Iowa State University Alumni Association| online edition | fall 2008

FALL 2008
Home

Cover Story:
Zoo U

Feature Story:
Emerging

Departments:
Getting Started
Letters
Around Campus
Association News
Giving
>>Sports

GOAL BUILDING: ATHLETICS FACILITIES MASTER PLAN MOVES FORWARD, TAKES NEW AND EXCITING TURNS

When Jamie Pollard became ISU’s athletics director two years ago, he set three major goals. Perhaps the most attention-getting of those was the creation of a facilities master plan. Two years later that plan is in place and well underway, and Pollard is a happy – and busy – man.

The first phase of renovations to Jack Trice Stadium was completed on time and under its $19.5 million budget at the beginning of August, with a renovated west concourse, east club section, and new luxury suites debuting for Iowa State’s football season opener vs. South Dakota State Aug. 28. The renovations are a sign of things to come at Jack Trice Stadium as the Athletics Department pre-pares for future renovations that will likely include east concourse enhancements and enclosure of the south end zone.

Fans on the west side of Jack Trice are already enjoying a wider concourse, expanded from 22 feet to 44 feet at its narrowest point and to as wide as 60 feet in some locations; four new buildings (including two restroom and concession facilities with expanded capabilities and two suite buildings that double suite capacity); new operable windows in the existing suites; and new upper deck guard rails. On the east side, project savings allowed for painting of the upper deck’s underside. The east side also includes
the former club section that has been renovated into the new Jack Trice Club, an upscale gathering area for fans, recruits, and alumni that showcases ISU football history and tradition.

“The original project schedule of completion between the football seasons was tight enough,” said project manager Ben Bruns (’01 construction engr) of the Weitz Company, whose team began work the evening after ISU defeated Colorado in its home finale Nov. 12. “But the weather we’ve had – the worst winter in a number of years and the wettest recorded spring in the state of Iowa – made the project extremely tight. The success of the project is a tribute to the teamwork everybody showed.”

Bruns has experience working with a team at Jack Trice; he played offensive line for the Cyclones from 1996-2000.

“It’s an honor for me to have worked on this project and have the chance to work with a talented team of designers and managers in ISU’s facilities planning and management and the Athletics Department. Drawing on all those lessons learned as a collegiate athlete and engineering student and applying them is very special,” Bruns said. “I think there’s going to be a really improved atmosphere at the stadium. It will add to the gameday experience for everybody.”

Pollard agrees. While there are amenities for donors and suiteholders, he says, there have been plenty of impressive improvements made to the general fan experience at Jack Trice for the 2008 football season.

“I think a lot of people think [the first phase of renovations] is all about the high-end donors and suite holders, but the reality is that the suiteholders are paying for all the amenities that the general fan is going to get,” Pollard said prior to the season opener. “I think our fans are really going to think this is neat – but then it will beg the question, of course, of when we’re going to get the east side done, too. We were kind of waiting to see how the west side would feel and look. Well, I think what we found out is that it feels and looks awesome, so the thought of putting that on the east side has unbelievable potential.”

While east concourse and facility renovations are high on the priority list, Pollard’s current focus is on completing an aspect of the plan that he originally thought could be one of the toughest: a practice facility for men’s and women’s basketball.

Last summer, local developer Dickson Jensen (’88 indus engr, MEN ’91, MBA ’92) came to Pollard with a proposal to donate land on the west side of Ames for construction of an $8 million facility that would house practice gymnasiums, coaches’ offices, training facilities, and weight facilities for both of ISU’s basketball programs. The opportunity caught Pollard completely off guard.

“Sometimes good things happen when you least expect it,” said Pollard, who hopes to have the practice facility completed and the current basketball office space in Hilton Coliseum converted into a club section by the start of the 2009-2010 basketball season. “As the owner of the All Iowa Attack AAU program, [Jensen] has been in enough of these practice facilities that he understood what we didn’t have and why it was important. So he came in with his ideas and it was so realistic; we barely had to tweak anything because he knew exactly what our coaches wanted and needed. You had to pinch yourself because you just couldn’t believe this was happening so quickly.”

The facility offers a big recruiting boost to women’s and men’s basketball coaches Bill Fennelly and Greg McDermott, who Pollard says are competing for recruits against schools who almost all have or are in the process of constructing comparable facilities. Completing the project so quickly, Pollard says, is doubly beneficial because the facility will be a completed reality for student-athletes who are being recruited now.

“Coach Fennelly always says we can’t change the weather and we can’t change our small-town environment,” Pollard said. “But we can change where we practice, and that was something that was starting to hurt [Fennelly and McDermott] when they were recruiting.”

For now, Pollard says he hopes to raise enough funds for the basketball facility to allow the Jack Trice Stadium east concourse renovations to be done for next season. “It’s an $8 million project, and we’ve raised $2.5 million,” he said, adding that the opportunity to name the basketball practice facility with a major gift still remains. “If we can raise money for the basketball facility, that helps the football piece.”

And it all helps Cyclone athletics, which is what Pollard – and his goals – are all about.

About the Writer | Kate Bruns is associate editor of VISIONS.