[00:00:15] Speaker A: Hello. Welcome to the Roundhouse Podcast with Paul Sullentrop of Wichita State University Strategic Communications. Thanks very much for listening. We always appreciate your time. Our guest today is Wichita State Director of Athletics Kevin Saul. He is here to take on the big job of explaining the direction of college athletics. So this podcast will accompany a letter that Kevin has crafted, goes into a lot of detail about how Wichita State fits into the landscape, Wichita State's financial situation and one of the biggest issues, the pending House v. NCAA settlement, which is a significant part of what's coming.
So, Kevin, let's start. What I think most fans are curious about is kind of the big picture. Where does Wichita State fit, fit into college athletics as we start moving forward?
[00:00:58] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's a great question. I think this is a program that has had a lot of affinity for our fans. And Paul, as you know, we recognize fans of the game and I think last night we had a couple on the floor that were season ticket holders for 45 years and we've had some for longer and some for maybe a little shorter. But it's a program that has been obviously deeply entrenched in the Wichita community and one that folks love. And I think the important factor to talk about here is that the institution and the community made a decision a very long time ago to position this program on the highest competitive level, that we were going to be competitive with our peers, that we were going to continue to grow, that we were going to seek championships. So I think first and foremost that piece is very important. And quite frankly, I don't think there's a choice in that matter.
I think our university, the city of Wichita, they deserve a first class, highly competitive athletics program. And so our charge is to navigate our circumstances. It's always been that for decades is to navigate our circumstances and position this program in a position of being highly competitive.
[00:02:13] Speaker A: So when I think about those kind of things, as I'm sure you have, I think there, what Wichita State would be saying is there is real value and not only in putting 10,000 people in Koch arena, but there's real value when the softball team goes to Oklahoma and plays or when the softball team goes to Fayetteville and beats Texas A and M. There's value in baseball, playing in regionals and super regionals, all those kind of things. Is that a way to think about why it's important WSU continues to maintain and progress?
[00:02:43] Speaker B: Yeah, I think the affinity for college athletics from a fan's perspective, and look, you and I are both fans as well, is being a Part of something that's bigger than yourself, connecting yourself to something that is succeeding, that feels good to be a part of. And I think that's really the most important piece from a connection with the community is to make sure that we're competing at a really high level and that we're successful in doing so. That people feel good about not only the shockers, but the community that they live in. We've said it a bunch of times that the city of Wichita deserves a really highly competitive athletics program.
[00:03:19] Speaker A: So it sounds like you're saying you see it also as a quality of life thing for the, you know, for city of Wichita, Sedgwick county, state of Kansas.
[00:03:25] Speaker B: Yeah. And campus life for our students, our faculty, staff. It's all encompassing and we've all been a part of programs that have been incredibly successful and it is an adrenaline shot for everybody. That's a part of that. It helps with enrollment.
Certainly winning and doing it the right way can solve a lot of problems and open a lot of doors for the various constituents that we serve. So that's what we're focused on.
[00:03:54] Speaker A: Wichita State does not have a football program.
Is that a plus as we get going in this kind of new era?
[00:04:00] Speaker B: Well, I think it depends on who you ask. Paul haven't been here for two and a half years.
You know, there's various ways that that conversation goes. But I think in the context of this conversation, when we start talking about. I know we'll touch on it later when we start talking about retroactive nil payments, when we talk about scholarship maximums and revenue share.
Certainly football provides an incredibly different dynamic to that.
You know, some universities sponsor football programs that lose money annually and that's more at a micro level, kind of locally within athletics.
But those same universities are benefiting from it from an enrollment standpoint because you've got 115 football student athletes, typically you're going to have a marching band of 250 to 350 that are going to be a part of that deal as well. You've got family weekends and homecomings. And so the bigger picture certainly speaks to justifying maybe the micro financial realities.
But for us, I think it allows us a unique opportunity to fund our other programs in ways that our competitive peers can't or don't. We do every year a financial analysis, a dashboard for every single program. We look at all the major revenue categories, we look at all the major expense categories, and we try to position our programs globally. Each one of our 16 programs in the top third in Our league, and for the most part, we've done that. We've got a little bit of work to do with a few programs to shift them from the middle third to the top third.
