Knight Moves: Rutgers Planning Overhaul To Athletics Center

Preliminary Concepts, Ideas, Designs In Place For Renovation Of Rutgers Athletic Center

Rutgers AD Tim Pernetti yesterday said "preliminary concepts, ideas and designs" are in place for a renovation of the school's Athletic Center, according to Tom Luicci of the Newark STAR-LEDGER. A new basketball practice facility is the centerpiece of the "major overhaul" to the 31-year-old Rutgers Athletics Center (RAC), with the "next step being the onset of a fundraising campaign to get the project started." Plans also call for "upgrading the locker rooms, replacing the scoreboard and the playing court, adding premium and club seats and creating an atrium in the entranceway that would include retail stores and a Hall of Fame area." Pernetti said that the estimated cost has yet to be determined, but he has "already been told that the project, which will basically wrap around the RAC from one side to the front, would take two years to complete." The school will continue "using the facility while construction takes place." Rutgers President Richard McCormick has "signed off on the idea as long as Pernetti’s combination of private funding and facility-generated revenue are able to underwrite the cost." Pernetti noted that he is "moving ahead on the assumption that no state assistance will be involved" (Newark STAR-LEDGER, 1/5).

NAVIGATING THE MAIZE: Univ. of Michigan Exec Associate AD Mike Stevenson yesterday indicated that the next step in the planned renovations to Crisler Arena "continues with the Jan. 21 board meeting where the athletic department will ask the regents to approve the first phase of Crisler’s renovation." In Detroit, Mark Snyder notes the 42-year-old basketball arena "needs major infrastructure work, so the first phase of the plan" will be a nearly $20M project to "address plumbing, heating and roof issues, replacing the lower bowl seats and realigning the aisles." The funding is "expected to come from department resources," and if approved by the regents, the work "would begin in mid-2011" (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 1/5).