-by-school look at the facility arms race, many in the planning stage, throughout CU’s new conference, in alphabetical order.
Arizona: The school has arguably the worst facilities in the conference, but its board recently approved a $72 million football complex behind the north end zone of Arizona Stadium. The facility will take the football operation out of the 39-year-old McKale Center, which houses nearly all of Arizona athletics.
“I don’t know about every school out there, but I didn’t know of any other BCS school that had their football operation in their basketball arena,” second-year Arizona athletic director Greg Byrne said.
The Richard Jefferson Gym, opened in 2008, provides four practice basketball courts and five volleyball courts.
Arizona State: The Sun Devils have launched the Stadium District Project to improve Sun Devil Stadium, which is 53 years old and crumbling, seats 71,706 and is as intimate as a national park.
After a statistical analysis, a decision will be made whether to renovate Sun Devil Stadium or completely rebuild, similar to what Stanford did. Depending on the plan, the 10-year project is expected to cost anywhere from $200 million to $450 million. ASU is hoping the property tax gained from development on university real estate will be used specifically to maintain athletics facilities.
California: The Golden Bears will play home football games this fall in the San Francisco Giants’ AT&T Park while Memorial Stadium, around since 1923, is rebuilt.
All but the exterior façade will remain. The new stadium, at a cost of $321 million, will have 3,000 seats reserved for an endowment seating program, a university club and a goal-line to goal-line press box. Adjacent to the stadium will be a $150 million high-performance center. Currently, athletic offices are scattered in six buildings on campus. The high-performance center will house half the sports, including football.
“There were programs that didn’t have bad facilities,” Cal athletic director Sandy Barbour said. “They didn’t have facilities at all.”
Oregon: The Ducks reinstated their baseball program two years ago and built a $15 million, 4,000-seat stadium. In January, Oregon opened the $227 million, 12,300-seat Matthew Knight Arena for basketball.
Phil Knight donated $41 million for a new six-story, 130,000-square-foot football complex. It will move football out of the Casanova Center and provide more room for other sports.
“There are some impressive facilities here,” said Rob Mullens, completing his first year as AD after working at Maryland and Kentucky, “but I spent eight years in the SEC and 6 1/2 years in the ACC. There are a lot of other institutions who have first-rate facilities.
“I’d line up our facilities with anyone, but we’re not alone.”
Oregon State: Trying to keep up with the Ducks 45 miles down the road, the Beavers built an indoor practice facility for football in 2002 and renovated the east side of Reser Stadium in 2004 and the south end zone in 2006.
A Nike school, Oregon State even received a gift from Knight to build a beautiful, brick, 3,000-seat baseball stadium to house a team that won national titles in 2006 and ’07. The school just broke ground on a new track-and-field facility for its women’s team.
When Oregon State went to a bowl game in 1999, ending a 35-season drought, the school raised $13 million in six months from 15 big-money donors.
“There were 30 years of emotion built up,” AD Bob De Carolis said, “and these people just wanted to cling onto something that was successful.”
Southern California: In January, USC started construction on the John McKay Center, a $70 million, 110,000-square-foot facility just west of venerable Heritage Hall. The all-brick building will feature a 32,000-square-foot weight room and is scheduled to open next summer.
In 2006, the basketball teams moved from the archaic L.A. Sports Arena, USC’s home since 1959, to the $147 million, 10,258-seat Galen Center, which is on campus.
Stanford: The Cardinal had one of the worst home-field advantages in the country when it played in half-filled, 85,500-seat Stanford Stadium. In 2005, the 84-year-old stadium was demolished and rebuilt with 50,000 seats at a cost of $90 million. Two years ago, Stanford built a practice facility for its men’s and women’s basketball and volleyball teams.
UCLA: Pauley Pavilion was always one of the toughest places to play basketball despite student sections that were a $5 cab ride behind the basket. The legendary gym, built in 1965, will tighten up with a $185 million remodeling that will seat 14,000, about 1,000 more than before.
Next season, while Pauley is under construction, the Bruins will play 14 home games in the Sports Arena and four in the Honda Center in Anaheim.
In September 2009, UCLA opened the $14 million Spieker Aquatics Center and Dirks Pool, a beautiful outdoor facility featuring a four-level diving tower and permanent seating for 600. UCLA has only a women’s team.
Utah: The school opened the Alex Smith Strength and Conditioning Center in 2009 and is in the process of designing a new football complex that will house new offices, locker rooms and a weight room.
Last year, the women’s track program moved into the new McCarthey Family Track & Field Complex with a track surface that has attracted five world-class distance runners, including Colorado grads Adam and Kara Goucher.
Washington: The lower bowl of massive Husky Stadium, on the banks of Lake Washington, hasn’t been touched since its construction in 1920. Cracks appear in concrete like spider webs. The school is pumping $250 million into rebuilding the lower bowl and the upper deck opposite the press box.
Behind one end zone will be a new football complex featuring coaches’ offices, locker rooms and a weight room. Washington will begin playing in the Seattle Seahawks’ CenturyLink Field starting with this year’s Washington State game and returning when Husky Stadium is finished in 2013.
Washington State: The Cougars, with the lowest athletic budget in the league, are building an $80 million, 95,000-square-foot football operations center, set for completion in 2013. A new press box will wrap around and connect with the building. They also will add 2,200 luxury suites.
Next on the agenda is rebranding 35-year-old Beasley Coliseum and building clubhouses for Bailey-Brayton Field. To Washington State AD Bill Moos, a former Cougar football player and native of eastern Washington, it’s not a matter of whether the arms race is good for college sports.
“We’d better be in the race,” he said, “or we’ll be left behind.”
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com
Priority plans
Colorado AD Mike Bohn says he is planning more facility improvements at CU:
What’s been done: A new football practice bubble and new basketball practice facility have been big additions.
What Bohn wants: New video boards and renovation on the west side of Folsom Field. Additions to the Dal Ward Center.
