Athletic Department: Basketball practice facility needs $17.4 million more

Three years ago, the Ohio State Athletic Department began raising money for a $22 million basketball practice facility that coaches Thad Matta and Jim Foster said is vital to their programs.

The facility, designed to be adjacent to the Schottenstein Center, was supposed to open this fall. However, the Athletic Department has raised just $4.6 million, said Pat Chun, associate athletic director for External Relations.

"When the economy bottomed out, that changed our planning," Chun said.

The Athletic Department must have the entire $22 million committed before it can break ground, said Ben Jay, associate athletic director of finance.

"The folks who were able to support Buckeye Nation in the past have not been able to give at the levels that they have been doing," Jay said.

The Athletic Department will not get any money for the project from the university, Jay said. OSU is going to be using its borrowing power for other projects, which Jay said include hospital expansion and student housing renovations.

The Athletic Department has its own priorities, as well. Jay listed a 3,500-seat sports pavilion, a new weight room, a rehabilitation center and locker rooms among the things competing with the practice facility for funds.

So, a facility that originally was to open in a few months is on the department's back-burner, Jay said.

And with no deadline, the facility will only get more expensive.

"You may be looking at a 5 to 6 percent escalating cost every year," Jay said. "The longer it takes for us to fundraise this, obviously, the potentially more expensive this project could be."

The expense is one that both the men's and women's programs feel is necessary to move to the elite level, said Foster, the women's coach.

Both programs have had success within the Big Ten conference, but in the last 40 years, the men have reached the NCAA Final Four only twice, and the women only once.

The teams practice in the arena's only auxiliary gym and "are periodically pushed over to the RPAC to practice," Athletic Director Gene Smith said.

Foster, however, said he understands the economics.

"I try to understand and recognize the economic climate today and I have a great deal of empathy for how difficult it would be to get the funding for something like this," he said. "I'm sure people are working really hard at getting it done, and whenever they get there is soon enough."

Smith said the department is getting more aggressive with its fundraising for the project. The strategy is to find a naming gift, a donation that will cover 50 percent of the cost.

So far, former Buckeye basketball star Michael Redd has contributed $500,000. There is no target date for funding, and Chun would not specify if other former players were being pursued for donations.

"What we like to do is if you give ‘x' amount, we honor you with a naming opportunity within the building, whether it's a court or a gym or an office or a locker," Chun said.

Whenever the facility is finished, many believe it will have an effect on the basketball program.

The facility would enable the coaches "to showcase to a kid that at Ohio State, you have the opportunity to accomplish all your dreams academically and athletically," Chun said. "We provide the necessary means to be all you can be."