BLACKSBURG -- The Virginia Tech Board of Visitors gave the athletic department the green light Monday to design a $20 million basketball practice facility.
The 59,000-square foot building, which will also include offices, locker rooms and weight rooms for the men's and women's basketball teams, will be built in back of Cassell Coliseum.
The estimated cost will make it the third-most expensive capital athletic project in the university's history, behind only the $52.5 million Lane Stadium west-side expansion and the $34.5 million south-end zone expansion.
Tech previously hired HOK Sport of Kansas City to come up with the basic design of the building but will now put the project up to bid to architectural firms. It will hire a firm to do the complete design, including plumbing and other details. The final design will be "real close" to the HOK design, said associate athletic director Tom Gabbard.
Tech hopes to begin construction early next year and have the men's and women's basketball teams move into the building in the summer or fall of 2009. Tech will go back to the Board of Visitors, likely in November of this year, for permission to hire a construction company.
Eight ACC schools, including Virginia, have either built a basketball building or a new arena this decade. UVa debuted John Paul Jones Arena, which includes two practice courts, last fall. A ninth member, North Carolina, converted space in the Dean Smith Center into a practice gym in 2000.
"We're just trying to create a 'wow factor' at Virginia Tech," men's basketball coach Seth Greenberg said in an interview Monday. "There's a cost of doing business in this league, and recruiting's a lot about facilities and making an impression and showing a commitment.
"Having a building that says Virginia Tech is committed to competing in the ACC was very important. To be able to walk someone into the basketball building as opposed to walking someone through Michael Vick Hall in the Merryman Center is huge because everyone that negative recruits against us uses that against us."
The Hokie Club, which raised $15 million in donations for the south-end zone project and another $15 million for the west-side expansion, has been asked to raise $10.6 million for the basketball building. Debt service will pay for the other $9.4 million. The $3 capital-assessment fee that Tech charges for every football ticket will pay down the debt.
Tech officials said the recent Lane expansions won't make raising money for a basketball building a problem. Since last year, the Hokie Club has already raised $4.7 million in cash and pledges toward the $10.6 million goal.
"There's a lot of excitement about men's basketball, and that's helped us," athletic development director Lu Merritt said. "And we have a lot of new donors ... folks in their mid-30s, early 40s. ... A lot of the new gifts for the facility are from new donors."
The Hokie Club is peddling naming rights to the building.
The facility will be built on Washington Street, taking the place of a parking lot in back of Cassell. Some of the tennis courts on the other side of the lot will be affected during construction but will be operational once the building is finished, Gabbard said.
The front of the building will include offices for the men's and women's basketball coaches, as well as a joint reception area. There will also be conference rooms and a video editing room.
The back part of the building will include two side-by-side practice courts, covering 12,000 square feet. There will be four locker rooms -- for the two teams and their coaches. There will be two weight rooms, one for the basketball teams and the other for the Olympic sports teams. There will also be team lounges, a trainer's room and a film room.
The building exterior will be Hokie stone and glass.
Currently, the men's and women's basketball teams practice on the Cassell court and in a small, back gym in the coliseum.
"You've got to have more baskets to shoot at," athletic director Jim Weaver said. "And the sidelines [of the back gym] are 2 12 to 3 feet from the concrete walls and they're just not spacious enough with the speed and the agility and the athleticism of athletes today."
The volleyball and wrestling teams also use the Cassell court.
Greenberg and women's basketball coach Beth Dunkenberger wanted Tech to build a practice facility rather than replace Cassell Coliseum, which debuted in 1961.
"I love the atmosphere at Cassell," Dunkenberger said. "But what we would like is something new, some bells and whistles ... to sell Virginia Tech basketball, and a new practice facility ... would help us."
Greenberg and Dunkenberger had input into the design. Tech officials or coaches toured the Smith Center and John Paul Jones Arena for inspiration, as well as the basketball practice buildings at Clemson, Florida State, Wake Forest and Florida.
Once the basketball facility is built, the next capital athletic project will be a new field house.
Also Monday, an NCAA violation was disclosed by the Board of Visitors.
Weaver said Tech refunded some student fees to two athletes who were taking a part-time load of online classes in their final semester before graduating, but it should not have done that. Weaver said Tech reported the violation to the NCAA, which classified it last month as a secondary violation and declined to punish Tech. Weaver did not name the athletes.
Also, the Board of Visitors tweaked the athletic department's disciplinary policy, the Comprehensive Action Plan. The tweaks stem from a university committee that was formed to examine the CAP after ex-quarterback Marcus Vick was kicked off the football team last year.
One CAP revision formally puts the decision on sanctions for unsportsmanlike conduct in the hands of the athletic director. Tech President Charles Steger asked Weaver to take on that responsibility in the wake of Vick's Gator Bowl stomp last year.
Another CAP change permits Weaver to delegate decisions on sanctions for misdemeanors. Weaver said if he is away from campus, he can now ask associate athletic director Jon Jaudon and the athlete's coach to devise an appropriate punishment.
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