Today the University of Oregon unveiled plans for a new, six-story building that will serve exclusively as the headquarters for the school’s football program.
(Wait, isn’t this where they invented the iPod?)
The building, which reportedly will cost $41 million, will be donated by Phil Knight after construction of the project is completed. The facility includes:
- Nine dedicated football position meeting rooms
- Two team video theaters Offense and defense strategy rooms
- Larger conference suite for the entire coaching staff.
- Players’ lounge
- Recruiting center to host prospective student-athletes
- Dedicated areas to accommodate professional scouts
- Media interview room
- Advanced video editing and distribution center
- State of the art laptop serial number removal soldering station
Okay, I made the last one up.
More:
The entire project will be privately funded through the philanthropy of Phil and Penny Knight and will include no use of public, state or general university fund dollars. Construction is expected to get underway after the first of the year, with the anticipated completion targeted for the summer of 2013.
My favorite part of the Oregon press release about the new football facility is the mention of the new lacrosse stadium that will also be constructed as part of the project.
The expansion of the Casanova Center also will result in the creation of a new stadium complex for the school’s women’s soccer and lacrosse programs, which will be located at the east end of Autzen Stadium and to the south of PK Park.
Amenities to the first-class facility for spectators will include a pre-game event village that will include ticketing, concessions and restrooms also accessible for tailgaters that will enhance the Ducks’ fan experience during football game-day activities.
The synthetic playing surface also will allow for tented tailgating opportunities to take place inside the stadium during other athletics events.
So one of the main reasons the lacrosse and soccer facility is being built is so it can serve as a tailgating area for home football games.
In other news, Oregon State also announced it will soon be upgrading its football facility.
The school is reportedly set to replace the outdated cigarette machine located adjacent to the football team’s indoor picnic (training) table.
Though the donor for the upgrade wishes to remain anonymous, I have it on good authority that the Randy Quaid family trust may be behind such an act of profound generosity. #GOBEAVS
Follow Brooks on Twitter for real-time updates.
4:00 pm on November 22nd, 2010
All on the backs of slave labor….where are the liberals of academia now?
4:26 pm on November 22nd, 2010
Nine dedicated football position meeting rooms
1.) QB
2.) RB
3.) WR
4.) OL
5.) DL
6.) LB
7.) DB
8.) Special Teams
9.) TE?
4:41 pm on November 22nd, 2010
Brooks, weren’t you attacking the UW AD a week or so ago for his suggestion that Oregon’s priorities were a bit out of whack? I seem to recall you and others pointing out that the Knight’s gave for a library and a couple of other buildings and there was an implication that the Knight family is just as concerned with academics as they were the football team.
Coach Kelly himself has joked at times that Phil Knight is like the “owner” of the football team.
4:48 pm on November 22nd, 2010
“The building, which reportedly will cost $41 million…”
that’s actually false. that 41 million was reportedly the cost of the new Jaqua Academic center. Phil Knight himself wrote a letter to the editor to the Oregonian earlier this year debunking the cost claim. If you actually read how the Oregonian came to the $41 million number you’d laugh your ass off. So, in other words, before you post, read the article first and then write stuff not the other way around
6:08 pm on November 22nd, 2010
It would be cool if they could somehow combine all 33 Duck uniform colors into the facade. Maybe a new plaid scheme? Somewhere in that building may be born a real defense.
6:48 pm on November 22nd, 2010
Yes Washington loves to throw the University of Knight thing around. Maybe the Husky fan should take a good look at the Swoosh on all their team jersey’s Thanks for the support !
6:59 pm on November 22nd, 2010
Ducks Unlimited!!!
9:28 pm on November 22nd, 2010
University of Oregon at Beaverton? Oregon’s facilities are pretty ridiculous, but USC may finally be catching up.
UW fans are hilarious. You guys are a bottom tier program now and have the worst facilities in the conference.
10:49 pm on November 22nd, 2010
Why would anyone care that PK donates so much to UO? It’s his money to do with as he wishes, and if UO is the benefactor, good for them. he’s not gonna donate it to UW because he didn’t go to UW…
11:23 pm on November 22nd, 2010
At some point, college athletic programs will have to slow down in this “arms race.” At some point, athletic programs can’t continue to try and outdo eachother. Everytime one guy makes an upgrade, his competitors try and follow.
11:25 pm on November 22nd, 2010
Agree with Ur…..I am an Iowa fan, so have no vested interest in UO…..but if PK wants to do this with HIS money, more power to him.
12:44 am on November 23rd, 2010
PRIVATE AREA FOR PRO SCOUTS? USC HAS FOR YEARS HAD A PUBLIC AREA FOR AGENTS…THE LOCKEROOM
1:05 am on November 23rd, 2010
Don’t worry Pac-10 people, whatever some USC fan tells you you can always respond with “Does it matter if you’re still in the ghetto?” Which is where that school is located. I think anyone would pick UW over that.
2:59 am on November 23rd, 2010
No matter how much money you spend, you are still not in the SEC.
4:42 am on November 23rd, 2010
There is a kiosk in the main foyer for a bail bondsman. The proverbial get out of jail fee. I wonder if the Oregon State AD is miffed that his sugar daddy benefactor decided on potato salad and hot links?
10:18 am on November 23rd, 2010
Flashy uniforms, wealthy benefactor, rabid fans, loud stadium. I have been a Duck since I was in grade school. I sat through the 2 & 7 seasons in the rain and cold hoping we would beat the Beavers to get to 3 and 7, (recall the PAC 8?). I have seen the Ducks come from obscurity to a national stage. However it is done (deep pockets, marketing), if you got it use it. No one is holding a gun to PK. BTW, Coach Kelly has cleaned up the Oregon program within a year. Coach Carol pulled out of USC because he saw the writting on the wall. Go back to your school and do what you can. Grow up whining sissy’s.
