Osborne: Other projects trump new basketball facilities
The biggest recruiting boost to Nebraska’s basketball programs, athletic director Tom Osborne said, would be a new arena.
In regard to facilities, he calls it “the No. 1 issue” in wanting to have a great basketball program.
“The arena is something we’d like to see happen,” Osborne said, “but there’s no guarantee it will.”
For one thing, a public vote on a proposed arena near Lincoln’s Haymarket district won’t occur until next spring.
As for a potential accompanying basketball practice facility?
Right now, Osborne said, that doesn’t top the Nebraska athletic department’s priority list.
The 30-year-old Devaney Sports Center, Osborne said, needs $10 million of maintenance, with or without a new arena. Nebraska’s academic center, which serves all athletes, hasn’t had any recent upgrades. Osborne also wants a hall of fame to house the trophies and memorabilia currently “strung all over.”
Those projects, Osborne said, come before practice gyms for the basketball teams.
“We probably would need some help from some booster or boosters who would want to come forward and do that, because we have so many other things that have to come first,” Osborne said. “You can’t let your stadium fall in. You can’t let Devaney deteriorate to where it’s no longer functional.
“If Boone Pickens swings up this way and drops 15 million on us, we’d be happy to take it. Hopefully, there might be some contributors.”
Nebraska is the only Big 12 Conference school without either a basketball practice facility, or current plans or fundraising designated for one.
The most recent upgrades involving men’s basketball occurred with coach Doc Sadler’s arrival in 2006, when Nebraska spent $563,000 on office renovation, a new locker area, athletic medicine improvements, displays for former players and a Coaches Club section for donors on game days.
By contrast, Texas A&M is spending $22 million on basketball facilities, a project that will be completed this fall.
Osborne said he hadn’t seen enough basketball facilities around the Big 12 to know if Nebraska is on par with its competition.
“Practice facilities are nice, and nice offices and dressing rooms and those kinds of things,” Osborne said. “But you want to remember we were able to win a fair number of football games, and we didn’t have the Taj Mahal of facilities.
“We were OK, and people, I know, have built progressively. The main thing is you’re looking for functionality, that you have what you really need to be good. That’s what we’re going to try to make sure every sport has an opportunity to do.”
Some plans for a new downtown arena in Lincoln include attached practice gyms. Some plans have a separate facility.
Osborne said he’d like to have a footprint where space is available for a practice facility, and the athletic department would then build when it has generated enough money — probably $15 million to $20 million.
“At one point, we talked to the city about putting the practice facility as part of the arena, and maybe using some of that space for conventions when we weren’t practicing,” Osborne said. “But that doesn’t seem to be met with wild enthusiasm at the present time, so we may end up with a separate facility.”
Reach Brian Rosenthal at 473-7436 or brosenthal@journalstar.com.
In regard to facilities, he calls it “the No. 1 issue” in wanting to have a great basketball program.
“The arena is something we’d like to see happen,” Osborne said, “but there’s no guarantee it will.”
For one thing, a public vote on a proposed arena near Lincoln’s Haymarket district won’t occur until next spring.
As for a potential accompanying basketball practice facility?
Right now, Osborne said, that doesn’t top the Nebraska athletic department’s priority list.
The 30-year-old Devaney Sports Center, Osborne said, needs $10 million of maintenance, with or without a new arena. Nebraska’s academic center, which serves all athletes, hasn’t had any recent upgrades. Osborne also wants a hall of fame to house the trophies and memorabilia currently “strung all over.”
Those projects, Osborne said, come before practice gyms for the basketball teams.
“We probably would need some help from some booster or boosters who would want to come forward and do that, because we have so many other things that have to come first,” Osborne said. “You can’t let your stadium fall in. You can’t let Devaney deteriorate to where it’s no longer functional.
“If Boone Pickens swings up this way and drops 15 million on us, we’d be happy to take it. Hopefully, there might be some contributors.”
Nebraska is the only Big 12 Conference school without either a basketball practice facility, or current plans or fundraising designated for one.
The most recent upgrades involving men’s basketball occurred with coach Doc Sadler’s arrival in 2006, when Nebraska spent $563,000 on office renovation, a new locker area, athletic medicine improvements, displays for former players and a Coaches Club section for donors on game days.
By contrast, Texas A&M is spending $22 million on basketball facilities, a project that will be completed this fall.
Osborne said he hadn’t seen enough basketball facilities around the Big 12 to know if Nebraska is on par with its competition.
“Practice facilities are nice, and nice offices and dressing rooms and those kinds of things,” Osborne said. “But you want to remember we were able to win a fair number of football games, and we didn’t have the Taj Mahal of facilities.
“We were OK, and people, I know, have built progressively. The main thing is you’re looking for functionality, that you have what you really need to be good. That’s what we’re going to try to make sure every sport has an opportunity to do.”
Some plans for a new downtown arena in Lincoln include attached practice gyms. Some plans have a separate facility.
Osborne said he’d like to have a footprint where space is available for a practice facility, and the athletic department would then build when it has generated enough money — probably $15 million to $20 million.
“At one point, we talked to the city about putting the practice facility as part of the arena, and maybe using some of that space for conventions when we weren’t practicing,” Osborne said. “But that doesn’t seem to be met with wild enthusiasm at the present time, so we may end up with a separate facility.”
Reach Brian Rosenthal at 473-7436 or brosenthal@journalstar.com.
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