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Welcome to a special episode of Tracking the Cats. Bob Saban here, Steve White's out this week, but I've got with me a special guest. We've got the associate director of the for development at Western Associate Athletic Director, I should say, and better known as Head of the Catamount Club west Cog deal. Wes, welcome. Thank you, Bob. Thanks for having me. Great. Wanted to talk to you a little bit about what's going on with the Catamount Club today and upcoming events. Do you have anything that you really wanna share right now? We're gonna get into something else in just a few minutes, but first, yeah. Really right now is all. OUN Club members, if you haven't renewed your membership the deadline for your parking and your seats and all that fun stuff needs to be in by April 30th. And really from there, looking at getting, getting everybody into the Catamount Club by the end of June 30th so you can have your membership and receive all those great benefits as a, as a member of the Catamount Club and enjoy all of our athletic events and games and, and all that fun stuff. And. Supporting and backing our cats. Well, I'm guilty. I bought my season tickets, but I haven't renewed the membership, which is going to happen soon. So don't worry. I'll, I'll know where to find you, so. Exactly. That's right. I'll be getting calls from somebody up here. That's great. Hey, we're gonna take a walk and they're starting work on the facilities improvement. So we're gonna join outside in just a minute and see some fencing and have wes tell us a little bit about what's going on.

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So back here we're outside. You can see the football stadium in the background. They've put up the fencing to get started on things. Wes, can you tell us a little bit about Yeah. So getting the fencing up still got some things with the contractor to figure out exactly the timing of everything. But I can say right now we're planning groundbreaking ceremony in June. That's in the works. So very exciting. Great time to be a catamount. And even better to start seeing some dirt, moving some heavy equipment and machinery out here very soon in the next month or so. I, I believe, from what I've heard, but for right now, we got the fence up. We got everything starting to plan and should see some delivery starting here soon. Cool. Let's take a look at one of the other things that's gonna be happening and we'll see that in a second.

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So we are now behind the west stands at the stadium, and this is where the construction project is starting. Tell us a little bit more about that, Wes. Well, Bob, the first thing that we've gotta get done is once the equipment gets here to get the structure in place, they're gonna build over the existing concession stands and restrooms here on the west side. So there will be footers and then they'll also go in to, to make sure there's no demolition or anything like that. To build the structure and it will affect some of the rows on the west side for seating early on. And that message will be coming out, but that will be coming in, coming in place. But for the most part, as we're going through this project, trying to minimize the impact and changing of gating any experience for our fans and for making sure that we can pack this place out as well as we're moving through this project and get it built and done by the beginning of, what would that be? The fall of 26. But we will see real changes by this fall, right? As people arrived. Yes. For a game. Yes. You'll see experience this year. You'll, you'll see the equipment out, you'll start seeing things being built and going up throughout the season. And then obviously the goal is once we move into the, the rest of the project be completed for the beginning of the 26th season. This is great. Wes, I really appreciate the time. Well, thank you. Reminder, join the Catamount Club if you're not a member already, and if you are, get re-upped as soon as possible with maybe a little bounce to the next level. Yeah, absolutely. But biggest thing is get everybody involved. You know, the only way we can continue to grow is to have more people involved and really make this a special place, but more importantly create a championship culture. But. Driving to help our student athletes and, and for them to be the best that they can either in the classroom or on the court or field that they compete in. But that's at the heart of the mission of the Catamount Club, and right now we're looking at football improvements, but we're really excited about all of the programs here at Western and looking forward to, to making that happen. And your dollars count. Yep. Bob, you said it, you said it best, but it's it's a great day to be at Cat Mount, so come out. Come to games, get involved be a Cat Mount Club member, and get, be a part of what we're doing here. Special time to, to be a cat mount. Thanks Wes. Appreciate your time today. Thank you, Bob.