Building a bigger, better future
For anyone who saw Cincinatti Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer running on an underwater treadmill on the cover of the May 29, 2006, Sports Illustrated magazine and thought that looked kind of cool, the technology is coming to USU.
A pool 8 feet deep with an adjustable treadmill that can accommodate a 7-foot center or a 5-foot gymnast and an underwater camera is just one feature of the new sports medicine facility under construction in the north end zone of Romney Stadium. The 10,000-square-foot sports medicine unit is just one aspect of the sprawling re-imagination of the north end zone which USU Athletic Director Colonel Randy Spetman is overseeing.
Construction is proceeding on what will be a centerpiece for USU Athletics by this time next near.
“I think it is key to the success of our sports programs,” Spetman said.
There is a misconception that because the new facility is in the football stadium, it is a football facility, but Spetman explained that this project, an important part of the vision he has for USU Athletics, is “more than just a football complex. It is for all 16 sports. The equipment room is for all 16 sports. The sports medicine and the student academic center is for all of our sports.”
USU currently has some of the worst sports medicine amenities in the nation. The new sports medicine complex in the north end zone will be approximately the same size by itself as the entire old north end zone building. The sports medicine infrastructure, currently housed in six different locations, will be consolidated in one location. Fourteen graduate assistants in the sports medicine program are currently working out of a single office which could scarcely pass for a broom closet in the massive new structure.
“Parents are concerned about the health of their student-athletes,” Spetman said.
Taping tables and massage tables are arranged in a spacious central gallery. Two of the underwater treadmills, another pool chilled to 54 degrees and $80,000 of fitness equipment donated by Intermountain Health Care are some more features of a sports medicine wing that Spetman calls “state-of-the-art.”
The ground floor of the new complex represents a huge upgrade for USU Athletics in and of itself.
Spetman said with USU having found a home in the Western Athletic Conference, the north end zone project is “necessary in order to be competitive with what they’ve done across the nation.”
Visitors will enter the facility by walking through a plaza replete with benches, shade trees and pillars similar to the ones in the south entrance to the stadium. Ten small pillars can be purchased and dedicated for a donation of $25,000; $100,000 will buy one of the large pillars.
Inside, an Aggie hall of fame will duplicate, not replace, what is already found in the Spectrum. Spetman said the new hall of fame will house Aggie memorabilia, which is currently gathering dust in a closet.
Adjacent to the sports medicine department will be a new equipment storage annex. This will also represent a consolidation of supplies which are currently housed in six different locations. Facilities workers will have improved access to inventory, thanks to a donation of sliding shelves valued at $65,000. A secure room will hold high-value items like film equipment.
One of the features of the new facility Spetman said he is most excited about is the laundry room. Three 65-pound washers and one 30-pounder have a turbo-charged spin cycle that goes to 300 G-forces. A bank of steel tubes has been installed and awaits only delivery of industrial-size clothes dryers.
From the dryer, clean uniforms will make a short trip to the football locker room, an open space with 120 wooden lockers. The other locker room will have dual functions, Spetman said: for five home football games a year, the visiting team will use it. For the rest of the year, the locker room will be home to women’s sports teams which are currently using the locker rooms in the HPER building.
“We’re going to have locker rooms for women’s programs that we haven’t had before,” Spetman said.
The metal lockers, which cost $80,000, were donated by Bill Dutro. The lockers are partitioned with locking bottom halves so the soccer, softball and track athletes will be able to store valuables in their locker room.
Construction on the top two floors is proceeding in stages as Spetman continues to raise money. Spetman said his fundraising efforts are going well.
“We just received another $1.5 million last week, so that will get the second floor and part of the third floor done. I need to raise another million to finish the third floor off,” Spetman said.
The ground floor facilities will be operational by Aug. 30, when UNLV comes to Romney Stadium for the opening football game of the 2007 season.
“The second and third floor will have the entire shell surfaced, so it’ll look like it’s done until you walk inside,” Spetman said.
Currently the only access to the upper portion of the building is via a rickety stepladder. Climbing up to the second level reveals the shell of what will, by this time next year, house coaches’ offices, meeting rooms for different positions to study film in, and a 120-seat auditorium.
The view of the stadium from this second level is spectacular. It’s a small wonder then that Spetman has plans to lease the rooms facing the field on both the second and third floors for parties to watch football games in. In this way the north end zone will actually generate revenue for USU Athletics once it is complete.
In another cost-cutting move, the glass wall that spectators will see the game through was salvaged from the downtown Salt Lake City ZCMI-Crossroads Mall redevelopment project by Spetman at a savings of $20,000. The three-story glass wall will also trap sound in the stadium, making the stadium a more acoustically advantageous home field to play on.
The mechanical vitals of the north end zone facility will be tucked away on the third floor along with study rooms, academic staff offices and an open study hall. The student-athlete academic center renews the commitment to academics articulated in the USU Athletics Mission Statement: “USU places the highest priority on the academic progress of student-athletes and provides support systems to assist them in completing their degrees.”
The final addition to the north end zone is a new scoreboard. Spetman said the $565,000 the university paid for the new, 14-feet-high, 48-feet-wide scoreboard is comparable to what it paid out for the last scoreboard 10 years ago, and that scoreboard did not have the capabilities of the new one. The WAC is a conference that sanctions the use of instant replay by officials, and now USU has a scoreboard that is instant-replay capable. Furthermore, the screen can be split to show video on half and statistics on the other half. Not only will the project improve the circumstances of student-athletes already at USU immeasurably, but it will be a valuable showpiece for Athletics and will help sell prospects on USU.
“This is the first major renovation of this type the Athletics Department has done for 40 years, so this will really be instrumental in encouraging young people to come here,” Spetman said.
-graham@cc.usu.edu