Georgia Football: After a 17-Year Hibernation, UGA Indoor Practice Facility Roars
Seventeen years ago plans for the Georgia football indoor practice facility were created and shelved. It’s back – all the way back.
"The Athletic Association will complete an Indoor Practice Facility behind Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall, which will enable football, track and other outdoor sports to practice year-round in a climate-controlled facility. Architectural drawings and schematics are being drawn up now and we have begun securing the necessary funds to begin this project. – Report to Georgia athletic donors, 1999 as reported by Chip Towers of the AJC.com"
Report to Georgia athletic donors, 1999.
If patience is a virtue, Mark Richt is truly a saint.
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As Dawn of the Dawg discussed, Mark Richt could already have an indoor practice facility, but he wanted it to not only be done right, but done in the right place. It’s been 17 years but he, Georgia football and the Bulldog Nation are getting it just the way Richt wants it and right where he wants it.
Receiving the Indoor Athletic Facility moniker since the baseball and track teams will also use the facility, Georgia Athletic Director Greg McGarity told the Athletic Board this week the facility will in all likelihood adjoin the current football facility and extend alongside Rutherford Drive to the far end of the current grass practice fields, much as proposed in 1999.
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“We’re expecting to have a construction management team in place by mid-July,” McGarity said according to Fletcher Page of onlineathens.com. “Once the group has been identified and on board it will take them about six weeks to gather information to be able to give us a cost projection. Now that the site has been identified we would hope to have some cost projections by August 1.”
After lying dormant for 16 years, discussions began and the IAF project soon resembled a Mack truck rolling down Baxter Street. What happened to start this 16-year-old eighteen wheeler and send it careening toward Sanford Stadium? University of Georgia President Jere Morehead happened. There was no enthusiasm for building an IAF until Georgia’s new President took the helm. But President Morehead understands the value to the University of a high athletic profile, and at Georgia F –O – O – T – B – A – L – L spells high athletic profile.