Rutgers on Tuesday will announce a deal with an infrastructure firm to produce a facilities master plan that is expected to include designs for a new football practice facility and renovations to the Rutgers Athletic Center, NJ Advance Media has learned.

Terms of the deal are not immediately known, but Rutgers officials say its’ partnership with AECOM will result in a comprehensive analysis of all of its athletics venues.

AECOM, a Los Angeles-based company renowned for its sports facility designs, will provide Rutgers with master-planning services to assess existing athletic facilities in New Brunswick and Piscataway, school officials said. The master plan is expected to create ideas for renovations to its football stadium, basketball arena and other Olympic sports’ venues in addition to establishing a plan for new practice facilities.

“We are excited to team with AECOM, an international leader in sports facility design,” Rutgers athletics director Pat Hobbs said in a statement. “The competitive landscape in collegiate athletics is ever changing. This project will provide us with a roadmap that optimizes the current use of our facilities, while keeping an eye to future changes in how venues are utilized. We are committed to providing a best-in-class experience for our coaches, student-athletes and spectators on game day.''

Introducing Rutgers Sports Insider: Sign up for exclusive news, behind-the-scenes observations and the ability to text message directly with beat writers

In a statement, Kim Vierheilig, managing principal of AECOM NJ, said the infrastructure firm will look to build on the momentum created by Greg Schiano’s return as Rutgers’ football coach, the enthusiasm generated from Steve Pikiell’s breakthrough men’s basketball campaign, and the excitement over women’s basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer’s success.

“With the success Rutgers is having on the hardwood and with the return of coach Schiano, there is a sense of momentum and anticipation,’’ Vierheilig said. “We understand the important role Rutgers has in the state of New Jersey and believe that Rutgers has the potential to become the premier fan experience in the Metropolitan area.”

According to its website, AECOM designs, builds, finances and operates infrastructure assets for governments, businesses and organizations in more than 150 countries. In the sports world, the firm has designed projects for the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, the Sacramento Kings, the Dallas Cowboys and both Los Angeles NFL franchises.

Locally, AECOM was involved in the design of the Barclays Center, the 18,000-seat arena of the Brooklyn Nets. Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal tapped the Barclays Center as the Sports Facility of the Year in 2013 after the completed project included a roof transformed into a green space, a facade comprised of 12,000 pre-rusted weathered steel panels and a curved 3,000-foot LED board at the entrance of the arena.

The @AECOMSports Twitter feed highlights renovations, architectural designs and the building of venues for dozens of professional franchises and major college programs.

“Power 5 schools count on us to help them elevate their game for championship-caliber futures,” said Jon Niemuth, vice president and director of AECOM Sports. “The Big Ten Build represents Rutgers’ commitment to win on all fronts — for student-athletes, fans and the community. We’re ready to help Rutgers build that winning future.”

In January 2019, Rutgers released an independent report produced by College Sports Solutions that called for the state university to invest in a massive facilities upgrade.

The 58-page report mostly blasted the school’s marquee venues, noting that SHI Stadium “is in a state of disrepair’’ and adding that the Rutgers Athletic Center “is in desperate need of updating, refurbishing, and infrastructure rebuilding.’’

Buy Rutgers Big Ten Tournament tickets: StubHub, SeatGeek

Regarding the 52,454-seat football stadium that underwent a $102 million expansion 12 years ago, the CSS report wrote: “Concrete throughout the stadium is cracked, leaking, and unpainted. There are obvious unfinished, possibly valuable, spaces in many areas of the facility. The exterior walls and roofs in the stadium are painted in different shades of red. There is no comprehensive deferred maintenance program in place for the stadium.’’

The report also was critical of other facilities, noting the baseball and softball fields are “significantly sub-par as Big Ten venues’’ and called for “a dedicated practice facility for the men’s and women’s golf programs,’’ the need to replace the surface on the track, and said its indoor-practice facility is “obsolete compared to Big Ten peers.’’

Rutgers officials had long planned to replace the Bubble, which is used by the majority of Rutgers’ 22 teams, with a fieldhouse featuring an indoor practice field. The concept was for the football program to take complete control over the Hale Center, which currently includes the women’s tennis team, the men’s and women’s lacrosse teams and the men’s and women’s soccer teams in addition to football and the academic advisors.

But during the complex negotiating process between Rutgers and Schiano last fall, university officials were forced to call an audible. Now, it appears Rutgers is moving ahead with plans to build a football-only complex that includes an indoor practice field, offices, locker rooms and other bells-and-whistles to replace the nearly 35-year old Hale Center.

Rutgers officials said last fall a preliminary estimate for a football-only complex, in addition to renovations to SHI Stadium, would be $150 million. Schiano’s contract includes terms that call on Hobbs, Schiano and Rutgers’ fundraising team to raise half of the estimated price tag before the university produces a strategy to fund the debt service on the remaining cost.

That may sound ambitious, but consider Hobbs already has led a massive upgrade to Rutgers’ athletics facilities since taking over as AD in November 2015. The university last year opened the $115 million RWJBarnabas Health Athletic Performance Center — which includes practice facilities for its basketball teams, wrestling program, and gymnastics team — and is about nine months away from opening the $65 million Gary and Barbara Rodkin Academic Success Center — an 80,000-square foot complex that will provide the school’s athletes with academic resources and also serve as a home for soccer, lacrosse and athletics administration.

Both facilities were financed with a mixture of athletic-department fundraising, tax credits, naming-rights deals and public-purpose bonds that university officials expect to be paid for with future athletics’ revenues.

Rutgers issued an RFP on Oct. 16, 2019, to complete an Athletic Facilities Master Plan, according to the non-executed term sheet between the university and Schiano, which read in part: “The university’s objective is to develop a comprehensive Master Plan that will inform and prioritize the development of new (and renovation of existing) athletic facilities, including the development and construction of a new, permanent, football‐specific complex (to encompass program‐related functions for dining, strength & conditioning, recruiting operations, team meeting space, and overall football operations) and a dedicated indoor practice facility, as well as redevelopments to SHI Stadium.’’

AECOM won the bid in late December, signed the contract this week, and is now tasked with designing a plan to upgrade Rutgers’ operational facilities and the improve fan experience at SHI Stadium, Rutgers Athletic Center and other venues. Rutgers Institutional Planning and Operations also will be involved in the project, school officials said.

“The sooner we get those renderings, those help,” Hobbs told NJ Advance Media in December. “It was a rendering that got our practice fields down. It was a rendering that got the APC sort of moving forward. It was a concept and rendering that got the Rodkin Academic Success Center moving forward.’’

Get Rutgers Sports Insider text messages from reporters: Cut through the clutter of social media and communicate directly with the Rutgers beat writers. Plus, exclusive news and analysis every day. Sign up now.

Keith Sargeant may be reached at ksargeant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @KSargeantNJ. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.