10:44 am on November 23rd, 2010
jealous
11:05 am on November 23rd, 2010
Sounds like a great facility, but
if you are going to compete with
a certain team in the SEC for
recruiting, you have to install
ATM machines and slot machines.
11:27 am on November 23rd, 2010
I thought the tag line Rich get Richer was completely a slam……It should have said something to the effect that alumni gives back to University (for the __th time….
Thanx Phil and Penny…………..we respect and admire your support!!
12:36 pm on November 23rd, 2010
Thank You Uncle Phil!!
We are contacting as many of your Outstanding HS
Athletes as we can Possibly find ! They are all anxious
to impress you ! WoW, it is nice to be a DUCK now !
1:00 pm on November 23rd, 2010
Grant’s got it right, if we were the SEC we wouldn’t be able to afford all of these nice things because the player salaries would just kill our budget
1:53 pm on November 23rd, 2010
Why do people gripe about donations like this?
Maybe its not just about U-of-O. Maybe its about our society in general. Those that are rich can choose to further advance football programs and ignore choices that would truly advance society.
Its JUST A GAME. But many people are choosing to put the game of football ahead of things that really matter in life.
Case in point… I went to a booster meeting for my school where I witnessed a very young couple with babies in tow signing up for very expensive season football tickets. I was very sad watching that young family spending their limited resources on WATCHING A GAME.
2:36 pm on November 23rd, 2010
Thats a crazy Facility, whoever heard such a thing…….. more brownie pts to you ducks, I am a big Prefontaine Fan, always will be………. is there a place we can put the money somewhere else, like the school system in American, thats a start. Well, good luck with the pursuit of excellence……. I think our children growing up in public schools need a hand……
2:44 pm on November 23rd, 2010
It’s amazing the amount of money you can make by using asian child labor to make your product. Just Do It!
5:38 pm on November 23rd, 2010
So what if PK wants to spend ridiculous amounts of money to build facilities and help with recruiting. It seems that it’s mostly the HAVES that are constantly whining to try keeping the HAVE-NOTS out of their own respective clubs.
Every big program has their own things going for them, whether its money, tradition, location, their coaching staff, their facilities, their style of play or even the under the table kick-backs. It’s ridiculous to insist that the Ducks somehow shouldn’t be aloud into this club, plus all the money is coming from private donations, so what is it of anyone’s business? The other schools can just go find their own billionaire philanthropists.
Cry me a river USC.
6:09 pm on November 23rd, 2010
It does not really matter what the ducks do–they are flash in the pan.
6:34 pm on November 23rd, 2010
Oh Man! How could they leave out the Tatoo room that tats the Nike Swoosh on the tush of all UO players????
8:30 pm on November 23rd, 2010
I wouldnt take a upper decker in that hole..
6:53 am on November 24th, 2010
@Tom, you were doing great until the cheap shot at Pete Carroll. There is no way he could have known that 120 miles away Reggie Bush’s parents moved into a house they couldn’t afford. If he hired private investigators to check up on his star players’ families and was found out, he’d get fired and sued. Two years of probation didn’t make him leave. He got an offer to go back to the NFL and make up for his failure and too it.
But all hail Nike. Good for Knight - help the athletes and the students. His money to blow as he wishes.
10:51 am on November 24th, 2010
Lets not forget that Leland Stanford has an entire university named after him. Thats a donor.
11:22 am on November 24th, 2010
What about a recording studio for “On the Rocks” the schools accapella group….?
They ROCK!
6:05 pm on November 24th, 2010
Thank god we aren’t in the SEC! We in the NW prefer not to keep it in the family. Get my drift, Grant Billybob?
7:04 pm on November 24th, 2010
I was suffering from EDF , till I read this Article..Good for Us!
7:51 pm on November 24th, 2010
How many mainstream blogs or news sources are there reporting on academics and academic donations at major universities..yawn….how about sports? You have to be a fool not to realize how much money and attention athletics brings to these schools-which helps the academic side of things. So yeah I’m going to watch the football game in a fabulous remodeled stadium and then I am going to go sit in the world-class library built ala Phil Knight and I say thank you for being so generous (but maybe you should back off on the child labor).
9:59 pm on November 24th, 2010
41 million for a college football facility.–Come to Texas and see the new Allen High School — 60 MILLION — dollar football stadium.
3:57 pm on November 25th, 2010
thank god some schools are tryin to compete with usc now in the pac. it was always the pac 1. this is oregons best chance to have some say. i have a feelin phil knight had a say with the ncaa allegations. there never was proof on reggie. he was just caught with his pants down in the same room with phils mother. so you just assume he slept with her. but no actual proof. btw look at the rankings in world news. Its on Education. USC is 23. Oregon and to the Texas fan: you guys are below 60. How about you worry about your education. chances are you dont even go to either school
12:59 pm on December 20th, 2010
Go ahead Ducks, we wish u the best for the game facing Tigers! Don’t even bother; they are only paper tigers, not real ones!
11:45 am on September 3rd, 2011
The duplicity of the NCAA is incredible. A student couldn’t get free shoes from Nike, but the school is effectively getting a $40 million dollar building from them. With no strings attached, right? Except that Nike will have first access to these athletes as future sponsors for their products. But in the NCAA’s eyes, that’s probably a win-win.
8:43 pm on January 16th, 2012
Where are the offices for the Street Agents?