University planning to renovate athletic facility

MARQUETTE — Officials at Northern Michigan University are in the early process of planning a renovation to one of its arenas to better suit a number of athletes in a few different sports.

During the NMU Board of Trustees meeting Friday, Athletic Director Forrest Karr talked about renovating Vandament Arena. The women’s volleyball program is the only team on campus that currently uses Vandament to play its home contests.

Once the renovation takes place, the men’s and women’s basketball teams would likely play their games at Vandament instead of the Berry Events Center, which would save the university money and time.

“The challenge right now is that every time we have basketball at home we put the basketball floor out on the ice. We then turn around and go to the Lakeview Ice Arena and we pay to use the ice over at Lakeview,” added Karr.

“What they’ll do is turn it sideways, they put in new bleachers, they put in the appropriate kinds of concession stands; it’s going to be a great addition when we raise the money to do that,” said NMU President Dr. Fritz Erickson.

Karr and Erickson both added that private donors would fund the project. There is currently no timetable for the project.

Also included in the renovation plans are new locker rooms for the Nordic Skiing teams.