Of indoor practice facilities and rising ticket prices

Anyone that has read this site for a long time knows that I am completely and totally opposed to building an indoor practice facility for football. My biggest reasons are:

1. We don't play indoors. So why would we practice there.

2. Results indicate that we clearly do not need it for recruiting.

3. The weather simply isn't that bad here. Studies have shown that we'd used it less than 6 times per year.

4. Getting soft practicing in unrealistic conditions.

5. Other athletic department needs vs. the costs discussed. "Mark Richt wants one" is not a good business reason to build one.

In spite of all of that I'm not opposed to staying ahead of the broader curve when it comes to meeting space, locker rooms, weight rooms training areas, etc for our coaches and players.

Therefore, I think the new proposed $25 million expansion of the Butts-Mehre building is a reasonable investment when taken in the broader context of the Facilities Arm Race gone mad college athletics environment. The AJC describes the expansion:

Plans call for the back, or north, side of the Butts-Mehre building to be built out into a nearly 44,000 square foot expansion that would extend the training room and strength and conditioning areas, and house a 10,800 square-foot multipurpose area. Phase Two would include the construction of football offices, lobbies and display areas on the second floor.

The multipurpose area will feature a floor of synthetic grass over which a hard floor could be placed through automation. It will include a full kitchen to host events, team meals and recruiting engagements.

The facility will provide enough room for the football team to run some drills or conduct walk-through practices. However, both Adams and Evans emphasized that the Butts-Mehre expansion does not take the place of Richt's continued requests for an indoor practice facility.

So it's not a full bore practice facility, but it'll meet some of those practical needs. The investment reminds me of the Basketball Practice facility investment. Having toured that facility, I can tell you that it's much less about having two gyms for the hoops programs to practice in. It's more about the locker rooms, training spaces and offices that present the program in a first class manner.

The new Butts-Mehre expansion builds on our legacy investments in those areas for football, and it addresses some immediate practical needs. It also allows for a much more functional and less expensive practice facility to be built in the future.

As far as timing...they are going to have a dedicated fund raising effort for this building. In other words, construction won't start for at least two years. If I'm Damon Evans, I start with the NFL lettermen on this one.

Lastly, the ticket price increase made total sense to me. To quote someone on a message board. If we're getting 90th percentile results on 50 percentile ticket prices, that's a hell of a deal. Agreed.

PWD

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