Josh Whitman acknowledges that adding a hockey program is “an ambitious project” — maybe the biggest he’ll ever has in his career — and that he must raise “many, many more millions” of dollars to fund a 5,000-6,000-seat hockey arena.

But the Illinois athletics director said during a media roundtable on Wednesday that he hopes to green-light a program by the end of the calendar year.

Whitman said he is “increasingly confident” that Illinois has a feasible funding project and that he has received several “seven-figure” commitments for a downtown Champaign arena project that could cost $50-60 million. Whitman said a funding model includes private donations, corporate dollars, retail dollars, concession dollars and developer dollars.

“I’m increasingly confident in what this could like and our chances of making this a reality,” Whitman said. “There does seem to be growing interest. Everywhere I go, I’m asked about it. It seems like a lot of the parties that need to be a part of this project are starting to line up. The opportunity exists for us to get this thing done.”

Whitman said a program would likely take two to three years to start after greenlighting, but hockey would give Illinois another potential revenue-generating program in a conference that has been growingly successful in hockey. Notre Dame (a hockey-only conference member), Michigan and Ohio State represented the Big Ten in the NCAA Frozen Four. The state of Illinois produces the sixth-most Division-I programs but the state has no Division-I hockey programs, so the talent is there to build a winner, and the NHL partnered with Illinois to fund a feasibility project.

“We can be great at hockey,” Whitman said. “The Big Ten has become a powerhouse at hockey. …The chance to fill that void. The chance to bring our fans together more frequently and to celebrate something to be behind is just a great opportunity for us. We’re excited and grateful for the traction that that project continues to gain.”

But Whitman has other motives behind the project too. A new hockey arena would also house at least four other programs: men’s and women’s gymnastics, women’s volleyball and wrestling — that currently are in Huff Hall or Kenney Gym, facilities that provide challenges. The facility would include a permanent, separate volleyball and wrestling practice facilities as well as three hockey rinks (one for public use, one for practice and one for games). To add a men’s hockey program, Illinois would need to add another women’s program to comply with Title IX requirements. Whitman said it's not clear what that sport could be but acknowledged that women's hockey would be under consideration since the athletics department wouldn't have to create a new facility for that sports, unlike lacrosse or another sport.

“To me it’s about what hockey and what the building that hockey would require means for this athletic program and more broadly what it means for our community," Whitman said. "I see this as an opportunity for us to overnight to change the opportunity that is currently existing for volleyball, for wrestling and for gymnastics. …We think that a wholesale solution, a new building, is the right answer. Generating the resources to build a new building for those sports is very, very challenging. We think that using hockey to drive that plan is the right answer. That allows us to create a new solution for those sports that I think otherwise would be very hard to come by.”

Whitman also thinks hockey can be a boon to the downtown area, which is about a mile north of State Farm Center and Memorial Stadium. He said hockey, which hosts Friday and Saturday games, could drive business for area hotels, bars and restaurants.

“It mooves us outside of our normal university bubble,” Whitman said. “It allows us to extend a hand to the Champaign-Urbana communities.”

Whitman said most of his second year on the job has included fund-raising to provide his programs with the resources needed to succeed. He said Wednesday that 1,700 donors increased their giving level this year and that 1,500 people have joined annual athletics fund. For the first time since 2005-06, Illinois expects consecutive years of growth in its annual fund.

Whitman shrugs off criticism that fund-raising a hockey program would take away resources for other programs.

“My job is to move the agenda forward for 21 sports," Whitman said. "I can’t afford and they can’t afford for us to identify a project for football, a project of basketball and for us sit back on our haunches while that happens while the rest of our sports raise their hands and say, ‘What about us.’ We’re going to put together a wholistic plan that includes staffing, that includes resources, that includes facilities. Then we’re going to prioritize what we need based on resources available to us and then we’re going to execute. For us, as we’ve built our facility plan and as we’ve buffered that with our fund-raising plan, there’s not a lot of overlap. We want to be careful as we anticipate who might want to get involved in supporting different projects that we’re not robbing Peter to pay Paul. We want to make sure we’re identifying donors and different revenue opportunities that are unique to different projects that allow us to walk parallel paths and allow us to get different projects off the ground and get them completed at different points in times while others are happening.”

Other notes

- Whitman said he has plans for baseball and softball will get "incremental" facility upgrades that include indoor facilities for both, but a new baseball stadium isn't feasible right now. The baseball indoor facility would cost $8 million, while the softball facility would cost $5-6 million. Both would focus more on "player development," Whitman said. Most consider Illinois baseball to have some of the worst facilities in the Big Ten.

- Whitman also announced the Irwin Indoor Football Practice Facility will receive an extension on the west side that will significantly increase the square footage. The space will mostly be used for offensive and defensive lineman training but will also allow hitting tunnels for baseball and softball. Illinois is in the middle of construction of a $79.2 million football training facility.

- Whitman announced basketball will host a Big Ten game at United Center in Chicago this year. The opponent is not yet known. With the move to a 20-game schedule and dwindling attendance at nonconference games in Chicago, Whitman said the program wanted to use the extra home game as a chance to draw a better crowd in Chicago. He said using a conference home game in Chicago also could bring a more prominent nonconference opponent back to Champaign.