BY DREW EDWARDS
UTSports.com
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| The New Training center is projected to open in 2012 |
When athletic director Mike Hamilton pictures Tennessee's new Football Training Center, he sees the future of Tennessee football. And at the center of that vision is the student-athlete.
"First class, impactful, commitment, tradition, those are really the main things (we want the new building to convey)," Hamilton said. "That it's done with a salute to tradition. That it's done in a first-class manner. That it shows a commitment to football success at a high level and commitment to the student-athlete at a high level.
"Most of all a commitment to the student-athlete and the student-athlete's success."
It won't be long before the Football Training Center goes from vision to reality.
The proposed 145,000-square foot building is expected to go out for bid in February and construction will likely begin sometime this spring. It's slated for completion in Summer 2012, which means that prospects who sign with the Vols in 2011 will spend the bulk of their careers in one of the most modern and complete football facilities in the country.
Tennessee has received pledges of more than $33 million towards the project, which represents the bulk of the funding required. The building's final cost isn't yet known, although Hamilton is optimistic that it can be built for less than current estimates because of a drop of construction costs in the last few years.
Since planning started three years ago, the goal for the Football Training Center has always been to build the best facility in the country. That's remained the objective in subsequent revisions of the plan, which included changes to the building's layout and the addition of about 10,000-square feet, following the arrival of head coach Derek Dooley in January.
"We have prided ourselves at Tennessee on having great facilities," Hamilton said. "Because we are a school where 85 percent of our student-athletes are not from the state of Tennessee, it's critical to have great coaches and great facilities to take advantage of our great tradition and our great school. The facility itself has a huge impact on recruiting."
When prospects arrive, they'll see the `Tennessee story' laid out for them in graphics throughout the facility. Every piece of the building will be state-of-the art, from a brand-new hydrotherapy room with underwater treadmills and a 40-foot lane pool, to the video technology in every meeting room that will include `smart' boards that allow coaches to draw diagrams directly over game film.
The players' lounge and locker room will be brand new as well. Players' lockers in the complex will be larger and custom built, complete with electrical outlets for charging cell phones and other gadgets all the way to a complete ventilation system that will help equipment dry faster - and go a long way toward eliminating the odor generated by 100 or so football players.
The weight room alone will occupy 22,000-square feet of the building and will feature all new equipment. There's a second level with cardio machines, and there will be brand new AV equipment that the strength staff can use to instruct and coach athletes as they work out.
But the benefits of the new building extend well past football.
All of Tennessee's athletic programs will use parts of the Football Training Center, like the strength facility and training rooms. There are even plans in place for a dining area, a contingency that could become necessary in the coming years if the University decides to close Gibbs Hall.
One of the reasons for the project, aside from upgrading the football program's space, is to find a home for the approximately 110 athletic department staff, coaches and administrators now housed in Stokely Athletic Center. That building, which served as the home court for Tennessee basketball until 1987, must be vacated by December 2012.
So by building the new Football Training Center, the department will be able to move employees from Stokely to the space formerly occupied by the football program in the Neyland-Thompson building. In that sense, the Football Training Center is something of a two-for-one deal.
Or, if you take a broad view, a 20-for-1 deal.
"The reality of it is our baseball team's over there hitting and our track team's running, and the cheerleaders are practicing," said Hamilton, who along with most of the athletic department administration, NCAA compliance, media relations and several sports programs is based in Stokely. "It's functional. It puts the Tennessee athletic program for the most part under one roof, which is improves the team dynamic and the synergy of our athletic programs. It will serve as a beautiful cornerstone to one of the main entrances of campus.
"I think the main thing is this truly becomes the home to Tennessee athletics. For the most part, almost all your people are under one roof when it's complete. And I think that will be impactful in a big way."
Ultimately, the hope is that impact shows up on the football field. In the 10 years following construction of the Neyland-Thompson Sports Center, the football program won four SEC championships and a national title in 1998. Other programs across the country, like Oregon, Texas, LSU and Alabama, to name a few, have seen similar spikes in on-field performance after investing in the infrastructure surrounding their football programs.
"Historically, if you look at programs that build a new facility, their program- not every time, but typically - shows a real upswing in the subsequent years following the building of the facility," said David Blackburn, Tennessee's senior associate athletic director for administration/football and a 22-year veteran of the athletic department. "It's certainly happened here. It happened when Stokely was built. It happened when this facility was built. The early 90s, middle 90s, a lot of that was because we had a great facility to recruit to, as well as having a staff that was doing a great job."
In its day, the Neyland-Thompson Sports Center was the best facility in college football. Some 22 years after it first opened, the facility remains functional. But over that span, it's been overtaken by other practice facilities across the country. Short of a few cosmetic changes since 1989, the football offices and meeting rooms have remained the same. The only significant upgrades to the building besides the renovation of a team lounge came when the indoor field was expanded from 65 yards to 120 yards.
In fact, once projects at Georgia and Auburn are completed in the coming 18 months, Tennessee will have the oldest football practice facility in the SEC.
"It's necessary because this building is 22 years old, and we're in a world that's very competitive," Blackburn said. "It is important that you improve your facility as regularly as you can to keep up with what other schools are doing. They are comparing apples to apples.
"We've got a wonderful facility here, and we're fortunate to have what we have. But it needs to be better."
There's no question the Football Training Center will be better. Its size alone - 145,000-square feet - will make it one of the biggest in the nation.
Coupled with all the other improvements and upgrades, though, Hamilton hopes it can help propel Tennessee football back to a championship level.
"I know when Derek and I have been talking about the impact, in recruiting specifically, you can look at when the building was constructed and what happened in the few years after that," Hamilton said. "We're hopeful the same thing happens here.
"We build this building, and the impact on Tennessee football for many of years afterwards will be significant."
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