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Gold and Black Illustrated, Vol 26, Digital 2

Gold and Black is a multi-platform media company that covers Purdue athletics like no one else.

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94 GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED But how would that help Purdue in the important re- cruiting arms race? That ultimately was the question that turned the tide. It'd already been established that Purdue's football facilities were well behind Big Ten competitors, Daniels said. Design firm Populous did its own research in that respect, and a graph it provided showed Purdue as "below average or average" in 13 of 18 categories. Among the "below average" marks: Wow entry, team lounge, athletic training, weight room, video production, coaches offices and team meeting rooms. The only "excellent" ratings Purdue achieved in Populous' evaluation were in brand- ed facility/graphics, sports medicine and indoor and out- door practice fields. "We began, for some reason, maybe partly through player input, to realize that if we really want to get clos- er to winning, maybe the investment is better made in a football performance center than a south end zone," Ber- ghoff said of the discussion at the summit. "In general, the south end zone is more of a benefit to the students, to the campus environment and to fans but not likely to pro- vide a similar return on the win-loss column if we build this center that's aimed at recruiting, training and lead- ing to winning. So the focus kind of shifted while at that summit to making the initial investment our priority, that performance center. So the design was kicked off, Popu- lous started putting together concepts, quit working on the south end zone, put all their resources on the train- ing center and we're moving in that direction. Now, we see that the benefits of the center can be realized sooner than later." The south end zone could be destined to stay in its cur- rent patio-type presentation. At least for the foreseeable future. Berghoff said Populous is only about 20 percent of its way through the concept process for the south end zone. The intent of the project continues to evolve, seemingly more into a general student population or campus expe- rience than a sports-specific one. There's talk of adding a dining court, a parking garage, an innovation hall. But that's all it is: Talk, ideas, concepts. "The world of college sports, college football, spectator sports in general is shifting underneath us in ways we can't quite see. It's a really sound decision to make this (performance complex) the priority," Daniels said. "Go do this, see how well this can work, and over the next two, three, four years, we'll learn a lot more about the environ- ment, the spectator environment, that will tell us what to do, if anything, about the south end zone. "So I think this is the right call for those reasons. This thing can get done fairly fast and, we hope, start produc- ing results." j Weight room

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