Bonds to finance a multi-million dollar facility? Get out! Yet that’s what West Virginia’s Board of Governors has wrought with last week’s vote to allow bonds — technically reimbursement resolutions — to pay for the Mountaineers basketball practice facility.

I’m pretty sure people are passing out V8 in the Coliseum today. Maybe champagne, too. This thing is a lot closer to reality now.

Athletic Director Ed Pastilong told the board that $14 million has been received, pledged or identified for the project.

That means nearly two-thirds of the funding needed has been at least identified or pledged. Russ Sharp, WVU’s associate AD for finance and administration, said Tuesday that the cost estimate for the facility has been recalculated, down to a $21-22 million range, from the original $24-26 million.

The Board of Governors previously had voted to put a $26 million cap on the project.

Back in April, Pastilong told me the WVU athletic department would “be comfortable” with starting construction when 75-80 percent of the funding was readily available.

Remember, there’s a difference between money raised and money pledged — WVU still has to get that money pledged into its own pockets before its ready to be used to pay back the bonds — so $14 million still isn’t available right now. Is it available over time? Sure looks that way, which is why the bond idea was a popular one for so long now. You couldn’t expect people to fork over huge sums of money at once. Now they can donate on their own schedule and WVU can still pay for the facility and handle the bonds responsibly.

And as for the remaining money, no one involved in this doubts the donations will flow once someone sticks a shovel in the ground.