Ball State announced its Cardinal Commitment campaign surpassed its mark prior to the Dec. 31, 2014, deadline.
Hudson Akin, one of the campaign's organizers, said the decision to start the campaign was based on needs within the athletic department.
"We did an assessment of all of the sport areas within athletics to determine what were some of the greatest needs," Akin said. "From that, we had a list of $50 plus million of things that we needed."
After a feasibility study the school determined it could raise $20 million for nine of its facilities: men's and women's golf, men's and women's basketball, volleyball, baseball, softball and football.
Akin acknowledged the university has other programs needing upgrades, but the ones chosen were done so by donators.
“Not that there aren't other needs across the campus," Akin said. "But these were the nine areas that our donors said they were most interested in supporting.”
Before even announcing the campaign, Ball State had already managed to generate around $10 million in donations. Deputy Athletic Director Brain Hardin, another organizer of the campaign, said collecting the first half was easier than the second.
Even though he joined mid-campaign, Hardin's role was to keep everything on track.
“I didn't have to do any of the harvesting myself," Hardin said. "There were other folks on campus who had that job responsibility. I was just kind of being around other folks."
With the conclusion of the campaign, construction for several facility upgrades have already begun. Several are expected to be completed later this year.
The first renovations to be completed will be the baseball and softball field.
“You'll see probably three phases of the baseball, softball complex,” Hardin said. “Phase one is already completed. Phase two we're hoping to have completed by September of this year, and phase three we're hoping to have completed before Thanksgiving.”
After the baseball field is finished, the Ronald and Joan Venderly Football Team Complex, a dedicated meeting space for the team, will be completed in about a year.
“The football piece I think you'll see a lot of action in the next couple weeks over there," Hardin said. "By the end of February, I think you'll see a lot of heavy machinery over there, and I would expect us to move into the complex in Spring of [2016].”
The golf and basketball projects don't have specific timelines for completion.
"The golf piece we're trying to figure out a couple elements of that for where we want to put it or what it's gonna look like," Hardin said. "Those are the two pieces we haven't sent to the State to receive approval for the pricing ... the basketball piece we're looking at the makeup of it and does it fit everything that we need."
The men's and women's golf teams will receive an indoor facility that will be built on a local golf course close to campus. The facilities will include locker rooms, offices for the coaches, hitting bays, an indoor putting green and an area for swing analysis equipment.
The men's and women's basketball teams will receive a new facility next to Worthen Arena. The new facility will offer a practice court and new locker rooms. The two squads currently split practice time in Worthen, often leading to scheduling conflicts. The volleyball locker room is also expected to be upgraded.
Now that the campaign has ended and construction has begun, the committee is looking forward to relaxing, before continuing other projects.
“We'll probably put all campaigns on hold for a while, catch our breath, and then try to ... come back and prioritize what our campaigns are going to look like," Hardin said.
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