When the University of Oregon unveiled the new stunning Football training centre, the first question many people asked was: “how much did it cost?” Surprisingly, it’s less than half of what another PAC-12 conference university has spent on a training centre. Even though it’s among the top 10 most expensive training centres. Nowadays, the question is not if universities spend money on training facilities, but how much.
10. Fred W. Smith Football Centre of the University of Arkansas – $ 40 miljoen
The new football centre of Arkansas, which was expanded in 2012, is an appreciated part of the university’s sports complex. The expansion includes two new practice fields and a new parking deck, which makes the training centre a total of 80,000 square meters. In addition, the football centre has a spacious dressing room, team meeting rooms, training room, Student-Athlete lounge, study rooms, offices for the coaches, a recruitment room and Football tributes from the Razorbacks.
9. Anderson Training Centre of the University of Tennessee – $ 45 miljoen
The training centre includes a giant weight room (over 1800 square meters), a dressing room full or HD televisions with specially designed seats and a wellness centre. Located in the wellness centre are excellent and award-winning rehabilitation doctors. A Sport-themed Grill restaurant is a few steps away. This restaurant offers breakfast, lunch and dinner. All these facilities ensure that the Student-Athletes don’t have to leave the training centre on a training day.
8. UCLA’s Wasserman Football Center – $ 50 miljoen
The university enabled the ZGF architectural firm, which also designed the Oregon football centre (number 4), to build this palace to ensure that it has a futuristic appearance. The football centre opened in 2017. For the first time, their strength training facility borders the playingfield. Student-Athletes have their own lounge and meeting rooms. The offices of the coaches have also been upgraded, close to each other and next to the facilities of the players.
7. Athletic and Events centre of the Ithaca College – $ 65,5 miljoen
Similar to the price of a single Gulfstream G650 jet, Ithaca College opened the Athletics and Events Centre in New York in 2011. Highlights include a 130,000-square-meter sports hall, a swimming pool with an Olympic-sized pool, and a stadium with a field that lights up for when you can’t sleep at 3 o’clock at night and feel like you want to exercise . The sports hall has a 200-meter running track, throw- and jump zones. The hall also serves as a practice facility for lacrosse, hockey, soccer, baseball, tennis, golf, softball and football. As icing on the cake, the passage between the sports hall and the swimming pool has an impressive Hall of Fame.
6. The Woody Hayes Athletic Centre of the Ohio State University – $ 66,5 miljoen
The Woody Hayes Athletic Centre has recently undergone a $ 19.5 million renovation. The Football centre received the most focus. For example, the Ohio State football centre provides itself with a brand new FieldTurf on the indoor practice field, new changing rooms for players (with charging docks for their smartphones and other devices) and a video system for coaches and players to view training sessions. This indoor football field is not only used for football but also for all other sports that the university offers.
5. University of Iowa’s campus recreation- and wellness centre – $ 69 miljoen
Swimmers and divers at the University of Iowa are very lucky these days. The recreation and wellness centre of the school has a competition pool, diving pool, climbing wall, running track, two basketball /volleyball courts, three floors of fitness equipment and its own café. As extra, the Student Athletes have the opportunity to use the recreation and wellness centre (with massage therapy). The wellness centre is opened for all students, because it wouldn’t be fair to give only 20 people access to the needed relaxation.
4. Hatfield-Dowlin Complex of the university of Oregon – $ 69 miljoen
A gift from Nike chairman Phil Knight and his wife, the insane 145,000 square meter Hatfield-Dowlin complex designed by architectural firm ZGF, belongs to one of the top 10 most expensive training centres. This complex is intended for the football team and offers everything a footballer could ever wish for: weighing room, sauna, 170 seats in a cinema and last but not least, a hairdresser. All together added up for about the same amount that an NHL team can spend during a full roster.
3. John McKay Centre of USC – $ 70 miljoen
USC usually devotes this training facility of more than 10,000 square meters to football (it has an entire dressing room for the football team and an underground practice field). It also includes a tutoring area for Student-Athletes. There is a centre for digital media production and a video card that is capable of displaying content for six large TV screens.
2. Richard E. Lindner Sport Complex of the University of Cincinnati – $ 105 miljoen
Varsity Village in Cincinnati houses all the athletic facilities of the Bearcats, including the football, basketball and baseball stadiums. Most important is the Lindner Centre, designed by well-known architect Bernard Tschumi. This building looks like a spaceship that has taken the wrong turn. The “spaceship” contains changing rooms, offices, hydrotherapy baths and meeting rooms for each of the sports team.
1. University of Colorado Sport Complex – $156 Million
The list of the top 10 most expensive training centres is completed by the sports complex of the University of Colorado. It was the largest college sports project ever built by the office of lead contractor Mortenson Construction in Denver. On May 12, the University of Colorado unveiled the massive expansion of its athletic training facilities. The facility has a 120,000 square meter practice facility with an indoor football field and a 300-meter court. It also has a renovated water sports centre with new changing rooms, an Olympic gym for strength training and a dressing room for football that is two and a half times the size of the previous one. 3 more impressive facts about the complex:
- 604 solar panels
- 30 meters height at the indoor exercise facility
- 5 swimming pools (hot, cold, treadmill and two recovery pools)
The amazing Colorado Buffaloes Athletic Facilities:
