United for Action: Baylor Athletics Announces Lead Gift for Baylor Basketball Pavilion
5/7/2019 1:30:00 PM | General
Largest gift in university history paves way for new basketball facility on banks of Brazos River.
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
In a "transformational" move designed to give the men's and women's basketball programs "what we think it takes to be elite and be competitive nationally," Baylor University Vice President and Director of Athletics Mack Rhoades announced Tuesday plans to add a new, $105 million basketball facility.
One of the four signature projects in the Athletics Master Plan portion of the university's $1.1 billion Give Light campaign, the new Baylor Basketball Pavilion will be partially funded by the historical $100 million anonymous gift that was announced Saturday by Baylor President Linda A. Livingstone.
"We can't say enough in terms of how grateful we are to this family and the belief they have in this institution," Rhoades said. "When you think about this basketball pavilion, we want it to be certainly the best in the country. We want to create a facility that is great for our fans and provides a first-class fan experience, but also something that's great for our student-athletes and helps us continue to build a legacy of winning championships."
Rhoades said an additional $30 million needs to be raised to fund the new basketball pavilion, which will be built on the south side of the Brazos River adjacent to Baylor Ballpark in a portion of the existing parking lot for the 30-year-old Ferrell Center. The new, basketball-only facility is expected to seat between 7,000 and 7,500, compared to the 10,284-seat Ferrell Center.
"When you look at some of the facility projects recently, they tend to all be downsizing," Rhoades said. "I think very similar to this facility (McLane Stadium), they got this right in terms of 45,000 seats.
"So, just trying to be real with who we are and trying to create a very intimate environment, something that we can sell out. The phenomena of supply and demand and making this the place to be. The place to be for our fans, that our student-athletes feel that . . . that they know each and every night, they're going to play in front of an extremely electrifying crowd."
Men's basketball coach Scott Drew said the new basketball pavilion is a "game-changer."
"The big thing nowadays in facilities is proximity. In new facilities, fans are on top of you more," Drew said. "You're not as spread out. The closer, the more noise. The more noise, the more motivation, and the harder it is to communicate for the other team."
Coming off her third national championship in the last 15 years, women's basketball coach Kim Mulkey said initially she was not excited about downsizing the arena "because we sell out." But, in the 30-year history of the Ferrell Center, there have been a total of 45 sellouts between the men's and women's basketball programs.
"Mack has obviously done his homework.," Mulkey said. "I trust that this is going to be awesome. What I hope happens is that I get a ton of calls: 'Coach, can you help me find a seat?' And I have to say, 'You should have bought season tickets.'''
Because of the additional funding needed, Rhoades said he can't pinpoint exactly when construction will begin or how soon the project will be completed, but "sooner rather than later."
"We needed to get this lead gift first," he said, "and really be able to now put our stake in the ground and say, 'Hey, we're building something brand new.'''
The basketball pavilion will also include separate locker rooms, practice gyms, team lounges and office suites for the men's and women's basketball programs, as well as shared athletic medicine and athletic performance areas.
"Coaches know what they want and how they want it, so they'll be very involved in terms of the design process," Rhoades said. "I even thought about this last night. We're just going to say, 'Scott, you have this much square feet. Kim, you have this much square feet. Go at it.' But they will be very involved in the process."
Once the basketball programs move to the new pavilion, Rhoades said, the Ferrell Center will go through an estimated $20 million renovation to become a state of the art competitive and practice facility for the volleyball and acrobatics & tumbling teams. A&T, which just won its fifth consecutive national championship, currently practices in the Marrs McLean Gymnasium that is also used for health, kinesiology and leisure studies classes.
"I guarantee you when this hits the news waves, I'll get text messages going, 'Coach Fee, does this mean we don't have to pull the mats up every day?''' A&T head coach Felecia Mulkey said. "Which, it takes three minutes to pull them up, but it's a very big deal when they don't have to. It's going to be fantastic, just to have that place."
Volleyball coach Ryan McGuyre said this will give both the volleyball and acrobatics & tumbling programs a place they can call home.
"We're a family, but for our volleyball and acro programs to have a home where girls have a safe place where they know they can hang out together, train together, we can live together, it's pretty exciting," he said.
Calling himself "an engineer at heart," McGuyre said he has some innovative ideas in renovating the Ferrell Center, including relocating the bear habitat.
