Central Michigan Univ. planning $32mn alumni center

Article by Coliseum, published July 23, 2018

Image: Populous

Central Michigan University (CMU) is planning to build a new building on its campus to cater to alumni, athletes and sports fan, Michigan-based MLive media website reported.

Plans are in place to construct the Chippewa Champions Alumni Center, a massive, $31.5 million building that features a workout center, sports medicine area for student-athletes, a new football locker room and equipment room, new visiting locker rooms, and office space, the report said.

The new center was presented to the Central Michigan Board of Trustees last month by associate vice president and director of athletics, Michael Alford and vice president of advancement, Robert Martin. “Alumni and donors are buying into the vision,” Alford said.

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New renderings of the venue design by global architectural firm Populous were recently unveiled, showing off what the complex would look like.

A new scoreboard on the south end of the stadium will also be part of the new center, in addition to a welcome center and “home base” for returning alumni. It’s also to include a rehabilitation center and a nutrition center for all CMU’s nearly 500 student-athletes.

The plan is make the center a year-round facility.

MLive quoted CMU athletic director Jim Knight as confirming that “the Board of Trustees only has received information about the Chippewa Champions Alumni Center” but “the board has not taken any official action.”

Knight said that a combination of “current gifts and future revenue streams,” helped the project leaders move forward with fundraising and planning.”

However, no time frame has been set for the construction of the center as the project is still in its fundraising phase, said Knight adding that the amount of money raised from those efforts has yet to be determined.

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