Guys, I've got tons of info on where VT is with all of its athletic facility projects. At today's Blacksburg Sports Club meeting, associate AD Tom Gabbard, who oversees facilities, gave a breakdown of everything. Here's all the notes:
*The football indoor facility is probably what everyone is most interested in. Gabbard said the building was designed by HKS and William M Jordan.
**The windows will all be reflective glass. That will keep the heat down, let in more natural light and also create a glow at night. The wrought iron fence surrounding the building will mirror that around Lane Stadium. There will be a coaching deck on the second floor, that looks both inside and outside. There will be hokie stone surrounding the building ad natural lighting lining the building.
***Gabbard said the building will be 400 feet long, 210 feet wide and 85 feet high. Beamer wanted the building to be tall enough to punt. UVA's facility, by the way, is only 65 feet tall.
****One cool aspect is that there will be six remote control video cameras placed around the facility. They will also be wired to the video studio, so that practice could in theory be aired live and that film can be edited and cut at the same time. It should be a HUGE time saver.
*****Since the facility will take up half of the current room for practice, there will be the option of having one full-length field or having two, one that will be 75 yards long and another that will be 65.
******The west wall of the facility will have eight columns and they'll each have one of the words for BLLUSSHD, which is also on the VT memorial. One word from each will go on the bottom of each column.
*******As far as a timeline, construction starts next week. The building should be completed by the time of fall camp in August of next year. The renovation of Rector Field House will begin once the indoor facility is completed.
********Gabbard spent quite a bit of time talking about the Hahn Hurst Practice facility for the basketball teams. He said all the offices and amenities are the same for both the men's and women's basketball teams. The only difference is that women's coach Dennis Wolff's office is six inches bigger.
*********In the past year and a half, all of the locker rooms for all olympic sports have been renovated. One of the things VT has done is put a lounge in or adjacent to all locker rooms. The football locker room is also plush, as I'm sure you guys could see even from the Harlem Shake video. Funny story with that. Gabbard said when they consulted coach Frank Beamer, he said, "Who has the biggest lockers?" Gabbard told him, Texas' lockers are 40 inches wide. Beamer told him, "Well, make ours 42." And so VT did.
**********Cassell Coliseum will also get some work done. Gabbard wants to redo the concourse again, as far as the outside walls and carpeting on the concourse level. The back wall to the Bowman Room has been redone, but Gabbard also wants the Hall of Fame part redone. He also wants to build an entrance lobby, so when the doors are opened outside sections 6 and 8, there's not such a cold draft coming in. The handicap section on the floor has been overcrowded, so three or four sections will be added on the concourse.
***********This season, Cassell will be getting a new sound system, though it probably won't be ready until January. Right now, the hold up has been that there's a study being done for how much weight Cassell Coliseum can support. The answers from that will be coming in next week, and the groundwork will be done after that.
************Gabbard also wants to take the crows nest in Cassell down. He wants to build a lounge and elevators going up to it, but this is only in the planning stage right now.
*************There's more work that will be done on the softball field as well. Apparently, coach Scott Thomas loves Florida State's stadium. There's a second floor pavilion that VT will be building that's similar. It will be available for football tailgates and will have two hitting lanes, two pitching lanes and a hitting lane.
**************For other sports, there will be new space for soccer and lacrosse lockers. For tennis, VT will be expanding the current facility, to add private locker rooms and lounge. The baseball press box will also be expanded to add restrooms.
***************Also, Gabbard talked about some of the stuff around campus. The entrance from 460 will change in a few years, as will Perimeter Road. The airport will be expanding in the next few years, meaning the runway will expand and that will shut down the road. There's three entities involved, the FAA, the airport and another entity I can't remember. But when it's done, 30-passenger jets will be able to land and take off, meaning that the basketball team and smaller teams can charter out of Blacksburg instead of Roanoke.
More info coming when available, but as always, what's posted here, STAYS HERE or it will result in the termination of your subscription per our terms and conditions.
