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92 GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED BY STACY CLARDIE SClardie@GoldandBlack.com J une is when plans changed. Before a "football summit" that included Purdue president Mitch Daniels, athletic director Morgan Burke, Coach Darrell Hazell and key alumni, including Drew Brees, the focus for facility upgrades was firmly on Ross-Ade Stadium and its south end zone renovations. But, after that meeting in California this summer, the focus shifted. Much more important — pivotal, even — was to im- prove auxiliary spaces in Mollenkopf: The locker room, the weight room, classrooms and coaches offices. Purdue announced work to that end on Oct. 21 when Daniels and Burke said they will seek approval from the Board of Trustees in December for a $60-million, 110,000-square foot expansion of the football training fa- cility. If approved, the proposed three-story "performance complex" off the north side of Mollenkopf would begin construction in May 2016 and be completed August 2017. Chairman of the Board of Trustees Mike Berghoff said in mid-October he had taken a "temperature reading from the board" already and fully expected the proposal to be approved in December. The complex will be financed using donations and rev- enue from the Big Ten Network partnership and other media contracts. No tuition or state dollars will be used. Asked whether there was concern about raising money during the current football climate — the Boilermakers started the season 1-6 following two consecutive losing seasons under Hazell — both Daniels and Burke deliv- ered an emphatic "no." "We've had a hard look at the revenues that will come to the university that can be used for athletics over the next stretch of time and we're completely confident that this is more than affordable, especially, and consistent with our self-sufficiency standard," Daniels said. "I think there's going to be strong interest, probably easier to raise money for this than, for instance, the (south) end zone because people can see how this in- vestment might lead to recruits, lead to wins (and) wins lead to fans. That'd be the hope." Brees already has pledged $1 million to improvements to the program, and Daniels said that can be considered as the "first installment" of donations for this project. It was Brees who hosted the gathering in the summer in San Diego. Initial conversations there were about the south end zone, presuming that fixing it would be the first signifi- cant investment, said Berghoff, a walk-on on the football team in the early 1980s who attended the summit. Playing Catch Up Football performance facility likely approved in December Front Doors at Night Renderings by Populous