Well, why is the top third important? Because, you know, I think it's up to us to provide those championship level resources. You've heard me say it before, Paul. We don't need the nicest house in the neighborhood. We don't need the top budgets in every single sport. But we do need to be in the top third to give our coaches and our student athletes a fighting chance to win championships. I think that's realistic from the top third. So not having football, which could potentially present a micro financial loss, certainly allows us to pour more dollars and resources and time and effort into our other sports programs.
[00:06:19] Speaker A: What does this all mean for basketball? For men's basketball at Wichita State?
[00:06:23] Speaker B: Yeah. So obviously men's basketball is our primary revenue driver. There's a lot of pressure on our basketball program to fund a lot of the programming that we provide to fund our 16 sports.
What it means for basketball, not necessarily not having a football program. And the current dynamic that we're in, what it means for basketball is that I firmly believe we're going to be able to pour resources into our men's basketball program that our peers, most of our peers in the American Athletic Conference will not be able to do. When you look at, and I know we're going to touch on it, but when you look at the three components of the house settlement, the retroactive nil, the revenue sharing and the scholarship maximums, we're going to talk about a number in and around that $7 million range. With a football program, that number is going to be closer to 15 to 17 million dollars because those roster maximums are. They expand from 85 to 105. And so what you see is that the football program can certainly be a revenue driver on the back end.
But you've got to invest a lot in a football program. And having that at Wichita State would restrict certainly our ability to invest in other areas. So what I see is, as we do, our analysis is that we're positioning. Our basketball program is positioned in the top two in most expense categories our athletics department generates. We did a study last spring of 22 competitive peers. Our athletics program generates the most revenue, self generated revenue that would not include student fees or institutional support.
And so this is a program that's done a nice job and a community that's done a nice job funding athletics outside of institutional sport and student Fees. And so I say all that to say, Paul, that the effort hasn't changed is we've got to position our basketball program in a spot to win league championships consistently to fill Koch arena so that we can provide the type of expense experience that we want to for all of our student athletes.
[00:08:34] Speaker A: So if we look back over the last 20, 25 years of athletics at Wichita State, a lot of conference titles, a lot of NCAA appearances in every sport, and especially on the women's side, it was a time of real progress and success.
How does this new, the new landscape, how do you navigate that for a broad based success?
[00:08:55] Speaker B: Yeah, I think really that formula hasn't changed. I learned early on in my career through some mentors when I asked the question, you're building programs and you're developing programs and you're trying to get better every single day and every season and every year, what are the most important aspects to that?
And invariably the answer is people. We've got to focus on getting the right people on board, positioning them in the right spots to, to really move this athletics program forward.
We did, Paul, and you covered it recently. We do these programmatic surveys with our student athletes and we ask 40 some odd questions, but a handful of those.
We're asking our student athletes to evaluate their head coaches, their assistant coaches in the areas of like honesty and care and knowledge and technical skills and ability development, all those things. And our student athletes rate our head coaches and assistant coaches higher than the peer group, which is 100 division one institution and 40 of those are power five. So I think we've got really, really good people that are leading our programs and that's where you have to start.
But from then on, I think you move into the tangible elements. So the stuff and things, the facilities, the gear, the travel, those elements, the funding that's necessary to support all of those things. But again, Paul, I think it starts.
[00:10:26] Speaker A: With the people you mentioned, gear. So we'll take a break before we get into the house settlement. Every coach I've asked in every program is very enthusiastic about going to Nike. Tell me about it from your perspective. What does that mean for the department?
[00:10:38] Speaker B: Yeah, well, it means that we transition into the global leader in sports marketing and branding, which is exciting to align our programs with.
Having said that, we're certainly appreciative for the last seven years and the relationship that we built with Under Armour moving forward felt like Nike was the best spot to align our programs.
We've got, I think, a very fair package, a very market similar. It's aligned with the market package from Nike. And that'll start July 1st of 25.
Our student athletes are incredibly excited about it, Paul. And I will tell you that a majority of the time when I see our student athletes walking around campus or outside of our facilities, outside of game days, they're wearing the swoosh. And that really resonates with young people. I think it helps from a recruiting standpoint. We engaged our head coaches in this process and had many a conversation and for the most part, our coaches prepared prefer the Nike brand as well because it resonates with our student athletes because of the quality of the product. So we're really excited about that journey to begin next July.