"That would be fun for the kids and the families to incorporate over, where they have a place on the concourse where they can overlook and see it," he said. "These are my crazy dreams. They haven't talked to me about it yet, but I'd love ot have a bear that when the decibels get loud enough, smoke and fire come out of its eyes and a big 'Sic 'Em!' arm comes down to encourage people to do that. I worked at Disney a long time ago. I think there's a lot of innovative ways you can do that, to make it fun."
Football head coach Matt Rhule said that "it's one thing to have a campaign, but when you start getting these types of gifts, it just says, 'Hey, we're going to get these things done. We're going to get the football operations building.'''
Another one of the signature projects in the Athletics Master Plan, the football operations facility would also be built on the south side of the Brazos River, adjacent to the Allison Indoor Practice Facility.
"So, it's twofold," Rhule said. "I'm happy for these sports, and I believe Baylor is a place of being elite. It's elite academics, it's elite athletics. But, at the same time, it gives me confidence that there are people giving and we're going to hit these marks and make these things happen."
WACO, Texas – Baylor University Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Mack Rhoades announced Tuesday a significant lead gift toward the construction of a new basketball facility, one of the signature projects in the Athletics Master Plan portion of the university's $1.1 billion Give Light campaign.
This news follows the recent announcement of the largest current gift in university history - $100 million provided by a generous anonymous donor in support of the university-wide Give Light campaign. A portion of this transformational gift will create a pathway to bring a new fieldhouse-concept, currently called the Baylor Basketball Pavilion, to fruition.
"Today is an exciting day for Baylor Athletics. We are incredibly grateful to this Baylor Family, their vision and their generosity in enabling this incredible concept to come to life on our campus," Rhoades said. "This marks a tremendous step forward in our effort to create the nation's best home-court advantage for each of our 19 intercollegiate sport programs."
With a lead gift in place, Baylor Athletics is now in a position to secure additional funding and approvals needed to move forward with a formal plan for design and construction. A location is secured, and the pavilion will be built on the south side of the Brazos River between Baylor Ballpark and the Ferrell Center. With a projected capacity of 7,000-7,500, the fieldhouse has an estimated cost of $105 million.
The pavilion will also include a new integrated state of the art practice facility, to include separate locker rooms, practice gyms, team lounges, and office suites – as well as shared athletic medicine and athletic performance spaces.
Once completed, both men's and women's basketball will move into the Baylor Basketball Pavilion, allowing the Ferrell Center to undergo significant improvements to meet the practice and competition needs of Baylor's highly competitive volleyball and acrobatics and tumbling programs.
"This gift is symbolic of our united effort to raise the bar across all of our sports," Rhoades said. "While the Ferrell Center has been home to our men and women's basketball programs for over 30 years, this project will now create additional opportunities beyond basketball. With volleyball and acrobatics and tumbling taking over the Ferrell Center, they too gain a remarkable competitive advantage for their respective sports.
What the coaches are saying:
Felecia Mulkey, Head Acrobatics and Tumbling Coach:
"It will mean a great deal for our program to be housed in the Ferrell Center. We have enjoyed our time in historic Marrs McLean Gym but look forward to a new space for us to continue to Prepare Champions for Life. The Ferrell Center will give us the space to develop our student-athletes into champions at the highest level while giving them the best student-athlete experience in the country."
Kim Mulkey, Head Lady Bears Basketball Coach:
"We are grateful to Baylor for its continued commitment to our basketball program. The Ferrell Center has housed some great moments in Lady Bear history and we look forward to creating new memories in our new arena. Thanks to the generosity of our donors who have made it possible to continue to build the country's best home-court advantage."
Ryan McGuyre, Head Volleyball Coach:
"Expanding opportunities for acrobatics and tumbling and volleyball in the Ferrell Center will enhance the holistic experience for our student-athletes. This facility will lessen scheduling conflicts due to facility availability, allowing for greater flexibility in practice schedules. Facilities are an important part of the college athletic experience - they help shape our program and better equip us to recruit high-level players to Baylor."
Scott Drew, Head Basketball Coach:
"This is a game-changer for our program. There's nothing more impactful than a new arena, especially one that brings our fans closer to the action. The Baylor Basketball Pavilion will be an incredible environment and will create a tremendous home-court advantage to help us compete for Big 12 championships. The Baylor Basketball family is so grateful for these generous donors who stepped forward to provide this lead gift."
