UC borrows $9.7M for facility

In an effort to stay on pace for a Sept. 1, 2010, completion date, the athletics department at the University of Cincinnati will borrow $9.7 million for the Jefferson Avenue Sports Complex.

Jim Plummer, vice president for finance at UC, hopes work on the site will begin no later than Dec. 1.

The total cost for the facility will be $11.3 million after interest that accrues from the loan.

That total will cover the basics for the facility including a 50-yard field, a 100-yard field, the fencing and wall around the facility and the bubble that will cover the larger field.

Currently, the athletics department has received $6.5 million in donations and will receive an additional $5.1 million from three games that the UC football team will play.

Most of the donations are received during a five-year span and the money from the game contracts is not received until the games are played. By the end of the 2010 fiscal year (June 30, 2010), UC will have collected $2.1 million of the $6.5 million in donations.

With the loan of $9.7 million and the $2.1 million in hand, UC will be able to pay for
the complex.

The three game contracts include a matchup against Virginia Tech in 2012 that will pay UC $3.2 million, a game at Tennessee in 2011 for $950,000 and against Ohio State in 2012 that will make $900,000 for UC.

UC is owed the money whether they win or lose.

And despite rumors, Plummer and UC Director of Athletics Mike Thomas both say UC needs the practice facility no matter who the football coach is.

“I really and truly believe that if the next coach that you hire, if Brian Kelly is not here, the better the coach you get with the better facilities that you have,” Plummer said.

Still, a new facility won’t hurt in helping to keep Kelly at UC, but if the head coach does leave, the practice facility will be a way for the football program to continue it’s success.

“It’s a good step up from Central Michigan to the University of Cincinnati and then turning it into what he’s turned it into,” Plummer said of Kelly. “Now we have to sustain it and the way you sustain it is you have to have the facilities in place so that next coach that you have to go get  comes and looks at you and says ‘wow, this is a good place to come.’”

It is not known when construction will begin, but Thomas expects the area on Jefferson Avenue to be cleared and prepared for construction soon.