SDSU closer to practice facility with $5 million gift

• Pledges now top $24M, donor offers challenge match



BROOKINGS – The South Dakota State University Foundation on Monday announced a new $5 million gift for the proposed Indoor Practice and Human Performance Center at SDSU.

The money comes in the form of a challenge match that pushes total commitments for the facility to $24.3 million.

The anonymous donor providing the $5 million match wants to make sure the project moves forward on schedule, while providing an incentive for others to contribute, said Keith Mahlum, vice president for Development of the SDSU Foundation. The challenge match is meant to inspire others to donate at least another $5 million in contributions.

“The donor hopes this commitment will motivate a lot of people to invest in this project – at whatever level they are comfortable,” Mahlum said. The current total comes from 39 donors.

SDSU wants to begin construction in the spring of 2013, subject to reaching its fundraising goal and getting final approval through the South Dakota Board of Regents.

The project then moves on to the S.D. Legislature for its approval in early 2013.

Based on estimates from the architectural firm, officials believe $28 million would complete the facility with most of the preferred features.

The base project, which is the indoor practice facility without seating or human performance facility, is estimated to cost $27.7 million, according to a South Dakota Board of Regents Building Committee teleconference held earlier this month.

The indoor practice and human performance facilities together are estimated to cost $33.4 million. All three facilities together are estimated to cost $38.3 million.

In early August, SDSU announced that it already had $18 million committed to build the facility, including $10 million from Sanford Health and the rest from two anonymous donors. The new $5 million gift comes from one of those two anonymous donors who already offered funding this summer, SDSU Athletic Director Justin Sell told the Argus Leader.

When the Board of Regents initially approved the facility proposal at the end of June, they were told this would be a 12-month indoor training facility for athletes of all sports. A synthetic turf field with practice area, 300-meter track with 100-meter straightway, field event practice areas and observation space for about 1,000 spectators would be included.

A second half of the building would expand the college’s sports medicine facilities and house rehabilitation programming, enabling SDSU to partner with the medical community. The human performance facility would include sports medicine, athletic training, strength and conditioning, physical therapy, hydrotherapy, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), X-ray, observation rooms and office facilities.

SDSU would build the indoor practice and human performance facility north of the Dykhouse Student Athlete Center, at the north end of Coughlin Alumni Stadium.

“This donor is excited by the transformational impact of this new facility – not only for athletics and our 475 student-athletes – but for the university, the city of Brookings and the region,” said Sell. “It’s an incredible boost to our fundraising efforts for this project.

“We need to be clear to our alumni and friends: While this puts us well down the path to getting this project done, we’re not there yet. Our final hurdle is to generate support to equal this $5 million challenge match,” Sell added.

The Indoor Practice and Human Performance Center is a project of It Starts with STATE: A Campaign for South Dakota State University. The Foundation is leading the six-year, $200 million campaign. With gifts and pledges from nearly 22,000 different donors, it has already exceeded its goal. The campaign will conclude on Dec. 31, 2012.