ESPN: Miami to unveil plans for $30 million football

MiamiVice7

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facility on Friday

Miami will unveil plans for a $30 million indoor football facility on Friday

(Article has two pics/renderings if you follow the link.)

Miami will unveil plans for a new $30 million indoor football facility and football operations center Friday in South Florida, a project that has gained support and momentum since Mark Richt was hired last December.

ESPN obtained the first renderings of the project, which will feature an 80,000 square-foot indoor practice field and 20,000 square-foot football operations center that will house coaches' offices on a mezzanine level, team meeting rooms, position meeting rooms and a recruiting suite.

The facility will be built over the existing turf practice field Miami uses, just next to the grass practice fields, and will connect to the current weight room in the Hecht Athletic Center, along with the locker room in the Schwartz Center for Academic Excellence.

Athletic director Blake James has discussed building an indoor football facility since he was hired in 2013. Not only is there a need in South Florida with the rain and lightning that is so prevalent in the area, Miami is among the only schools in the country without an indoor.

Richt, a Miami alum, was instrumental in making the project happen once he arrived. He and his wife, Katharyn, donated $1 million of their own money to help make the project a reality.

At the time his donation was revealed, Richt said, "I love my university, and I want people to understand I'm committed to making it great. We need to help raise the funds to get it done, and I'm hoping it will energize people to know that it needs to be done. I'm not just giving lip service to it, that I truly believe it and I'm willing to invest my life in a lot of ways and our resources, too."

While previous ideas centered on building the indoor football facility only, Richt wanted to include an operations center as well - similar to a plan he pushed through while he was head coach at Georgia. He even sketched out drawings himself with his vision for how it would look.

Fundraising for the project began in May through a private campaign. Miami already has over 70 percent of the money pledged, but cannot begin to break ground until all the money is raised. School officials hope going public with their fundraising efforts will bring in the rest of the money needed to begin the project.

Once the money is raised, the university will begin going through the permitting process with the City of Coral Gables. The school already has an architect, but must also bring in a construction company as well.

The project is expected to take 14 to 18 months to complete, with a target goal to open in summer 2018. It would be the largest project for the athletic department since the $68 million BankUnited Center opened in 2003.
 
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In 10 years we'll be able to talk about other schools' 'outdated facilities'. I'm going to work that to death like a virgin flicking a baked bean.
 
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I can dig it!

idp1.jpg

idp2.jpg
 
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All hail Coach Richt!!! We truly are on our way back fellas, the CMR era is starting better than i expected. Who knew fsu and these other teams look to be going downhill as were on the uprise
 
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So remodeled hard Rock that is AMAZING..

Indoor practice facility of 30 million

Nicest campus in the country

Can the lacking in facilities tag be put to rest finally?
 
It's called season ticket sales, merchandising and advertising rights. It's time to start allocating some of the profits. The HC is all in, former players are all in, ticket sales are up so the fans are all in, the University, we will see...
 
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So remodeled hard Rock that is AMAZING..

Indoor practice facility of 30 million

Nicest campus in the country

Can the lacking in facilities tag be put to rest finally?

Unfortanutely, I dont see that issue being put to rest by haters, though it shoulda been put to rest awhile ago
 
I'm confused by the renderings relative to the existing fields

dbe95b4cf961e5f432dff51005498689.jpg
 
I'm confused by the renderings relative to the existing fields

dbe95b4cf961e5f432dff51005498689.jpg

There are 2 more fields out of view from the picture you posted. That is the two fields you see in the renderings. The fields you are showing in the picture are where the bubble and operations center will go.
 
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