The University of Maine on Tuesday released renderings of the planned Harold Alfond Athletics Village, which will connect the school’s sports facilities with paths, and include new benches, signs, statues and other amenities.
The privately funded village will tie together the school’s varsity athletic venues “in a way that welcomes visitors and celebrates the natural beauty of our campus and state,” UMaine’s Vice President and Director of Athletics Jude Killy said.
“It will also thoughtfully honor the greatest individual benefactor in University of Maine history. We are so thankful for the support of Mr. Alfond, and his namesake foundation, and believe this tribute will appropriately recognize that extraordinary generosity,” Killy said.
The overhaul will include a renovated UMaine entry sign to “provide a bold and welcoming introduction to campus” — the traditional “University of Maine” granite signs will be relocated to the corner of Long Road and College Avenue, according to the school.
Tunk Road, which runs between the Harold Alfond Arena and Harold Alfond Stadium, has been renamed Harold Alfond Drive.
A new statue of Harold Alfond will be installed near the crosswalk connecting Alfond Stadium, Morse Arena and Alfond Arena along Harold Alfond Drive.
The existing Harold Alfond statue will be refurbished and relocated to the east entrance of the athletics village walkway, behind the grandstand at the Pierre & Catherine Labat Softball Complex.
Harold Alfond, who died in 2007, founded the Dexter Shoe Company, which he sold to Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway in 1993 for $433 million in Berkshire Hathaway stock.
The value of Berkshire Hathaway stock skyrocketed in the years that followed while Dexter’s plummeted in the face of overseas competition. Buffet called the deal a “monumentally stupid decision.”
The fortune underwrote Alfond’s philanthropic legacy, the Harold Alfond Foundation, which had $1.04 billion in assets as of 2024.
A $320 million grant from the foundation to the University of Maine System, the largest gift ever to a public higher education institution in New England, included $170 million to support athletic facilities at UMaine.
That money recently funded a $50 million renovation to the Harold Alfond Arena, home of the UMaine hockey program.
