MSU taps firm to design football locker room in McDonald

Missouri State University officials recently took steps to clear up confusion about the scope of work planned for McDonald Hall and Arena.

In the past year, two potential projects – with separate funding options – have been discussed publicly. Only one project, a cluster of spaces starting with a new football locker room, is moving forward right now.

The MSU Board of Governors voted Feb. 20 to spend $1.4 million to hire Cannon Design Inc., based in Buffalo, New York with offices in St. Louis, to come up with a plan to renovate the first-floor court and east wing of the arena for a locker room, weight room, equipment room and athletic training facility.

Matt Morris, vice president for administration and finance, said picking one firm for the architecture and engineering work made sense.

“That way it all holistically works together,” he said. “It flows.”

The university has been working to raise $8 million in donor funds for the locker rooms. MSU officials said up to $10 million in additional funds, also to be raised privately, will be needed for the additional spaces:

• 8,000-square-foot weight room
• 3,000-square-foot training area
• 2,200-square-foot equipment, storage and laundry area
• Reconnect tunnel linking McDonald Arena and Plaster Stadium

MSU officials said the filled-in tunnel was once an important piece of campus history, providing a path for the football team to enter the field.

Morris said the university will seek bids from general contractors for the spaces later this year, starting with a base bid for the locker room.

Mark Wheeler, university architect, said bid alternates will cover other spaces, such as the weight room.

“The more donations we get, more of this project we can execute,” he said. “This is a fully donor-funded project.”

In advance of the MSU board meeting in September, the university will look at the design and private funds available, then make a recommendation about the scope of work to be completed by fall 2027.

Morris said part of the work, beyond the locker room, may have to wait until funds are available.

Wheeler said the McDonald building has “really good bones” but needs updates. The football locker room is currently in Forsythe Athletics Center.

“We studied where that could go all over campus and determined that it should go in McDonald Arena,” he said.

Late last year, before Gov. Mike Kehoe proposed a 2027 fiscal year budget with mostly flat funding for higher education, MSU announced plans to request $23 million in state support for McDonald.

Morris said the funding, separate from the locker room and related spaces, was to update parts of the building for academic purposes and create a home for the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, or ROTC, and military science program.

MSU officials said that request and proposed project, focused on the west side of the 114,000-square-foot McDonald building, is on hold.