(From Missouri Southern State University)The Missouri Southern Board of Governors today approved a $2.189 million allocation from university reserve funds for a comprehensive overhaul of the Leggett & Platt Athletic Center.
Work begins in spring 2025 with the replacement of the L&P roof damaged in the EF0/EF1 tornado on May 6, 2024, that passed over campus.
Interior changes are divided into two phases with phase one, beginning construction in the summer of 2025, including new bleachers, indoor track, and basketball court. Phase two includes renovations to the concession stand, restrooms, sound system, and video scoreboard. Philanthropic support and an allocation from the Missouri Southern Foundation are also being sought to complete the funding package for the entire $5 million project (the roof repair, phase one, and phase two combined).
Opened in 1999 for an initial cost of $8 million, Leggett & Platt has become the region’s premier large event space hosting over 80 events annually, half of them non-athletic campus and community gatherings.
The high level of use of the facility over the last 25 years has made this $5 million upgrade of L&P necessary to maintain it as Southwest Missouri’s largest column-free venue.
“We recognize the Leggett & Platt Athletic Center is far more than a venue for basketball, volleyball, and indoor track and field,” says MSSU Athletic Director Rob Mallory. “It has become a gathering place for the region in times of celebration and tragedy and maintaining it in top condition is a high priority for the university."
In addition to athletic events, Leggett & Platt has hosted U.S. presidents and state governors; MSSU, Kansas City University, and high school commencement ceremonies; 600+ person banquets; university and community career fairs; served as a place of refuge after the 2011 Joplin tornado; and as the venue for the funerals of the two fallen Joplin police officers in 2022.
MSSU president Dr. Dean Van Galen commented, “We are grateful to the Board of Governors and our philanthropic and foundation partners for their support of this important maintenance project. We look forward to a rejuvenated facility continuing to serve our community for another 25 years.”
Reserve funds are assets maintained by the university’s governing board to ensure long-term financial stability and, when appropriate, for one-time special needs and projects. University reserve funds may only be accessed at the direction of the MSSU Board of Governors.
10 comments:
Go Sportsball!
Should ask Leggett and Platt for help but that garbage company is almost bankrupt.
Much more than "sportsball" goes on in that facility. Tell me you were stuffed into a locker in high school, without telling me you were stuffed into a locker in high school.
I would have hoped that they tried to generate money from the Alumni, Private Donors or Corporate Sponsors - such as Leggett and Platt - their Heirs or other Donors?
Everyone likes Sports, but in this day where Brick and Morter Business are going Out of Business and a lot of Colleges are going to Online Classes - Do we need to rethink the College Athlete Programs and the Investment that Schools make to Support them vs the Educational Side of the School - especially since the Majority of College Players will Never Ever Play Professional Sports. All these Ex-Students who are now in Student Loan Default and want Uncle Sam to Right Off that Cost on the Taxpayers Back - Is money they paid to Support College Athletes.
Fewer than 2% of college athletes go on to play professionally in their sport. The odds of going pro vary by sport, but most student-athletes will pursue other careers after college.
Here are some examples of the odds of going pro for different sports:
Football: 1.6% of NCAA football players go pro
Men's basketball: 1.2% of NCAA men's basketball players go pro
Women's basketball: 0.8% of NCAA women's basketball players go pro
Baseball: 9.9% of NCAA baseball players go pro
Ice hockey: 7.4% of NCAA ice hockey players go pro
The comment made by 2:43 must have been made by either Julio Leon himself or a disciple of his. His lasting legacy at MSSU is he felt athletics had no place on a campus of higher learning thus why MSSU is so far behind in regards to facilities at the Division II level. Local high schools have better venues and better maintained venues than MSSU.
The LPAC opened less than 25 years ago and already the athletic department has outgrown it and needs to sink $5 million into it just to keep the doors open.
The school hasn’t hosted an indoor or outdoor track and field meet in almost a decade, the track at Fred G. Hughes is condemned and cannot be used for events. The entire football stadium needs torn down and rebuilt with a separate outdoor track venue built elsewhere on campus. Softball complex and soccer field are dumps.
Everyone knows the reason Boschee left for Pitt State was the third-rate facilities on campus at MSSU after he was promised for years a new venue which never materialized.
Pittsburg State University just up the road has done an outstanding job of building venues, maintaining them and building competitive programs that are ranked nationally not just in football, but track and field, cross country, softball, baseball and basketball.
MSSU has been and continues to be an absolute joke in higher education and athletics.
Throwing more money down the MSSU athletics rathole will make it Great Again?
Spend your money first then!
I donate and my business donates to Pittsburg State. Long time season ticket holders as well. I encourage more Joplin businesses and residents to support Pittsburg State. An investment in education is an investment in the future.
Again, 3:02PM is the reason to attend College to Play Sports or produce Educated Individuals that will become future leaders or just to kick, throw, or catch a ball??? The Question is - is College for Sports or for Education - Do we Support the Few or the Many. When do we decide that Entertainment and Education are two totally different things and stop throwing money at Entertainment and put it towards what will truly benefit the Many?
I would encourage you to check for yourself at the leaders of the community and the business community, see how many of them are former college student athletes. I think if you look closely you will see quite a number of bank presidents and staff, insurance executives, small business owners and department heads of cities, county and state have a background of competing at the college level.
My experience has been if it were not for athletics in the high schools, many kids would simply not go to school, and then the opportunity to compete at the collegiate level allows them the opportunity to earn a college education in order to better themselves and their families. It’s OK to speak negatively about athletics if that is your stance, but remember for many, an athletic scholarship is the way to a means opening opportunities for an education and a career that would not otherwise be possible.
Never been stuffed into a locker... I genuinely love all things Sportsball! In fact I idolize it and neglect other aspects of my life and drown out this miserable world...
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