Partial stadium demolition begins

IU must tear down to build up.\nFirst to go are Memorial Stadium's north end-zone bleachers, a demolition that began last week. Fifty-five million dollars later, new weight-training and basketball-practice facilities and softball and baseball complexes will adorn the IU campus.\nSome of the facilities, offices, meeting spaces and a "Hall of Honor" will occupy the area directly north of the football stadium. The plan, unveiled last semester, calls for other facilities near the south end zone, also.\nAdministrators have not secured all $55 million but said in a news release they expect to make it through "a fundraising campaign." \nA controversial $30 annual fee was charged to students in the 2004 to 2005 and 2005 to 2006 school years, and then was rescinded for this year, replaced with a plan that reallocated men's-basketball seats from students to alumni and raised the price of student tickets for men's-basketball games, among other steps.\nThe IU Athletics Department will help pay for the construction with profits from the Big Ten Network, set to launch this fall.\nNo timetable was announced for the completion of the south end-zone projects or the baseball and softball complexes.