Photo courtesy of HOK
Already in the midst of nearly $200 million worth of ongoing construction projects, the Bulldogs are poised to add more.
Money has been pouring into the University of Georgia's Athletic Association coffers for some time, and it is pouring out as well.
The association's board of directors, at its winter meeting Jan. 31 at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education in Athens, received a facilities and development report that could make a billionaire blush.
Already in the midst of nearly $200 million worth of ongoing construction projects, the Bulldogs are poised to add more, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
The menu of new projects follows the new $80 million football operations building that was added to the Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall complex just a few years ago.
Construction on a new outdoor track-and-field facility is set to start this summer at a location off South Milledge Avenue. Fundraising for the effort is well under way, according to UGA Athletic Director Josh Brooks, but he will not reveal how much has been raised or what the total cost of the project will be.
However, it is not expected to be cheap, as tons of groundwork will need to be done to level out the area on university land where the track will be built.
"This is a project I'm very passionate about," said Brooks, who was the track-and-field sport administrator before he became the UGA's athletic director. "This isn't going to be the Oregon track, although I'd love to build the Oregon track, but this is going to be an extremely functional track facility that can support [Southeastern Conference] and regional track meets as well as day-to-day practice needs."
Eventually, a funding request will be submitted to the athletic board, presumably before the end-of-year meeting in late May at the Ritz-Carlton Lodge on Lake Oconee.
The outdoor track will be Phase I of what is hoped to be a two-phase project that also will introduce an adjacent indoor track-and-field facility on land to the north that has already been acquired for that purpose.
The hope is that the Bulldogs will be able to host regional and national track competitions, something its current facilities cannot accommodate. Those facilities were promised to men's and women's track Coach Caryl Smith Gilbert when she came to Georgia from the University of Southern California in the summer of 2021.
A new track also means that the school's Spec Towns Track, which has been at its current location parallel to Lumpkin Street since 1964, will be demolished. In its place, Kirby Smart, UGA's head football coach, is expected to get the two additional practice fields he has long coveted for his program.
The Bulldogs have been limited to a pair of outdoor fields — one is only 80 yards long — since the new 100-yd., artificial turf field inside the Payne Indoor Facility football facility was completed in 2021.
Several Sports to Benefit From New Construction
The Journal-Constitution noted that the Georgia athletics department currently has at least $178.7 million worth of construction projects actively under way on campus.
The Bulldogs are well into Phase 2 of the $68.5 million Sanford Stadium improvement project. After expanding the football stadium's south-side concourses and adding a plaza and hundreds of restroom facilities, the university is converting the Dan Magill Press Box into a premium-seating space for donors as well as adding a tower in the southwest corner that will accommodate media and add limited auxiliary seating areas.
Other ongoing UGA athletics projects include:
- Wrapping up work on Phase I of a two-part, $45 million construction of the school's baseball stadium, dubbed the "Foley Field Enabling Project."
- The Jack Turner softball complex, which is in the midst of getting a $38.5 addition.
- The soon-to-be-completed $26.7 million effort to add a new six-court, indoor tennis facility at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex.
- Renovating the interior of a portion of Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall and converting it into what will be known as the Circle of Champions rotunda. That construction budget was set at $2 million.
In addition, Georgia also has spent at least $4 million on its recent refurbishment of Stegeman Coliseum, home to UGA's basketball and gymnastic squads.
That work, however, was just "Phase 1-A" of the "Stegeman Coliseum Master Plan and Renovation," according to the Atlanta news source. Office spaces within the arena are being renovated for the first time since 2007, repairs were made to the ceiling, the entire interior was painted black, a new weight room and training room has been built, and plans call for a giant scoreboard to eventually be added.
Since the building is owned by the university and shared with the Bulldogs athletic department, some of the costs are being shared.
"We want to put an emphasis on improving things that directly impact our student-athletes' lives," Brooks told the newspaper.
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