[00:11:53] Speaker A: Yeah, I wasn't sure if Nike still held that large amount of sway in recruiting and boy, when I talked to the coaches, they all said, yes, it still matters and still is really, really helpful. Okay, the House settlement. There are three elements of the House settlement, assuming it gets approved In April of 2025, that will put WSU on the hook for $650,000 annually over 10 years for retroactive nil, approximately 2.6 million annually for revenue sharing and additional roster expenses of 2.5 million annually for a total of $7 million of new money.
How are you? Other people get to come on this podcast and talk about how much fun it is to win and all the good things we're doing. We bring you on to, to really talk about the cold hard numbers. How does WSU get to that number?
[00:12:44] Speaker B: Well, I think first and foremost, maybe just a little context for the listeners. The house settlement is a consolidation of a handful of lawsuits of which the NCAA is a party.
And it's being adjudicated, if you will, on the West Coast.
It's been going on for the better part of six or eight months. There has been a preliminary approval to this settlement that calls for every institution to contribute to retroactive nil for student athletes beginning 2016 up to the present day.
And so that is really the first element, the way that those dollars are going to be generated. Paul, it's not that Wichita State athletics is going to write a check to a settlement administrator. What will happen is the NCAA will withhold hold $650,000 from their distribution that they normally send out to us every spring semester.
And so we've got to figure out a way to navigate with $650,000 less of an NCAA distribution for the next 10 years. So that's the first element.
The second element is revenue sharing, and that really is the look forward on nil and not to get too complicated, but NIL is going to change a little bit. The, the.
The tax exempt component of nil, once the House settlement is approved, is going to shift underneath the athletics program. And so now what was once NIL fundraising will become revenue share fundraising within athletics. And so really the big difference is, is that our generous contribution contributors and donors, where they have been writing a check to the Wheat Shock Collective that has been tax exempt because they've had a 501C3, they're now going to do what they've always been used to, which is writing a check to Shocker Athletics, which is a 501c tax exempt entity as well. And so that revenue share and those dollars that we've been raising through NIL will shift to revenue share. There is a formula for that, Paul.
It is maximum 22% of about 8 specific revenue categories.
And for us, that number nets out to about $2.6 million annually that we would have approval to share with our student athletes. Now, to give you some context, our first year of nil, we distributed amongst all of our programs a little over $400,000.
This year will be at 1.1 to 1.2.
And so that amount has tripled in a year's time. And so that 1.2 will likely transition up into that 2 million to 2 and a half million dollars next year that will be revenue share distributed to our student athletes. So that's the second element.
[00:15:39] Speaker A: Do you like the fact it's coming under the umbrella of the athletic department?
[00:15:43] Speaker B: I think it, I think it makes. Yeah, yeah. I think it eliminates some variables that could potentially degrade credibility or trust in the community.
At the end of the day, I think our fans are more comfortable writing checks to the university and to Shocker Athletics as opposed to maybe a third party.
So I think that piece is good. And obviously being able to collect and distribute those funds allows us to maintain the integrity of the institution, the credibility and amateurism of our student athletes, and all of those components, those rules that we need to follow. So I think it gives us a little bit more control, Paul. So I definitely see that as a positive.
[00:16:29] Speaker A: Okay, I interrupted you. So the third, the third part of this house settlement.
[00:16:33] Speaker B: Yeah. So the third part is what's called a roster maximum. And I think again, we need to maybe take a step back and talk context.
We've got 16 varsity sports at Wichita State, and many of them are categorized as equivalency sports, which means you have a set number of scholarships historically that you could chop up into percentages and allocate to young people. Some of our programs are what are called headcount sports. And what all that means is that a headcount sports, student athlete, you can't distribute a percentage of a scholarship. It's got to be a full scholarship. And so the headcount sports for us have been men's, women's, basketball, volleyball, and women's tennis.
And then everything else is an equivalency sport where you can distribute by percentages. And so, big picture, Paul, there have been scholarship maximums historically that we have been obligated to. So for, for example, like our volleyball program has had 12 scholarships historically, and that's a headcount sport. So we have 12 young women that are on a full scholarship in our volleyball program. Conversely, with baseball, that's an equivalency sport. Their maximum has been 11.7.
But we were able to again, chop that up in percentages and allocate to student athletes in a different way.
