In a virtual meeting Thursday, the state Board of Regents approved the budget and project plans for a proposed University of Iowa project for a new women’s soccer complex on campus.

The $3.9 million project was first unveiled May 29 in regents documents. The proposed plan would build a 8,400 square foot facility. UI Senior Vice President for Finance and Operations Rod Lehnertz said Thursday the project will allow for lockers, team room spaces, and other support spaces for the UI women’s soccer team and on the west side of the existing field. 

The UI aims to have the complex up and running by the fall 2021 soccer season. Lehnertz told the regents Thursday there is funding available to build a road to the building that will increase accessibility.

“The scope of the work would include the access to the field,” Lehnertz said. “[That] is still in the confines of the funding of this project… As is often the case, the desire to use generous gift dollars to do the most is always a given… but the intent is that access to the field is intended as part of the scope. We will continue to examine how much and what we can get for [external] elements of the project that are not the building itself with this funding.”

As previously reported by The Daily Iowan, the project would be funded by a $3 million Athletic Department gift alongside $900,000 of Athletic Department income. 

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Lehnertz said building the complex has been a priority for the university, but could not be accomplished without the gift of an anonymous donor. 

“This is a project that would be on Athletic Director Gary Barta’s list of facility needs and priorities, but one that would not be accomplished if not for the generosity of an anonymous donor who is supporting almost all of this project,” Lehnertz said. “We are asking the [board] to advance the project… which will allow us to finish the project by the stipulations proposed in the gift by the fall season of the 2021 soccer team.”