Nebraska Athletic Director Troy Dannen updated fans on two major facility renovation projects Friday during a nearly hour-long, wide-ranging news conference at the Hawks Championship Center. The planned renovations to the newly renamed John Cook Arena, including re-opening the top rows on the north, east and west sides of the arena and the conversion of the lower rows of seating on three sides of the court to chairback seating will continue as planned after the 2025-26 season winter sports season. However, plans to bring details of renovations to Memorial Stadium to the Board of Regents for approval are on hold, due to the budget struggles of the NU system and the UNL Campus.
“This week, the chancellor sent a note out talking about the structural deficit of the university,” Dannen said. “The president has spoken about some of the system-wide financial issues. There’s going to be a lot of trauma ahead. We’re not going to take anything to the board for their approval, and I don’t know when we will. The time is not now in the midst of what I would level some degree of crisis on campus, consternation at the very least, crisis at the very most. Now is not the time to debut a big capital project. But, we’re going to continue to work on the plans. We’re going to continue to fine tune the financial model, and at whatever point in time, I think we can comfortably take it back, we’ll take it back. Otherwise, I would just say status quo. ”
Dannen also touched on the revenue-sharing model in college athletics, allowing players to be paid directly by the schools they play for.
“I would urge our fans, as I have urged our coaches,” Dannen said. “Do not get frustrated with the growing pains associated with CSC and all the things that come with the settlement. This thing is six weeks old, and it’s no different than a freshman showing up. Peak performance does not happen on day one. I think a lot of people had this unreasonable expectation that day one, everything was going to run as efficiently as it’s ever going to run. I’ve been thrilled with everything that’s happened and I’m a governance nerd, I think they’re doing a great job. There’s a learning curve. Some people are going to embrace everything and some people are going to fight everything, which makes it just that much harder for them. It needs to work, it has to work, for the sake of the enterprise. If we give it the chance and find the patience and tolerance to let this thing find its equilibrium, it’ll work great. We’ve never demonstrated patience and tolerance as soon as something happens that we don’t like.”
Dannen also touted the financial strength of Husker Athletics and the academic achievement of Nebraska’s student-athletes last academic year. The cumulative grade-point average of 3.46 by the Huskers last year was the highest in school history.