FIELDHOUSE UP: SVSU to Open Indoor Sports Arena in August
July 20, 2014
By: Dave Rogers
New SVSU Fieldhouse on Three Mile Road at the campus is up and the interior nearly completed
Fieldhouse features 300 meter indoor track surrounding practice area.
Next month Saginaw Valley State University will open its new sports fieldhouse, reportedly only the second such facility among Division II schools.
The new field house covers a 300-meter indoor track, replacing the indoor and outdoor tracks SVSU currently uses and is attached to the north side of the current Ryder Center.
The infield of the track has a synthetic turf surface suitable for baseball, softball, football and soccer.
Work began last May on an extensive renovation of the current Ryder Center building, opened in 1989, that included the construction of the fieldhouse.
Seating capacity in O'Neill Arena for basketball has been reduced to 2,400 seats from the current 3,500 to create a more intimate environment for fans, according to college officials.
Potential seating for other events, such as commencement, will increase from 4,000 seats to around 4,700 seats. This construction phase is expected to be completed by November 2014.
College officials note Ryder Center has many uses beyond intercollegiate athletics. SVSU has 17 student-led club sports programs serving 310 students this year, as well as 33 separate intramural leagues.
During the 2011-12 academic year, SVSU recorded nearly 5,600 SVSU student participants in fitness, recreation, and/or intramural and club sports programs.
The Ryder Center also hosts a number of community events, as well as high school athletic contests each year, including a number of swim meets since the 2012 renovation of the Gerstacker Regional Aquatics Center, funded in part by a grant from the Midland-based Gerstacker Foundation.
SVSU is borrowing up to $12 million to finance the project; the remaining funds will come from existing capital reserves.
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