Potential 8-lane, 50-meter University of Wisconsin pool removed from expansion plan

An expansion to the University of Wisconsin’s Rec Sports facilities at one point carried an option to build an 8-lane, 50-meter competition pool, but that option has been scrapped from the master plan moving forward due to lack of funding sources.

The new pool would have been built in the Southeast Recreational Facility (SERF) building, which houses the current long-course pool that the Badgers use as their primary training facility. The current SERF pool does not have spectator seating, however, and can’t host meets, meaning competitions can only take place in the 25-yard Natatorium pool built in 1961.

Wisconsin Rec Sports maintains its own blog to keep track of its master plan for construction and expansion. That plan featured a potential design for an Olympic-sized competition pool in the SERF building until December 4th, when the plan was revised to only build around the existing training pool.

Rec Sports Director John Horn said the issue was finding funding partners to help Rec Sports finance the pool.

“Students expressed a willingness to fund up to one-half of the new competition pool facility through their segregated fees they pay in tuition,” Horn said, leaving the other half to be funded by other campus partners. “That funding is not present at this time, so we are moving forward a different option for referendum that doesn’t include a competition pool.”

Wisconsin is one of the few Big Ten schools without a long-course competition pool. Rumors of new facilities have been common around the state and gained momentum when the Wisconsin Athletic Department built new locker rooms for the swimming and diving teams in the SERF building last year. But with no new pool a part of the latest expansion plans, which go to referendum with the students March 3-5, it looks as if Badger-land will be waiting for a new pool at least another few years.

The Athletic Department was one of the key campus partners asked to fund the other half of the new pool facility, but associate athletic director Justin Doherty said the department was simply too tapped out financially at the moment to commit to another construction project.

“We’ve funded four major facility projects recently at a cost of about $125 million,” Doherty said. “We are, at this point in time, just not able to further endebt ourselves.”

The Badger Athletic Department built a new women’s hockey facility, a new Golf training center, a new indoor facility for softball and the brand-new Student-Athlete Performance Center, which houses athletic medicine facilities, weight rooms, academic facilities and locker rooms among other things.

The hockey facility project also included new locker rooms for the Swimming and Diving teams in the SERF, Doherty pointed out, and the Performance Center benefits all Badger athletes, Swimming and Diving included.

“We support all of our student-athletes in all of our sports, from swimming to golf to football to basketball,” Doherty said.

The referendum language must be set by early February, meaning any reinstatement of a new pool to the plan must be finalized by then. Students will vote on the proposal in March.

The construction plans also affect Wisconsin’s high school swimmers, who currently swim their state meets in the UW Natatorium despite scarce deck space and the lack of a separate full-size warm-down pool. The Wisconsin High School State meets are locked into a contract to stay at the Nat until spring of 2017.

The new competition pool would have cost somewhere in the ballpark of $26 million, leaving $13 million for the athletic department and other funding partners to cover.

“The bottom line is you have to make decisions on what you can and can’t built at the moment,” said Doherty, “and we are where we are right now.”

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Ryan
10 years ago

I am a former high school swimmer in Wisconsin, but the comments in this thread are completely irrational. Football built a new scoreboard because they made all the money to build that scoreboard. Until a powerful donor supporting swimming comes along, there will not be a major renovation. It may be sad, but money drives college athletics.

jman
10 years ago

I wonder if any other programs are like Purdue where the AD was a swimmer at their school? Makes for an athletic department very supportive of swimming

Swim-for-Life
10 years ago

The is a newer, beautiful facility at Pleasant Prairie, as well.

There are reasons as to why the top swimmers, in our state, did NOT choose UW-Madison, and it has nothing to do with their pool.

The UW athletic department clearly is not interested in supporting the swim team, which is sad, but I highly doubt the teams will be cut, either.

Peter
10 years ago

As long as Barry is the AD, Swimming at UW is in danger of being cut at any moment.

cpswims
10 years ago

Good News for Purdue, Northwestern. Minnesota & Stanford as they landed the top 2014 class recruits from the state.

duckduckgoose
Reply to  cpswims
10 years ago

Cierra Runge took an official visit to UW before committing to Cal. Madison’s an incredible college town, great school, solid teams, and Hite’s a good coach. A lot of favorable things there, but crappy facilities and a shaky commitment from the AD artificially imposes a low ceiling on a team, coach, and school that deserve better.

ReeceStyle
10 years ago

Big bummer…Madison is a phenominal school with great new coaches and tremendous upside to the program..this is only hurting them. The fact that they only have (had) one home meet this season really says something…I can’t believe that they are still swimming in a facility that is over 50 years old..with the football, men’s basketball, and both hockey teams the athletic department definitely isn’t hurting finacially..especially with Madison being the only major college town in the state, there is definitely not a lack of support.

The school (or coaches or someone) should really start looking for donations from alumni…it seems that is the only way swimming pools are built these days…

Peter
Reply to  ReeceStyle
10 years ago

Donations won’t help. Barry does not want the long term commitment of a pool in this climate. If he was offered one fully paid, he still wouldn’t take it. Why do you think both pools at UW are owned and operated by Student Rec, not the athletic department?

Cindy ulsrud
10 years ago

This is the exact reason my daughter will not even consider the UW Madison!! She wants to swim in college and they have Poor pool facilities!! It’s amazing how much Alvarez commits to FB and basketball but won’t throw a bone to swim!! Guess that money for the big screen at Camp Randal took front seat. Poor decision Barry.

coacherik
10 years ago

Football got any money lying around? The AD? How about some of those Big Ten Network funds? Wonder if it would be a different story if they had won their bowl game or got to a bigger bowl game…

The funds are there, the thought of giving someone else a smaller piece of the pie for it is not something they want to do.. Especially if it means not being able to do something like having 22 coaches for the football team (look it up). The Nat was built in the 60s, c’mon now. Its time to get competitive and look at the bigger picture for revenue streams through facility usage in a 50m tank. Where is the outreach… Read more »

About Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson swam for nearly twenty years. Then, Jared Anderson stopped swimming and started writing about swimming. He's not sick of swimming yet. Swimming might be sick of him, though. Jared was a YMCA and high school swimmer in northern Minnesota, and spent his college years swimming breaststroke and occasionally pretending …

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