On Tuesday, Missouri announced it has received a large donation toward the construction of a new indoor practice facility.
Tigers director of athletics Jim Sterk announced that the school received $10 million from an anonymous donor less than a month after its Board of Curators approved a study to be conducted toward a new indoor facility near Memorial Stadium. According to Mizzou, it’s the fifth time the athletics program has received an eight-figure gift, three of which have come in the past five years.
“The magnitude, impact and timing of this gift is significant as we attempt to advance the indoor football practice facility project as quickly as possible,” Sterk said in a statement. “As the SEC’s furthest-most Northern school, it is critical that our program have a full length indoor practice facility to utilize year-round, and this gift, coupled with the Board of Curators’ action earlier this month, gives this project great momentum.
“We are grateful for the generous support that this family continues to provide to Mizzou athletics, and believe it demonstrates a strong commitment to Mizzou football and Coach [Eli] Drinkwitz’s leadership of our program. This is a project that has been a part of the athletics facilities master plan for several years, and it is something that is definitely needed.”
Missouri is the only football program in the SEC that currently doesn’t have a 120-yard indoor practice facility, as the Devine Pavilion is only 70 yards long. That is now likely to change in the future.
“One of the things that I quickly identified as a need, not a want, was a full-length practice facility for Mizzou football, and on behalf of everyone in our program, we are excited, humbled and blessed by this donation to the project,” Drinkwitz said in a statement. “This facility is critical to the year-round training and development of our student-athletes, and we believe it will help transform our football program for many years to come, just as the South End Zone Facility is already doing.”
Per Mizzou, a site hasn’t yet been selected for this new facility, but the athletics department “will provide the Board of Curators with a project scope, budget and fundraising plan no later than January 30, 2021.”
NEWS | #Mizzou Receives $10M Gift for a New @MizzouFootball Indoor Practice Facility
? https://t.co/ccXQtBPzZ4@MizzouTSF x #NewZou ?? pic.twitter.com/RwWnNDBnGx
— Mizzou Athletics (@MizzouAthletics) December 29, 2020
Jake Rill contributes to news coverage for Saturday Down South. He has covered the SEC since 2016.
