When MSU Trustee George Perles coached the MSU football team in the 1980s, the Duffy Daugherty Football Building was brand new.
But time has taken its toll on the nearly 30-year-old building. Decades of intercollegiate sports activities have deteriorated the training facilities, and the steam service lines have worn down through years of use.
To address these concerns, the MSU Board of Trustees will discuss a $14.6 million renovation project at its Friday meeting.
The plan to update and expand the building includes additional team meeting space, coaching offices and some road construction to improve its exterior quality.
"Facilities are so important to these players that stay all year long," Perles said. "They work in the summer, go to school in the summer, practice after school — this is their whole life."
Football linebacker Kaleb Thornhill can attest to that. Thornhill said although scholarship money attracted him to play football at MSU, the weight room facilities also were important.
"We need more room for other sports so we can get in there at the same time," said Thornhill, who completed his junior year of eligibility this past season.
"It gets too crowded. It's nice when you have good facilities because you're going to be there so much. It's a second home. You have to be comfortable in your surroundings."
However, the plan violates a university zoning ordinance in that it will sit closer to the street than what the ordinance allows — 65 feet from the building to the street.
The building would spill over 35 feet into the allowed space.
"Part of the action that's being requested from the board is the variance from the zoning ordinance to be constructed as currently designed," said University Engineer Bob Nestle.
"If they refuse to do that, then we'll be required to redesign. If they grant it, then it'll be built as designed. The thing you have to keep in mind is that the zoning ordinances can't cover all situations. In certain circumstances, it's not necessarily bad to not follow it."
Nestle said redesigning the project would take several months.
A new tunneled stream service is designed to replace a direct buried stream line, which provides heat and hot water.
It would have a "much, much longer life" and would be "better than the pipe which is stuck in the ground there now," Nestle said.
Perles added that because better-quality training facilities exist at other universities, those universities snatch up potential players more quickly.
"When you're recruiting a player, there isn't much you can offer him besides a scholarship — which is a lot — but the facilities are very important," he said. "We have to catch up.
"(The project) should help us get a better quality of recruit, which, in turn, should give us more victories — but it's not going to happen overnight."
The road construction would repair sidewalks on Chestnut Road between Shaw Lane and Wilson Road.
If approved, construction would begin this June and should be completed by January 2009.
The funding for the expansion project will come from contributions and the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics, which will pay $12 million. The additional $2.6 million for the road construction will be taken out of university construction general fund.
The board will meet at 9 a.m. Friday in the Administration Building.
Kristi Jourdan can be reached at jourdank@msu.edu.
