Pioneer Press: Gophers’ Athletes Village on pace for January opening

Donate To GopherHole
BleedGopher

BleedGopher

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 11, 2008
Messages
60,741
Reaction score
16,083
Points
113
per Greder:

The video boards were lit outside the main entrance of the University of Minnesota’s Athletes Village on Wednesday. It was the latest sign the Gophers’ abundance of amenities inside the adjacent glass doors grows closer to completion.

Inside the existing Bierman Field Athletic Building, Gophers athletics director Mark Coyle said Wednesday the new space remains on schedule for an early 2018 opening, with fundraising for the project up to 63 percent of the cost ($105 of $166 million) after a few big donations the past few months.

“I continue to be told that it’s on time and on budget, so we will be able to get in there in January,” Coyle said. “It’s going to be quick from that standpoint.”

The 336,000-square-foot area will include academic, leadership and nutrition areas for all athletes, plus practice facilities for the football team and men’s and women’s basketball teams. In April, Athletes Village fundraising stood at about $85 million.

“We had a very strong summer, with some private gifts that came in, especially the 3M gift was huge, and the TCF extension was awesome for us,” Coyle said.

http://www.twincities.com/2017/11/30/gophers-athletes-village-on-pace-for-january-opening/

Go Gophers!!
 



Definitely will be fun to get a tour. Looks very impressive the recent times I've been by it.

I do have to say, the fundraising number seems to be fuzzy at times. TCF's $8M in early September supposedly brought it up to $105M, but Coyle said they were at $100M in late April. 3M's money was in July, think most if not all went to the Nothing Short of Greatness fund, of which this is $166M of its $190M.
 



zman said:
Was hoping there would be an opportunity for that. Any word?
Click to expand...

No, but got to believe there'll be a host of opening events planned for donors, alum, season ticket holders, and the general public.
 

In theory, all University of Minn buildings are open to the public for certain hours of the day? Guess I could be well wrong on that, but I know a lot of academic buildings aren't locked. Anyone off the street can just walk right in, during the day.
 

PMWinSTP said:
Definitely will be fun to get a tour. Looks very impressive the recent times I've been by it.

I do have to say, the fundraising number seems to be fuzzy at times. TCF's $8M in early September supposedly brought it up to $105M, but Coyle said they were at $100M in late April. 3M's money was in July, think most if not all went to the Nothing Short of Greatness fund, of which this is $166M of its $190M.
Click to expand...

If any of the numbers are off I am sure it was an honest mistake by Coyle.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Will they be opened to the general public for a tour?
 




PMWinSTP said:
Definitely will be fun to get a tour. Looks very impressive the recent times I've been by it.

I do have to say, the fundraising number seems to be fuzzy at times. TCF's $8M in early September supposedly brought it up to $105M, but Coyle said they were at $100M in late April. 3M's money was in July, think most if not all went to the Nothing Short of Greatness fund, of which this is $166M of its $190M.
Click to expand...

Maybe it depends on where the pledged money is. I have completed three years of a five year donation, so they have sixty per cent of what I'm planning to give, and that may be all they're counting right now. Not that there is all that much money involved, but they still don't have it all.
 

GO4FAN65 said:
Maybe it depends on where the pledged money is. I have completed three years of a five year donation, so they have sixty per cent of what I'm planning to give, and that may be all they're counting right now. Not that there is all that much money involved, but they still don't have it all.
Click to expand...

He's quoted using two different amounts last April...$85M and $100M. The AV started at the $190M number and then that morphed into the NSoG fund at the same amount.
 

Last fall all Gopher Point holder were gives some choices for perks. One of the perks was to get a tour of the village. I was able to get 6 picks because of my point total. I was in the second group selecting and when my turn came all the tour slots had been filled. I think they need to add more tours.
 



Tours of the AV will be a new revenue stream to reach the fundraising goal.
 

GFBfan said:
Tours of the AV will be a new revenue stream to reach the fundraising goal.
Click to expand...

That actually makes a little sense...throw in some hors d'oeuvres and a cash bar. I think for a moderate "cover charge", there would be a lot of takers.
 

GFBfan said:
Tours of the AV will be a new revenue stream to reach the fundraising goal.
Click to expand...

Well I hope you mean that there will be special tours/luncheon/dinner or whatever for select donors, to wine them/dine them and raise more money ... but for lowly general public people there will also be free tours.


As I recall, the original plans were more like $19x million and had additional new/renovated facilities for other sports than football and bball. Hope they can still come through on the whole plan, in the future.
 

GO4FAN65 said:
Maybe it depends on where the pledged money is. I have completed three years of a five year donation, so they have sixty per cent of what I'm planning to give, and that may be all they're counting right now. Not that there is all that much money involved, but they still don't have it all.
Click to expand...

If you have a documented pledge, they are counting your full amount in whatever they report.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom