First off, my story from this morning on Mizzou's offensive line
***Let's start with an update, because it's the biggest news. Jim Sterk this morning announced a $10 million donation from the Kansas City Sports Trust (an anonymous donor) to go toward the new football facilities. That same donor gave $30 million a few years ago for the renovations done upon moving to the SEC.
Here is the Mizzou release on that donation:
COLUMBIA, Mo. – The University of Missouri Department of Intercollegiate Athletics is pleased to announce that it has received a $10 million gift from the Kansas City Sports Trust. The Trust has given the gift toward the building of football facilities, which are currently being developed in the master planning process by Athletics and campus facilities.
“We are so pleased to make this announcement today,” said Director of Athletics Jim Sterk. “The Kansas City Sports Trust has stepped up with a tremendous leadership gift that demonstrates true philanthropic giving. We’re so appreciative of this support, and we’re hopeful that this will encourage others to join in and help us achieve our goals of building football facilities that put us in the upper echelon of the Southeastern Conference. Making this facility become a reality is critical to our commitment in providing one of the best student-athlete experiences in the country,” Sterk said.
Sterk said the gift is an important starting point to kick off a fundraising campaign for the football facility project. Specific details and scope of the campaign and the project will be announced at a later date after plans are approved and finalized.
“The Kansas City Sports Trust has such a generous history of giving to Mizzou, and we’re very grateful for their continued commitment,” said Head Football Coach Barry Odom. “We’ve said from the start that we can’t do this alone – we need support from our fans to get where we want to be, and this is an amazing statement of support. I’m excited to get to work with our administration and our architects to develop plans that will showcase Mizzou in a first-class manner,” Odom said.
UPDATE: I am told there is not yet a definitive plan for what the football improvements will look like. They are still looking at some options because when Rhoades left, they kind of went back to the drawing board. Rhoades' plans were all based around putting everything (football and otherwise) into a complex where the MATC is currently located. With Sterk in charge, adding a football only complex onto or near the stadium is back on the table. As I said, that is not decided yet, but it is back on the table.
The total cost of the project, as Dave Matter tweeted and I have confirmed with a source, is expected to be over $100 million. So while this is a decent start, there is a lot of work to be done. Mizzou should get somewhere in the neighborhood of $40 million from the SEC this year, which helps, but Sterk has been at work around the state meeting with donors and will continue to do so in an effort to raise money for this project. There is no doubt, there is a hope (directive might be too strong a word) from people he has talked to: Football is king, Missouri is behind, and that's where money needs to go.
Some recruiting notes, in both sports. (FWIW, we'll start having a list of guys who are supposed to visit in the Chamber on Friday mornings before home games, so that's where that will appear).
In basketball, Alex Schiffer found out last night that Webster Groves 2018 star Carte'Are Gordon is visiting this weekend. We still hear that the Tigers have ground to make up (specifically on Kansas), but it's a good sign that at least he's coming to campus for the second time in a few weeks.
Also visiting this weekend is 2018 Michigan guard Duane Washington Jr. (no relation so far as we know to the Syracuse star of yesteryear). We don't have a Rivals profile on Washington and therefore don't know a ton about him, but are hoping to touch base with him and find out more.
On the football side, Daniel Parker Jr., recent decommit, tweeted that he'll be in town for the Georgia game next weekend. We expect that to be a big visit weekend (probably official and unofficial). As I said earlier, we'll be working on tracking down visitors on that front over the next week and will have them in next week's Chamber.
2018 St. Louis star Trevor Trout picked up a Tennessee offer yesterday. At this point, it's news when one of the 2018 STL kids doesn't get a major offer.
Speaking of 2018 kids, Illinois corner Tyrik Henderson tweeted yesterday that he'd just gotten off the phone with Mizzou coaches. He's one of the kids we talked to after Night at the Zou and definitely one to watch in the coming months as we think there is a high amount of mutual interest there.
Here's a picture that's got a few Mizzou fans intrigued on Twitter, where it looks like Frankie Hughes is about the same size as Willie Jackson.
