College Facility Notes: Boise State Borrowing Money For Sky Club
In Boise, Chadd Cripe reported Boise State Univ. (BSU) will borrow $28.25M to help pay for the construction of the Stueckle Sky Club, which is adding "luxury suites, loge boxes, club seats, a modern press box, a well-equipped concourse for the west grandstands, a new ticket office and a souvenir store" to Bronco Stadium. The total could come to $37.55M, with the excess coming from fundraising and profits from the team's trip to the '07 Fiesta Bowl. BSU plans to "pay the debt with lease revenues on the new premium seating," and the athletic department said that the school has "lease agreements ranging from three to 15 years for every seat so far in the new facility" (IDAHO STATESMAN, 6/22).
KNIGHT MOVES: In New Jersey, Aditi Kinkhabwala reported Rutgers Univ.'s (RU) Rutgers Stadium will have 42,500 seats, around 1,000 less than last season, but it "will have 848 pre-sold club seats and 24 season-ticketed four-seat loge boxes to make up the shortfall." The club seats "required an annual gift -- 80[%] of which is tax deductible -- of $2,500, plus the $650 cost of season tickets." Loge boxes require an annual minimum donation of $15,000, plus $2,600 for the seats. RU Deputy AD Kevin MacConnell said that the school has seen a 99% season-ticket renewal rate from '07 and currently has a season-ticket waiting list of 11,751 (Bergen RECORD, 6/23).
NOTES: Univ. of Michigan (UM) AD Bill Martin said 42 of the 82 suites set to open in 2010 as part of the Michigan Stadium renovations "have been spoken for," as have one-third of the new club seats. The UM athletic department "does not plan to begin marketing them until the fall" (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 6/22)....Washington State Univ. will install a new Daktronics LED video, scoring and sound system at Martin Stadium in time for the start of the '08 football season. The board will be 53 feet wide and 41 feet high. The Univ. of Mississippi also has partnered with Daktronics to design, manufacture and install a $6M HD video display at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. The display, which will be ready for the ’08 season, will be the largest true HD board in the SEC (THE DAILY).
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