9 replies to this topic

[BSLZackKiesel]

IMS: Maryland Quietly Moving Forward on Basketball Practice Facility

 

A group of Maryland basketball supporters is moving forward with plans for a dedicated practice facility for the program, sources told IMS.

 

The group, which included former Maryland basketball coach Gary Williams, has begun a "soft" round of fundraising and commissioned blueprints for the facility, which is expected to cost in the neighborhood of $35 million and will be built onto the main entrance to Maryland's Xfinity Center arena, on the Southeast side. Although the school is unlikely to officially announce plans for the project until it receives roughly $20 million in commitments from private donors, it's quietly becoming a reality, with around $8 million already pledged and more large pledges expected.

 

[Mike B]

IMS: Maryland Quietly Moving Forward on Basketball Practice Facility

The boosters keep writing checks.

Their facilities are really becoming top quality.

[BSLZackKiesel]

Maryland announced the construction of a $36M Basketball Performance Center today. It will be located adjacent to the XFINITY Center, and provide practice and programming spaces, as well as a large strength and conditioning center. There will be two separate practice courts, as well as brand new locker rooms for both the men's and women's basketball programs.

 

This will also allow XFINITY Center to host concerts in the future.

 

https://static.umter.../bpc/index.html

[BSLChrisStoner]

Balt Sun: With Kevin Willard in tow, Maryland reaches $40 million fundraising goal for long-awaited basketball practice facility

[Mike B]

Balt Sun: With Kevin Willard in tow, Maryland reaches $40 million fundraising goal for long-awaited basketball practice facility

Interesting read.   I am not sure why the construction has to wait 9 months, but good that it is finally a goal.

 

Interesting differences, between Turgeon and Willard.  One recognizes the possibilities for Maryland Basketball, while the other complained and made excuses.

[You Play to Win the Game]

Should’ve been done years ago. An announcement of something coming by like 2025, that was originally announced in 2019 pisses me off. And now we find out, they needed to raise just $4M more than the original cost of $36M due to inflation. Mike Lowe shared that Big Ten revenue chart the other day in another thread - where is all that going? And why isn’t Maryland basketball the priority? This kind of thing is just completely unacceptable.

[Mike B]

Should’ve been done years ago. An announcement of something coming by like 2025, that was originally announced in 2019 pisses me off. And now we find out, they needed to raise $4M more than the original cost of $36M due to inflation. Mike Lowe shared that Big Ten revenue chart the other day in another thread - where is all that going? And why isn’t Maryland basketball the priority? This kind of thing is just completely unacceptable.

The money in part goes to support the non-revenue and lesser revenue sports.

[You Play to Win the Game]

The money in part goes to support the non-revenue and lesser revenue sports.

It was a rhetorical question. It doesn't take even a fraction of the money we're making to support those non-revenue sports. There really is no excuse for it taking this long. I think Maryland Basketball has been grossly mismanaged and mis-prioritized for some time now. 

[Mike B]

It was a rhetorical question. It doesn't take even a fraction of the money we're making to support those non-revenue sports. There really is no excuse for it taking this long. I think Maryland Basketball has been grossly mismanaged and mis-prioritized for some time now. 

On the last point I totally agree.

[BSLMikeLowe]

I am not sure why the construction has to wait 9 months, but good that it is finally a goal.

Same reason you don’t immediately start building a house just because you have money. All those renderings we saw weren’t architectural darawings, you need those. You need to hire a general contractor, who then hires all the subcontractors, and as this is a state job there is an extensive bidding process to do. Then you have all the other red tape that goes with construction before you can put shovels in the ground. 9 months is actually a pretty aggressive timeline, though I think they’ve been very confident for a while now the last pieces of funding would come through.