UofM ups game with new recruitment room

Jun 1, 2016, 1:36pm CDT Updated Jun 1, 2016, 2:16pm CDT

Michelle Corbet
Reporter
Memphis Business Journal

Excerpts:

To ensure the University of Memphis football program remains competitive, the City of Memphis is spending $4.8 million to add backs to stadium seats and install a new recruiting room.

Tom Marshall, owner and principal of O.T. Marshall Architects, is overseeing the design work for the latest renovation phase, which will add 5,000 seat backs and turn the current media room off of Gate 4 into a state-of-the-art recruitment center.

“Those seat backs are critical to the sustained success of the Liberty Bowl,” Marshall says. “We need to make it comfortable by today’s standards. The longer people stay at the event, the more concessions they will buy, which will yield revenues for the city.”

In April, the Memphis City Council unanimously approved the $4.8 million upgrade, after the university agreed to repay the city for the improvements.

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Marshall describes the (recruitment center) design as a clash between a New York sports bar and an edgy coffee shop.

“They can bring these kids in, explain the program — we have these incredibly oversized monitors and digital boards like you’d see on an ESPN talk show — and the coach is going to be able to interact with those tools to help convey to potential recruits, this is the best option,” Marshall said.

The recruitment mecca comes with fully-integrated monitors, sound systems and smart boards, paired with a nonalcoholic juice and coffee bar and mood-lit lounge-area complete with UofM signage and graphics.

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The latest renovation will also replace general purpose lighting throughout the stadium with LED, reducing utility costs by 70 percent.

O.T. Marshall Architects has completed three previous phases including about $9 million in renovations to make the stadium ADA compliant, $6.5 million for a new Jumbotron sponsored by FedEx Corp., new sound system, lighting upgrades and new turf, as well as the $15 million Tiger Lane project.

Read more here: http://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/news/...-room.html

Wow!! Glad to be a tiger fan. I truly believe the AAC is poised to not only surprise its' self but the college football world. Maybe the big12's flirtatious attitude towards some of our teams has spurred the right kinda committed response that was needed to show the cfp crowd (espn), that this is a viable conference to invest in

The marriage of the the city, the aree corporations,and the university is very unique and difficult for an outsider to understand. The relationships aren't perfect, as none are; but they are very favorable compared to most university/local government/local industry relationships. It's truly an Us against Them world with the Memphis area VS outside the area.

That one message may be the best thing yet to come out of all the expansion drama. Most mainstream media automatically assume that a "city school" has too many divided loyalties to achieve community wide support. It's refreshing to see this misperception beginning to change...at least in how it is reported outside Memphis.