Veterans concerned with Wisconsin football practice facility – BadgerExtra

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Images from Google Earth show the two parts of Camp Randall Memorial Park next to the Camp Randall Sports Center. The part outlined and shaded in yellow is what remains of the original park. The triangular part outlined and shaded in red was added to the park in 1986 but now is being removed…
The proposal to build University of Wisconsin athletic facilities on part of Camp Randall Memorial Park has been scrutinized by veterans groups and officials who see the land as sacred.
It was true in 1954 and 1986, and it’s accurate again in 2024.
Wisconsin is moving forward with plans to replace an aging facility with a new $285 million football practice building. Some veterans have raised concerns in recent months about how much more of Camp Randall Memorial Park will be taken up by the new construction and what input they had in the project.
The Board of Regents on Friday approved UW-Madison’s plan to honor veterans, which was required by the state Legislature in the capital budget proceedings that allowed for part of the park to be used for the new facility.
The park is to the east and south of the Camp Randall Sports Center, more commonly known as the Shell. The Camp Randall Memorial Arch by the intersection of Randall and Dayton streets is a feature near its northeast corner.
Its borders have been reconfigured around athletic facilities twice in the last 70 years but it is the “single most important Civil War historic site in the state of Wisconsin,” said Jason Maloney, the former chair of the state Board of Veterans Affairs.
A rendering of the Wisconsin football indoor practice facility included with documents for the April 25 meeting of the Joint Campus Area Committee shows an aerial view from the southeast.
More than 70,000 Union soldiers trained at the camp from 1861 to 1865 and in 1862 more than 1,200 Confederate prisoners of war were detained on the site.
A piece of land between the Shell and Monroe Street was added to the park in 1986 in exchange for the athletic department taking another parcel to build the McClain Center as an indoor practice facility for football.
That triangular area, which now is being taken back for use in the new facility, is the “most valuable bit of real estate on the whole park,” said Jim Gingras, a member of the university’s chapter of Student Veterans of America. It’s the only remaining part that’s actually within the perimeter of what was Camp Randall during the Civil War.
“I love athletics; they’re awesome,” said Gingras, a UW-Madison doctoral student. “But they’ve shown time and time again, from 1913 through today, that whenever they can take more land to expand their footprint, they’re going to.”
The park was first altered in the 1950s when Wisconsin built the Shell, which has served as an indoor training and recreation facility for both the athletic department and campus stakeholders. That building is awaiting demolition as part of the upcoming project to build a new football training facility connected to the east side of Camp Randall Stadium.
The Board of Veterans Affairs is scheduled to hear an informational presentation about the project at its June 20 meeting. But Maloney was upset earlier this year that the board lost the authority to approve or veto changes to the park as it relates to the new football facility.
The state Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee on Feb. 7 unanimously passed an amendment to the UW System capital budget bill that clarified that the park is not limited to use as a memorial for purposes of building the new football facility. It also required that the Board of Regents submit a plan to honor Wisconsin veterans by June 30.
A spokesperson for Rep. Mark Born (R-Beaver Dam), the Joint Finance co-chair who authored the amendment, said its purpose was to clear the way for the building to be constructed as provided in the budget.
The Badgers hope to finalize their facility over the next few years, and are close to their fundraising goal, but veterans raised concerns about the park.
Maloney, who became the veterans board’s vice chair after he didn’t run for reelection as chair at the March meeting, called it “a real kick in the butt for us as a board,” at the meeting.
The amendment allowed for an overlap of the new facility onto land that now is part of Camp Randall Memorial Park without requiring the veterans board approval. The largest section of the park, land to the east of the Shell with mature trees and memorial plaques and cannons, isn’t projected to have major alterations as part of the project but a tree may be removed.
Wisconsin athletic director Chris McIntosh said he and other athletics and campus representatives have discussed with the Department of Veterans Affairs using the triangular portion of the park between the Shell and Monroe Street for the project and to “tell the story of the park and the history there and veterans in general.”
Wisconsin athletic director Chris McIntosh said he wants everyone to feel “as though they won” with the new football indoor practice facility and its impact on Camp Randall Memorial Park.
