Another day, another opinion about the state facilities at Louisiana State University.
During a Tuesday media availability in which LSU's third-year men's basketball coach Will Wade previewed his team’s upcoming 10-day tour of Spain, Wade was asked about the facility upgrades he's talked about for the past two years.
As reported by The Advocate in Baton Rouge, Wade is hoping to get the ball rolling faster on upgrades to the Pete Maravich Assembly Center and practice facility after watching the unveiling of the $28 million to the university's football operations center last week — an unveiling that sparked blowback from critics who investment priorities at the university, which is dealing with a flood-damaged library, are askew.
This week, new athletic director Scott Woodward suggested that the athletic department would end his predecessor's policy of subsidizing campus academic programs to the tune of $10 million a year.
Related: Report: LSU Athletics to Sever Aid to Academics
Wade said he met Monday with Tiger Athletic Foundation officials, who raised the funds for the football ops renovation, about speeding up the process for helping out the men’s and women’s basketball teams. In addition to modernizing the 48-year-old Pete Maravich Assembly Center for game days, Wade said the practice facility, which was opened in 2010 for the men’s and women’s teams, also needs attention.
“We’re trying to raise the money to get this practice facility re-done,” Wade said. “We’ve had some donors step up. We’ve raised probably about 25 percent of what we need to raise.
“We have that pledged, so we’ve got another 75 percent to get raised. We’ve got some big asks out, but we need to get it … we need to get it soon. We’re in desperate need of upgrades here.”
Wade said he would like to add a weight room, a revamped locker room for his team and office space for his coaching staff. Upgrades to the practice facility would total about $15 million, he said.
