It’s only been open a year, but the Student Recreation Fitness Center at Kansas University is about to undergo a major expansion.

With 4,000 students walking through the doors daily, demand is high enough to justify the addition of 50,000 square feet, said Mary Chappell, director of recreation services.

Quentin Pearce, Parker, Colo., left, spots for Matthew Marietta, Oskaloosa, at KU's Student Recreation Fitness Center.

“You almost never talk about expansion the first year after you open a new facility,” she said. “That’s usually just not in the cards. But as soon as we opened the gym floors, we were over capacity the first night.”

The $6.1 million expansion, which is expected to be approved Thursday by the Kansas Board of Regents, will be funded with money from the KU Athletic Corp.

Before this year, Student Senate allowed 1,200 of 5,500 student seats for men’s basketball games to be sold to the public because students didn’t want seats so far from the court. Under a new agreement between the students and athletics officials, the corporation now will pay students for the seats in addition to providing 226 seats closer to the court.

Steve Munch, student body president, said the plan was a win-win situation for students and athletics.

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“This kind of popped up unexpectedly, and the money was there, so we decided to go ahead and do it,” Munch said.

The current facility, which opened in September 2003, has 98,500 square feet and is funded with $17 million in student fees.

The addition would double the number of basketball courts to eight, double the free weight area, expand the indoor running track to a quarter mile and add three racquetball courts to the current two.

The expansion will add be done on the north side of the facility. Chappell said groundbreaking could be late next year, with completion sometime in 2007.