Alumni Association

New 12.4 Million Dollar Sports and Health Center Addition Opens

On September 20, 2006 Chancellor Kathryn A. Martin kicked-off ceremonies celebrating the grand opening of the new 12.4 million dollar UMD Sports and Health Center Addition. The enhanced complex contains northern Minnesota's largest and most comprehensive athletic and recreational facilities.

This new 46,000 square foot facility features the very latest in state-of-the-art strengthening, toning and fitness equipment. According to Mick McComber, Director of UMD Recreational Sports Outdoor Program. He said, "Student demand for recreational and fitness activities has grown sharply through the years. With our new expanded facilities, UMD is now able to provide healthy life-style activities to our students, faculty and staff."

In recent years, statistics show that approximately 90% of UMD students have participated in exercise and fitness, as well as some 450 faculty and staff. Before the new addition, waiting lines were very long, sometimes hours. McComber estimates that approximately 1,500 people will use the new facilities each day. "Perhaps even much more than that," he added.

The beautiful two-story addition contains:
Two group exercise rooms for core training, aerobics, student group classes, yoga, and the Kinesis System (a revolutionary core training device designed to enhance the muscular/skeletal system for activities of daily living).

A 37-foot colorful climbing wall featuring the latest in climbing trends including a "bouldering component."

A recreational gymnasium with multi-purpose flooring which allows a wide variety of open, informal recreational activities such as basketball, volleyball, badminton, and in-line skating.

The two-level fitness center has 65 cardio machines (more than three times the former amount), as well as treadmills, elliptical machines, upright and recumbent bikes, and various forms of weight machines. The center also includes a "cardio theater" (cable TV with wireless audio which users may plug into their headsets). Users may also bring their own iPod. The UMD Recreational Sports Outdoor Program also plans to have its own cable network through which they will promote upcoming department programs and offerings, fitness trips, and protocol requirements for using the facility.

The UMD Department of Athletics occupies 10,000 square feet of the new addition. This is four times the size of their old space (which was 2,400 square feet). The space will be used for team training for all UMD sports-everything from tennis to football- and allows athletes to train both in and off-season. The strength and conditioning coaching staff also have offices there.

The new addition is designed to complement UMD's existing facilities, making it a fully functioning Sports and Health Center Complex. The complex includes a swimming pool, Romano Gymnasium, an Olympic size ice rink, sports medicine facilities, classrooms, meeting rooms, locker rooms for students, faculty, staff, and intercollegiate teams, the Ward Wells Field House, and Malosky Field/Griggs Stadium.

Hours of operation are:
Monday through Friday, 6:15 a.m. to midnight
Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Sundays, 12 noon to 9 p.m.

Funding:
Total cost of the project is 12.4 million dollars.
In the spring of 2001 UMD students voted to contribute 4 million dollars toward the Sports and Health Center Addition by authorizing a 50 dollar increase in their annual student fees. The Minnesota Legislature then authorized 8.4 million dollars in the spring of 2005. A ground-breaking ceremony for the new addition was held May 3, 2005 and the center opened for fall semester 2006.

FOR MORE INFORMATION SEE

http://www.umdrsop.org/facilities/index.html