A renovated locker room has been on Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson’s wish list for at least four years and probably longer. It appeared like it was going to happen after the 2015 season, but it didn’t happen.
Now, though, athletic director Todd Stansbury has given a fairly confident evaluation of the project’s future.
“Right now, I’m in the process of raising the money, which I believe I’m going to be able to do fairly quickly,” Stansbury said last week after giving a presentation to boosters to the athletic department. “So my goal is that we would actually start construction after the season.”
Gregg Garrett, a major donor, called the state of the project “certainly the most serious and most concrete plans that I have seen. I’m very, very confident that it’s going to happen.”
Johnson has not been shy about stating his desire for a new locker room, which he has felt is necessary to keep up in the facilities race to attract recruits. Last August, he said that Tech was " way behind " other schools in the ACC in its facilities and staff.
Facilities such as locker rooms and weight rooms are a significant way that prospects compare schools, which is why Clemson has built a $55 million football operations facility that includes an HD theater, a barber shop, laser tag, a bowling alley, a slide and an outdoor area with fire pits, miniature golf and a beach volleyball court.
“When kids walk in, that’s their impression,” Johnson said in August. “They see facilities, it’s like, you guys know it’s an arms race. And if you’re not building, you’re falling farther and farther and farther behind.”
Stansbury said that the locker-room project would cost somewhere between $3 million and $5 million. It would most likely be paid for up front, so as not to add to the athletic department’s significant debt burden.
Garrett said that the plans are for a “state of the art” locker room that would rival the best in the country.
“It’s extremely needed and a strategic thing for the football program and the athletic association in general,” he said. “It’s long overdue.”
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