Savage Hall is about to get a makeover.
By late summer or early fall, the University of Toledo plans to replace the roof on the building where the men's and women's basketball teams play, and where other sports teams compete or practice.
Athletic director Mike O'Brien estimates the project will cost between $600,000 and $800,000, and will take six to eight weeks to complete.
“It's something that needs to be done, and it will be done, no matter what,” he said yesterday. In the last few months, at least a dozen leaks have been identified in the roof, which is the original for the building that was opened in December of 1976.
UT also is in the process of conducting feasibility studies to determine how much it would cost to renovate Savage Hall in the next two to three years, and how much it would cost to convert Memorial Field House, the former home of men's basketball, into an indoor practice facility for the football team and other varsity sports.
“Both projects need to be done,” senior associate athletic director Mike Karabin said. “To do it right, we probably need to raise between $15 and $20 million.”
Harry Wyatt, associate vice president for facilities management, is in charge of capital projects for the university, which is helping conduct the feasibility studies.
“We are in the process of estimating the cost for replacing the Savage Hall roof,” he said. “We're working out just how we might be able to do that without disrupting the events that might being going on over there. We're also looking for different ways to fund the project. All that is being ironed out now.
“We barely have begun the study on renovating Savage Hall, so I anticipate that might be three months away until we have that completed. And then we'll hire an outside firm to come in. As for the field house, we're in the midst of that study right now. It's being done by Collaborative Inc. of Toledo. We'll probably have that report in another month or so.”
O'Brien is taking a wait-and-see attitude.
“We'll see what conclusion the study comes up with for Savage Hall,” he said. “The million dollar question is: Will we literally have to put millions of dollars into Savage Hall? If we get the opportunity to renovate it, we want to do it right. We would be looking at new offices and locker rooms. From there, you'd hire the architects and what have you. But first things first. We will work in concert with the university.”
Earlier this month, UT officials, including O'Brien, president Daniel Johnson and board chairman James Tuschman, met for two hours with developer Frank Kass and former Mayor Carty Finkbeiner about moving UT basketball games to a proposed new sports arena scheduled to be built in the Marina District by 2005.
Although 251/2 -year-old Savage Hall is outdated, compared to many other basketball venues in the Mid-American Conference, O'Brien, Karabin and men's coach Stan Joplin have not exactly embraced the idea of moving the Rockets' games to an off-campus site.
“I think what happened, when Savage Hall was built, it was probably No. 1 in the league as far as facilities go, or close to it,” said Joplin, who played one season in the field house. “Now we're toward the bottom of the league.
“The lighting is bad. The locker rooms are bad. The weight rooms are awful. Meanwhile, recruiting has become very competitive, and it has really put us behind.”
“Savage Hall is very important to the university,” O'Brien said. “During the winter months we have five or six of our teams practicing or playing in there. We're trying to determine if it is worth renovating to be our full-time basketball facility.”
If not, O'Brien indicated he would start exploring other possibilities, including building a new basketball arena on campus.
“Numerous things would have to fall into place before that happens,” he said. “We'd need the university's approval. And then we'd have to undertake a campaign to raise money.”
“I'm hoping we can renovate Savage Hall,” Karabin said. “That's the right thing to do.”
O'Brien said the Savage Hall project is a priority, but he'd also like to have an indoor practice facility in place within a few years.
“An indoor facility at the field house would help several sports - football, baseball, softball and soccer,” he said. “It also would be a place where our students could [go] play intramural sports.”
Last fall UT installed new artificial turf at the Glass Bowl, at a cost of $920,500. UT took out a bank loan for the turf, which will be repaid by donations.
First Published March 27, 2002, 8:42 a.m.
