THE FLATS – Highlighted by more than $100 million raised to construct new state-of-the-art facilities, Athletics Initiative 2020, Georgia Tech athletics three-year, $125-million fundraising initiative, far surpassed its initial goal by raising a total of $175.39 million in gifts and commitments, director of athletics Todd Stansbury announced on Thursday.
Despite the challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic over the final 10 months of the 36-month initiative, the $175.39 million that Georgia Tech benefactors donated to AI 2020 from January 1, 2018-December 31, 2020 exceeded the $125 million goal by more than 40%.
“On behalf of our student-athletes, coaches and staff, I sincerely thank our outstanding donors for their overwhelming support of Athletics Initiative 2020,” Stansbury said. “The goal of AI 2020 was to provide us with the funds to construct state-of-the-art facilities and provide cutting-edge programming that will allow us to recruit the best student-athletes in the world, build them into even better student-athletes once they arrive and, ultimately, win at the highest levels of intercollegiate athletics. Thanks to our donors’ support of AI 2020, we are on our way to achieving those goals.”
AI 2020 surpassed its fundraising goals in all three of its areas of focus – facilities ($102.23m raised against $88m goal), endowments ($37.75m raised against $25m goal) and current operations ($37.41m raised against $12m goal).
Most notably, Georgia Tech reached and exceeded its $70m goal for the crown jewel of AI 2020, the complete renovation of the Edge/Rice Center. Tech donors made gifts and commitments of $84.69m towards the new Edge Center, which will replace the current 40-year-old epicenter of Georgia Tech athletics located in the northeast corner of Bobby Dodd Stadium. The new Edge Center will provide personalized services to student-athletes, including academic, wellness and performance support, as well as programming to prepare students for professional careers. The overhauled home of Tech athletics will also serve as a welcome center for Georgia Tech students, fans and visitors, as well as include premium seating areas for Yellow Jackets football games and other events held inside Bobby Dodd Stadium.
With nearly $85m raised, the Edge Center renovation is in the latter stages of the design phase. Once the design is complete, construction will begin. Construction is tentatively expected to take 12-18 months.
Other facilities projects funded by AI 2020 included Georgia Tech football’s new $4.5 million locker room, which was completed in 2018, and the Yellow Jackets’ new women’s basketball locker room, which was completed last fall, and the $9 million Phase II renovation of the newly named Mac Nease Baseball Park (the home of Tech baseball).