CBSSPORTS.com's Chip Patterson reported UCLA "has expanded its plans for the Wasserman Football Center thanks in part" to a $10M gift from longtime donors Jim and Carol Collins. UCLA "has now met" its $50M goal in cash and pledges for the project, first announced in September '13. But the one-time donation has the athletic department "entering a 'phase two' of its fundraising plan, now hoping to reach a total" of $65M. Construction "is scheduled" for fall '15 (CBSSPORTS.com, 2/2).
BUILT RAM TOUGH: In Colorado, Nick Coltrain noted as the Colorado State Univ. System BOG prepares to vote on a financing proposal for an on-campus CSU football stadium later this week, the planned venue is now "closer to 36,000 seats and poses 'minimal risk' to the university's general fund." Plans to pay for the facility have "gone from requiring" more than $100M in private donations to "using one-third of that amount as a backstop to repay bond financing." CSU's ability to cover the bulk of debt payments "relies on projections of the new stadium generating" between $9.8-$14.8M in annual revenue (Ft. Collins COLORADOAN, 2/1).
FLY LIKE AN EAGLE: Southern Miss AD Bill McGillis last week unveiled a $35-45M plan to "renovate the outdated" Reed Green Coliseum. The arena was built in '65 and has "received very few updates since and USM hopes to turn it into a multi-purpose facility." The coliseum's capacity is just short of 8,000, and "would drop to somewhere between 6,600 and 7,000." Populous "put together the designs" for the renovation (Biloxi SUN HERALD, 1/30).
A DATE TO SKATE: In Omaha, Henry Cordes noted Oct. 23 will "mark the inaugural game" for the Univ. of Nebraska-Omaha's new $81.6M on-campus hockey arena. While completion of the 7,800-seat arena is "still nearly nine months away, that vision is taking shape today within the cavernous shell of the structure." The last of the precast concrete sections of upper-deck seating "are being lifted into place, completing a bowl that UNO officials anticipate will create one of the most intimate and electric atmospheres in all of college hockey" (OMAHA WORLD-HERALD, 2/2).
