Last fall, the University of Montana opened its new $10.2 million Grizzly Indoor Practice Facility, a vaguely space-age, heated building with an inflatable, domed roof primarily intended for use during the winter months.
The university stressed that construction of the 111,000-square-foot facility was privately funded, and estimated ongoing operating expenditures of about $550,000 a year and rental income of $580,000 a year. With the facility’s first school year of operation now in the rearview mirror, we figured it was a good time to check in on the bubble’s finances.
First thing’s first: UM doesn’t yet have a “complete picture” of the facility’s costs and revenues because it hasn’t been operating for a full year, according to Dave Kuntz, a university spokesperson. But he said the winter months — when the facility sees the most rental activity — were enough to cover its expenses for the first academic year.
The university, he said, made roughly $40,000 a month from November through February in rental income. (While the facility is the official cold-weather training ground of the football team and other university athletics, it’s also used for intramural and club athletics and by various sports organizations around Missoula.)
That revenue helps offset some eye-popping heating costs. In February alone, the utility bill — almost all natural gas-powered heating, Kuntz said — came to $22,078. The monthly bill plummeted to the low thousands by springtime.
The facility’s other main operational expense is labor, Kuntz said, but its employees are paid in the same way other university staff is — in other words, not out of the facility’s rental income, though that money could be used for “any larger-scale maintenance that could be needed when we have to bring in additional staffing,” he added.
In terms of future plans and expenditures, Kuntz said UM is considering installing air conditioning and additional insulation in the bubble, making it suitable for practice during wildfire season. (A lower-order consequence of our new climate reality, we suppose.)
Either way, he said, “We expect the revenues from renting the facility will cover the energy and labor costs.
“Any additional revenue will likely go to support the maintenance of other athletic facilities on campus.”
