Northwestern unveils plan for new on-campus athletic complex

Northwestern has announced plans to build a new athletic complex on the north end of campus, which would move the football team’s offices, locker rooms and practice fields one mile east of it’s current location near Ryan Field to the main campus. The announcement came after approval by the Board of Trustees on Saturday. The plan calls for a large indoor multipurpose facility, an indoor practice-and-competition venue for college sports teams and space for club sports, intramurals and recreation. The Dellora A. and Lester J. Norris Aquatics Center and Henry Crown Sports Pavilion would also be renovated to include new practice, training and competition venues for varsity sports, including a new diving well and locker rooms.Construction is expected to cost approximately $220 million. A timetable for the project is dependent on fundraising.“Football is the engine that drives this department,” athletics director Jim Phillips said. “It’s the emotional engine. It’s the financial engine. We have to invest not only in all our sports but especially in football. This will allow the football program to be in the heart of campus and [allows student-athletes] to seamlessly go to and from classes and training and film work and study hall and practice and weights and all the things student-athletes do on a day-to-day basis like never before here at Northwestern.”The project also includes a 12,000-car parking garage, a multipurpose indoor practice facility with seating for 2,500, an outdoor practice field, locker rooms, fitness-and-weight rooms, sports medicine facilities as well as meeting rooms and offices.