In St. Paul, Andy Greder notes the Univ. of Minnesota's Athletes Village is growing "closer to completion," with video boards "lit outside the main entrance" on Wednesday. UM AD Mark Coyle said that the new space "remains on schedule" for an early '18 opening, with fundraising for the project up to 63% of the cost ($105M of $166M) after a "few big donations the past few months." The 336,000-square-foot area will "include academic, leadership and nutrition areas for all athletes, plus practice facilities for the football team and men’s and women’s basketball teams" (ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS, 12/1).
THAT'S GOOD FOOD: The Dodgers and concessionaire Levy Restaurants have announced a long-term extension of the partnership throughout Dodger Stadium, effective immediately. Terms of the deal were not announced. Levy began working with the Dodgers in ’00 and took over full ballpark concessions in ’05. The news comes as the Giants announced they are
parting ways with Centerplate regarding concessions at AT&T Park (
THE DAILY).
ONE SEARCH IS OVER: Tennessee-based Cope Architecture has been "selected as the designer" for renovations to the Univ. of Tennessee's Neyland Stadium that could cost up to $340M. A Cope Architecture spokesperson said that the company "expects to begin design work next month." Cope said that the "current approved budget for the project" is $106M, pending approval of the $340M figure by the State Building Commission (Knoxville NEWS SENTINEL, 11/29).