So, bottom line is, the historical context that we've been working under has been termed as scholarship maximums. Now we're transitioning into a concept called roster maximums. And so what will happen is we'll use volleyball as an example. They'll go from a historical scholarship maximum of 12 to a roster limit of 18.
Now, part of the house settlement is with those 18 individuals in your program, and you can scholarship them however the institution chooses. So you can. There will be some institutions that will do 18 full scholarships, and there's some that may choose to stay at 12 or anywhere in between.
Baseball transitions from a historical scholarship maximum of 11.7 to a roster limit of 34. That's a significant increase.
So when you look at that, Paul, we're currently providing 122 and a third full scholarships under the historical scholarship maximum system.
If we were to max out on roster limits and provide full scholarships for the maximum roster limits, that would be 246 scholarships. So it would more than double our scholarship bill. Now, we don't need that many scholarships to be competitive.
We have engaged with our head coaches in conversations about where do we feel like each program needs to land. And each program is very different.
Let's use baseball example. With 34 full scholarships, Paul, you're going to have 16 field players because you're going to go too deep at every position. You probably have about 15 pitchers, so that gets you to 31. So what's your 32, your 33 and your 34? It's probably a backup catcher. It's probably another middle infielder and maybe another outfielder, another pitcher.
Is it necessary that we provide full scholarships for 31, 32, 33, 34? Probably not.
These are individuals that may not have great opportunities to contribute on the field. And so we've got to find that right spot for every program. We feel like we've done that with our coaches and so we don't need 246 full scholarships. And so we found a moderate middle ground that relates to the number that you shared. So the third element on our roster expenses is an increase of about 2.5 million as opposed to closer to 4 million if we were to max it out. So that's a long explanation. Three areas retroactive nil.
We've got the revenue share pieces and then we've got the roster maximums that we feel are a right fit for us to be competitive for championships at Wichita State that total to about $7 million.
[00:20:49] Speaker A: So let's make sure I guess I understand and fans understand if you have say 31 baseball scholarships, can those be divided up?
[00:20:58] Speaker B: They can be anywhere from 1% to 100%.
What we will see with a lot of programs in the country is pretty probably Transitioning from an 117 to somewhere between 20 and 25 is what we're hearing.
We will have some league conversations within the American about where we might want to put position programs and those conversations will be structured around maybe minimum standards. Paul so there may be a minimum cost of doing business to remain in the American Athletic Conference.
[00:21:34] Speaker A: I had not thought about that. Okay, so.
[00:21:37] Speaker B: We wouldn't set a maximum that would be lower than the than the NCAs and the House settlements maximum. But we might set up set a minimum in terms of providing enough resources to be competitive as a league. So we're going through all those conversations now as well.
[00:21:56] Speaker A: So we've seen a lot of changes at WSU venues over the last couple years. Concession prices, promotions, new hospitality, new seating areas.
Describe the importance of looking at every opportunity to generate revenue.
[00:22:10] Speaker B: Well, we operate currently on a 27 million dollar budget, Paul. And when we are successful in aligning championship level resources to expectations in this new environment, that $27 million budget is going to need to expand a $34 million budget. And so it is critically important for us to leave no stone unturned in of terms terms of determining new and innovative ways to generate revenue for our programs.
[00:22:39] Speaker A: Fans are hearing so much about money and revenue. Name, image and likeness. How do you keep the focus on what has always been important, which is helping college Students get an education, compete in their sport, graduate, move on, and become productive people.
[00:22:54] Speaker B: Our primary charge is to develop young people and programs. Within our 16 intercollegiate athletics programs, we provide opportunities for young people to pursue education and degrees and to compete in the sport they love, representing an institution that they love. Those elements, Paul, will never change as long as college athletics is in existence and as long as there's a connection to education.
So as the landscape changes, it's going to be critically important for us as an athletics program to maintain our focus on our mission and our focus on our young people and providing opportunities for them to develop.
[00:23:32] Speaker A: So when you're out and about talking to people, what are the most common questions you get from fans about these changes?
[00:23:38] Speaker B: Well, I think it's a lot to absorb and I'm certainly empathetic and respectful of that. And so you try to break it down in as simple terms as possible. I think from a high level, big picture perspective, Paul, our fans want to know if we're to be competitive. They want to know if we're going to be able to keep up.
And certainly that is our intention to do so. And we're going to do so in a. In a intelligent, strategic, thoughtful way.
