How does our Football Practice Facilities rank now?

Donate To GopherHole
K

KillmeNow

Banned
Joined
Sep 18, 2015
Messages
1,448
Reaction score
106
Points
63
Since our new facilities have opened, how does our facilities rank compared to others in price and in size and in, I don't know, in the WOW Factor? I'm asking because I found a ranking from 2019, so I thought maybe UMn's new facility would make this Top 25 list, but they were not on it? And Oregon ranked #1, despite being 6 years old, only 145,000 sq ft with a 68 million dollar price tag. Now, is that still big? Ours is 338,000 sq ft and 166 mil, but ours is not exclusively fb only, I'm guessing? What percentage of the new facility is for the football program?
 


A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
The facility cold war is endless.

As far as I know we don't have a waterfall, lazy river, or even a mini golf course.

Let alone a room for TEs.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the important part is a willingness to invest in and update facilities. Someone will always have something bigger, nicer, more expensive, more impressive. Our old facility was woefully behind the times, the current one is where we need to be right now, not top of the line but still impressive and more than adequate for our needs. As time goes on hopefully the administration will continue to show a willingness to adapt and update the facilities accordingly.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Yeah, the important part is a willingness to invest in and update facilities. Someone will always have something bigger, nicer, more expensive, more impressive. Our old facility was woefully behind the times, the current one is where we need to be right now, not top of the line but still impressive and more than adequate for our needs. As time goes on hopefully the administration will continue to show a willingness to adapt and update the facilities accordingly.
Click to expand...
really wish they would have made more room on the sidelines for visitors and bleachers like when the spring game got moved indoors. Or for open practice it gets pretty crowded.
 

For me, it is not about these rankings - which always are mostly opinion based and often attributed to "lazy" rankings where the same schools get the benefit of the doubt by people that haven't visited all the facilities that they are ranking. There are very few people that have been through a lot of practice facilities. For me, it is instead focused on how obviously behind a facility might be. The old facility had become obviously behind the competing programs in the conference. It was not even close, by all accounts. The new one "fits" and can probably no longer be considered a potential deal breaker for a recruit.

I agree with what Flecknation wrote. It would have been nice to see the fieldhouse be constructed a little larger, with perhaps 2-4K seating so they could host a few high school games here and there. But, I supposed at that capacity you get into the needs for concessions, bathrooms, etc. and that starts to open pandora's box of stadium vs practice facility expenses.
 


Schnauzer said:
For me, it is not about these rankings - which always are mostly opinion based and often attributed to "lazy" rankings where the same schools get the benefit of the doubt by people that haven't visited all the facilities that they are ranking. There are very few people that have been through a lot of practice facilities. For me, it is instead focused on how obviously behind a facility might be. The old facility had become obviously behind the competing programs in the conference. It was not even close, by all accounts. The new one "fits" and can probably no longer be considered a potential deal breaker for a recruit.

I agree with what Flecknation wrote. It would have been nice to see the fieldhouse be constructed a little larger, with perhaps 2-4K seating so they could host a few high school games here and there. But, I supposed at that capacity you get into the needs for concessions, bathrooms, etc. and that starts to open pandora's box of stadium vs practice facility expenses.
Click to expand...

Would bet it was a combo of available space and a lack of desire to set the facility up to host events. It is a very rare occurrence when you need the ability to host large numbers of fans at a practice so I doubt that really factored into the planning of the space.

Might not be ideal for fans but I really doubt fan comfort was factored into the design of the facility since it wasn't designed with the idea of being a fan venue.
 

Schnauzer said:
For me, it is not about these rankings - which always are mostly opinion based and often attributed to "lazy" rankings where the same schools get the benefit of the doubt by people that haven't visited all the facilities that they are ranking. There are very few people that have been through a lot of practice facilities. For me, it is instead focused on how obviously behind a facility might be. The old facility had become obviously behind the competing programs in the conference. It was not even close, by all accounts. The new one "fits" and can probably no longer be considered a potential deal breaker for a recruit.

I agree with what Flecknation wrote. It would have been nice to see the fieldhouse be constructed a little larger, with perhaps 2-4K seating so they could host a few high school games here and there. But, I supposed at that capacity you get into the needs for concessions, bathrooms, etc. and that starts to open pandora's box of stadium vs practice facility expenses.
Click to expand...
Yeah I think you open that box and the flood of "would be nice" turns into an absolute mess.

Just "not doing that" makes what seems like would only cost X, avoid an X ... x100 cost. The sheer volume of bikeshedding type requests would be untenable.

The good thing is the facility looks really nice / is really nice and we're not crooting kids to come play while the ceiling leaks down on the coach...
 

hopefully in the next one in 50 years from now they will have larger sidelines the fact that they couldn't even fit a lift with a camera for the spring game just shows how small the sidelines are
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
The facility cold war is endless.

As far as I know we don't have a waterfall, lazy river, or even a mini golf course.

Let alone a room for TEs.
Click to expand...
Fleck uses MOA Nickelodeon Universe to counter those...
 




Maybe we could do a fund raiser for the TE room.
 

Flecknation said:
hopefully in the next one in 50 years from now they will have larger sidelines the fact that they couldn't even fit a lift with a camera for the spring game just shows how small the sidelines are
Click to expand...
Athletics prioritized height over sideline width. The clear height for punting/ kicking they have is pretty rare in the NCAA. As it is right now, it’s a fair amount more sideline width than Gibson-Nagurski had. They added a skyway between Football Performance Center and the indoor football field (which was cut prior in design due to cost) which is a lot more used and more bang for the buck than sideline width.