Baylor Bear Insider
In a "transformational" move designed to give the men's and women's basketball programs "what we think it takes to be elite and be competitive nationally," Baylor University Vice President and Director of Athletics Mack Rhoades announced Tuesday plans to add a new, $105 million basketball facility.
One of the four signature projects in the Athletics Master Plan portion of the university's $1.1 billion Give Light campaign, the new Baylor Basketball Pavilion will be partially funded by the historical $100 million anonymous gift that was announced Saturday by Baylor President Linda A. Livingstone.
"We can't say enough in terms of how grateful we are to this family and the belief they have in this institution," Rhoades said. "When you think about this basketball pavilion, we want it to be certainly the best in the country. We want to create a facility that is great for our fans and provides a first-class fan experience, but also something that's great for our student-athletes and helps us continue to build a legacy of winning championships."
Rhoades said an additional $30 million needs to be raised to fund the new basketball pavilion, which will be built on the south side of the Brazos River adjacent to Baylor Ballpark in a portion of the existing parking lot for the 30-year-old Ferrell Center. The new, basketball-only facility is expected to seat between 7,000 and 7,500, compared to the 10,284-seat Ferrell Center.
"When you look at some of the facility projects recently, they tend to all be downsizing," Rhoades said. "I think very similar to this facility (McLane Stadium), they got this right in terms of 45,000 seats.
"So, just trying to be real with who we are and trying to create a very intimate environment, something that we can sell out. The phenomena of supply and demand and making this the place to be. The place to be for our fans, that our student-athletes feel that . . . that they know each and every night, they're going to play in front of an extremely electrifying crowd."
Men's basketball coach Scott Drew said the new basketball pavilion is a "game-changer."
"The big thing nowadays in facilities is proximity. In new facilities, fans are on top of you more," Drew said. "You're not as spread out. The closer, the more noise. The more noise, the more motivation, and the harder it is to communicate for the other team."
Coming off her third national championship in the last 15 years, women's basketball coach Kim Mulkey said initially she was not excited about downsizing the arena "because we sell out." But, in the 30-year history of the Ferrell Center, there have been a total of 45 sellouts between the men's and women's basketball programs.
"Mack has obviously done his homework.," Mulkey said. "I trust that this is going to be awesome. What I hope happens is that I get a ton of calls: 'Coach, can you help me find a seat?' And I have to say, 'You should have bought season tickets.'''
Because of the additional funding needed, Rhoades said he can't pinpoint exactly when construction will begin or how soon the project will be completed, but "sooner rather than later."
"We needed to get this lead gift first," he said, "and really be able to now put our stake in the ground and say, 'Hey, we're building something brand new.'''
The basketball pavilion will also include separate locker rooms, practice gyms, team lounges and office suites for the men's and women's basketball programs, as well as shared athletic medicine and athletic performance areas.
"Coaches know what they want and how they want it, so they'll be very involved in terms of the design process," Rhoades said. "I even thought about this last night. We're just going to say, 'Scott, you have this much square feet. Kim, you have this much square feet. Go at it.' But they will be very involved in the process."
Once the basketball programs move to the new pavilion, Rhoades said, the Ferrell Center will go through an estimated $20 million renovation to become a state of the art competitive and practice facility for the volleyball and acrobatics & tumbling teams. A&T, which just won its fifth consecutive national championship, currently practices in the Marrs McLean Gymnasium that is also used for health, kinesiology and leisure studies classes.
"I guarantee you when this hits the news waves, I'll get text messages going, 'Coach Fee, does this mean we don't have to pull the mats up every day?''' A&T head coach Felecia Mulkey said. "Which, it takes three minutes to pull them up, but it's a very big deal when they don't have to. It's going to be fantastic, just to have that place."
Volleyball coach Ryan McGuyre said this will give both the volleyball and acrobatics & tumbling programs a place they can call home.
"We're a family, but for our volleyball and acro programs to have a home where girls have a safe place where they know they can hang out together, train together, we can live together, it's pretty exciting," he said.
Calling himself "an engineer at heart," McGuyre said he has some innovative ideas in renovating the Ferrell Center, including relocating the bear habitat.
