The proposed $7.5 million football facility expected to be built beyond the north end zone at Huskie Stadium may not be built after all, NIU Gift Officer Tim Stedman said.

“We are in the leadership phase of a capital campaign to help us determine the feasibility of this project,” Stedman said.

This means is that if there is not enough money raised, there will be no facility.

Athletic Director Cary Groth said NIU wants to raise 30 to 40 percent of the total cost before going public with the plans.

Going public means actually releasing the floor plans that have been made, and offering opportunities for naming rights to rooms and offices.

“At this point, the schools have identified people that have a willingness to give to the university,” Groth said. “Once the project becomes public, we will open the door to families who want to give.”

The project is in the quiet phase, Stedman said. The university is feeling things out to see what they can do.

All of the money will be raised privately, and no student fees will be used in paying for the building. However, Groth did not know how the building would be maintained if it is built.

“I guess it will be funded by us,” Groth said. “We really haven’t thought about that yet.”

If the complex is built, the unnamed facility will be about 35,000 square feet. It will have a weight room and a student athlete support center where athletes can study and get tutoring. With the addition in the proposed football stadium expansion, NIU will have two such academic facilities. There is a room in the Convocation Center for student athletes to study.

Both the academic center and the weight room are proposed to be on the bottom floor of the facility and accessible to all NIU student athletes, not just football players.

A new locker room also will be on the first level of the complex. The football team has 110 players and 95 lockers.

The second floor of the proposed complex will feature coaches’ offices. The current offices are located above the west grandstand at Huskie Stadium.

The football coaches are the only coaches at NIU who do not have offices in the Convocation Center.

“It’s been something we’ve talked about since I’ve gotten here,” Novak said. “It’s a commitment we have to make if we want the program to grow.”

When NIU brings football recruits to campus, the coaches take them to the Convocation Center instead of the stadium.

This is because of the facilities at the stadium, which Sports Illustrated writer Tim Layden called some of the worst in the country.

Groth said there is no set date for beginning work on the project. If the money were collected tomorrow, the project would start tomorrow, Groth said.