Upgrades to the stadium will house a recruitment center, new locker rooms, media rooms, additional bathrooms, concessions and renovated gates.

MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon, who was vocal about the present “grunginess” of the stadium said the project is not being done for vanity. Since parts of the stadium have not been renovated for half a century, she said the renovations are long overdue.

“The locker rooms have not been renovated since the 1960s… they are almost uninhabitable,” Simon said. “This needs to be fixed.”

Trustee Mitch Lyon also expressed a concern for the age-old locker rooms.

“It’s like I always say — the Spartan locker room is very Spartan because it has not been renovated… it’s cramped and its dated,” Lyon said.

Aside from the unattended locker rooms, Simon said the stadium in its present state presents several problems.

“There is no separate meeting areas to do external interviews and there is no separate space for officials to be able to be at the stadium so unfortunately they have to be brought back and forth to the stadium by a van.” Simon said.

Lyon said the renovations are a needed development for the university to keep up with Big Ten peer groups and other universities nationally.

“The lack of a media room is important, it doesn’t look good for a major university to have a double wide trailer serve as their media room in the back of the stadium,” Lyon said. “It’s much needed and fortunately people are stepping up to fund it.”

The renovations will be funded through MSU athletics and donations. No taxpayer dollars will be used in funding this project.

Also at the meeting, the board authorized the university to proceed with renovations to Munn Ice Arena. The upgrades will include new heating, ventilation and air conditioning system. The project also calls for replacement of Munn’s ice making system.

Both projects are aiming to be done by the 2014-2015 academic school year.