NEW BRUNSWICK — The Rutgers University governing board on Thursday approved a physical master plan designed to show the future of the four campuses, and the Scarlet Knights athletics program appears to be getting a major facelift.

Inside the 327-page report entitled "Rutgers University Physical Master Plan Rutgers 2030'' are 18 pages dedicated to potential facilities upgrades to benefit athletics on the New Brunswick and Piscataway campuses.

Here's a link to the athletics plan

:

"We've been working on a plan for athletics for 18 months,'' Rutgers President Robert Barchi told NJ Advance Media in an exclusive interview before the university Board of Governors meeting on the Old Queens Campus. "That includes getting outside expert opinions on what our needs-assessment is, where we stand with Title IX, where we stand with our NCAA readiness, where we stand with Big Ten readiness, what the coaches think we need. We've gone through a half-dozen different major options and gone pretty far with planning some of them and ultimately rejected most of them. Any one of those plans getting out in the press it would've been impossible to do reasonable planning. We've had to keep a pretty closed lid on things. It's not because we haven't been doing the work.

•

First look at the Rutgers football Hale Center facility upgrade

• First look at the new Rutgers basketball multi-use practice facility



"What we have now is a plan-forward for the next 10 or so years for athletics that we think is a reasonable, doable cost-effective plan that makes the best use of the resources that we might be able to raise and addresses multiple issues. It takes care of things that we have to do in terms of Title IX, things that we have to do in terms of deferred maintenance and things that we ought to do in terms of competitiveness. All those things are an important part of it. ''

Rutgers officials are calling for a multi-use facility to satisfy the men's and women's basketball programs, as well as the majority of the other 24 Scarlet Knights teams. As first reported by NJ Advance Media on April 3, it would be built atop and around a parking deck adjacent to the 37-year old Rutgers Athletic Center, which could get its own facelift in the years ahead.

"The multi-use facility that will house men's and women's basketball, wrestling, gymnastics, volleyball and be able to handle parking for students and staff and events for all those things in that quadrant on the Livingston Campus,'' said Antonio Calcado, vice president of university facilities and capital planning.

In addition, the plan calls for the Rutgers football program to take over the Hale Center while the men's and women's soccer programs, women's tennis and men's and women's lacrosse will move into the bowels of the south-end zone bleachers in High Point Solutions Stadium. The details of the Hale Center redesign and football stadium south end-zone build out was first reported by NJ Advance Media on April 20.

"In the south-end of the stadium, we've got all the infrastructure already there,'' Calcado said. "The electric, the plumbing, the sewer systems. But it's just one big open hole. So we're looking to fit them out because want the Hale Center strictly for football, although there are some amenities -- strength training and medicine that will still be used for other sports. But the Hale Center will be a football building.''

Barchi declined to give specifics on the cost of any of the projects.

"We're still working on cost,'' Barchi said. "As we get closer to bringing each one of these projects forward we'll be able to come up with tighter cost estimates. Right now none of the pieces of the facilities master plan are costed out. There are no costs given for any of the pieces because it's a flexible document. It will cost more if we build it five years from now then if we built it now. It might cost less.''

Pressed on the subject of finances, Barchi pointed to the successful $1 billion fundraising campaign, saying: "If you look at the last billion dollar campaign, 10 percent of that -- $100 million -- was raised for athletics. It wouldn't be out of context to think that in a $3 billion program (for all facility plans in the physical master plan), the piece that's going to be based on athletics fundraising might be 10 percent of that ($300 million).''

Barchi said the athletics portion of the physical master plan "gives the same level of resolution as the rest of the plan where we would be going in a 15-year window.''

"This is what we see happening,'' Barchi said. "It's phased into four phases, as most of our projects in that plan are. They're not hard phases. They can be sorted differently but they give a general idea. It's a blueprint that's flexible that we can work with.''

"All of the information in the plan comes from an interaction between me, Tony (Calcado), the outside people, (Rutgers Athletic Director) Julie (Hermann) and the coaches so that they are on board with all of this. They've sat around the table with me on multiple occasions looking at these plans. We've rejected earlier plans together. This is something we've all agreed to. I would be frankly amazed if there's any disagreement over this. Because we really took this to the mat.''

The key to the multi-use facility is the parking garage, which will accommodate parking for the Business School and potential projects such as a Reseach Park and hotel and conference center near the RAC.

"The idea is we're going to build this anyway,'' Barchi said. "Let's use this as the foundation for solving our other problems with athletics.

"It's really leveraging projects that we're already doing,'' Calcado added.

Barchi reiterated the academics side of the house won't be paying for the athletics development.

"Really the only thing I'll say about cost and fundraising is what I've said in the past, is that this project will move forward when we have the funds raised for it,'' he said. "And we're not going to use the operating budget of the university to support those projects. But we have a level of planning done that we can start these projects tomorrow if we wanted to. There's no reason that we couldn't except for the fundraising.''

Who's paying for it?

"We're looking for our athletics donors to be the primary supporters for this,'' Barchi said. "As the athletics programs grow and we become full financial members of the Big Ten, and the sports program switches from a net subsidized program to a revenue generator, it will be in the position to undertake its own support of capital. It will be a combination of donations, of whatever we can get in terms of benefit from the government, tax credits and those sorts of things, and dollars that can be supported by internal operations by the athletics program itself. It will not be done with operating budget dollars from the university.''

Barchi expressed confidence in Hermann to be able to raise the money needed for the development.

"I am (confident),'' he said. "Julie has been involved in this process, she's worked with the coaches, the outside advisers to come up with a consensus and that's been difficult to do. I think she has a good relationship with her donor base. I'm confident she can present this case, and I'm going to be there to help her, as will the coaches.''

Asked when a shovel could be put in the ground for the multi-use/parking deck facility next to the RAC, Barchi said the "timeline is entirely dependent on the donors.''

"We've got a plan that we can put in the ground tomorrow,'' he said. "But I'm not putting a shovel in the ground until I see the commitment from the donors to make this happen.''

Barchi said there is some existing money in the athletics-facilities build fund, but "it is nothing that can start these projects.''

"The big money,'' he added, "has been waiting for the plan. Now the plan is there. It's time.''

Barchi and Hermann are set to address a group of a couple dozen major athletics donors on June 29 to go over more details of the plan, according to Peter McDonough, Rutgers vice president for public affairs

"That's really the acid test of saying, 'Here's the plan, can you get behind this?' '' said McDonough, who added that the multi-use facility would put Rutgers "up there with the best'' Big Ten practice facilities.

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