re: Facilities Upgrades and Profit Numbers

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One of the first things John Cohen noticed since he was hired as Auburn’s athletic director in late 2022 was the north endzone at Jordan-Hare Stadium and its antiquated scoreboard and layout.

He has long stated a goal of a wide-ranging construction project to update not just the scoreboard but to develop the entire end of the stadium into a space including far more premium options for fans — expanding on an already existing push for premium seating under Cohen’s tenure.

“I think one of the things, and this is long before John Cohen, but one of the things that we had to address in all of our facilities is a little bit of a lack of premium options,” Cohen said in a January sit-down with AL.com. “We’ve added some premium options in basketball, we’ve added some premium options in baseball. We’ve actually added a premium opportunity quite frankly at softball that we’re quite excited about. We’ve added some premium options over at football. We’re going to continue to enhance our premium options cause that’s what this fanbase demands.”

Cohen seems to be envisioning creating an experiential area on that end of the stadium with a plaza as well as suites, similar to several other recent projects across the country. Cohen said he and his staff traveled to and studied other school’s projects including at Arkansas, Florida State, Nebraska and Notre Dame.

While he was the athletic director at Mississippi State, Cohen oversaw a renovation of the north endzone at Davis-Wade Stadium. Though Cohen said he anticipates the Auburn project to be “more different than alike” to his previous experience.

For now, Cohen said the project is in a “dream phase,” and he does not have a budget or a timeline for completing the project. He said he and his staff are working on preparing a blueprint to present internally.

“What all of us are fighting is that living room, and the very comfortable chair, and the personal refrigerator,” Cohen said. “We’re fighting that. We’re asking fans to fill up their tank with gas. We’re asking them to make time that they sometimes don’t have and come experience Auburn University. In doing that, we have to make the environment as conducive and as enjoyable an opportunity as possible.”

Cohen said the north endzone project is one of a series of facilities updates and upgrades on his agenda. In large part, every project is still in the brainstorming phase and not much has been finalized.

That includes developing a plan to spread out congestion at Neville Arena between the three teams competing for practice space: men’s basketball, women’s basketball and volleyball.

The volleyball team, Cohen said, has practiced in three different places since he arrived at Auburn including the Student Activities Center. Head coach Brent Crouch’s team has made two consecutive NCAA Tournaments.

“Our volleyball team has needs that we have not yet met,” Cohen said.

Cohen is looking to create a “permanent” facility for volleyball. Exactly how that will come about is not clear.

He said he has spent a great deal of time thinking about uses for the essentially vacant Beard-Eaves Coliseum. Save for a small patch of office space, the athletics department does not use the building.

Cohen did not reveal exactly what his plans are for the building, whether that means re-purposing it or knocking it down entirely.

Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at mcohen@al.com

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The renovation project my picture was from was estimated at $145M in 2017/18 ish I think. So, $160M is probably pretty accurate to what it would be now.

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