Keith Carter: Ole Miss CHAMPIONS. NOW. capital campaign now likely to come in at ‘$150-170 million range.’

Significant renovations to Vaught-Hemingway Stadium were among the future projects announced by Ole Miss when it launched its CHAMPIONS. NOW. capital campaign in December.

Those renovations, however, have been put on the back burner, as reiterated by Ole Miss athletics director Keith Carter in an interview with the Rebel Yell Hotline.

The university had originally intended to allocate millions in overhauling the west and north sides of the stadium in what Ole Miss described as “the most ambitious and game-changing” face-lift to VHS “in decades.”

But outside factors, including inflation not seen in the United States in 40 years, and supply chain issues, have halted the project in its tracks.

Carter confirmed the first announced project of the campaign — an overhaul of the Manning Center, the indoor practice facility and multi-use development for Ole Miss football — remains on schedule.

“There were outside variables that made us kind of rethink where we were with that project,” Carter said. “Some of those are very tangible when you look at interest rates, when you look at construction costs, when you look at supply chain issues that are happening.

“We just didn’t feel like it made a lot of sense to tie ourselves down on a 25-year bond issue on something that was going to be hard to pay for, honestly.”

To ask for greatness, we must provide greatness.#ChampionsNow | #HottyToddy

— Ole Miss Athletics (@OleMissSports) January 1, 2022

Also contributing to the VHS delay is the rise in costs for name, image and likeness.

The university cannot directly pay players, as per NCAA rules, but Carter said NIL has been one of, if not the most dominating issue for Ole Miss donors.

“You look at all those practical variables, and then you’ve got NIL, too,” Carter said. “I know our development officers as they go out and talk to donors about giving, there’s always an NIL conversation in that conversation. 

“Just taking a step back. The stadium project is going to be a really, really good one. We’re not totally abandoning it. But we certainly wanted to make sure we’re being fiscally responsible. Right now, it just didn’t make sense. We’ll put it on the shelf and keep going with the other projects.”

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CHAMPIONS. NOW. was established to vastly improve Ole Miss athletics facilities.

Additional goals included raising the standard for the school’s level of competitiveness and success within the SEC and nationally. 

In its mission statement at launch, Ole Miss wrote, “it is more important than ever that we continue to build outstanding facilities to help attract and retain the best student-athletes and coaches. The SEC is growing, and our members are evolving and getting better. To keep pace with our conference peers and rise within the ranks, we must continually commit to building great facilities.”

Other announced projects were the Ole Miss golf complex, softball stadium, soccer stadium and Oxford-University Stadium/Swayze Field.

Ole Miss baseball, of course, went on to win the program’s first-ever national championship last month.

“Obviously, the Manning Center is rolling,” Carter said. “That project is right on schedule and will be ready about this time next year for everyone to move back in. Softball is way down the line, too, on that design and moving forward there, as are soccer, golf and baseball. Excited about those. 

“More than likely, our $350 million campaign likely comes into the $150-170 million range.”

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Carter said Ole Miss will soon “start honing in” on what the phased approach to baseball will look like.

Expanded seating is atop the priority list, especially after Ole Miss again sold out season tickets last season, well before its thrilling run in the postseason, when the Rebels won 10 of their 11 games. 

They swept Oklahoma in the championship round of the College World Series in Omaha.

“Right now, we’ll just keep pushing forward with the sequence we talked about before,” Carter said. “We obviously understand that now there’s a lot of people wondering if we’d expedite the baseball process, and we may look at doing that, but we’re probably going to look at doing the baseball in more of a phased approach where we do it by priority and in stages.”

Proud of our Team USA Rebs 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/p8fM26D09N

— Ole Miss Baseball (@OleMissBSB) July 16, 2022

Also on the agenda is a contract extension for head baseball coach Mike Bianco.

Carter said negotiations are ongoing, even as Bianco has spent the last few weeks leading Team USA to a bronze medal. Ole Miss shortstop Jacob Gonzalez and pitcher Hunter Elliott participated.

“We’re certainly working with coach’s representation right now to get him a contract that locks him in as long as he wants to be here,” he said. “That’s going to be the clear message. We’ll put the terms out at some point, but coach ‘B’ is our coach. 

“He’s had an unbelievably consistent career. Finally busted through the door, won a national championship. He’s going to be our guy.”