BYU on Tuesday "unveiled plans to renovate and upgrade the Marriott Center arena and construct a long-awaited and state-of-the-art basketball practice facility," according to Jay Drew of the SALT LAKE TRIBUNE. Marriott Center upgrades include the "addition of chair seats to fill" the entire lower section and a "new center-hanging scoreboard with 24x18-foot LED video boards on all four sides." The new practice facility, to be called the Marriott Center Annex, "will be approximately 38,000 square feet." BYU men's basketball coach Dave Rose said, "This was something that we needed to have happen to allow us to stay nationally relevant." Costs of the projects were not disclosed, but BYU said that they are "being privately funded, including funding for future maintenance costs." Rose said "quite a few" former players have been involved in the funding and fundraising. BYU Senior Associate AD Brian Santiago said that the student section will "remain behind the West basket and every student who wants to attend games will be accommodated, despite the loss of some 1,900 seats." BYU officials "checked out video boards in arenas across the country, but especially studied the new ones installed" by the Jazz at EnergySolutions Arena before the '13-14 season and "patterned them similarly." Renovations inside the Marriott Center "will begin around May 1 and are expected to be completed by late summer." Ground "will be broken for the Annex this summer," and the project "should be completed" by fall '16 (SALT LAKE TRIBUNE, 2/11). In Utah, Brandon Gurney reported the annex will "include a replica of the Marriott Center floor, a strength and conditioning center, a training room with hydrotherapy, offices and meeting rooms and a basketball hall of honor" (DESERET NEWS, 2/11).