Adding bleachers was a non-starter from a code perspective. The assembly occupancy load that would have been used would have forced a lot of toilets and sinks that would never be used, as well as door/egress width requirements that were otherwise unnecessary.
 

forever a gopher said:
Athletics prioritized height over sideline width. The clear height for punting/ kicking they have is pretty rare in the NCAA. As it is right now, it’s a fair amount more sideline width than Gibson-Nagurski had. They added a skyway between Football Performance Center and the indoor football field (which was cut prior in design due to cost) which is a lot more used and more bang for the buck than sideline width.

Adding bleachers was a non-starter from a code perspective. The assembly occupancy load that would have been used would have forced a lot of toilets and sinks that would never be used, as well as door/egress width requirements that were otherwise unnecessary.
Click to expand...
That and just hospitality stuff like bathrooms, space to walk, etc.

Once you go to hosting actual events you're going to eat up a lot of space and etc.
 



A lot of good comments, but not one of my questions really got answered? ;)

I mean, I guess I can go look it all up myself, but was hoping someone else just knew or had already looked it up?
 

KillmeNow said:
Since our new facilities have opened, how does our facilities rank compared to others in price and in size and in, I don't know, in the WOW Factor? I'm asking because I found a ranking from 2019, so I thought maybe UMn's new facility would make this Top 25 list, but they were not on it? And Oregon ranked #1, despite being 6 years old, only 145,000 sq ft with a 68 million dollar price tag. Now, is that still big? Ours is 338,000 sq ft and 166 mil, but ours is not exclusively fb only, I'm guessing? What percentage of the new facility is for the football program?
Click to expand...
It should be how DO our facilities rank.
 


KillmeNow said:
A lot of good comments, but not one of my questions really got answered? ;)

I mean, I guess I can go look it all up myself, but was hoping someone else just knew or had already looked it up?
Click to expand...
It's a hard question to answer. As far as the area is concerned, the portions that are exclusively used by football are around 185,000sf. However, even that number doesn't tell the whole story as there are tutor spaces, leadership center, the dining hall, etc. that are open to all student athletes that isn't included in that number. Another school may have spaces like that that are exclusive to football, so their total sq.ft. number is bigger, but doesn't actually provide any additional programming or spaces that the U doesn't offer to football players.

As far as your other question- in my opinion regardless of size, Oregon is the nicest and it's not even close. As far as everybody else, I would put the Gophers up there with one of the nicest in the county. Sometimes you'll see some flashy images of a new locker room, weight room, etc., but often those are renovated spaces within a crummier overall building. Because the U let their facilities get so massively out of date, there was no renovating what they had to be nicer. The only way was to essentially start from scratch, which isn't overly common. Many other schools renovate or add on to their facilities, because they weren't so terrible to begin with, and had something to work with.
 

KillmeNow said:
A lot of good comments, but not one of my questions really got answered? ;)

I mean, I guess I can go look it all up myself, but was hoping someone else just knew or had already looked it up?
Click to expand...

How do you measure a facility ranking?
 


Tlsbhansen said:
Size? Or does that not matter?
Click to expand...
T7eX9a2.jpg
 

I think it will be awhile before Athlete's Village and the Gopher football practice facilities aren't considered among the best college athletic facilities in the country. The 2019 ranking Killme referenced can't possibly be accurate. No doubt it was put together by someone with ties to the SEC.


Philidelphia Eagles fawn over Gophers’ brand-new practice facility: ‘It’s state of the art’

Prepping for Super Bowl LII on Sunday night at U.S. Bank Stadium, the Philadelphia Eagles are conducting practices all week inside the brand-new practice facility on the University of Minnesota campus.

Eagles running back Corey Clement quickly realized the irony of him, a former Badgers star, practicing inside the new digs, which belong to the rival Gophers. “It’s really nice,” Clement said of the new practice facility. “We appreciate those guys allowing us to use it. They are fortunate to have something like that. They will definitely have fun in there.”

So far, the Eagles are having all the fun inside the recently completed structure; the Gophers have yet to use the facility.

“I heard they haven’t even used it yet,” Eagles guard Chance Warmack said. “I felt kind of bad. It’s awesome, man. It’s state of the art. They really did a good job.” Warmack isn’t easily impressed by facilities considering he spent his college career at the University of Alabama, home of some of the best facilities in the nation.

“Well, it’s a 100-yard indoor field, so that right there was pretty captivating for me,” Warmack said. “I haven’t seen that in awhile, especially in college. They are really taking care of those guys out there.”

Eagles cornerback Jalen Mills, who spent four years at LSU, said the facility can stand up to anyone’s. “It was dope,” Mills said. “That lighting in there is crazy because it’s like the sun is coming straight in. It was really impressive.”

https://www.twincities.com/2018/02/...d-new-practice-facility-its-state-of-the-art/
 
Last edited:

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
How do you measure a facility ranking?
Click to expand...
Tough question. Kind of like the top 3 state fairs in the country battling for number 1. Texas is the largest only because it has much camping/camper space. Does that make them the best as they are the largest? Or do you like at what is available as to displays, grandstand events, fun beer buildings, buildings for 4 H etc? I would think you would base it on what is best for the participants coming to the state fair to enjoy.

Likewise I would think we should look at what is best for our football players to develop to be the best they can be and not necessarily what space is inside the building for spectators etc. Size doesn't always matter when it comes to a building. Is it clean? Usable? Functional? and so on.

Yes we share with other sports. Not a bad thing in my opinion. We need each sport to do good. We have football recruits at basketball and hockey games. Likewise basketball recruits come to games as well. By having interaction, players know each other and creates a better environment to recruit in the end.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom