The Penn State Board of Trustees Committee on Finance, Business and Capital Planning is set to consider on Thursday a proposed $7.5 million renovation and upgrade project for Holuba Hall, according to the committee’s publicly available agenda.
According to the agenda, ‘the University intends to renovate the Lasch Outdoor / Holuba Hall Practice Fields with various practice and support equipment and infrastructure. The project scope includes a permanent video board and sound system at the practice fields, play clocks, goal post, and netting at the artificial turf field, and a videoboard, sound system, and filming cameras inside Holuba Hall.”
Penn State football’s indoor practice facility — which serves other athletics functionalities as well — has undergone a handful of more minor changes and upgrades in recent years.
The project would require approval by the full Board of Trustees at its meeting on Friday afternoon.
If approved, the Philadelphia branch of the design firm HOK would take on the project. HOK has worked with Penn State Athletics in the past, most recently in conjunction with the completed and ongoing Lasch Building renovations. The project, according to Penn State, is slated to be funded by debt servicing and will mark the first substantial facilities undertaking by new Athletic Director Patrick Kraft.
In a similar vein, Penn State football reported $6.1 million in debt servicing during the most recent fiscal year – having historically reported well less than $100,000 in the same area in recent years. Former Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Sandy Barbour had noted previously that Penn State’s recently completed Lasch Building upgrades – which was earmarked for a $48 million budget – would include some elements debt servicing. How much of that $6.1 is related to that project is unknown. A second project funded under debt servicing rather than philanthropy [historically Penn State athletics has funded major projects through philanthropy] could lead to some debate on a Board of Trustees that did not unanimously side with the previous – albeit larger scale – project.
“I think probably the biggest factor for that is the alignment,” Penn State football coach James Franklin said recently regarding alignment between the program and the administration. “That has been phenomenal. I think you guys know in the past, I’ve always been happy with the leadership, but I did feel we needed more alignment. Specifically when it comes to football. I think that’s been obvious from the chair to the president. If you spend time around our president, she just has an energy, an enthusiasm and a positivity for Penn State specifically, but for this community and for students and their experience. It’s infectious. It really is.
“(Kraft) is aggressive when it comes to athletics and I think is fighting for not just football, for all the sports. So that has been really good. That has been a real positive. That’s probably the biggest thing. I feel like I can focus more of my time and energy on our players and our program right now then probably I ever have in 12 years all the way back to Vanderbilt.”
