Iowa to consider new sports arena on West Campus

IOWA CITY - The next phase in upgrading Iowa's athletic facilities could include a new sports arena and other stadiums on the west side of campus, Iowa Athletics Director Gary Barta told The Gazette.

'We're creating a master plan over the next 10 years-plus to create that Hawkeye campus where we have field hockey, we have soccer, we have tennis, we have the new indoor facility,” Barta said. 'We're envisioning a small arena out there someday, a softball stadium, potentially track. We haven't launched that yet. It's on the napkin. Pretty soon we hope to have an actual plan that we can share publicly.”

For years Barta and athletics officials have discussed turning the West Campus into an Olympic sports village. Currently, the western portion of Iowa City includes Finkbine Golf Course, the University of Iowa Athletics Hall of Fame, and facilities for tennis, cross country, field hockey and soccer. Along with softball and track, baseball also has been discussed for possible relocation.

'The next phase hasn't been determined,” Barta said. 'This is sort of the dream phase. Then as I tell my staff, vision without resources is irrelevant. We're working on the vision. Eventually what we want to do is roll it out publicly and go out and start raising money.”

The proposed arena would house the volleyball and gymnastics teams for competitions and give the sports an intimate environment with a home-court atmosphere. Currently those programs compete at spacious Carver-Hawkeye Arena usually before sparse crowds.

Iowa already plans to renovate the North Gym at The Field House as a stand-along gymnastics practice center. The teams' practice area will double to 19,000 square feet at a cost of $765,000. Work begins in December with a February completion date.

Women's gymnastics coach Larissa Libby said the new practice facility should provide a boon in recruiting.

'Jane (Meyer, Iowa's senior associate athletics director) approached us with a plan and Gary had talked to us - both the men's and women's coaches - and it was kind of like Christmas,” Libby said.

'To be able to have that diagram, it's a reality folks. You can't fight us. I think we have such a great product. You can sell academics at this university like it's nothing. I think the integrity on our team is incredible. I love the people that I work with. It's not hard to sell that. So now we've got the total package.”

Among Iowa's facilities projects nearing completion is a $55 million football operations center and replacement turf for the outfield at Duane Banks Field for baseball.

l Comments: (319) 339-3169; scott.dochterman@thegazette.com