Drawing from georgiadogs.com Paul has made it clear that the Georgia Sports Blog has good reason to oppose an indoor practice facility for the football team. The issue has come up once again after Mark Richt's mild, frustrated outburst over the rain and lightning that canceled Friday's practice and was followed by an unsolicited apology. This again inspired some Georgia folk to cry out for an indoor practice facility.
Despite this renewed demand, the case against an indoor practice facility remains strong. We still recruit well without one, we still have over $100 million in long term debt for recent facilities improvements, we just built some of the best dorms in the country for our players, and we still compete at a high level nationally. Plus, the team we can't seem to beat, Florida, is the only other team in the conference who also lacks a place to hide from the elements. It doesn't seem to have effected their performance over the past decade or so.
Despite Richt's comments, the athletic department doesn't think an indoor facility is necessary even if we had the money laying around. The Investing in Champions fundraising kick that Damon Evans is currently on doesn't allocate any of its $60 million goal to an indoor facility. Improvements to Sanford Stadium, the Rankin Smith Academic Center, Butts-Mehre upgrades, and the Dan Magill Tennis Center all got a chunk of the new money, but not an indoor practice facility. I bet that Damon at least ran those priorities by Coach Richt, UGA's most important coach, when they set goals for this fundraising campaign. My guess is that Richt saw more pressing needs elsewhere. Plus, we had far more in unallocated revenue in 2005 than the total cost of an indoor practice facility. My point is that if we had a glaring need for an indoor practice facility, we would have one by now. Evidently, Evans and Richt feel that the money is better spent helping other programs and improving other football facilities.
I say relax. It would be nice to have a state of the art practice facility to make sure our players don't miss one rep, but it is far from essential. It will not cost us our coach and it is unlikely to cost us more than a few inconveniences during the season.
Despite this renewed demand, the case against an indoor practice facility remains strong. We still recruit well without one, we still have over $100 million in long term debt for recent facilities improvements, we just built some of the best dorms in the country for our players, and we still compete at a high level nationally. Plus, the team we can't seem to beat, Florida, is the only other team in the conference who also lacks a place to hide from the elements. It doesn't seem to have effected their performance over the past decade or so.
Despite Richt's comments, the athletic department doesn't think an indoor facility is necessary even if we had the money laying around. The Investing in Champions fundraising kick that Damon Evans is currently on doesn't allocate any of its $60 million goal to an indoor facility. Improvements to Sanford Stadium, the Rankin Smith Academic Center, Butts-Mehre upgrades, and the Dan Magill Tennis Center all got a chunk of the new money, but not an indoor practice facility. I bet that Damon at least ran those priorities by Coach Richt, UGA's most important coach, when they set goals for this fundraising campaign. My guess is that Richt saw more pressing needs elsewhere. Plus, we had far more in unallocated revenue in 2005 than the total cost of an indoor practice facility. My point is that if we had a glaring need for an indoor practice facility, we would have one by now. Evidently, Evans and Richt feel that the money is better spent helping other programs and improving other football facilities.
I say relax. It would be nice to have a state of the art practice facility to make sure our players don't miss one rep, but it is far from essential. It will not cost us our coach and it is unlikely to cost us more than a few inconveniences during the season.