And then obviously, those conversations can go a number of different directions, many of which that we've covered here. But our fans are hearing about all the change and they want to know that we're going to be competitive. And at the end of the day, Shocker Nation wants to connect with our young people because they love being a part of it and they love supporting our young people. And so we've got to figure out a way to maximize retention.
It's interesting, Paul, we've talked about with this year's basketball roster as an example, we lost three to the Portal and the average team in our league lost eight.
I think that speaks to how we're trying to invest dollars into retention of our student athletes. And then I saw a.
A stat the other day.
I'm gonna read this out loud because I hadn't memorized it verbatim. But with COVID still impacting eligibility, several schools around the country have multiple student athletes on their rosters playing their fifth, sixth, and even seven seasons.
Wichita State is tied for. This is our basketball program. Wichita State is tied for second in the country with seven student athletes in their fifth year or higher of college collegiate basketball.
So what that tells you is that age and experience matters from a competitive standpoint. But I would say it also matters from a connection with your fan base perspective, because we've all heard and we've all desired the ability to build really quality relationships with young people, which means they've got to stick around for a few years.
[00:25:33] Speaker A: So you mentioned the student athlete surveys earlier and that would be part of the retention efforts. And then Wichita State has put resources into mental health staff, strength and conditioning staff. So all those things are aimed at helping Wichita State navigate this new landscape and retain student athletes?
[00:25:54] Speaker B: I think so. And we do that survey every semester, so twice a year so that we can have a really good sense of our student athletes perception of their experience. It's really the first tool that I've ever seen, Paul, that measures perception of student athlete experience.
And so where we see deficiencies, we can strategically invest in those deficiencies. As you mentioned, our first survey identified we needed some work in our strength and conditioning area.
We needed some work in our mental health resources. So we certainly have invested in those in nutrition was another area that was identified. And so all of these things come back to Paul is we've got to be an athletic sport program that is focused on strategic and aggressive outbound sales and revenue generation to be able to support these elements for student athletes.
[00:26:43] Speaker A: So Emily Hebert, former Shocker volleyball player, she started I guess in the summer, late fall, early fall, as general manager of the Wheat Shot Wheat Shock Collective, putting resources into that area. How does that help the NIL picture here?
[00:26:57] Speaker B: Well, again, that's the, from a recruitment and retention standpoint, it's been the name of the game here for the last two years. You know, nil became permissible in July of 21.
I was blessed to with this opportunity a year later. And we really started from, from the ground level.
And as I mentioned, I think that first year did a nice job of getting it off the ground, getting folks educated with our collective and all those things.
And we've tripled the revenue from year one, 22, 23 to, to year two, which has been 20, 23, 24. So at the end of the day, as nil has transitioned, Emily Hebert has become a critical part of that with the Wheat Shot Collective. She serves as our GM for that collective.
So she has been heavily involved in fundraising, fulfillment, putting on events, working with our student athletes.
She does a number of things that have been certainly helpful to us in that area.
And who better to do that, right? Paul is a Hall of Famer, former Shocker volleyball student athlete. She even gets on the mic and calls some matches with Mike Kennedy and she's invested in our program and, and she's not very Many years removed from being a student athlete. So it's really been a perfect fit because she resonates with and she has credibility with our student athletes and our coaches. She's done a remarkable job.
[00:28:32] Speaker A: What aspect of NIL has resonated with fans that has allowed you to triple the number?
[00:28:39] Speaker B: Well, I think there's the competitive piece, right? And then I think as we share stories with our fan base, what resonates is the retention piece. And Paul and I feel very firmly that retention nil dollars spent on retention are worth more than the nil dollars that are spent on acquisition. Retention speaks to relational components and development, whereas acquisition is transactional.
And a lot of times, if we have a student athlete or an agent or an advisor in the recruiting process, that their first question is nil and what it's going to take to even talk to an individual. We're moving on because it's not an individual that's interested in being a part of Wichita State and investing in what we have to do here. So we've made conscious decisions on the retention piece. And Paul, I could give you a handful of stories where young men on our basketball program have decided to come here or send, stay here for far less. And when I say far less, anywhere between double and quadruple what they could get at other institutions, and they're deciding to stay here. And a lot of people in the community will say, well, why? Why are they doing that? And the simple answer is, well, they see value in something else, right? Well, what is that? And so as we engage with our student athletes, they, they feel valued in our programs. They value their coaches, they appreciate their development.
