Illinois State University Athletics broke ground April 9, 2022, for the new indoor practice facility. (Photo by Illinois State University)
By Dan Verdun
With 10 weeks remaining before Illinois State kicks off its 2023 season, there is still optimism that the school’s indoor facility project will be completed, according to interim athletic director Dr. Jeri Beggs.
The project was originally announced via an ISU media release in April 2022, when the university’s groundbreaking ceremony took place.
According to the ISU release, the Illinois State University Board of Trustees authorized the athletics department to proceed with design, bidding, construction, and financing of the indoor practice facility during a special meeting held on campus Dec. 12, 2021.
“The Indoor Practice Facility will be a heated, opaque dual-membrane fabric air dome with insulation pockets for planned year-round use. The facility will be built in the location of the current football practice field directly north of Horton Field House. A 100-yard practice football field will feature a single end zone with run off areas and artificial turf to match the current surface at Hancock Stadium,” stated the release.
The project was boosted by a $3 million “gift commitment” in Jan. 2022, and was originally scheduled to be completed in spring 2023.
However, construction challenges have slowed the project along the way, Beggs said in a Wednesday interview with Prairie State Pigskin.
“Just to clarify, funding has not slowed us down in any way,” Beggs said. “I know there have been a lot of media reports about some funding issues, but the way that this building is financed, funding is not slowing us down; let’s be clear with that.
“What is slowing us down is materials. We’re having some supply chain issues, just like a lot of businesses around the country and the world. This is a unique design, a dome. My understanding is that it requires specific air handlers to maintain the pressure of the dome. And they have had some supply chain issues with equipment that would maintain it.”
Beggs was named interim athletic director after the resignation of Kyle Brennan in April.
Beggs is beginning her 22nd year at Illinois State, where she was a professor in the marketing department as well as serving as faculty athletic representative for the past 14 years.
The current timeline
Despite the delays, Beggs is hopeful that construction is set to move forward.
“We’re being told that the dome will ship June 23 and we should have it within a few days after that,” Beggs said. “And then July will be all about finishing up and getting it blown up, pressurized, etc. We will get turf in August. And then we can start using it soon thereafter.”
ISU Redbird athletic teams traditionally begin their fall camps in August.
“My goal for our sports is that it’s before bad weather,” Beggs said. “We want to be in there before we start getting central Illinois bad winters.
“Hopefully, in August, we’ll see (the facility in use). We’ve been promised a few times that it would be done, and it hasn’t happened yet.”
Things are not always what they seem
Beggs also said that ISU supporters may be questioning the project’s progress based on what they see.
“As you can imagine, a building like this that is essentially a dome, you don’t see any upward movement until you actually pressurize and then it will rise very quickly. All of the work right now is being done on the ground level, so if you drive by there is no vertical progress until that day or those days until we actually inflate the dome,” she said.
Prepping for the preps
The indoor facility, along with other factors, was a strong selling point for the Illinois High School Association awarding the state prep championship games to ISU.
“Illinois State has done a tremendous amount of work on Hancock Stadium,” veteran Illinois prep analyst “Edgy” Tim O’Halloran said his Rivals.com website. “Just about everything on the new quote/unquote home side (of the stadium) is completely brand new. The overall facility is tremendous. Illinois State is also in the middle of building an indoor facility that will be ready for the state title games.”
That facility, along with Horton Fieldhouse, which is located directly behind Hancock Stadium, “can be used as a staging area to get teams ready in pregame,” O’Halloran said.
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