The facility will include a 23,000-square-foot building and will have two indoor ranges and an outdoor archery park with the possibility for expansion to Olympic level. It will house classrooms, a concession stand, 4-H youth programs, law enforcement and kinesiology-related curricula. It will be open to the public, as well as available to MSU students and faculty.

Expected to be completed in March of 2009, the facility will be located between Jolly Road and I-96, part of the site for the Ag Expo, adjacent to the MSU Police shooting range.

“It will be a real slick operation when it’s done. I think we’re going to find out we could have probably built it bigger, but we do have the opportunity to add on,” MSU Marksmanship Club coach Mike Gardner said. “So hopefully we get to that problem.”

The facility will be called the Demmer Center, in honor of the anchor donors and what MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon called “one of the finest families in supporting Michigan State.”

“The Demmer family, over a long period of time, have been very generous donors to the university,” Simon said. “We would not be able to get the project moving as rapidly as it has without them.”

Bill Demmer, who credited his parents with introducing him to MSU, said he felt like he was a part of the MSU faculty since working on the project.

“This is certainly an honor for me and my family,” Demmer said. “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for MSU, as my parents met here in 1938.

“MSU has just been a very important part of our lives. I just wanted to thank you very much for being able to allow our family to be a part of this.”

Fred Poston, vice president for finance and operations, assured the board that the facility would not pose any harm to campus.

“This is consistent with the board’s policy on firearms and bows,” he said. “The equipment that will be used there will be stored there. We won’t have these things in residence halls and places.”

Some MSU clubs’ interest, coupled with potential use for departments such as Criminal Justice, Fisheries and Wildlife and Kinesiology brought about the idea for a facility.

“We look to the future of this to help reinforce and continue to build on some programs we’ve really been working hard on,” said Rebecca Humphries, director of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

The center will grant facilities to groups like the Marskmanship Club and Archery Club that have been unable to compete at their desired levels due to inadequate space and facilities. Currently, the Archery Club practices in a hallway in IM-Sports West and the Marksmanship Club often uses space at Demonstration Hall.

“The archery team has really been struggling with shooting down hallways, and they’ve got national champions on their team,” Gardner said. He said archery is not an NCAA-level sport, but riflery is.

“Our goal is to be able to field an NCAA rifle team that will be able to compete on a national level and host an NCAA finals here on campus,” he said.

He also talked about the idea of having a college-level student compete against the world’s best at Olympic competitions.

“At the last Olympics, one of my son’s teammates was the US representative,” Gardner said. “The opportunity is there to do that. Alaska has the strongest program, winning something like seven national championships in the last eight years. They also had a member on the Olympic team.

“They beat out the army marksmanship people that do that for a living. Hopefully we’ll be able to get a Spartan there.”