They anticipate the development and the placement at the next level of their particular sport that our coaches can provide. There's a lot of variables in the value assessment, but they're seeing value in something other than the short dollars, if you will, in NIL and revenue share. And I think those stories, stories resonate with our fans as well. And so when you're able to show that we're outperforming our peers in terms of young people leaving our program or that the young people are seeing value in something other than a dollar to be here or stay here, that resonates with fans as well. And so it's taken some time to tell all those stories and get folks engaged and finally get folks comfortable. And I think that speaks to the productivity in terms of tripling the nil from year one to year two.
[00:31:01] Speaker A: So this would all be new for coaches as well. What kind of Changes and adaptability. Have you seen from coaches as they figure out what works best, what's important, what's not important?
[00:31:11] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's harder today than it was yesterday to be a head coach in the college game. There are so many variables to deal with and we've got got an exceptional group of people leading our programs. Our student athletes evaluate it that way as we, as we've discussed.
But they've got a tough job. Right. Because that transfer portal kind of looks like that bright shining, gleaming portal, if you will, when things are hard. And at the end of the day, Paul, you and I understand having gone through maybe a few more years of life than our student athletes, our young people, the heart is what develops you. Right. Our mission is to develop young people and programs. Well, development is uncomfortable. Development is hard. Anytime you grow, there's some discomfort that comes with that growth. And so our coaches have to navigate a really fine line between the discomfort of growth and getting better.
But also loving our young people and pouring into our young people so that, that that transfer portal doesn't look like this attractive flashy thing over here.
And our community asks all the time what, how do you combat the transfer portal? And I think the simple answer is create a student athlete experience that our young people don't want to leave.
We're not going to be 100% in that. We will lose some. But at the end of the day, I think our performance has been better than our peers here in the short run.
And our head coaches have a large part in that, the lead part in that. And they do a phenomenal job despite difficult circumstances.
[00:32:51] Speaker A: Let's update the people on a couple other things going on around the athletic department. You can see dirt moving on the east side of University Stadium, formerly Cessna Stadium. It's always important to remind people State track will carry on here as it has going back to the 70s. What's the update on University Stadium?
[00:33:09] Speaker B: Yeah, we're excited. We broke ground probably what, three weeks ago, Paul?
Sure as anything. As soon as you break ground on a construction project, you get record setting rains.
But anyway, we've only lost maybe one day or two days and they'll certainly make that up. As you mentioned, we have prioritized with Casha that state high school track is, is king here. And we are sequencing the phasing of this project around state high school track. So the east side will be finished up several weeks before state high school track of 25. And so if you were to drive on, on 21st right now and take a Look, you would see earthwork site work grading that is making way for about 5,600 seats on that east side.
New concourses, pavilions, concessions, restroom plaza, gates, some really nice signage and lighting elements. And so that east side will be finished up before state high school track of 25. And then immediately after state high school track of 25 we'll get into the event level. Paul and we'll do the, the nine lane Olympic track. I think they're 48 inch lanes, so really wide, beautiful track facility. All the, the, the field and throws venues that will be a part of that. And then we'll install artificial turf on the inside there. So that track will widen out, leaving room for high school football, for soccer.
We really want this to be a community stadium. So that'll happen right after state high school track of 25, prior to 26 and then after state high school state track of 26, excuse me. Then we'll get into the west side which will be a significant build out.
That will be our shocker. Health and performance team will be housed out of there. So the athletic training room there will be hydrotherapy, hot and cold tubs, mental health, athletic training, sports medicine, strength and conditioning will all be housed out of there. And then you've got what will be a very dynamic and flexible press box with all the events that we're going to host in there in terms of radio booths and PA booths and timing booths for track and those sort of things. There'll be some premium areas for us to sell into as well. So that west side will be a significant project. After state high school track of 26.
[00:35:33] Speaker A: You can also see progress on the indoor practices facility next to Wilkins stadium. What's the timetable there?
[00:35:40] Speaker B: Yeah, so we broke ground, did a ceremony earlier this fall fall and broke ground very similar to University Stadium. A lot of dirt work, site work.
