Mizzou receives $8 million gift toward football facility project

Missouri received another multimillion-dollar donation toward a proposed football facility in the south end zone at Memorial Stadium.

The Tigers’ athletic department announced Wednesday it had received an $8 million gift from a donor who wished to remain anonymous. Mizzou has raised roughly $67 million of the proposed $75 million cost for the project.

New Tigers athletic director Jim Sterk, who was hired in August, presented a vision for the project to the University of Missouri System Board of Curators during a meeting Oct. 6 at UMKC.

The new football facility would open space at the Mizzou Athletics Training Complex by shifting football operations — including a training facility with a new weight room, trainers’ facilities, cafeteria, locker rooms, coaches’ offices and recruiting area — to the stadium.

Sterk also said additional suites and premium seating would be included, but that Memorial Stadium won’t expand its capacity.

“We are so grateful for such a transformational gift,” Sterk said in a release. “We’re very excited to continue this process and keep momentum going. Our next steps include meeting with architects to determine all of the details of the project and then our goal will be to present our final plan with the funding model to our Board of Curators for their approval in February.”

Last month, Mizzou announced a $10 million donation from the Kansas City Sports Trust, the second largest donation to the athletic department.

With the announcement of Wednesday’s gift, the Tigers have received two of the five largest donations in athletic department history since Sterk arrived from San Diego State.

MU also announced a $1.675 million gift toward the project Sept. 28 from another anonymous donor.

“This is such an exciting time for our program, and I’m so impressed with our donors and the support they’re giving for this project,” first-year Tigers football coach Barry Odom said in a release. “I can’t say enough just how thankful we are for gifts like this. We’re going to create a first-class facility, something that our fans will be proud of, and something that will have a huge impact for years to come for our student-athletes.”

This story was originally published October 19, 2016 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Mizzou receives $8 million gift toward football facility project."