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College Football Facilities - The Arms Race


BurntOrange&White

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  • 2 years later...
44 minutes ago, SHOOTER12 said:

The bubble is not only below our standards, but downright embarrassing. 

Even these renderings aren't especially bleeding-edge compared to what's currently out there. Look at Clemson's practice facilities, they're downright ridiculous and make ours look bush league.

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20 minutes ago, satyanash said:

Even these renderings aren't especially bleeding-edge compared to what's currently out there. Look at Clemson's practice facilities, they're downright ridiculous and make ours look bush league.

Maybe start following Clemson then.

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57 minutes ago, satyanash said:

Even these renderings aren't especially bleeding-edge compared to what's currently out there. Look at Clemson's practice facilities, they're downright ridiculous and make ours look bush league.

We have a real estate problem they don’t have.  We also have advantages they don’t have when it comes to being an appealing program to the 18-22 male demographic.

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39 minutes ago, conVINCEd said:

We have a real estate problem they don’t have.  We also have advantages they don’t have when it comes to being an appealing program to the 18-22 male demographic.

Even with real estate problems I don't think they've made the most out of that space. Could have engineered it to be multiple levels with many different amenities IMO.

16 minutes ago, SizzleChest said:

To build a facility like Clemson's would cost $150 million given real estate and physical plant limitations at UT.

Okay, and? Oregons practice faility cost 170 million....

Edited by BurntOrange&White
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13 minutes ago, BurntOrange&White said:

Even with real estate problems I don't think they've made the most out of that space. Could have engineered it to be multiple levels with many different amenities IMO.

Okay, and? Oregons practice faility cost 170 million....

1) You've seen an initial rendering.  

2) They are doing a pretty significant excavation for this to add parking and other features to connect the SEZ facilities with this facility, likely with some enhancement for gameday experiences as well.

3) $170 million for a football practice facility (when we already have everything else in the SEZ)  would just be unfathomably stupid for UT.

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2 hours ago, BurntOrange&White said:

Not even full length outdoor field smh

Space is a problem. By comparison, Baylor has two full length outside fields and are rebuilding their current inside field from 80 yards to 100 yards. Just listing Baylor cause I cover them and am familiar with their facilities. Baylor has money, but not that much money, and should not be able to dunk on Texas from a facilities standpoint. If this is all their practice space, they're going to have to stagger drills. There's 135 players and having wide receiver, running, coverage, and offensive and defensive line drills at the same time is going to have people running one set of drills into another. Kicking practice will have to be staggered, cause placekicking and punting takes up a lot of real estate. 

The indoor facility looks like a storage shed for farm equipment. 

It's an upgrade from the bubble, but damn. 

Son-I-Am-Disappoint-655x409.jpg

 

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1 minute ago, SizzleChest said:

1) You've seen an initial rendering.  

2) They are doing a pretty significant excavation for this to add parking and other features to connect the SEZ facilities with this facility, likely with some enhancement for gameday experiences as well.

3) $170 million for a football practice facility (when we already have everything else in the SEZ)  would just be unfathomably stupid for UT.

bro we could literally pull out  our weight room from a fucking basement.....

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2 minutes ago, Richard Kimball said:

Space is a problem. By comparison, Baylor has two full length outside fields and are rebuilding their current inside field from 80 yards to 100 yards. Just listing Baylor cause I cover them and am familiar with their facilities. Baylor has money, but not that much money, and should not be able to dunk on Texas from a facilities standpoint. If this is all their practice space, they're going to have to stagger drills. There's 135 players and having wide receiver, running, coverage, and offensive and defensive line drills at the same time is going to have people running one set of drills into another. Kicking practice will have to be staggered, cause placekicking and punting takes up a lot of real estate. 

The indoor facility looks like a storage shed for farm equipment. 

It's an upgrade from the bubble, but damn. 

Son-I-Am-Disappoint-655x409.jpg

 

Completely agree that it's infinitely better than bubble but leave a ton to be desired for what a practice facility could and should be.

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10 minutes ago, SizzleChest said:

Yes.  Do you realize you are losing your shit over 4 fucking lame ass design shots?

