Baylor has announced plans to build a new $105M basketball facility on the banks of the Brazos River, "initiated by the largest gift in the university’s history," according to a front-page piece by John Werner of the WACO TRIBUNE-HERALD. A portion of a $100M anonymous gift to the university-wide $1.1B Give Light campaign "will go toward the basketball facility and another portion toward academics." Baylor did not specify how the major donation will be divided, but AD Mack Rhoades said that the school still needs to raise $30M "before construction will begin." Werner reports the facility is "being called the Baylor Basketball Pavilion, but that could change if the lead donors decide to remove their anonymity." While the Ferrell Center, basketball's current home, holds 10,400 fans, the new facility will hold 7,000-7,500 in an "effort to create a smaller, louder environment." The pavilion will also include an "'integrated state-of-the-art practice facility' that will include separate locker rooms, practice gyms, team lounges, and office suites as well as shared athletic medicine and athletic performance spaces." The Ferrell Center eventually "will be renovated at a projected cost" of $20M to accommodate Baylor’s volleyball, acrobatics and tumbling teams (WACO TRIBUNE-HERALD, 5/8).
THE LATEST TREND: The Baylor facility news is "part of a tidal wave of athletic construction projects around the Big 12 and the nation." Every school in the Big 12 "has recently finished, is in the midst of, or is planning to break ground on new construction or major renovations of athletic facilities" (AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, 5/8).
