It's interesting. It's unclear, but I do fear a little bit shrinking student sections or moving them away from the court so big money can get a closer seat. Guess we'll see. Big college sports is professional sports now.
Spartan Stadium is definitely in need of some improvements to keep up. I'm very curious how far off this major stadium renovation is, whether they're holding out for a certain fundraising threshold or what. The design is cool, and I wouldn't complain about it, but it's kind of derivative of a lot of the modern NFL stadiums. There's been some commentary on the forums/Twitter from people suggesting that they should do some sort of classical Greek styling on the stadium and I find that prospect interesting if it could be done in a not completely cheesy way.
The Jenison renovation could be cool, particularly if they treat as many elements as possible as a restoration instead of a modernization. MSU athletics has a huge impact on the metro so these investments are great to see.
The upcoming board of trustees meeting has at least one item of note: An authorization to plan an expansion to the MSU pavilion that would add a new arena to the facility. No timeline or budget is given, they show two options for placement of the arena in their conceptual floorplans.
There is nothing of not from the MSU BoT meeting this month but there's another major donation that will enable yet another building project on campus:
The MSU School of Packaging has received a large donation that will allow them to undertake a significant expansion that will add a two floor mass timber-framed addition to the south of the existing building. There's no timeline given as far as I can tell.
I wonder why my degree from MSU did not lead to being a Millionaire? I guess I should have been a packaging major. This building looks like they will include engineered wood lumber for its construction. this depiction looks like the
Multi-cultural center on Farm Lane.
Wow check-out the proposed new plans for MSU's big "Sparta" development on the south side of campus. There is a LSJ.com artical today on-line. It looks pretty grandiose for our community! I can't quite figure if those new buildings are going to tower over Spartan Studium, which looks kind of overwhelming, maybe because are no buildings that tall around the studium now. Anyway, it looks like high quality designs are being considered. I like the plan that has a large green space that will convert into an ice rink in the winter. I am hoping this is for real and will actually happen.
I saw the headline but I still refuse to subscribe to a Gannett publication in their current form, especially now that they seem to be blocking my VPN 100% of the time. That being said what I can see looks interesting, I'm waiting on other news outlets at MSU themselves to share the details.
I think WLNS has some depictions on their web site, I am impressed by the scale of the buildings, which are large and have some interesting design to them, rather unusual for Lansing. I saw a report on this project also on wilx.
The Serra Family has donated $10.000.00 dollars to the MSU Sparta fund I read on the MSU Spartans website. Wouldn't it be fun to have so much money you could make a 10-million-dollar donation. They look pretty happy about it in the photo! I have a bit of mixed feelings about the Sparta plan. I know times have changed but college sports programs were mainly about the students and their health, not really about providing entertainment and programing for televised sports programs. I wonder how much tickets will cost in those Vagas like venues. I already can't afford to go to most sporting events. I am sure the students fit in there somewhere, but I wonder about things like going to and playing for one school a season then moving on to another school with a better deal, not much about being a Spartan or getting a degree. Of course it is all about the $$$, Victory for M$U!
Comments
The Jenison renovation could be cool, particularly if they treat as many elements as possible as a restoration instead of a modernization. MSU athletics has a huge impact on the metro so these investments are great to see.
https://msuspartans.com/news/2025/12/5/general-greg-and-dawn-williams-make-historic-401m-commitment-to-michigan-state-university-and-spartan-athletics
https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/sports/college/msu/2025/12/05/greg-dawn-williams-michigan-state-donation-acrisure/87592286007/?gnt-cfr=1&gca-cat=p&gca-uir=true&gca-epti=z113836p117950n00----c00----d00----v113836d--76--&gca-ft=39&gca-ds=sophi
The upcoming board of trustees meeting has at least one item of note: An authorization to plan an expansion to the MSU pavilion that would add a new arena to the facility. No timeline or budget is given, they show two options for placement of the arena in their conceptual floorplans.
https://edge.sitecorecloud.io/michiganstab57e-msustrategi129d-prod9868-7e5e/media/project/msu/trustees/docs/2025/2025-12-12/bf2-plan--farm-bureau-pavilion.pdf
The MSU School of Packaging has received a large donation that will allow them to undertake a significant expansion that will add a two floor mass timber-framed addition to the south of the existing building. There's no timeline given as far as I can tell.
https://www.wilx.com/2026/04/07/msu-school-packaging-gets-47-million-gift-launch-next-phase-expansion/
https://www.canr.msu.edu/packaging/alumni-giving/school-of-packaging-building-renovation-phase-II
Multi-cultural center on Farm Lane.