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Lamar will issue bonds to help fund football facility renovations

By PERRYN KEYS, The Enterprise

02/26/2008

Updated 02/26/2008 12:36:46 AM CST

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BEAUMONT - Lamar University is still hunting for money. Just not as much.

To help pay for renovations to its football facilities, the university will issue bonds and gradually pay them off with money gained from its new student athletics fee, President Jimmy Simmons said Monday.

The new fee was approved last Friday by the Texas State

University System Board of Regents. Starting in fall 2009, students will pay $8.75 per semester credit-hour in the fall and spring, and $4.50 per credit-hour in the summer.

The fee will likely bring in more than $2 million annually and go straight to the athletics department, helping with the costs of reinstating football at Lamar.

"We'll take that student fee and use a portion of it to bond money to the majority of the renovations," Simmons said by cell phone Monday. "At this point, we don't know the exact amount we'll need. But it's not as ominous (needing) tens of millions in private donations."

Citing a Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board statute, Simmons made it clear the university will still need private donations to finish the projects.

The statute requires that private donations fund at least 25 percent of building renovations.

"We won't know for sure until we get the numbers, but we expect that we'll need $5 million or less (in private money). ... Of course, if someone wants to give us more than $5 million, that would be terrific," Simmons said with a chuckle. "We wouldn't turn it down. It would certainly give us some more flexibility."

Simmons said the university's timeline for the upcoming year will be something like this:

Get a final cost assessment from architects;

Get approval to begin construction from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board;

Raise money through private donations;

Hire a football coach, preferably by August; and finally;

Begin renovations to Cardinal Stadium and Higgins Field House.

Simmons said he expects that each year, the athletics department will still have some money left from the student fee after it makes its bond payments.

The remainder of that money will go toward the athletics department budget.

Lamar plans to issue the bonds through the Texas State University System.

Lamar