For $1,697,385, a student could buy a dream house, purchase a couple of luxury cars or pay his or her way through school at Ohio University more than 20 times.
All Ohio Athletics wants to do is finish funding a multipurpose center.
The fundraising for the facility, which has a planned groundbreaking date of summer 2012, is on the rise. Since mailing out a donation request to about 5,000 former student athletes, Bobcat Club members and season-ticket holders, Ohio Athletics has collected $127,615 as of Monday morning.
That, in addition to the $9,175,000 pledged by targeted donors, puts the Bobcats on track to set foot in their new facility by fall 2013.
Robert and Margaret Walter donated $8 million to jumpstart the multipurpose center’s funding.
But Ohio athletes likely will not have the chance to set foot on an indoor track any time soon.
For the architects to include a track in the final blueprints once construction bids are accepted in February or March, another $3 million will have to be secured, pushing the already rapid fundraising pace to almost $1 million a month.
“We are not trying to fundraise for a track because that was not approved by the committee,” said Jim Harris, senior associate athletic director for development.
“That was not the goal. The goal is for us to raise the $11 million needed to build the facility as it was rendered by the architect out of Columbus.”
At its current rate, the athletic department will have no problems collecting the almost $2 million purse still needed to accept construction bids.
“The plan is to fundraise for the whole facility and to fundraise so that we have a fund that supports the ongoing maintenance of the facility,” said Becky Watts, chief of staff to President Roderick McDavis. “Because, when you build a building, it’s not just building it. You have to be able to maintain it as well.”
In addition to the six to 12 gifts Ohio Athletics receives daily, the department is talking with a handful of large donors.
“We have about $600,000 in outstanding asks,” Harris said. “And there’s at least $800,000 that we’re going to be asking for between now and February with the donors that we have in line. It’s just a matter of getting it in front of them, because they are busy people.”
If reactions to the renderings of the facility are any indication, the multipurpose center will be an advantage to the athletic community.
“It will clearly be beneficial in Intercollegiate Athletics,” Director of Athletics Jim Schaus said. “We have a lot of teams that compete in inclement weather and train during the offseason.”
“It will be a great assistance for recruiting — just the concepts, the discussion of this, just having renderings has helped us in our recruiting, even though we’re not there yet,” he added. “This is a building that I believe, when completed, will be busy all the time.”
If all goes as planned, the Bobcats will train successful athletes in a top-notch facility.
“We feel like we have the coaches in place. We’ve got the staff in place,” Harris said. “If you put us at a fair playing edge recruiting-wise with all these other schools, we’re going to be better than they are.”
The rest of the Mid-American Conference is familiar with the notion of a multipurpose center. Some MAC schools have built new indoor facilities during the past decade, meaning the Bobcats might be looking to level the playing field.
“I think this will be a tremendous asset,” Schaus said. “I’m excited about the possibilities.”
“I’m conservative because I know we have a long way to go, but there are a lot of positive things.”
jr992810@ohiou.edu