“Our priority is to create a situation in which everybody feels good about it and walks away feeling as though that they’ve won, and I think that can be accomplished,” McIntosh said. “I think there’s an opportunity that’s a win-win for everyone involved.”
UW-Madison said in the proposal approved by the Board of Regents on Friday that it plans to incorporate feedback from veterans groups in design of a veterans plaza in the new practice facility. Project renderings have shown that element going on what’s now the triangular part of the park south of the Shell.
The university also committed to between $300,000 and $400,000 in one-time funding on veteran initiatives and an estimated $55,000 annually to fund a new position in the veterans services department.
The Camp Randall Sports Center is scheduled to be demolished to make way for a new indoor practice facility. The triangular piece of land between the building, commonly known as the Shell, and Monroe Street to the south has been part of Camp Randall Memorial Park since 1986 but is part of the plans for the new building.
The athletic department will institute a program to recognize a veteran at each home football game and will install a seat at Camp Randall Stadium to recognize prisoners of war and soldiers missing in action.
Tailgating in Camp Randall Memorial Park on football game days also will be halted.
Gingras has been pushing university officials for a purpose-built facility to house student veteran organizations and to serve as a memorial. One of the university proposals approved by the Board of Regents was spending up to $200,000 to explore a new Joint Services Officer Education Facility.
A triangular portion of Camp Randall Memorial Park between the Shell and Monroe Street would be incorporated into a new group of University of Wisconsin athletic facilities, angering some veterans groups. It’s the only remaining part of the park that’s within the perimeter of what was Camp Randall during the Civil War.
He called it “motion in the right direction” and added that he wants it to be built in Camp Randall Memorial Park. That’s partly because of the location’s significance to veterans, Gingras said, but also to block what he called a “gradual encroachment” by the athletic department into the park.
Camp Randall Memorial Park, established in state statutes in 1913, has been altered twice but not without pushback.
Madison veterans, descendants of Civil War veterans and members of patriotic organizations formed the Committee for the Preservation of Camp Randall Memorial Park in 1954 to oppose building the Shell on part of the property. LaVone Goodell, the committee chair, said building the athletic facility would be “desecration of a sacred shrine,” The Capital Times reported.
A Madison American Legion post joined the protest later in the year, approving a resolution saying its members “feel deeply the need for the continued unsullied use of all of Camp Randall Memorial Park as a public park and memorial of all wars.”
The efforts failed but the Board of Regents asked the Legislature during the Shell construction approval process to make the rest of Camp Randall Memorial Park a perpetual memorial to Union veterans.
Another vocal opposition emerged 32 years later when the athletic department wanted to build an indoor practice facility north of the Shell, a building that eventually was named in honor of former football coach Dave McClain.
A land swap compromise in 1986 had the park boundary redrawn again. To build the McClain Center on land that was part of the park, the university gave up the triangular piece of property between the Shell and Monroe Street to become park land.
The main part of the park was used for post-war trailer housing from 1945 to 1954, and it wasn’t fully restored and landscaped until 1965.
The park is “hallowed ground,” Maloney said, “because it really represents the sacrifice of life and limb that veterans have made through the history of the state and our nation.”
A similar opinion was heard 71 years ago.
“Camp Randall Memorial Park is the Boston Commons of Wisconsin veterans,” Minnie E. Groth said at a 1953 public hearing on returning a Civil War cannon to where it was captured in Tennessee, and is “just about the most sacred soil in Wisconsin.”
The triangle has been part of the Wisconsin athletic department’s thinking on the project for at least four years. A 2020 advanced planning report that recommended demolishing the Shell in favor of a new football practice facility conceptualized the triangle, measuring roughly a half-acre, as part of the project.
Gingras earlier this year criticized what he called a lack of coordination with veterans groups on campus about the project by the university and the athletic department.
“They’re planning a project for two or three years at least, and the fact that they haven’t come to talk to the veterans group at the university about a project that is right next to the veterans park is a bit shocking,” he said in February.
Student veterans want to have a small say in how the project interacts with Camp Randall Memorial Park, Abby Boyle, president of the UW-Madison chapter of Student Veterans of America, said in February.