He's not losing his shit. He's looking at what are the released design renderings and pointing out that even if they're completed, it will be an underwhelming facility. I'm not crazy about the college football arms race, but it's here, my opinion be damned. Not even getting into fancy crap, there's not enough space to practice, unless part of the team is somewhere else. I've covered 2A high schools that have more practice space, although admittedly, they don't have an inside field. 

Edited by Richard Kimball
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We could tear down the Rec Center and build a combined facility on that footprint…with a full size field.

Another brilliant idea I had came from a photo I saw of a hotel(?) somewhere that was constructed over a highway. I wonder if a new indoor facility could be built 90 degrees to the bubble and over Red River. That would leave plenty of room for a full size outdoor field.

I’m not in Austin these days, so I’m sure there are logistical issues I’m not aware exist.

Fire away. I can take it. 

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7 minutes ago, JFKFC said:

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What if I suggested a 70 yard practice field and a Morton Steel Building indoor facility?

I could also suggest a field that is only about 40 yards wide so it would be proportional to the shorter field.

Oh, that’s already been suggested?

Edited by ImissWallyPryor
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1 hour ago, BurntOrange&White said:

Even with real estate problems I don't think they've made the most out of that space. Could have engineered it to be multiple levels with many different amenities IMO.

Okay, and? Oregons practice faility cost 170 million....

Call me crazy, but I am not sure putting swimming pools, recording studios, and bowling alleys into a football practice facility is really going to move the needle on actually getting better at football.

Edited by Vertigo
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1 minute ago, Vertigo said:

Call me crazy, but I am not sure putting swimming pools, recording studios, and bowling alleys into a football practice facility is really going to move the needle on actually getting better at football.

What if it moves the needle on getting the kinds of players that help you win football games?

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822C6AAC-39D1-4AE6-8D5D-1996A6CCFD71.jpeg.cc70a5c1cb962dda7c20c5dcdef283ba.jpeg

 

What’s the point of keeping that little strip of road or the awkward piece of the indoor facility that stretches the other side of the field when you could have just made a full size practice field there and utilized more space where the road is for other things? And why not make use of the spot behind the swimming facility for amenities that can benefit football and swimming/diving? It 100% leaves a lot to be desired and seems rushed. 

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9 hours ago, CooterBrown said:

If we were actually committed, we could just build a few 100 story high rises and move all academic classrooms, labs, offices, and auditoriums there. We’d free up all kinds of space for football facilities.

Or one 100 story high rise with 2 full sized outdoor and one indoor field with strength training facilities and dining facility on top and 10 levels of underground parking

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There's no point in razing the rec center.  Because it doesn't give you enough room for a full football field.  Part of the agreement with Moody/Livenation is that road from the west into Moody stays.  A multi-level facility where Social Work is an interesting idea though.  What would it look like, field on top, amenities on bottom or other way around? 

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The entire Social Work building area is under a Capitol View Corridor, as is the Moody Center, so that we can preserve the view of the capitol building from the upper deck of IH-35 -- a place that will soon no longer exist.  But ... the CVC persists...  Perhaps UT is exempt from CVCs.

UT could build up and have some killer views of downtown, if they could get the CVC shortened to start at the practice facility. 🙂 

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1 minute ago, Texas Jeff said:

The entire Social Work building area is under a Capitol View Corridor, as is the Moody Center, so that we can preserve the view of the capitol building from the upper deck of IH-35 -- a place that will soon no longer exist.  But ... the CVC persists...  Perhaps UT is exempt from CVCs.

UT could build up and have some killer views of downtown, if they could get the CVC shortened to start at the practice facility. 🙂 

Do you have a map of that? 

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50 minutes ago, BurntOrange&White said:

Do you have a map of that? 

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1OmWNgmriRu9gDHuwrrVaRxb03W8&hl=en_US&ll=30.27928613673917%2C-97.73165425896954&z=16

I have seen CVC 27 (aka the one from the LBJ Library that is now totally blocked by trees and the stadium) defined differently.  In one view it does not completely cover the proposed practice field, in another view it does.

You can also play with them in Google Earth: http://1nsane.info/map/cvc.html

I challenge anyone to walk around the LBJ library or school and catch a view of the capitol building.  You can see it from the soccer stadium by the scoreboard, but walk a bit towards the LBJ school and it's hidden.

