$30 Million Athletics Complex Planned as TWU Sports Programs Double

Texas Woman's University faces a shortage of training space as its athletics programs expand, a gap the university plans to close with a $30 million complex funded almost entirely by donations rather than tuition or state money.

The Chaney Athletics Complex will sit on land next to Pioneer Soccer Park and cover about 35,000 square feet. It will include a practice gym, locker rooms, a weight room, a sports medicine clinic, batting cages, coaches' offices and meeting spaces. Construction is scheduled to start in spring 2027 and finish by the end of 2028. The university broke ground on the project Oct. 23.

The funding effort began earlier this year with a $10 million gift from Dawn S. Chaney, a university alumna who earned bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in kinesiology and competed in three sports as a student. Chancellor Carine Feyton said donations matter because the university has no student-supported athletics fee and state taxpayer money cannot pay for athletics programs or scholarships. "When we give back, we help the millions and millions who will come after us," Chaney said.

The space pressure follows six years of growth at TWU, which went from five varsity sports to nine and more than doubled its student-athlete count. Executive director of athletics Sandee Mott said the complex would support current athletes, give coaches better tools to build programs and help recruit prospective students. "We are not building this complex simply to solve today's space problems, we are building it because we believe in where TWU Athletics is going," Mott said.

Donations to the project stand at $20.5 million, which the university said is more than two-thirds of the funding goal.