IU football stadium enclosure approved

Indiana University’s board of trustees on Friday officially approved a $53 million proposal to enclose the south end of Memorial Stadium.

The enclosure, part of a larger capital improvements initiative detailed in March, will add 66,575 gross square feet of facility space to the south end of IU’s football stadium. It will include new athlete treatment and academic support facilities, among other things, and allow for eventual renovation of the football team locker room.

Athletic director Fred Glass said he expects the project to be completed in time for the 2018 season, with construction to begin after the upcoming season.

“Not only as the athletic director, but really as an alumnus and a fan, I’m excited that we are catching up to where we need to be on facilities,” Glass told IndyStar. “I think, for a variety of reasons, we had fallen behind. Now we’re closing that gap.”

Glass presented a slideshow to the board detailing plans for the enclosure. They include:

>> A home for IU's Excellence Academy for athletes.

>> A new rehabilitation and treatment facility for athletes.

>> Further academic and life skills support facilities.

>> A "multi-use" outdoor terrace on the roof of the structure, with an area for children.

>> An entry plaza and green space at the south end of the stadium.

>> A  new 40-by-70-foot video board to be placed in the renovated south end zone area. The north end zone will get a 20-by-60-foot video board.

Renovation is not expected to significantly alter seating capacity.

The Memorial Stadium project is one of three IU has in its queue. Continuing Assembly Hall renovation and the eventual construction of a multipurpose volleyball/wrestling facility are also included in the larger capital improvements campaign announced by Glass and IU President Michael McRobbie in early March.

“In layman’s terms, I would probably consider this formal preliminary approval, and then we’ll come back to the board later on, after plans are detailed, and get what I would say is formal approval,” Glass said. “We have a few more stops, but I think because this is totally self-funded by athletics – there’s no request for taxpayer money, no student fee – I think it should be pretty well received by all those regulatory bodies.”

Assembly Hall’s renovation is set to be completed in time for the upcoming basketball season, at a cost of $45 million — all paid for through private donations.

According to Glass' presentation at the trustees meeting in Indianapolis where the Memorial Stadium project was approved, the next phase of athletics’ facilities transformation will also come directly from gifts and athletics revenue.

"That’s very important," said IU trustee Philip N. Eskew. "I think the public would be upset; I think parents would be upset, if they felt like their tuition dollars were paying for an athletic facility. I think it’s extremely important that we can say to the IU alumni and the IU fans that we are able to do this (without state or institutional support)."

What comes next is seeking a hodgepodge of approvals from various state authorities, and fleshing out plans in greater detail.

Eskew said the board expects to entertain design approval (Friday offered project approval) at its October meeting in Fort Wayne.

"We anticipate that they will come back at the October meeting for a design approval," Eskew told IndyStar. "At that time, we will have a roughed in design and some pictures that we can show people of what we intend to do. From there, it’s a matter of gathering bids and beginning the project."

Glass expects construction to begin shortly after the conclusion of the 2016 home football schedule, which culminates Nov. 26 when IU hosts Purdue. It will run through the entire 2017 season and wrap up in time for the 2018 campaign. Glass said he does not expect the south end zone project to cause much day-to-day disruption.

“Because it’s 18 months, we want to maximize off-time,” he said. “We’ll continue to operate largely unimpeded. Construction shouldn’t bother us in the same way it sort of shut down Assembly Hall for a while.”

All of the aforementioned facilities projects – which might eventually include renovation of IU’s golf course and soccer stadium – are part of a larger, university-wide initiative aimed at raising $2.5 billion across all of IU’s campuses by 2020, when the university will celebrate its bicentennial.

Pointing to facilities upgrades and additions on IU’s campus spearheaded by McRobbie, Glass said he believes athletics’ capital improvements campaign folds neatly into the university’s bicentennial plans.

“I think President McRobbie has been very ambitious and forward-thinking in focusing on catching up university facilities more generally,” Glass said. “Our facilities initiative in athletics is very consistent with the president’s facilities initiatives around the Bloomington campus, and really, all around the state.”

Follow IndyStar reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.