Generous donors and dedicated alumni working with
their alma mater bring state-of-the-art facilities to UMaine
Pride and Progress
By Joy Hollowell
The night before the ribbon cutting of the newly renovated University of Maine Alfond Arena and Shawn Walsh Hockey Center, Elizabeth Simonds ’20 stayed late to ensure everything was ready for the reveal. As the project manager, she had worked, lived, and breathed the changes to the athletic center for more than a year. But that night, after the last hammer and nail was finally put away, Simonds noticed something.
“The soffit,” she says, smiling. “It was all lit up with the state of Maine glowing. And I could see the Black Bear head lit up in the Bear Necessities Fan Shop.”
Simonds took a deep breath, making sure to take it all in.
“From the dirt to it being all shined up,” she says. “It was a special moment.”
Simonds is just one of many UMaine alumni who played a key role in the planning, funding, and construction of the athletic complex. The $50 million upgrades include 31,000 square feet of renovations and 21,000 feet of additions. There are modernized locker and lounge rooms for the men’s and women’s hockey programs, a 42-seat film room, updated sports medicine and sports performance areas with new training equipment, along with a nutrition station, as well as new offices for coaches and support staff.
Fans coming into the arena are greeted by an expanded origami-style lighted concourse that showcases new points of sale for tickets, the Dexter Lounge, and concessions. The expansion is also a launching pad to elevate the state’s only NCAA Division 1 athletics program.
“The new facility puts us on par with some of the top programs in NCAA hockey, ” says UMaine Men’s Hockey Head Coach Ben Barr. “The NCAA landscape has changed drastically in the last 20 years. Bringing recruits to campus on non-game days was a challenge the last few years. This allows us to show off Black Bear hockey both during a game and on an off day as well. We are really fortunate.”
UMaine Women’s Hockey Coach Molly Engstrom saw a growth in their fan base and energy in the stands during home matches this fall.
“The new facility has changed so many things for us as a team and program,” she says. “The flow is amazing for the players and the staff. We are so grateful to the Alfond family and all of the donors and supporters of Maine hockey who made it happen.”
The last major renovation was the creation of the Shawn Walsh Hockey Center 20 years earlier. A new scoreboard and lighting system were added leading up to now.
“High-quality facilities are essential in recruiting today’s student-athletes,” says UMaine Athletic Director Jude Killy. “The upgrades and new venues across campus have elevated our abilities to compete not just within our leagues regionally, but also nationally in some sports. What was once a challenge for us is quickly becoming one of our greatest strengths.”
Killy, the coaches, and other stakeholders worked closely with the Capital and Project Management team on all aspects of design and execution. Simonds says having firsthand knowledge of how sports collectively impacts the campus community and beyond, helped her immensely.
“I watched hockey while I went to school and now I am a season ticket holder,” she says. “There is a lot of emotion behind a space like this. You walk through the main concourse and you have memories from the original building with the Alfond Tribute Wall. There’s the ‘hype tunnel’ leading out to the ice.”
Capital and Project Management Senior Director Jacob Olsen ’06 visited other schools for inspiration.
“Virginia, North Carolina, Connecticut, Long Island, there are so many I’ve lost track,” he says chuckling. “The architects and I would analyze what it would cost to build those types of athletic facilities and whether that could work for us.”
Another big challenge was coordinating a major construction project in the Alfond Arena during the ice hockey season.
“And with a men’s Hockey East Champ‑ ionship included in that, right?” Simonds says emphatically. “NESN, all of the major media conglomerates were talking about our construction.”
This transformational project is part of UMaine’s $208 million Athletic Facilities Master Plan to renovate and build state-of-the- art varsity athletic facilities benefitting Maine’s only Division 1 athletic program. Two days before the ribbon cutting at the Alfond Arena, UMaine unveiled its 31,000-square-foot New Balance Track & Field and Soccer Complex. The $27.3 million project features a world class synthetic turf as well as two scoreboards with built-in speakers, seating capacity for 525 fans, and LED lights.
“A parent of a recruit once described our old setup as ‘mom and pop,’” recalls Scott Atherley ’89, ’91G, head coach of the UMaine Women’s Soccer Team. “There was an old wooden kickboard at the far end of the field that doubled as a scoreboard. The playing surface was grass that sat atop a clay base. Over time, that base had started to deteriorate and the field was beginning to cave.”