We'll keep you updated on the boards throughout the day
***Let's start with an update, because it's the biggest news. Jim Sterk this morning announced a $10 million donation from the Kansas City Sports Trust (an anonymous donor) to go toward the new football facilities. That same donor gave $30 million a few years ago for the renovations done upon moving to the SEC.
Here is the Mizzou release on that donation:
COLUMBIA, Mo. – The University of Missouri Department of Intercollegiate Athletics is pleased to announce that it has received a $10 million gift from the Kansas City Sports Trust. The Trust has given the gift toward the building of football facilities, which are currently being developed in the master planning process by Athletics and campus facilities.
“We are so pleased to make this announcement today,” said Director of Athletics Jim Sterk. “The Kansas City Sports Trust has stepped up with a tremendous leadership gift that demonstrates true philanthropic giving. We’re so appreciative of this support, and we’re hopeful that this will encourage others to join in and help us achieve our goals of building football facilities that put us in the upper echelon of the Southeastern Conference. Making this facility become a reality is critical to our commitment in providing one of the best student-athlete experiences in the country,” Sterk said.
Sterk said the gift is an important starting point to kick off a fundraising campaign for the football facility project. Specific details and scope of the campaign and the project will be announced at a later date after plans are approved and finalized.
“The Kansas City Sports Trust has such a generous history of giving to Mizzou, and we’re very grateful for their continued commitment,” said Head Football Coach Barry Odom. “We’ve said from the start that we can’t do this alone – we need support from our fans to get where we want to be, and this is an amazing statement of support. I’m excited to get to work with our administration and our architects to develop plans that will showcase Mizzou in a first-class manner,” Odom said.
UPDATE: I am told there is not yet a definitive plan for what the football improvements will look like. They are still looking at some options because when Rhoades left, they kind of went back to the drawing board. Rhoades' plans were all based around putting everything (football and otherwise) into a complex where the MATC is currently located. With Sterk in charge, adding a football only complex onto or near the stadium is back on the table. As I said, that is not decided yet, but it is back on the table.
The total cost of the project, as Dave Matter tweeted and I have confirmed with a source, is expected to be over $100 million. So while this is a decent start, there is a lot of work to be done. Mizzou should get somewhere in the neighborhood of $40 million from the SEC this year, which helps, but Sterk has been at work around the state meeting with donors and will continue to do so in an effort to raise money for this project. There is no doubt, there is a hope (directive might be too strong a word) from people he has talked to: Football is king, Missouri is behind, and that's where money needs to go.
Some recruiting notes, in both sports. (FWIW, we'll start having a list of guys who are supposed to visit in the Chamber on Friday mornings before home games, so that's where that will appear).
In basketball, Alex Schiffer found out last night that Webster Groves 2018 star Carte'Are Gordon is visiting this weekend. We still hear that the Tigers have ground to make up (specifically on Kansas), but it's a good sign that at least he's coming to campus for the second time in a few weeks.
Also visiting this weekend is 2018 Michigan guard Duane Washington Jr. (no relation so far as we know to the Syracuse star of yesteryear). We don't have a Rivals profile on Washington and therefore don't know a ton about him, but are hoping to touch base with him and find out more.
On the football side, Daniel Parker Jr., recent decommit, tweeted that he'll be in town for the Georgia game next weekend. We expect that to be a big visit weekend (probably official and unofficial). As I said earlier, we'll be working on tracking down visitors on that front over the next week and will have them in next week's Chamber.
2018 St. Louis star Trevor Trout picked up a Tennessee offer yesterday. At this point, it's news when one of the 2018 STL kids doesn't get a major offer.
Speaking of 2018 kids, Illinois corner Tyrik Henderson tweeted yesterday that he'd just gotten off the phone with Mizzou coaches. He's one of the kids we talked to after Night at the Zou and definitely one to watch in the coming months as we think there is a high amount of mutual interest there.
Here's a picture that's got a few Mizzou fans intrigued on Twitter, where it looks like Frankie Hughes is about the same size as Willie Jackson.
We'll keep you updated on the boards throughout the day
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