It was a humble debut for the gateway that will welcome 92,000 rowdy fans in just a few weeks.
The first floor of the James W. "Bill" Heavener Football Complex, commonly known as the Gateway of Champions, opened unceremoniously to the public Monday.
The southwest corner of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, located at Gale Lemerand Drive and Stadium Road, has been under construction since February 2007.
Workers have been crafting an expansion to recognize the accomplishments of Gators football, said Greg McGarity, one of the project managers.
The project finished on time and within budget, McGarity said, with a final price tag of $28 million. Gator Boosters funded the project.
Once inside, fans come face-to-face with an interactive display of 20 UF football trophies commemorating individual player awards, SEC titles and two national championships.
Jason Siegel, who graduated from UF in 2001, pushed a button on the glass case of the 1996 Sears Collegiate Champions trophy, and a TV screen behind the crystal football played highlights from the season.
"I remember watching this game," Siegel recalled as an announcer spoke in the clip.
Besides giving fans an up-close look at the trophies that they watched players kiss and hug on the small screen, the construction revamped offices by adding 30,000 square feet of new space, McGarity said. He said the head coach's office was updated for the first time in 20 years.
Now that the expansion is complete, UF athletes have more room to stretch in the stadium's weight room, which almost tripled in size from 7,500 square feet to 22,000 square feet.
"Every athlete we have here will benefit," McGarity said.
In addition to celebrating the "orange and blue victorious," the new construction emphasizes another color: green.
The roof over the weight room is a partial "green" roof. A four-foot layer of soil planted with palms and lilies covers the roof, acting as an insulator to cut energy costs, said Bahar Armaghani, another project manager.
Even the building's clean-up was a green effort, as about 77 percent of the 1,660 tons of waste produced during construction was recycled, Armaghani said.
"There's something in it for everyone," McGarity said.
