Fundraising chair denies report of $70M indoor practice facility for Minnesota

Lou Nanne denied a report that Minnesota has plans to break ground for a $70M facility. (Hannah Foslien/Getty Images) On Thursday, the Minneapolis Star

Lou Nanne denied a report that Minnesota has plans to break ground for a $70M facility. (Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)

On Thursday, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that plans are underway for the construction of a new $70 million indoor practice facility at Minnesota. According to the report, the facility would include coaching offices and other modern amenities, and would replace the current Gibson-Nagurski Football Complex, which was built in 1985.

However, Lou Nanne, chairman of the fundraising project aiming to raise $190 million for the facilities at Minnesota, told 1500 ESPN in the Twin Cities that the reported details surrounding the Gophers’ planned indoor practice facility are inaccurate.

According to Nanne, the facility will cost less than the reported $70 million. There are also no set plans to break ground.

“I’m out of town and I read this morning about the erroneous report about having plans to break ground in December for a $70 million facility. That’s totally irresponsible,” Nanne said. “There are no plans to break ground and the facility that we’re looking at is not remotely close to 70 million (dollars). We want to get that word out because that is just totally, totally incorrect.”

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“There’s no truth to it and I just wanted to make certain that we got that word out. We’ll be getting that out all day long.”

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