The University of Maryland on Wednesday launched Building Champions, a comprehensive fundraising campaign aimed at aiding Maryland in improving and upgrading its athletic facilities.
“We are investing $25 million so we can get some projects underway sooner rather than later,” Maryland AD Damon Evans tells CollegeAD.
Evans says his department looked around to see what could be done to improve the student-athlete experience.
“We have to take a look at all of our sports and provide resources and the unmet needs that they have. We took a look across our programs and said ‘what hasn’t been done? Who needs what?’ For us they all matter. We are going to dive into it and we have some plans to do some facility upgrades. Several of our Olympic Sports projects, whether it’s field hockey, lacrosse, baseball softball, we are going to look at them all. It’s important for us to take care of all our sports and they know that we care about them”
Maryland is still working to complete the Cole Field House project, which will turn the site into a $210 million indoor football facility. But Building Champions also includes projects in the works for field hockey and lacrosse, soccer, track, baseball, softball, and golf.
In October Maryland’s athletic department announced plans to build a $36 million basketball performance facility that will serve both of the school’s basketball programs.
“It’s something that was lacking here and something that has been talked about for quite some time,” Evans tells CollegeAD. “We wanted to make sure we did our due diligence and give our teams the best possible resources. We are in the midst of a fundraising campaign for it. We’d like to get the fundraising completed within the next six to twelve months. We’ve raised over $21 million so far, for the project that is $36 million.”
The basketball performance center will connect to Xfinity Center, where both programs play. The plans for the 60,000-square-foot facility include two full-size courts, a strength and conditioning facility, locker rooms, lounges and space dedicated to sports medicine. The facility will be privately funded and the timeline of completion is still years away, but it’s getting off the ground.
“The actual construction time is 18 months, but that’s not including the permitting and designs, that’s usually another year process. We are going to continue down two parallel tracks to get everything prepared as well as fundraise the money.”
“Basketball is obviously important to us at the University of Maryland, both men’s and women’s, you take a look around the country and you want to make sure you are providing a program that has the necessary resources to compete at the highest level.”
This story first appeared in The NightCap, CollegeAD’s evening newsletter. The NightCap delivers the day’s college athletics news in simple bullet points, giving you what you need to know in just a few lines. Get The NightCap today