Future looks brighter, bigger for Carver-Hawkeye
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By Steve Batterson | Wednesday, January 09, 2008 |
University of Iowa officials expect to unveil a plan in upcoming weeks that will assure Carver-Hawkeye Arena of a future as bright as its past.
A renovation, expected to cost between $25 million-$40 million, will modernize and expand the facility to meet the needs of the programs it houses and those who attend events there.
“There is a need,” Iowa director of athletics Gary Barta said during a visit to the Quad-Cities last fall. “Those of us who work there every day understand how limited space is and those who come to our games understand how difficult it can be to get from the top to the bottom of the arena.
“After 25 years, it’s probably time to move the facility forward. It is pretty much the same building now that it was when it opened, and in a lot of ways we’ve outgrown it.”
The Iowa Board of Regents approved the hiring of HNTB Architecture and Neumann Monson Architects — the same firms that oversaw the $86.9 million renovation of Kinnick Stadium — to handle design work for a project.
Iowa officials will announce fundraising details soon, the first step in a project that has a tentative completion goal of 2010.
Inside the arena, officials are looking at adding club seating areas. Suites are not likely because of the architecture of the facility.
Barta said it is hoped that additional elevators can be installed, providing fans seated in lower areas of the arena with an alternative to climbing the 84 steps that stretch from the first through 42nd row of seats.
Beyond the walls of the existing structure, a new practice facility will be added to the north side of the arena.
It will contain two full-sized basketball courts for use by the Iowa men’s and women’s basketball teams and for the Hawkeyes volleyball team as needed. The three teams share the one arena court for practices.
Basketball coaches Todd Lickliter and Lisa Bluder say cooperation has made the existing situation work, but they would prefer to have a court to call their own.
“It would be beneficial,’’ Bluder said. “If a player wants to come in and shoot on their own time, that sometimes isn’t possible if another team is working out.”
In some respects, the addition of a practice facility would simply allow Iowa to keep pace with facilities built in recent years at other Big Ten schools, including Illinois and Wisconsin.
“It is something people ask about,” Lickliter said. “Kids today are looking for bells and whistles, and when they ask us where our practice facility is, we usually tell them they are standing in it. Down the road, a practice facility would be a good addition for our program.”
Weight-training facilities that are used by athletes in 23 of Iowa’s 24 sports also would be expanded and renovations are planned to help ease a shortage of office space in a building that houses not only administrators, but coaches of most Iowa programs.
Steve Batterson can be contacted at (563) 383-2290 or sbatterson@qctimes.com.
The big picture
Iowa has or expects to invest more than $150 million in athletics facilities during this decade. The department of athletics, which does not receive money from the university’s general fund, uses private donations and funds from other sources such as ticket sales, long-term contracts for suites and club seats at renovated Kinnick Stadium and TV and radio contracts to pay for improvements.
Here are facility expenditures of the athletics department in recent years:
2002: $2 million, new soccer stadium
2002: $1.8 million, Kenyon Football Practice Facility
2003: $5 million, Gerdin Academic Learning Center for student-athletes
2005-06: $12 million, Grant Field field hockey facility, soccer practice facility and Hawkeye Tennis Recreation Center
2006: $86.9 million, Kinnick Stadium renovation
2008: $3.5 million, UI Recreation Building renovation
2009: $5 million, UI Boathouse facility on the Iowa River
2009: $9 million toward $69 million Campus Recreation and Wellness Center, including a new intercollegiate swimming and diving facility
2010: $25 million-$40 million, renovation and expansion of Carver-Hawkeye Arena
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