"That would be fun for the kids and the families to incorporate over, where they have a place on the concourse where they can overlook and see it," he said. "These are my crazy dreams. They haven't talked to me about it yet, but I'd love ot have a bear that when the decibels get loud enough, smoke and fire come out of its eyes and a big 'Sic 'Em!' arm comes down to encourage people to do that. I worked at Disney a long time ago. I think there's a lot of innovative ways you can do that, to make it fun."
Football head coach Matt Rhule said that "it's one thing to have a campaign, but when you start getting these types of gifts, it just says, 'Hey, we're going to get these things done. We're going to get the football operations building.'''
Another one of the signature projects in the Athletics Master Plan, the football operations facility would also be built on the south side of the Brazos River, adjacent to the Allison Indoor Practice Facility.
"So, it's twofold," Rhule said. "I'm happy for these sports, and I believe Baylor is a place of being elite. It's elite academics, it's elite athletics. But, at the same time, it gives me confidence that there are people giving and we're going to hit these marks and make these things happen."
WACO, Texas – Baylor University Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Mack Rhoades announced Tuesday a significant lead gift toward the construction of a new basketball facility, one of the signature projects in the Athletics Master Plan portion of the university's $1.1 billion Give Light campaign.
This news follows the recent announcement of the largest current gift in university history - $100 million provided by a generous anonymous donor in support of the university-wide Give Light campaign. A portion of this transformational gift will create a pathway to bring a new fieldhouse-concept, currently called the Baylor Basketball Pavilion, to fruition.
"Today is an exciting day for Baylor Athletics. We are incredibly grateful to this Baylor Family, their vision and their generosity in enabling this incredible concept to come to life on our campus," Rhoades said. "This marks a tremendous step forward in our effort to create the nation's best home-court advantage for each of our 19 intercollegiate sport programs."
With a lead gift in place, Baylor Athletics is now in a position to secure additional funding and approvals needed to move forward with a formal plan for design and construction. A location is secured, and the pavilion will be built on the south side of the Brazos River between Baylor Ballpark and the Ferrell Center. With a projected capacity of 7,000-7,500, the fieldhouse has an estimated cost of $105 million.
The pavilion will also include a new integrated state of the art practice facility, to include separate locker rooms, practice gyms, team lounges, and office suites – as well as shared athletic medicine and athletic performance spaces.
Once completed, both men's and women's basketball will move into the Baylor Basketball Pavilion, allowing the Ferrell Center to undergo significant improvements to meet the practice and competition needs of Baylor's highly competitive volleyball and acrobatics and tumbling programs.
"This gift is symbolic of our united effort to raise the bar across all of our sports," Rhoades said. "While the Ferrell Center has been home to our men and women's basketball programs for over 30 years, this project will now create additional opportunities beyond basketball. With volleyball and acrobatics and tumbling taking over the Ferrell Center, they too gain a remarkable competitive advantage for their respective sports.
What the coaches are saying:
Felecia Mulkey, Head Acrobatics and Tumbling Coach:
"It will mean a great deal for our program to be housed in the Ferrell Center. We have enjoyed our time in historic Marrs McLean Gym but look forward to a new space for us to continue to Prepare Champions for Life. The Ferrell Center will give us the space to develop our student-athletes into champions at the highest level while giving them the best student-athlete experience in the country."
Kim Mulkey, Head Lady Bears Basketball Coach:
"We are grateful to Baylor for its continued commitment to our basketball program. The Ferrell Center has housed some great moments in Lady Bear history and we look forward to creating new memories in our new arena. Thanks to the generosity of our donors who have made it possible to continue to build the country's best home-court advantage."
Ryan McGuyre, Head Volleyball Coach:
"Expanding opportunities for acrobatics and tumbling and volleyball in the Ferrell Center will enhance the holistic experience for our student-athletes. This facility will lessen scheduling conflicts due to facility availability, allowing for greater flexibility in practice schedules. Facilities are an important part of the college athletic experience - they help shape our program and better equip us to recruit high-level players to Baylor."
Scott Drew, Head Basketball Coach:
"This is a game-changer for our program. There's nothing more impactful than a new arena, especially one that brings our fans closer to the action. The Baylor Basketball Pavilion will be an incredible environment and will create a tremendous home-court advantage to help us compete for Big 12 championships. The Baylor Basketball family is so grateful for these generous donors who stepped forward to provide this lead gift."
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