Northwestern announces renovation plans for Welsh-Ryan Arena

All around Northwestern basketball, there have been signs of improvement.

It started with the 2013 hiring of Chris Collins, a promising Duke assistant with strong ties to the Chicago area. The program has upped its game in recruiting since and — slowly, but steadily — raised its play on the court. Twenty victories and a middle-of-the-pack finish in the Big Ten last season were nothing to sneeze at.

But now, Northwestern is getting next-level serious about reinventing itself as a serious player in college basketball.

The school announced on Monday plans for a $110 million overhaul of Welsh-Ryan Arena. A reconfigured seating arrangement, modernized concourses, premium suites and revamped locker rooms all are on the menu. The arena’s lighting and audio-and-visual capabilities also will be upgraded.

Considering Welsh-Ryan has — in virtually every way imaginable — lagged far behind most Big Ten facilities for many years, this is a most welcome development.

Athletic director Jim Phillips called it a “historic development for the future of Northwestern athletics.”

“The new Welsh-Ryan Arena will be a dramatic transformation for our varsity sports programs that call it home and for the fans who devotedly support our student-athletes,” Phillips said in an official statement. “A central tenet of our commitment to providing a world-class experience for our Wildcats is a passionate home crowd. This complete overhaul of our most used and versatile venue will create a state-of-the-art experience accessible to all Chicagoland sports fans.”

According to the school, donations will fund the project on the 63-year-old arena, which has been home to Northwestern’s men’s and women’s basketball, volleyball and wrestling teams.

Construction is scheduled to begin in March 2017 and be completed by the fall of 2018. Among other things, that means Collins and the Wildcats will need a temporary home for the 2017-18 season and might require a backup venue for home games early in the following campaign.

According to the school, the athletic department is “in the process of arranging alternate locations” for games and practices after the conclusion of the 2016-17 basketball season. The possibilities for Northwestern include Allstate Arena in Rosemont, the United Center and perhaps others.

Allstate Arena seems the most likely venue for men’s basketball games.

DePaul, which has held its home games in Rosemont since 1980, is scheduled to move into a new arena near McCormick Place in time for the start of the 2017-18 season. That would, at least in theory, add flexibility to the Allstate Arena calendar.

Northwestern’s deputy athletic director Mike Polisky, who oversees the department’s external affairs, is the former president of the AHL’s Wolves and the Arena Football League’s erstwhile Chicago Rush. The Rush played in Rosemont from 2001-13. The Wolves have been there since 1994.

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Email: sgreenberg@suntimes.com