They, they tore out the post tension concrete tennis courts there between Wilkins and Heskett. And I think we've got steel that will be erected on or before or just slightly after, excuse me, Thanksgiving. So late November, early December, you'll start to see some steel going upward on the indoor practice facility. It's going to be a beautiful facility. It's about 110ft by 110ft of enclosed space for a full softball infield where they can do live hitting, live pitching, live ground ball work. And then there will be a really intricate net system where we can lower nets for hitting and pitching tunnels. And then there can be a net around the outside for some live ball Elements as well. Well, so be beautiful space.
That project is just north of $4 million, which we have raised up to this point.
And so that piece is paid for. We've got another two and a half to $3 million to raise to get to the 9.65 million we need for phase one. And the next element of that, Paul, is to get into the Wadsworth Family Team Operations building, which is team rooms, locker room, coaches offices, athletic training, school space, mudroom, conference room, various recruiting elements.
And so our goal is to finish up that fundraising at the end of 24q1 of 25, so that when that indoor practice facility is done in early April, that construction group can transition, crossland construction can transition right into the Wadsworth Family Operations building. So we got a lot going, but we're really excited to see both of those facilities start to take shape.
[00:37:30] Speaker A: So softball will be in the indoor at some point this during the spring season.
[00:37:34] Speaker B: Am I understanding that we should be finished up early April, which gives us an opportunity to utilize that towards the end of this season into camp seasons in the summer, but really most importantly for the fall and winter of 25 to give them an opportunity to do that. And one thing I neglected to mention, those existing batting cages, outdoor batting cages at Wilkins will actually be shifted a lot. We use a lot of the same material will be shifted north of the indoor practice facility kind of towards X Stadium and Corbin, so that they'll have an opportunity to develop both inside and outside with those practice facilities. So really excited about that one.
[00:38:19] Speaker A: What's been the highlight of the fall for you? What's been been the favorite thing you've got going on?
[00:38:23] Speaker B: Well, I think the highlight is always our student athletes, our people. We're in a constantly changing environment. Paul and I applaud and am super appreciative of our staff for being adaptable. We've had a lot of changes. We've made some difficult decisions. And I think that our staff is doing a really nice job of adapting to this new world of college athletes, of trying to find these new revenue streams to be more efficient in what we're doing from an expense standpoint, because generating revenue can be bringing dollars in the door, but it also can be being more efficient and good stewards of what we've had. And you don't get that done without really good people. So I'm very appreciative of our staff. Our student athletes are working incredibly hard. They're motivated.
The academic success has been off the charts. Charts with our student athletes.
I would say one of the highlights, Paul, that was was really interesting and I think provides perspective for what we're doing. But bringing Coach Turgeon back the other night for the Uni game, we hosted him and Ann and a bunch of former players in the recruiting room over here, the Pam and Alex Amar recruiting room.
And watching those players with their spouses and their kids interact with Mark and Ann and our staff, Gretchen and others, watching them having gone through some life experiences, watching them speak about their time at Wichita State as a student athlete, it just hammers home, Paul, that what we're doing for our young people, people here, pays dividends for them for the next 40 years of their lives as they move on to be professionals, as they move on to be community leaders, spouses, parents. And it was just a kind of an in your face example of that the other night. And I really, really enjoyed that because I think it provides meaning to our mission and keeps us focused.
[00:40:26] Speaker A: It was definitely a nice evening having Mark Turgen back. Kevin Saul, Director of Athletics and at Wichita State. There will be a email newsletter coming out that you can read. Get more details about this the podcast and the newsletter kind of work together to try to help explain what's going on in college athletics. Kevin, thank you very much for your time.
[00:40:44] Speaker B: Thanks so much Paul. Appreciate it. Go Shockers.
[00:41:03] Speaker C: Hi, this is Rick Mumu, President of Wichita State University.
Check out the latest episode of the Forward Together podcast. Each episode I sit down with different guests from Shocker Nation to celebrate the vision and mission of Wichita State University.
Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
[00:41:34] Speaker D: Thank you for listening to the Roundhouse podcast courtesy of Wichita State University Strategic Communications. We encourage you to rate, review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can find more roundhouse
[email protected] Malcolm out near the timeline, left side of the floor to Baker. Ron works deeper to the wing, fires a three. Good Ron Baker with his third three point field goal of the game and Wichita State goes ahead by four.
