New locker rooms are part of $2.9 million Rupp project Calipari initiated

**Stardust** · 03-19-2012, 09:52 PM

The next time the University of Kentucky Wildcats play in Rupp Arena, they will likely have a brand-new locker room that is part of an approximately $2.9 million renovation initiated by coach John Calipari.

Calipari already has commitments of $2.5 million from private donors, and the remaining $400,000 would come from the capital reserve fund of the Lexington Center Corp., said Bill Owen, president and CEO of Lexington Center.

Donations to pay for the work will be made by individuals to the Blue Grass Community Foundation, which declined Monday to name the donors. UK referred questions about the donors to the foundation.

The board of Lexington Center Corp. last week approved the project, which would expand the men's basketball team's locker room, improve the training room to add hydro-therapy treatment whirlpools, add a medical room with X-ray machine and add a team meeting room, another coach's office, a team lounge and food service area and a new press area.

"It's about a lot more than the UK dressing room," Owen said.

Four other athletic locker rooms would be upgraded, and eight small dressing rooms would be converted into four large ones for a wide range of performers who play Rupp, from rock stars to Disney on Ice skaters.

A new second floor mezzanine for storage will be constructed on the west side of Rupp Arena.

Calipari instigated the overhaul in mid-January when he and Cecil Dunn, president of the Lexington Center board, met with Owen for the coach to share his vision of an expansion and upgrade to the locker room area.

Owen said he had no inkling of what was coming when he received Dunn's phone call, asking Owen to meet with the coach in the team's briefing room. "It wasn't something on our radar at that moment," he said.

Calipari picked up a pen and sketched on a dry erase board, Owen said, adding: "While he's not an architect, he had some very clear ideas of what he wanted to see in the UK portion of the project."

The overhaul has its roots in a similar project Calipari initiated while at the University of Memphis.

When the Blue Grass Community Foundation receives the donations to pay for the project, it will in turn make a grant of $2.5 million to Lexington Center.

Capital expenditures over $50,000 will go to Lexington Center's capital maintenance committee for review.

Lisa Adkins, president and CEO of Bluegrass Community Foundation, said the organization doesn't release the names of donors "unless the donor wishes to be acknowledged."

UK President Eli Capilouto, Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart and Calipari on Monday issued a joint statement:

"We are appreciative of the vote by the Lexington Center Board to move forward with construction of new locker and training room facilities at Rupp Arena for next season.

"This move â financed through private donations â will address some immediate needs of our players and the athletics programs. Additionally, these plans include back-of-house upgrades to serve the generous donors to UK athletics that help fund all 22 sports programs."

The statement went on to say: "We are confident that this project can be incorporated into any long-term plans being developed for the Arena and Downtown Entertainment District by Mayor Jim Gray and his team.

"This action further bolsters our partnership with the downtown community."

Earlier this year, Capilouto said his main focus would be on campus infrastructure including building new dormitories and improving classrooms, and that he would not lobby the legislature for state funds to renovate Rupp Arena.

University spokesman Jay Blanton on Monday that said the president was only referring to competition for "scarce state operating dollars." The UK administration fully supports Calipari's private fund raising for locker room improvements at Rupp, Blanton said.

Blanton added that Barnhart and Calipari "have always said this is a student-first, player-first institution and athletics program. Renovations to the locker rooms and a training room are a critical piece of the focus."

Calipari's ideas triggered Lexington Center officials to look at updating the rest of the 20,000-square foot dressing room area in Rupp Area, which looks much the same as it did when the arena opened in 1976, except for some redecoration done in 2003, Owen said.

The area looks dated and austere with concrete-block walls, low acoustical tile ceilings and industrial-quality fluorescent lights.

Asked if Caliparai was OK with raising money to pay for improvements to areas outside the immediate UK locker room, Owen said he was.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/03/19/21177...rylink=cpy