In Chicago, Matthew Paras wrote progress "has been made” on DePaul's plans for a basketball arena to be built in Chicago’s South Loop. DePaul AD Jean Lenti Ponsetto said that she is “ready to present the final plans” to school officials. The venue is “on track to open” during the ‘16-17 season. However, Ponsetto said that it is “too soon to tell if it will be ready by opening night of that season.” The “most significant change is that the public money going towards the arena shifted to help pay for the land costs” for the Marriott hotel being built near DePaul's arena. (THE DEPAULIA, 5/19).
CHASING WATERFALLS: In Cleveland, Ari Wasserman noted Ohio State's 53,000-square-foot indoor football training facility, the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, is in the middle of a $2.5M renovation, which “includes a new locker room, new lights over the practice field and a new FieldTurf.” The “most intriguing part of the renovation” is a 10,000-square-foot locker room that “will feature a new open floor plan." The locker room also will feature a waterfall that can “light up red.” The training facility renovation is “set to be complete by July 25” (Cleveland PLAIN DEALER, 5/17).
BEER HERE? Alabama AD Bill Battle weighed the pros and cons of beer sales at college sporting events last week. He said the pros are "money” and the cons are “what you think they would be. Security issues, fan behavior issues, all the things that go along with it.” Battle: "I don't know that Alabama will be a leader in that push. I can see where LSU might. There's been some conversations at SEC meetings but at this juncture, it still would not be approved" (AL.com, 5/16).
GO YOUR OWN WAY: In Louisville, Tom Loftus noted a survey of 1,782 registered Kentucky voters showed that only 18% of Kentucky residents “favor Lexington's request” for $80M in state funding for the proposed remake Kentucky’s Rupp Arena and the attached convention center, while 75% said “find another way.” Lexington Mayor Jim Gray's office “disputed the fairness of the poll's question for focusing ‘on a single isolated component of the plan,’ which has a price tag” of $351M (Louisville COURIER-JOURNAL, 5/19).
