re: UGA set to announce more plans for indoor facility...

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The UGA athletic board unanimously approved, via teleconference on Monday, a plan presented by athletics director Greg McGarity to proceed with the building once the coming football season is over. It will be located adjacent to the Butts-Mehre complex, on the current site of the team’s outdoor grass fields. No timetable was given by McGarity, but the project is not expected to be done in time for the 2016 season.

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The board approved a cost of $30.2 million for the project, half drawn from the athletics department’s reserve fund, and the other half via fundraising. “Getting the $15 million raised as quickly as possible would be optimal,” UGA president Jere Morehead said on the call. In fact, McGarity added, they would hope to raise even more than $15.1 million, as there are other facility projects for other sports the school hopes to build. Any extra money from the football facility fundraising could then be put toward those other projects. The $30.2 million price tag is more than other facilities that have been built at other schools, McGarity said, due to the “proximity” to the current football building. The facility will be 80 yards wide, 140 yards long, 65 feet high inside and 75 feet high outside. Renderings were not immediately available to the media, but were passed out to board members prior to Monday’s meeting. “This building will be a 50-to-100 year building that will have major construction as far as the total project here,” McGarity said, adding there will be a “tremendous amount of detail (toward the facility) due to its location.” It will not just be a football buidling: There will be a track, batting cages for baseball and softball, and other track.

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“All our programs in essence would be able to utilize this building for offseason conditioning,” McGarity said. “All of our sports will be impacted by this. I do think this will be a transformational facility for our entire program, once we finish this as soon as possible.” Once this football season ends, site condition planning will begin, which will include digging down 12 feet on the location of the future facility. McGarity estimated that proceed would take about 100 days, at which point they would proceed to the next part of the plan. “Certainly not taking any shortcuts because this building will be here a long, long time, and we want to make sure we get this right,” McGarity said.

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