University unveils plan for $22 million facility

~ The project will include game-day lockers, a 300-bed dormitory, training rooms and offices for coaches.

The Southeast Missouri State University football team finally will have game-day lockers at Houck Stadium.

In a presentation to the Southeast booster club before Tuesday's men's basketball game, university president Dr. Kenneth Dobbins announced that the new 300-bed dormitory on campus will house an athletic facility with 85 lockers, training rooms and rooms for coaches on the ground floor.

Dobbins said the new L-shaped facility will cost between $21 million and $22 million, and be completed by July 2009. That means the football team will have lockers at its home stadium beginning with the 2009 season.

The locker rooms will be used by the Southeast football team, as well as visiting women's soccer teams and Central's football team.

The Southeast football team currently uses the cramped basement in the Student Recreation Center South across the street from Houck Stadium during games. The players are forced to take shuttle buses back to their locker rooms, located in the Rosengarten Athletic Complex, after games.

The new building will change the view for fans at Houck Stadium. It will sit where the main scoreboard sits now. There also will be a lawn area adjacent to the new building in the northwest corner of the stadium where students can watch games.

"I think it will do some of the things all of us want, and that's get students involved," Dobbins said. "You're going to have four floors that look out and see the football stadium and see athletes practicing and actually competing."

Dobbins said the five-story building will serve as a cornerstone for the new entrance to the stadium. The new entrance will replace the padlocked gate currently in use.

"It's going to clean up and provide a new entrance to the university," Dobbins said.

One thing the new building will not include is an exclusive area for university boosters. Dobbins said the that because of the tight deadline for the building's completion that there wasn't time to raise the necessary funds to include a booster club.