 

Edited by Texas Jeff
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5 minutes ago, Texas Jeff said:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1OmWNgmriRu9gDHuwrrVaRxb03W8&hl=en_US&ll=30.27928613673917%2C-97.73165425896954&z=16

I have seen CVC 27 (aka the one from the LBJ Library that is now totally blocked by trees and the stadium) defined differently.  In one view it does not completely cover the proposed practice field, in another view it does.

You can also play with them in Google Earth: http://1nsane.info/map/cvc.html

I challenge anyone to walk around the LBJ library or school and catch a view of the capitol building.  You can see it from the soccer stadium by the scoreboard, but walk a bit towards the LBJ school and it's hidden.

 

IMO they should just rid of this view stuff...seems antiquated as austins growth and all the skyscrapers going up downtown kind of make it pointless.

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Any practice structure at the Social Work site wouldn't infringe upon CVC because of the swim center.  I guess if you planted something right in the SW corner of that block, maybe.  But with the renderings mainly showing easterly-oriented buildings, it'd be fine.  One day, the swim center will be relocated to east campus but after they put in that outdoor pool, you knew it'd be decades.  

I think the "Innovation District" on Red River is gonna be what finally pushes the CVC to the stress test.  

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Joe Cook: Texas football releases renderings of new indoor practice facility

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For almost 20 years, the Texas Longhorns football program’s indoor practice option has been “the bubble,” a once innovative building which has needed replacement for quite some time. While Texas continued to use the Frank Denius Fields and the bubble for its practice needs, other programs built their own indoor practice facilities that lapped what Texas had to offer.

On Friday, Texas revealed how it’s going to catch up. The Longhorn football Twitter account released renderings of the new indoor practice facility, a project that will bring Texas much closer to the front of the pack in the ongoing facilities arms race.

The facility will be located where the current Steve Hicks School of Social work sits at 20th Street and Robert Dedman Dr. It will be just south of the Recreational Sports Center and just north of the Jamail Texas Swimming Center. Texas athletics director Chris Del Conte said in February that a new indoor practice facility was on the horizon.

“One of the things we’re in the process of right now is identifying the proper place for the indoor football facility along with the field,” Del Conte said during the virtual town hall meeting. “We have great plans in place for that. We’re just looking to see where it fits on our campus (and) the right proximity in terms of football training every single day. They’ve got to go to class, they’ve got to see (senior associate athletics director for student services) Marnie (Binfield) and our entire academic staff constantly. That’s why they’re here. At the same time, they’ve got to get to practice.”

Del Conte continued: “Once we get the practice facility identified and we start raising money for that, we’re going to go to grass at DKR. It’s just a timing issue, but I can assure you we all want to go to grass. (Steve Sarkisian) wants to go to grass, but we have to be on FieldTurf until that time because of the proximity for where we’re at and how much usage a field gets.

“We know the practice facility is coming. Hopefully, at the latest, in two months I’ll tell you exactly where it’s going to go. We’ve hired an architect. We’re in the process of designing it in several locations. Once that’s designed, we’ll go to President (Jay) Hartzell for approval and then we’ll go to the board of trustees and move forward.”

The needed addition for the program will be within walking distance of where the team’s most often used facilities are in the south end zone. The Longhorns have had to take busses from the Moncrief-Neuhaus complex to the Denius Fields in the past, and have sometimes even just walked between the two locations. That walk will be a lot shorter upon construction of the new facility just a block away, and it will be to a facility with the latest innovations and technological advancements.

 

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20 minutes ago, Sleepygrad said:

What’s going where the current bubble and practice fields are?

Yeah, they keep conveniently leaving that part out.  I know the Thompson Center across the street is going to be leveled and replaced with another campus hotel project.  There was at one time a rumbling that the Bubble acreage would be part of that same project.  But the open fields of the Denius complex would be kept for football training.  With this new facility south of DKR, there is no reason to keep both the Bubble and the Denius Fields.  I think Denius Fields remain and the Bubble becomes something else.  No reason to keep that musty, dank-ass balloon anyway.  They need to wash they ass.

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