An indoor practice facility for the Georgia football team will cost “in the ballpark of $30 million,” UGA Athletic Director Greg McGarity said Tuesday.
Despite the hefty price, McGarity said the UGA Athletic Association is “moving very quickly, as quickly as possible” toward building the facility.
A firm decision hasn’t been made on a timetable or site, but UGA is focused on a location off Lumpkin Street, near the football team’s outdoor practice fields and Stegeman Coliseum. The project “potentially” could mean that a university building would be torn down and a portion of the football team’s outdoor fields lost, McGarity said.
The indoor practice facility would be roughly 80 yards wide, 140 yards long and 65 feet high.
At $30 million, it would cost twice as much as the reported price for an indoor practice facility at the University of Florida, currently under construction. It would be paid for from Athletic Association funds and private donations.
“We have one chance to get it right, and we do not want to compromise,” McGarity said. “This building will be here forever. … We want to get everything we want in this building.”
McGarity made his comments to reporters after the UGA Athletic Association’s board of directors was briefed on the project in executive session — closed to the public and media — at Tuesday’s quarterly meeting. UGA president Jere Morehead, who serves as chairman of the Athletic Association board, cited discussion of a “real estate transaction” as the grounds for going into executive session.
Please see Wednesday's Atlanta Journal-Constitution or MyAJC.com for more on this story.
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