This university has submitted a plan to repurpose Cole Field House, the home of the Terrapins basketball teams until 2002, into a $155 million indoor football practice facility.
The school will present the proposal, which also includes several other changes to the athletic facilities in the heart of the campus, to the University System of Maryland Finance Committee on Thursday, and if the plan is approved, the Board of Regents will vote on it Dec. 12.
“The indoor football practice facility and football training complex are critically needed to recruit and support the student‐athletes, and to be competitive in the Big Ten Conference,” the proposal states.
If this proposal passes, the building also will “house a campus‐wide innovation and entrepreneurship program, an indoor football practice facility, a football training complex, and a Center for Sports Medicine, Health and Human Performance,” according to school documents.
The proposed plan also would reconstruct much of the campus.
The outdoor practice football fields would be moved next to Cole and uproot the tennis courts located there. Academic buildings would be constructed in place of the current practice fields, and Ludwig Field would be renovated and turned into a 10,000-seat stadium as well.
The football team would move the rest of its facilities to Cole, and the rest of the athletic teams would move from the Varsity Team House into the Gossett Football Team House.
The project would take $25 million in state funds, $25 million in institutional funds and $105 million from private gifts, institutional funds and clinical revenues from the new facility.
The university previously explored a plan to build a similar facility on the existing football practice fields and Bob “Turtle” Smith Stadium but scrapped that alternative because of its cost, the proposal states. That plan would have cost $187 million.
If the Board of Regents approves the Cole renovation plan, construction is projected to begin in late 2015 and won’t be fully finished until June 2018. If the construction begins on schedule, it will coincide with other major renovations in that area of the campus, including the Purple Line, which will run through Campus Drive, and the proposed Academic Village, which will result in three new dorms and a dining hall on what is now Lot 1.
Terps football coach Randy Edsall has expressed his desire to have an indoor practice facility since the university announced in November 2012 its plan to move to the Big Ten. Meanwhile, former men’s basketball coach Gary Williams has supported publicly the idea of keeping Cole Field House relevant and involved within the athletic department.
Correction: Due to a reporting error, a previous version of the article stated the total cost of the plan was estimated at $187 million. That figure has been changed to $155 million.
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