Forty years ago, Atherley was playing on these fields as a member of the Black Bear men’s soccer team.
“It’s surreal. Like our players, I wake up some days and think this is all a dream,” Atherley says, “I am grateful that I am able to experience the joy everyone associated with our program feels about our new home.”
Additionally, the New Balance sports complex boasts a 13-millimeter modernized track surface.
“It provides a very safe but competitive surface for practice and meet days,” explains UMaine Head Cross Country/Track & Field Coach Adam Ward. “For reference, the indoor track is six millimeters. And as good as that feels, having double that outside feels great under foot.”
Logan Doucette ’22 was the lead project manager for the New Balance upgrades.
“I actually interned with the Facilities Management Engineering Center and worked closely with the Capital Planning and Project Management team while earning my CET degree,” says Doucette. “Skills that I was taught while in school will come up on every project I’ve worked on.”
Like the Alfond, Doucette and his team had to coordinate their work with practice and game days.
“Our field office for our contractors was actually right in the football press box,” he points out. “It created some complexities. That’s what made it so gratifying to see the end product finally come together.”
Both the Alfond Arena and New Balance Complex were primarily funded through the Harold Alfond Foundation’s transformational $320 million commitment. That includes a $170 million investment to the Athletic Facilities Master Plan as part of UMS TRANSFORMS.
New Balance contributed $7 million and other UMaine supporters raised an additional $32 million.
“The New Balance Track & Field and Soccer Complex and newly renovated Shawn Walsh Hockey Center and Alfond Arena reflect transformational investments in our students, our university, and the state,” says University of Maine President Joan Ferrini-Mundy.
To say 2025 was a busy year for the Capital and Project Management team would be an understatement.
“The amount of construction on the Orono campus is astounding,” notes Olsen. “ I can remember back to when I went to school here. You’d really only see one big new building at a time. Now, we have so much happening at once.”
In addition to athletic infrastructure improvements, work is underway on the new 50,000-square-foot GEM Factory of the Future. It is an extension of the Advanced Structures and Composites Center (ASCC) to the South towards the Collins Center for the Arts parking lot. The $82 million investment is funded through the Department of Defense, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Northern Border Regional Commission, the Harold Alfond Foundation, and the state of Maine.
“The research and teaching that will be done here ushers in a new era of convergent manufacturing in which multiple manufacturing processes work together in a digital space, powered by robotics and AI,” explains Habib Dagher, executive director of ASCC.
The energy sustainable building will consist of two large manufacturing research bays, in which advanced sensors, high-performance computing systems, and AI will drive and monitor part manufacturing and quality. Initially, the south bay will be used to help develop solutions for the housing crisis while the north bay will help transform the boat-building manufacturing industry.
“This facility is more than a building,” says Dagher. “It is a commitment to accelerate innovation, expand partnerships with industry and government, and create new immersive, hands-on educational opportunities that attract and keep talent here in Maine. The partnerships with the Maine College of Engineering and Computing and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences will create new graduate and undergraduate concentrations and programs at the nexus of engineering, materials, manufacturing, and AI.”
Joe Frazier ’18 serves as the field engineer for the Sargent Corporation, which has been the civil contractor behind all of the university’s outdoor athletic facilities as well as the GEM building. Frazier feels rewarded in seeing his UMaine degree come full circle.
“Being back on campus, helping to build the same kinds of facilities that supported my own education is pretty special,” he says.
Next up is the Morse Arena, named for a $10 million commitment from Phillip ’64 and Susan Keene Morse ’64. The 2,660-seat basketball venue will be located near the south end of Morse Field and the Alfond Stadium. Con-struction is expected to be completed during the 2027-28 basketball season.
And it’s not just UMaine alumni making their mark on campus improvements. These projects are also paving the way for future engineers in training.
“We work with the Maine College of Engineering and Computing,” explains Simonds. “We invite students to come to the construction sites as it relates to their studies whether it’s civil engineers looking at stormwater drains or structural engineers looking at the building itself. It’s a great way to foster growth for whatever projects come along in the future.”