SEMO UNVEILS PLAN TO IMPROVE HOUCK

Southeast Missouri State University wants to raise $10 to $12 million to build a new press box at Houck Stadium and a separate athletic training facility that would include some end-zone seating for football and soccer games.

The price tag includes providing the women's soccer team with a renovated locker room in the adjacent Houck Field House, school officials said Thursday.

The projected cost is more than twice the original estimate for Houck Stadium improvements.

The cost doesn't include the synthetic turf. It was installed in the stadium this year at a cost of $750,000 to replace the natural grass. Donors have pledged much of the money for the project. The school also put money into the turf.

In mid-May, school officials talked of spending $4 million to improve the football stadium on the south side of campus and the Rosengarten Athletic Complex, a football training facility that is on the north side of campus next to the practice field.

Since then school officials have been redrafting plans with DLR Group, a Kansas City architectural firm. Rather than putting money into renovating the Rosengarten building, the university wants to build a separate weight room and athletic training facility immediately west of Houck field.

The two-story, 35,000-square-foot structure would include football locker rooms, a weight room, training room and coaches' offices. The second floor would include a large meeting room, a hall of fame for Southeast athletics and club seating for about 60 people. The club seating would look out over the west end zone.

The press box on the stadium's south side would be torn out and replaced with a two-story structure that would include 11 suites and space for the media and coaches. The press box also would have an elevator.

Southeast President Dr. Ken Dobbins said the university wants to rent out the suites.

Plans also call for giving the outside of Houck Field House and Houck Stadium a facelift by covering the concrete exterior of the structures with a more decorative surface.

School officials, including Dobbins and Board of Regents President Don Dickerson, met Thursday with the architects to go over the plans. After the meeting, Dickerson and Dobbins said design plans could be finalized within the next two weeks.

But both said the improvements depend on securing private funding. "We can't proceed before we have the funding in place," Dobbins said.

Dickerson said the university hopes to get "a huge gift." But if that doesn't occur, the school will seek to raise the money from donors over time.

He said school officials hope donors will "come through" so the project can proceed.

Dickerson said it is important to have design plans even though funding isn't in place yet.

Southeast is spending $75,000 for the design work.

Even if the university secures private funding for the project this year, construction likely won't proceed until next year at the earliest, Dickerson and Dobbins said.

Dobbins said the regents have yet to approve the plans.

Dickerson said he hopes some improvements will be made to Houck Stadium within the next two years.

Houck Stadium Facts

Built: Constructed on the site of a former rock quarry, it was dedicated on Oct. 3, 1930.

Cost: $150,000, including $11,000 for the land, which Southeast purchased in 1925.

Name: Honors Louis Houck, a Board of Regents member for 39 years, including 36 as board president.

Seating capacity: Currently 10,000, originally 5,420.

First game: Oct. 3, 1930. Southern Illinois University beat Southeast 12-6 before 6,000 fans. The referee for that game was James T. Blair Jr., who later served as Missouri governor from 1957-61.

Record attendance: 10,000 against Murray State on Sept. 1, 1979. The Indians technically surpassed that mark on Oct. 2, 1999, with 11,015 people in attendance for a 37-28 loss to Eastern Kentucky. However, the main attraction was a Beach Boys concert immediately following the game.

1999 attendance: 39,629 total for six home games, 6,605 average per game.