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Purdue athletic facilities damaged by overnight water main break

Mackey Arena and the Drew and Brittany Brees Student-Athlete Academic Center were damaged overnight
Mackey Arena and the Drew and Brittany Brees Student-Athlete Academic Center were damaged overnight
GoldandBlack.com

A water main break that occurred in the early morning hours Saturday has left some of Purdue's key athletic facilities damaged, some severely.

Mackey Arena's Keady Court was affected by running water, while Holloway Gymnasium's Belin Court - the volleyball team's playing floor - was damaged likely beyond repair, with the football team's locker room in the same building also incurring significant flooding-related damage to flooring, carpeting and lockers themselves, GoldandBlack.com has learned.

Athletic department spokesman Tom Schott said damage will be assessed early this week and a course of action for repairs determined from there.

Holloway and the football locker room are housed on the lowest level of the The Drew and Brittany Brees Student-Athlete Academic Center, once known as the Intercollegiate Athletic Facility, a multi-use facility that houses the athletic department's academic center, various offices, and football and volleyball locker rooms in addition to Holloway Gymnasium. A secondary sports medicine office near the football locker room and football's equipment room were also affected, Schott said.

"Everything on the first floor," Schott said.

Site of the water main that broke, sending a deluge of water toward the Brees building to the left.
Site of the water main that broke, sending a deluge of water toward the Brees building to the left.
GoldandBlack.com
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The cause of the water main break will be investigated, Schott said, but the accident was connected to the football training center project going on on the opposite end of Purdue's athletic complex corridor off Northwestern Ave.

A water main stationed between the Mollenkopf Athletic Center and Brees was compromised. Mollenkopf was spared entirely as water gushed toward the Brees building, penetrating side doors to the facility leading to both Belin Court and the football locker room. "Three to five inches" of water - per information relayed to Schott - spread across Belin and into the building's concourse, leading to a sloped tunnel that connects it to Mackey's bowels. That passageway leads right to the tunnel onto Keady Court.

It is unknown the extent of damages to Keady Court, but it is believed - known, really - that Belin took the worst of it.

"It's too early to know how long it might be out of commission, or about repairs," said Schott, Purdue's senior associate athletic director for communications.

Schott said that the standing water found in Mackey was "not nearly the extent" of the accumulation on Belin Court.

Around the athletic campus Saturday, workers spent the day pumping water from the buildings and running dryers as part of the clean-up.

It is believed that Cardinal Court, the basketball teams' practice gym, and the near-by locker rooms and medical center were not impacted.

Cost of repairs, restoration and/or replacement of playing floors are unknown at this point, but are expected to be covered by insurance.

The short-term impact for volleyball is obvious, with summer camps due to begin in coming weeks, not to mention the Boilermakers' off-season workouts and ultimately preseason practice come August. The 2016-17 season is scheduled to begin Aug. 26.

For basketball, camps are likely the most pressing concern. The men's program uses both Mackey and Belin Court for its team camps, the first of which this year is slated for June 10. The women's program uses Mackey for its camps, as well, not to mention the other summer uses Purdue has for its signature facility.

As for football, the damage comes in advance of what's to be the final season the program occupies the space damaged for its locker rooms. New locker rooms will be part of the Football Performance Complex north of Mollenkopf.

It remains to be seen what lies ahead for all the facilities involved.

"From what Steve Simmerman told me," Schott said of Purdue's senior associate athletic director for facilities, "we won't know everything until at least Monday."

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