http://www.timeswv.com/sports/wvu-announces-major-renovation-project-climbing-higher/article_c5b487a8-96de-11e8-948e-57035d91a879.htmlWVU announces major renovation project, 'Climbing Higher'- By Bob Hertzel | For the Times West Virginian
MORGANTOWN West Virginia University's athletic department is beginning a five-year, $100-million facilities renovation project dubbed "Climbing Higher".
In making the announcement of the sweeping project that will be focused on improving things for student-athletes, athletic director Shane Lyons stressed that such an investment is necessary to keep up with what he termed "the arms race" in college athletics.
"The thing we have looked at over the past couple of years is: Where are we compared to others nationally, and also within the Big 12 Conference?" Lyons said. "And I can tell you with a lot of our facilities, we are not where we need to be to be successful as an athletic program from a facilities standpoint."
"We know that is aggressive, but we also understand if we don't make changes and move forward, we will be going backward."
This is actually Phase 2 of a project that began when Lyons arrived and has been under study and discussion for 18 months. It comes after sweeping changes were made to the facilities at Milan Puskar Stadium and the Coliseum to make things more up-to-date and comfortable for fans.
At the same time, the Morgantown area was growing dynamically, adding a minor league baseball stadium that is shared between the university and the West Virginia Black Bears and with the development of both a track facility and aquatic facility at Milan Park.
The program will be done in phases at the stadium and at the Coliseum complex.
It begins, as most everything does in the athletic program with the cash cow, which is football, which gets $55 million to completely redo the football building.
On Thursday, the Puskar Center complex actually opened a new and much larger and better equipped training center with a new hydrotherapy center and training table, something that will be followed by a new academic center and new and enlarged WVU and visitors locker room.
Because of logistical needs, the visiting locker room will be completed before work can begin on the Mountaineers' new locker room, which will also include a lounge. The home locker room will increase by 5,000 square feet, almost doubling its size.
The football operations will be virtually completely redone, with the head coach getting a bigger office, while the team meeting rooms, both for the full offense and defense and the position rooms, will also be enlarged and made more comfortable.
In all, there will be 72,500 square feet of expansion within the same building that is now being used.
Cosmetically, Lyons is planning to take the Football Hall of Fame out of the back of the Puskar Center and move it to the front, much as they did at the basketball facility.
Shifting to the Coliseum, they are projecting $35 million of the $100 million to be used to update the nerve center of the athletic department and the surrounding area.
The idea here is to improve its utility and to improve it cosmetically, having already made renovations to the walkway and the offices in Phase 1.
"The Coliseum is approaching 50 years old and we have never touched the inner bowl," Lyons said.
In that regard, they intend to replace what are the original seats with larger, more modern seats while not cutting down on the capacity of the Coliseum.
Plans are to add 500 parking spaces where the running track currently exits to the 1,682 spots now available. At the same time, the "red apron" that surrounds the Coliseum has always bugged Lyons, and he pledges that will be changed and improved, as will the lighting, which has always been a problem following games.
Lyons even sees the day that the Coliseum will be lit up in different in colors as you see it coming into town from the expressway, "blue and gold on game days, pink on gala events or blue and green on Christmas, although we don't use much green around here" he said, referring to downstate rival Marshall's colors.
The landscaping at the Coliseum complex will be improved as Lyons attempts to give it "a fresh new look."
The athletes in Olympic sports will benefit from a new performance center along with shared team lounge and locker rooms.
Plans are to improve lounges for the school's donors at basketball games
The Olympic sports will have their own complex used by the 350 athletes involved there.
"Right now," Lyons pointed out, "some sports teams don't have locker rooms and that's not what I want as director of athletics."
The Shell Building will be completely renovated as will the aquatic area ... all of that being refurbished to fit in with the new basketball, gymnastics and wrestling facilities.
The facilities at the Coliseum complex will also be connected.
The Cary Gym, which houses the women's gymnastics team, will get a $5 million upgrade that will include a training room, additional gym space, an upgraded locker room and a lounge/study area along with a team meeting space and storage space.
Perhaps the largest change comes with the new golf team, which will get a new facility of its own.
The university is entering into a long-rumored lease/purchase agreement with the White Day Golf Course in Fairmont for 94 or 95 acres of land to build a multi-purpose six hole facility that can be altered to play as par 3s, 4s and 5s and have 27 different configurations, along with a clubhouse locker room, practice greens and 6 indoor hitting bays.
"The Big 12 is the best conference in the country for golf," Lyons noted, citing that Oklahoma State won this past year's NCAA title and the conference has won the last three crowns. "This gives us chance to build a winning program."