Say goodbye to the old beat up track and hello to the new Academic and Athletic Performance Center.

But hold on to that hello, as the AAPC isn’t expected to be ready until Aug. 1, 2007.

The ground for the project was broken Nov. 23, 2005, but construction wasn’t started until early April.

“We had a minimum fundraising goal of $7 million, but when we got to the minimum fundraising goal that allowed us to start the process,” Athletic Director Jim Phillips said. “That may have been a little bit ahead of our final plans.”

It was after the ground breaking that athletes, coaches and other staff met with the architects, HKM of Arlington Heights, to finalize the blue prints for the facility.

Once that was completed, the complex was sent out to bid in February for six to eight weeks, as mandated by the state.

Pepper Construction Company won the bid and began ground preparation for the project in early April.

To date, the Athletic Department has raised more than $7 million for the center and expects the price tag to stay close to $9.5 million.

“We’re kind of hitting a moving target because we don’t know all the cost,” Phillips said. “We started at about $9.5 million, and we’re still hoping that we stay close to that.”

One thing Phillips is sure about though is that “there won’t be any student dollars involved in this at all” as the money for the facility will come from the Athletic Department and fundraising.

Extra time was also needed to begin planning the center because when Phillips arrived at NIU the complex was for football only. Phillips worked with NIU President John Peters, coaches and athletes to transform the building from football-only to one that could service all athletes.

“We have one chance to build this,” Phillips said. “That was the rational behind increasing the size of the facility, and certainly increasing the cost of the facility.”

The AAPC will be a two-floor building with the first floor for all athletes, and the second floor strictly for football. The complex will house such things as a strength and condition center, an athletic training room with an X-ray machine and a tunnel that will lead into Huskie Stadium past a new bronze Huskie statue.

The building will also have an outdoor terrace on the second floor that will be used to entertain donors and prospective student-athletes during football games.

With the hello to the new comes goodbye to the old, as the tailgating area on the north end of the stadium in years past will no longer be there.

To try and provide a solution, the Athletic Department has moved the tailgating festivities that once took place on the north side to other parts and parking lots on campus, such as the Convocation Center.

“There’s absolutely a trickle down affect,” Phillips said. “That will affect our tents, parking and the rest, because of the building.”