The Ole Miss athletic department saw a lot of change in its first year under the direction of athletic director Ross Bjork. But with the groundbreaking of a new basketball arena and parking garage scheduled to take place in the next academic year, the changing won’t stop during year two.
“I think anybody that is a competitor is never satisfied,” Bjork said. “You always think you can do more, but I think what we’ve done and been consistent about saying is that we’ve laid that foundation for success in the future.
“Now, we just have to keep putting all the right ingredients in the foundation to keep growing.”
Those ingredients include facilities.
The new arena and parking garage are a part of the Forward Together Campaign, which has currently raised over $82 million of the $150 million goal. The parking garage construction is set to break ground in late 2013 or early 2014, while the new arena will break ground in the spring of 2014 and open sometime during the 2015-16 basketball season, according to Bjork.
Bjork said the new locations and designs of both structures will be released in a Sept. 6 announcement that will begin the next phase of the campaign. However, he did say the parking structure will likely have five levels and hold about 800 cars.
As far as the arena goes, which went into the design phase in March, Bjork said it will be a space that will not only be used for basketball games, but it will be a building that can be used five days a week with a food court, fan shop and sports museum.
“We’ve looked at expanding the student opportunities to having a space that’s open Monday through Friday,” Bjork said. “In the original plans, we had a space for students, but it was really only for gameday. What we said was, because of the location, this could be a destination Monday – Friday for students, faculty and staff if you want to grab something to eat, look at our history or buy a t-shirt.”
Excitement around the Ole Miss athletic department is higher than it’s been in a while, and Bjork knows his staff has to capitalize on that excitement to push Ole Miss to bigger goals.
“We’re not finished,” Bjork said. “We still have money to raise to put shovels into the ground.”
That is where the fans come in, and Bjork has been pleased with the response of the fan base during his first year.
In the last fiscal year, which ranges from July 1, 2012, to June 30, 2013, Ole Miss athletics raised $26 million in cash donations, a record for one year.
On March 1, the UMAA Foundation was rebranded into the Ole Miss Athletics Foundation and currently has more than 7,500 members, which is an all-time high. That number includes 1,500 new members that have joined since the rebranding took place.
However, Bjork and his staff are still striving to reach their goal of 10,000 members in the Ole Miss Athletics Foundation.
“It doesn’t matter what the (giving) level is. We want everyone to feel a part of it,” Bjork said. “If $50 is all you can give, great, let’s celebrate that. And if someone gives us a large gift, we’ll celebrate that as well.”
Bjork also said they intend to release plans to reach out to younger alumni this fall.
Another boost in the funds will come from the naming rights of the new arena, and those plans are already in the works.
“We would love to have a corporate name or donor name on our building. We are pursuing all kinds of different prospects in both categories right now,” Bjork said. “We have some good conversations going, but we haven’t been able to close anything yet. But we’re confident that something will be out there. It’s just a matter of who and at what level.
“We know the funding model calls for someone to put their name on that building, so we need to secure a gift or a sponsorship for that.”
The last phase of the campaign will focus around Vaught-Hemingway Stadium with the expansion of the north endzone and renovation of the suites on the west side of the stadium.
Bjork said the west side renovation will likely begin after the 2014 season and can be completed in one offseason.
The north endzone can also be done in an offseason, but the design plans will take a full year to put together and will not be started until the funds are in place.
“We would love to do it as soon as possible,” Bjork said of the north endzone. “We know if the demand is there then we’ll get going as soon as possible. As soon as we get our ducks in a row with finances, we’ll start a process and start designing.”
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