re: It's a little early for the offseason threads, but what the heck...Facilities upgrades

It's missing 2012 and 2015 in the pic below, but the University of Alabama is planning on adding 2017 to the ring behind the Nick Saban statue in Champions Plaza:

Costs less than expected as they were able to save the 2, 0, and 1 from last year.

Georgia (Football)

Construction began last month on a $63 million project to renovate the west endzone, including the following features:

- Recruiting Room with a balcony that overlooks the Dawg Walk

- Brand new UGA locker rooms, currently in the east endzone

- Endzone seats will connect to the bridge, including a new plaza area and entrances into the stadium from atop the bridge

- Larger scoreboard

Current/Old







New

Yep. It's not just athletic facilities though. I'm lucky enough that I should be able to get out of college without taking on debt, but a ton of my friends are taking on massive amounts of debt. Then I see all these new buildings popping up both at UA and when I visit other campuses. It's ridiculous.

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It so completely depresses the hell out of me to see MSU and friggin Kentucky build these beautiful baseball stadiums while we are heading into year 5 of Stricklin's 4 year losing streak in a stadium that would look haphazard and unfinished by high school standards.

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I've always thought UGA athletics deserved better facilities than what your AD seems content to settle for.

I have to think that the current arms race being what it is, especially in baseball, UGA will have to respond.

Or else face having the worst park in the conference, save for the Tennessee schools.

GL.

So, looks like TennUHsee and UF will be behind again before they even finish their new renos. Where is Missouri?

We're also putting a video board the same size above the other end zone.

Vanderbilt

Possible new football stadium

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“Even before I took over (as AD in 2003), people were saying, ‘Stadium, stadium, stadium’ because everybody was building stadiums,” Williams said.

Williams said he wants to build a new stadium in the next three or four years, but that depends on the speed of fundraising.

Paying a premium price could get the facility built during one offseason, but the likely scenario would require Vanderbilt to play one season at another home field — probably the Titans’ Nissan Stadium.

A new stadium probably would cost between $60 million and $90 million, or perhaps more depending on amenities and several other factors, Williams said. He wants a new stadium to be better but not necessarily bigger.

Vanderbilt Stadium has a capacity of 40,550, and a new facility would have a similar amount of seating. In the previous five seasons (2011-15), the Commodores averaged 34,526 in attendance at home games.

In 2014, Vanderbilt completed a $31 million multipurpose indoor practice facility, funded by a combination of philanthropy and university investment, according to the school’s athletics website.

Williams said a new stadium would be paid through several sources, including donations, ticket revenue, luxury suite sales and perhaps corporate naming rights.

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Tennessean

I'm legit a little jelly of TAMU's new outdoor track. Ours is nice, but that looks better than ours.