Ball State increases budget for outdoor amphitheater project

Ball State University trustees have approved an increased budget for a planned outdoor amphitheater project, citing pandemic-related construction issues.

Last December, trustees approved a $3.15 million budget for the Brown Family Amphitheater.  It’s to be built near the school’s new multicultural center on the site of a former parking garage.

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Officials say the project hasn’t changed.  It will still include an outdoor performance stage, dressing rooms, green room, control room, and public restrooms.

What has changed is the costs of construction material and labor.

“There’s been a lot of supply chain issues,” says Alan Finn, Ball State’s Vice President for Business Affairs and Treasurer.  “There’s been product shortages.  There’s been pricing increases and there’s been labor shortages.  It’s possible that some of these are short-term impacts, but it’s also quite possible and probably likely that we’ve seen sort-of a rebasing on what the costs of some of these things are going to be.”

Trustees approved a new project budget of $4.7 million.

Ball State president Geoffrey Mearns says he knows there’s continued interest from foundations and nonprofit organizations to financially support the project.  It’s named after 1971 graduate Charles W. Brown – whose name graces Ball State’s planetarium – and his family.

The university says the project will be re-bid next January.  If that process goes well, construction will begin in the spring of 2022 and be completed by the spring of 2023.