The University of Maine has unveiled a $110 million plan to update athletics facilities across its Orono campus.
The renovations include a new multipurpose center for basketball teams, as well as new fields for softball, field hockey and soccer.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Athletic Director Ken Ralph says he hopes the facilities will make Orono more of a destination for major events and tournaments and bring more high school students to campus.
“There’s going to be challenges coming down the road for the University of Maine, around enrollment. So we wanted to craft facilities that fix this from an enrollment management perspective?” he says.
The school is tentatively planning to start construction next year. The Harold Alfond Foundation has donated $90 million for the project, which is part of a nearly quarter-billion-dollar gift to the university system that was announced last year. The school will raise the remaining $20 million.
