A Forum story a few weeks ago on the fundraising for the Bison Sports Arena renovation quoted Gene Taylor as saying there was an Aug. 15 deadline to raise the necessary funds to begin going through the necessary approval stages if the project was to be bid out this fall. That all is correct. But Taylor said he’s also heard that people have taken that to mean fundraising will cease if the Aug. 15 deadline isn’t met.
Not true. If NDSU doesn’t raise all $32 million this month, it simply means approvals and bids will be moved back. No doubt this project is a go, just a matter of when the remaining $2 million can be secured.
Moreover, in talking with Gene today, that deadline is more fluid than once thought, mainly because meeting dates for various governmental bodies have not been set. For instance, NDSU would have to get approval of a North Dakota legislative committee and that group hasn’t decided when it will hold its quarterly meeting.
Only tangentially related , but when do you expect the indoor football practice facility to be finished?
Not an indoor football practice facility, it is an indoor track facility. Should be completed this fall; possible ribbon cutting at Homecoming.
Jeff or Dom, I know the Bison need an indoor practice facility but can’t the new indoor track venue be used for that? The sports, football and track, are different seasons and even if training times overlapped the different sports could use the place at different times of the day. As far as the new BSA renovation scrap it and plan for a new 50,000 seat Dome with an attached 8,000 seat basketball arena. I know it is expensive and fundraising is tough but we all know that 19,000 for a football facilty is not going to cut it in a community that is growing by leaps and bounds. In an article in the Forum on August 20, 2011 it stated that looking more than a decade off Sanford health is looking to a second phase for it’s new medical center. They are projecting Fargo-Moorhead’s population to be growing at 7% people a year at that time. Using the 2010 metro population of 208,000 that is over 14,000 people a year. By 2040 they project F-M to be growing at 16.6%. Why keep building things that won’t make sense size wise in 10 years? Go Bison!
nice to see you guys listening to me and getting to the bottom of this. bravo!
now try not banning or deleting my posts.
why cant they just start up the BSA with $2million short?
find 4 businesses @ $500,000k over 20 years and give them a corner of the bsa and a suite. just do it already, wheres the urgency, a solid ncaa basketball team would launch ndsu even bigger.
Really? Thats all it takes? 500,000 to watch NDSU basketball?Wheres the upside for the donator?
Sanford Health should cut another #2 million check and be done with it.