Floor of Purdue’s Mackey Arena must be replaced after water main break

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) – A water main break on Purdue’s campus leaves some Purdue athletic facilities badly damaged. Now the university is responsible for replacing two floors.

Purdue’s Athletic Communications Director Tom Schott said the leak happened over the weekend.

“Well, some time overnight between Friday and Saturday. The new water main line that was installed for the new Football Performance Complex facility developed a leak,” said Schott.

That leak was discovered hours later on Saturday.

Holloway Gymnasium had quite a bit of water and there was about 3-5 inches covering the first floor of the Drew and Brittany Brees Student-Athlete Academic Center.

“By 5:00, when Steve Simmerman head of facilities was on site, quite a bit of water was in the Brees Academic Center and into Mackey Arena.”

Normally, Mackey’s floor is nice and flat, but now the water damage has left the wood on the court warped and the floor was just installed five years ago.

“A little bit of water can cause a lot of damage we found out,” said Schott. “Both the arena floors and Mackey will need to be replaced.”

Summer camps will be the first thing affected and all camps will be moved out of the two facilities.

But the cost to the university may surprise you.

“Not a dime,” said Schott.

Schott said luckily insurance will cover all of the damage expenses including additional costs it might take to move summer camps.

“If there are bus expenses, rental expenses,” said Schott. “All of that will be covered by insurance.”

Schott said drying the floors could take several weeks.

“The first step is to get the old floor out and get the new one in and that will begin in earnest here in a couple of weeks,” said Schott.

He said the leak happened during the installation process but disclosed no other information.

The targeted date to have everything done and replaced is Aug. 1.