DESTIN, Fla. -- Dr. Harris Pastides understands history will associate his tenure as South Carolina's president with the massive $150 million-plus undertaking intended to significantly upgrade the school's athletic facilities.
Some facilities are already built (The Dodie academic center, baseball stadium, tennis complex, etc.), some are close to completion (Rice administration building, home locker room at Colonial Life Arena) while others remain in the planning stages (indoor football practice facility, practice fields), but there is no mistaking the fact 2012 is a pivotal year in USC's long-range plans.
USC is set to debut a $6.5 million high-definition video scoreboard (total cost includes the control room underneath the stadium) in the North End Zone and a completely revamped Farmer's Market tailgating area (total cost is $30 million - $15 million for acquisition of the land and $15 million for improvements) across the street from Williams-Brice Stadium on Sept. 8 when USC faces East Carolina in the home opener.
And nobody is more excited than Pastides about the coming changes, which he described as necessary in order to elevate USC to the level of most schools in the SEC.
"I could not be more thrilled about all the changes," Pastides told reporters after emerging from the Presidents' meeting at the SEC spring meetings. "I know they're expensive. I know we're leveraged out there. But it was the right thing to do.
"We're taking good care of the fans. I really think we're going to move from being OK in the past and an OK Saturday football fall experience to one of the best anywhere."
The video board will be one of the largest in the SEC (similar in size to the one at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville) and the tailgating experience in the 52-acre Farmer's Market should rival the Grove in Oxford as the best tailgating experience in the SEC.
The football team will conduct the pre-game 'Gamecock Walk' along the brick-paved Garnet Way, which should meander through the Farmer's Market.
"When you look at both the jumbotron and the new parking and tailgate area and moving cars from a safety point of view away from the immediate ring around the stadium, they're going to improve everything," Pastides said. "And we're going to have a new entrance into the stadium. I'm hoping it will be ready."
Construction of the new $8 million softball stadium begins this month. Beckham Field will be razed and a vastly improved facility with upgraded locker rooms, seating and press box will be built on the same site.
USC officials hope to be able to move into the new athletics administration building by the end of the month. However, the city of Columbia has not yet issued the Certificate of Occupancy for the building.
Down the road, the planned full-length indoor practice facility is expected to cost about $14 million (all the money will be privately raised), while a new athletic training complex and basketball practice facility are eyed for the open space in the Roost between the parking garage and new Carolina tennis facility.
However, those projects are years down the road. Phase I approval has been secured for the indoor facility, which allows the athletic department to hire an architect to put together the drawings.
The Phase II approval process, though, won't begin until the project is fully funded through private donations, school officials said.
However, after seeing USC spend or commit almost $160 million to new athletic facilities over the past five years, Pastides vows to watch the bottom line and carefully scrutinize future projects.
"We're going to have to look at any future projects very carefully because of how much money we've already borrowed," Pastides said. "Nothing is off the table, but Eric (Hyman) knows that it's unlikely anything is coming on the table as well."
USC has funded most of the athletic facility projects mainly through private donations (Dodie Anderson was the main benefactor for the academic center and improved locker rooms at Colonial Life) and long-term revenue bonds.
Currently, USC's total athletic department debt exceeds $100 million. The 2011-12 budget approved by the Board of Trustees last June targeted $4.46 million for payments toward that debt.
link: http://southcarolina...asp?CID=1372114
Some facilities are already built (The Dodie academic center, baseball stadium, tennis complex, etc.), some are close to completion (Rice administration building, home locker room at Colonial Life Arena) while others remain in the planning stages (indoor football practice facility, practice fields), but there is no mistaking the fact 2012 is a pivotal year in USC's long-range plans.
USC is set to debut a $6.5 million high-definition video scoreboard (total cost includes the control room underneath the stadium) in the North End Zone and a completely revamped Farmer's Market tailgating area (total cost is $30 million - $15 million for acquisition of the land and $15 million for improvements) across the street from Williams-Brice Stadium on Sept. 8 when USC faces East Carolina in the home opener.
And nobody is more excited than Pastides about the coming changes, which he described as necessary in order to elevate USC to the level of most schools in the SEC.
"I could not be more thrilled about all the changes," Pastides told reporters after emerging from the Presidents' meeting at the SEC spring meetings. "I know they're expensive. I know we're leveraged out there. But it was the right thing to do.
"We're taking good care of the fans. I really think we're going to move from being OK in the past and an OK Saturday football fall experience to one of the best anywhere."
The video board will be one of the largest in the SEC (similar in size to the one at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville) and the tailgating experience in the 52-acre Farmer's Market should rival the Grove in Oxford as the best tailgating experience in the SEC.
The football team will conduct the pre-game 'Gamecock Walk' along the brick-paved Garnet Way, which should meander through the Farmer's Market.
"When you look at both the jumbotron and the new parking and tailgate area and moving cars from a safety point of view away from the immediate ring around the stadium, they're going to improve everything," Pastides said. "And we're going to have a new entrance into the stadium. I'm hoping it will be ready."
Construction of the new $8 million softball stadium begins this month. Beckham Field will be razed and a vastly improved facility with upgraded locker rooms, seating and press box will be built on the same site.
USC officials hope to be able to move into the new athletics administration building by the end of the month. However, the city of Columbia has not yet issued the Certificate of Occupancy for the building.
Down the road, the planned full-length indoor practice facility is expected to cost about $14 million (all the money will be privately raised), while a new athletic training complex and basketball practice facility are eyed for the open space in the Roost between the parking garage and new Carolina tennis facility.
However, those projects are years down the road. Phase I approval has been secured for the indoor facility, which allows the athletic department to hire an architect to put together the drawings.
The Phase II approval process, though, won't begin until the project is fully funded through private donations, school officials said.
However, after seeing USC spend or commit almost $160 million to new athletic facilities over the past five years, Pastides vows to watch the bottom line and carefully scrutinize future projects.
"We're going to have to look at any future projects very carefully because of how much money we've already borrowed," Pastides said. "Nothing is off the table, but Eric (Hyman) knows that it's unlikely anything is coming on the table as well."
USC has funded most of the athletic facility projects mainly through private donations (Dodie Anderson was the main benefactor for the academic center and improved locker rooms at Colonial Life) and long-term revenue bonds.
Currently, USC's total athletic department debt exceeds $100 million. The 2011-12 budget approved by the Board of Trustees last June targeted $4.46 million for payments toward that debt.
link: http://southcarolina...asp?CID=1372114
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