Washington State Univ. this week unveiled part of its nearly finished football operations building, a facility meant to "help the Cougars compete with their better-financed opponents," according to Jacob Thorpe of the Spokane SPOKESMAN-REVIEW. The $61M, five-story, 84,192-square-foot facility "stands behind Martin Stadium’s west end zone," and the improvements are "intended, in large part, to attract recruits." When WSU AD Bill Moos was in the same position at Oregon, he "pioneered a facilities revolution, and the Ducks began to attract some of the most talented athletes in the country." The WSU building, which "took 18 months to construct," cost just over $43M, with "taxes and furnishings pushing the total cost" to near $61M. It was designed by Spokane-based ALSC Architects. The project was "entirely financed through bonds, as was the recent addition of luxury seating at Martin Stadium and an upgrade to the press box." Moos said that the debt service WSU "will pay on those bonds" is around $7M a year. The bonds "also will pay for aesthetic upgrades to Martin Stadium, such as new field turf with the crimson end zones fans have long desired." Previously, the football team "shared the facilities inside the Bohler Athletic Complex with the other WSU athletics programs." The new 11,610-square-foot locker room is "twice as large as the old one." There also are "49 flat-screen TVs in the facility and luxurious meeting rooms and coaches’ offices that look into Martin Stadium through walls entirely made of glass" (Spokane SPOKESMAN-REVIEW, 6/5).
NOT TOO SHABBY: In Seattle, Bud Withers wrote the new facility is one "you wouldn’t call opulent." Withers: "Opulent is Oregon, with its German-built lockers and Ferrari-grade leather seats. Nor would I call WSU’s purchase spectacular; that’s the view from the new Washington football offices toward Lake Washington." But WSU unveiled a facility that is "well-appointed, tasteful and without question a place of which it can be proud." As Moos "tells it, it’s the next logical step in pushing WSU’s football profile back to prominence" (SEATTLE TIMES, 6/4).