This post was edited on 2/12 12:11 PM by Jason Stamm
*The football indoor facility is probably what everyone is most interested in. Gabbard said the building was designed by HKS and William M Jordan.
**The windows will all be reflective glass. That will keep the heat down, let in more natural light and also create a glow at night. The wrought iron fence surrounding the building will mirror that around Lane Stadium. There will be a coaching deck on the second floor, that looks both inside and outside. There will be hokie stone surrounding the building ad natural lighting lining the building.
***Gabbard said the building will be 400 feet long, 210 feet wide and 85 feet high. Beamer wanted the building to be tall enough to punt. UVA's facility, by the way, is only 65 feet tall.
****One cool aspect is that there will be six remote control video cameras placed around the facility. They will also be wired to the video studio, so that practice could in theory be aired live and that film can be edited and cut at the same time. It should be a HUGE time saver.
*****Since the facility will take up half of the current room for practice, there will be the option of having one full-length field or having two, one that will be 75 yards long and another that will be 65.
******The west wall of the facility will have eight columns and they'll each have one of the words for BLLUSSHD, which is also on the VT memorial. One word from each will go on the bottom of each column.
*******As far as a timeline, construction starts next week. The building should be completed by the time of fall camp in August of next year. The renovation of Rector Field House will begin once the indoor facility is completed.
********Gabbard spent quite a bit of time talking about the Hahn Hurst Practice facility for the basketball teams. He said all the offices and amenities are the same for both the men's and women's basketball teams. The only difference is that women's coach Dennis Wolff's office is six inches bigger.
*********In the past year and a half, all of the locker rooms for all olympic sports have been renovated. One of the things VT has done is put a lounge in or adjacent to all locker rooms. The football locker room is also plush, as I'm sure you guys could see even from the Harlem Shake video. Funny story with that. Gabbard said when they consulted coach Frank Beamer, he said, "Who has the biggest lockers?" Gabbard told him, Texas' lockers are 40 inches wide. Beamer told him, "Well, make ours 42." And so VT did.
**********Cassell Coliseum will also get some work done. Gabbard wants to redo the concourse again, as far as the outside walls and carpeting on the concourse level. The back wall to the Bowman Room has been redone, but Gabbard also wants the Hall of Fame part redone. He also wants to build an entrance lobby, so when the doors are opened outside sections 6 and 8, there's not such a cold draft coming in. The handicap section on the floor has been overcrowded, so three or four sections will be added on the concourse.
***********This season, Cassell will be getting a new sound system, though it probably won't be ready until January. Right now, the hold up has been that there's a study being done for how much weight Cassell Coliseum can support. The answers from that will be coming in next week, and the groundwork will be done after that.
************Gabbard also wants to take the crows nest in Cassell down. He wants to build a lounge and elevators going up to it, but this is only in the planning stage right now.
*************There's more work that will be done on the softball field as well. Apparently, coach Scott Thomas loves Florida State's stadium. There's a second floor pavilion that VT will be building that's similar. It will be available for football tailgates and will have two hitting lanes, two pitching lanes and a hitting lane.
**************For other sports, there will be new space for soccer and lacrosse lockers. For tennis, VT will be expanding the current facility, to add private locker rooms and lounge. The baseball press box will also be expanded to add restrooms.
***************Also, Gabbard talked about some of the stuff around campus. The entrance from 460 will change in a few years, as will Perimeter Road. The airport will be expanding in the next few years, meaning the runway will expand and that will shut down the road. There's three entities involved, the FAA, the airport and another entity I can't remember. But when it's done, 30-passenger jets will be able to land and take off, meaning that the basketball team and smaller teams can charter out of Blacksburg instead of Roanoke.
More info coming when available, but as always, what's posted here, STAYS HERE or it will result in the termination of your subscription per our terms and conditions.
This post was edited on 2/12 12:11 PM by Jason Stamm
