Eastern Michigan expanding its nest: EMU introduces “Championship Building Plan”

The Eastern Michigan Board of Regents will be presented a plan to renovate the university’s athletic facilities as part of a larger plan to improve facilities on Eastern Michigan’s campus.

The main part of the athletic plan, which is expected to cost around $34 million, is to consolidate all of Eastern Michigan’s athletic facilities near Rynearson Stadium and the Convocation Center. It is the first major improvement to Eastern Michigan’s athletic facilities since the completion of the Convocation Center in 1998.

Eastern Michigan has already raised $9 million towards this effort. Six million dollars of that came from the Power2Change Foundation and represents the largest donation made to the University.

The improvement would include new athletic offices and luxury boxes. It would also include improvements to Rynearson Stadium and new practice facilities.

I am not sure what to think of all of this. On one hand, Rynearson could use some improvement but there are many other buildings on campus.

It is nice that Eastern Michigan got donations to do this but there is still some opposition from students. If they can pay for the athletic facility improvements through donations and athletic revenue, then I don’t have a problem with it. If it requires money from the general fund, then I’m not sure.

At any rate, it is kind of cool to see this much effort going into improving the campus. It has been a while since Eastern has been able to make renovations of any sort to its sporting facilities and in this era of college sport, it’s important more than ever to stay modern.