“The indoor practice facility is used for I think the best case scenario is when you have lightning. We do have an area where we can go and as we know it’s a summer, early fall instance here. So we have a place to go, but we can go right back out on those two full practice fields of turf and not miss a beat. If we didn’t have those fields down there, yes, I can see where practicing on the grass, you would tear grass up, but in the last three years, yeah, we’ve had some days where you can go inside, but those you can count them on two hands. That’s an investment that’s probably in the neighborhood of 20 million dollars. I’m not so sure that’s something is a wise expense at this time. It’s something that was not a priority several years ago and it’s really not a priority right now.”
I’ve never been convinced an indoor facility is as big a deal as some make it out to be. Florida doesn’t have one either, and the Gators don’t seem to have been worse off for the experience. But I get why Richt and Murray would like one. It’s just that the topic has been beaten to death and nobody’s rushing to tap the precious… er, capital reserve funds. Not gonna happen.
In related news, water is still wet.
Get The Picture 
and the sky is blue, the grass green…
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We have three practice fields now. Putting a IPF facing Lumpkin seems pretty straight forward. I have no idea how much practice time the team loses to thunderstorms, rain, etc but putting it any distance from the current fields seems counter productive and not what CMR wants. It would offer another arrow in our quiver per recruiting to have one. If FSU can build a 100,000 square foot facility with donor money for 13 million I imagine we could too.
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[“We’ve been offered the opportunity to have it over by soccer/softball in years past and I’ve not really been interested in that,” Richt said]
Don’t see them taking over one of the practice fields or Spec Towns. So the only place to have it near the practice fields would be in one of the existing parking lots next to the Steg – or Foley Field. Moving Foley Field would escalate the price well north of the $20M estimate …
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They just spent $ on the Foley Field upfit. I agree I don’t see them moving it. Right now we have three practice fields. If they cover the practice field facing Lumpkin we will still have three practice fields within walking distance of each other…… one will be an IPF. Whether the artificial turf is covered or not we still have three fields to practice on. The way UGa is proceeding per construction is to tear something down to build new. I agree some of the old dorms needed to go. I hate to think of Legion pool as gone. Maybe the old gym and pool needed to go to make room for the book store. I played a lot of Bball and racquetball there. Saw BB King there too!
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Ultimately, great organizations opt to do things simply because their competitors chose to do it. I have no idea if McGarity is right or wrong, but interestingly enough in his mailbag this week Stewart Mandel wrote up how formulaic schools are about their facilities. No doubt there is a “minimum” threshold that every program needs to invest in facilities to run the program, but I simply can’t believe that xboxes, ipads, indoor practice facilities, and great locker rooms are going to draw prospects to UGA. I am not saying that our recruiting or program can’t stand for improvement. Great orgainizations are always looking to improve. (there was an interesting article about the St. Louis Cardinals organization in this weeks Sports Illustrated where they said, “we can’t afford to have a static view where we think we have figured it out”.
My point is that I don’t think it is as simplistic as “our competitors have one so we need one”. that said, my response to McGarity would be, “is there somewhere else we SHOULD be investing in?” My guess is their analytic infrastructure is an opportunity, and they are probably not investing at all in advanced analytics like many pro teams across all sports all over the globe.
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i mistyped…”great organizations DON”T opt….”
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There is no question we can survive just fine without an indoor practice field, we have for over a century. The HC who has revived this program feels he needs one and the majority of big programs have what we are missing, FU be damned, so I don’t understand the resistance. We have discussed many times how UGA is one of the Top 5 programs in terms of profits yet we seem to chintz our way through every issue we face. Why?
UGA is is one of the most competitive conferences in terms of playing and recruiting, what is the justification in voluntarily giving anyone an edge? We don’t know which tooth in the saw cuts regarding a HS athlete’s decision on which school to choose, I say lets put that arrow in our quiver.
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Mac, you have to stop this “We are quibbling and should move upwards and onward with our program like we see fit.”.
We will do that the day that assholes grow ears. Didn’t you get the message from MacG and Bluto?
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Can’t take it with us, and the academic types will certainly waste it. Can you imagine how long this discussion would last at Alabama, Texas, etc.? I am usually a conservative when it comes to spending money but this is pretty silly. Stretching here but dying with bullets left in the gun ain’t gonna happen to me. If I want it, and can afford it, it’s mine. At my age life is to short to have a wish list.
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“If you want it ….come and get it”. Ask yourself, if I had 6 months to live what would I do with myself? Works pour moi.
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No regrets here. I told my wife when I kick it, make sure my kids know not to feel sorry or sad because I did it all. If life had been a game of 5 card stud, I would have played the hand I was dealt and not drawn.
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Why not just take the licensing fees from EA Sports and others that don’t go to the players and use them to pay for the new facility?
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