“We get what the athletic program brings to the university,” Boyle said. “But also there’s such a strong history here at UW with veterans. And we feel that while we have a Memorial Union and while we have that park, it’s just, I would say, a stab in the back almost to students who are veterans or currently serving for them to take something away from us without ever talking to us.”
A Wisconsin spokesperson said athletic department or campus officials reached out to the Board of Veterans Affairs, the Disabled American Veterans of Wisconsin and a state association representing county veterans service organizations to discuss the new building.
The Wisconsin athletic department has been fundraising for the project, which is its most expensive capital effort ever. It had $62.5 million raised toward a $75 million goal as of the most recent update.
Companies to design and build the facility that the athletic department said will replace the undersized McClain Center and help the football team keep pace with rivals were hired in September and the design work began that month.
The State Building Commission gave the final sign-off on the demolition of the McClain Center and construction of the new practice facility at a Feb. 28 meeting. Demolition of the Shell is scheduled to take place between August and November, according to the most recent plans presented to campus and city agencies.
The new indoor practice facility is planned to be finished in early 2026, with demolition and replacement of the McClain Center to follow. A grand opening for the entire project is planned for early 2027.
A rendering of the Wisconsin football indoor practice facility included with documents for the April 25 meeting of the Joint Campus Area Committee shows an aerial view from the southeast.
A rendering of the Wisconsin football indoor practice facility included with documents for the April 25 meeting of the Joint Campus Area Commitee envisions the view from the east.
A rendering of the Wisconsin football indoor practice facility included with documents for the April 25 meeting of the Joint Campus Area Commitee shows how the building could look from the northeast.
A rendering of the Wisconsin football indoor practice facility included with documents for the April 25 meeting of the Joint Campus Area Commitee shows a view from the north.
A rendering of the Wisconsin football indoor practice facility included with documents for the April 25 meeting of the Joint Campus Area Commitee shows a ground-level view from the north.
A rendering of the Wisconsin football indoor practice facility included with documents for the April 25 meeting of the Joint Campus Area Commitee shows a view of the northeast corner from a walking path.
A rendering of the Wisconsin football indoor practice facility included with documents for the April 25 meeting of the Joint Campus Area Commitee illustrates how the east side of the building alongside Camp Randall Memorial Park could look.
A rendering of the Wisconsin football indoor practice facility included with documents for the April 25 meeting of the Joint Campus Area Commitee shows a view from Monroe Street.
A rendering of the Wisconsin football indoor practice facility included with documents for the April 25 meeting of the Joint Campus Area Commitee illustrates the south side of the building from Monroe Street.
A veterans plaza is proposed to be part of the new Wisconsin football indoor practice facility, as shown in documents for the April 25 meeting of the Joint Campus Area Commitee.
A rendering of the Wisconsin football indoor practice facility included with documents for the April 25 meeting of the Joint Campus Area Commitee shows a view from Monroe Street.
A rendering of the Wisconsin football indoor practice facility included with documents for the April 25 meeting of the Joint Campus Area Commitee illustrates the view from the intersection of Regent and Monroe streets.
A rendering of the Wisconsin football indoor practice facility included with documents for the April 25 meeting of the Joint Campus Area Commitee shows the sidewalk on Monroe Street.
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A rendering of the Wisconsin football indoor practice facility included with documents for the April 25 meeting of the Joint Campus Area Committee shows an aerial view from the southeast.
A triangular portion of Camp Randall Memorial Park between the Shell and Monroe Street would be incorporated into a new group of University of Wisconsin athletic facilities, angering some veterans groups. It’s the only remaining part of the park that’s within the perimeter of what was Camp Randall during the Civil War.
The Camp Randall Sports Center is scheduled to be demolished to make way for a new indoor practice facility. The triangular piece of land between the building, commonly known as the Shell, and Monroe Street to the south has been part of Camp Randall Memorial Park since 1986 but is part of the plans for the new building.
Wisconsin athletic director Chris McIntosh said he wants everyone to feel “as though they won” with the new football indoor practice facility and its impact on Camp Randall Memorial Park.

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