New Dorm - Video
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By: Christian Hardy | @HardyNFL
Kansas basketball already has Allen Fieldhouse, but now Bill Self and company have something else to be excited about — a new housing facility.
Established with the $17.5 million donated to Kansas Athletics from various donors, as well as bonds, Marie S. McCarthy Hall will offer private bedrooms and bathrooms, an indoor basketball court, pool tables, a theatre room, meeting rooms and a dining room.
Those donations will make all of that possible, and it’ll give the Kansas basketball program another advantage: a recruiting boost. The exclusive, basketball-only apartments should be a massive addition to a program that is already one of the best in the nation in recruiting.
According to a Student Housing release, construction on the building will be finished this July.
The University of Kentucky was the first to revolutionize the luxury apartment incentive in 2012. With the help of donors, John Calipari opened the doors to Kentucky’s Wildcat Coal Lodge. But Calipari’s player mansion isn’t quite as luxurious as the one Self will open up this summer.
Though locations are similar for both the Kentucky and Kansas facilities — both just a jaunt away from the practice facilities — there are a few amenities Kansas offers that Kentucky doesn’t.
Kansas’ facilities will include a full-court basketball facility, whereas Kentucky doesn’t have one at all. McCarthy Hall will also house a full-fledged theatre, unlike Kentucky’s facility. The Jayhawk players will live in individual rooms and private bathrooms, while players share a room and bathroom at Kentucky.
In all, the apartments will house 66 students, but more than half of those of those spots (38) will go to regular students. That will add up to about $265,000 per tenant. The cost might sound outlandish, but, once it’s built, compounding the apartments with Allen Fieldhouse will make Kansas seemingly irresistible for recruits.
If Kansas basketball fans expect the team to pull in some of the top recruits in the nation, they’re just going to have to get over the dollar figure. It’s not coming out of the University’s pocket, so there’s no reason for students to be upset about that.
And maybe these student-athletes deserve to be treated like royalty. With practice and workouts nearly every single day, no student-athlete has the ability to work, study and buy these amenities for themselves. It’s not as if they aren’t paying the University back, either: they’re the people who put butts in to the 16,300 seats in Allen Fieldhouse for every single game, and bring in thousands of dollars in jersey sales each and every season.
These luxury apartments are the least that Kansas Athletics can do for the student athletes on which the school’s pride rely so heavily on. Before you criticize the dollars being thrown around, don’t forget what the student athletes, current and future, represent and all they embody for the University’s student body.
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@RockChalkinTexas really thought all of this, world games and Maui would interest and draw in some recruits, so far, not working!
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@Crimsonorblue22 I know. That article kinda says they thought it would.
