By Spring 2019, high-school football recruits touring UF’s campus will likely have their attention directed to the university’s new $60 million football facility, slated to begin construction in January.
The facility will be built next to the UF Football team’s recently erected $17 million indoor practice facility, which was completed in Fall 2015, wrote Chip Howard, the University Athletic Association’s associate athletic director for internal affairs, in an email.
“A facility adjacent to their practice complex has been needed for some time,” Howard said.
While nothing has been agreed upon, HOK, the architecture firm tapped to design and construct the new facility, has proposed including a dining hall, 3-D hologram training environment, strength and conditioning center, hydrotherapy space and locker room, said Algen Williams, HOK’s vice president and regional leader for sports, recreation and entertainment.
Football athletes, coaches and support staff will have access to the facility, and all student athletes will have access to the dining hall, Howard said. The official designing process starts this month.
“It’s a blank piece of paper right now,” Williams said. “Nothing is settled.”
Construction, funded through athletics operating funds, bonds and donor financial gifts, is scheduled to begin January 2018 and be completed by Spring 2019, Howard said. Williams said he helped create UF’s $100 million master facility plan to renovate several athletic complexes, including the Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium and the Alfred A. McKethan Stadium, where the UF softball and baseball teams play, respectively.
“It’s a huge project, and the University of Florida is a great client,” Williams said.
Contact Jimena Tavel at jtavel@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter at @taveljimena
Artist's rendering of the proposed facility
