January 21, 2015 · 9:37 AM

It’s a new era in SEC football.

Florida joins Georgia in the race to build a new IPF.

If Foley’s thrown in the towel, that should give McGarity some measure of comfort, right?

47 Comments

Filed under Gators, Gators...

47 responses to “It’s a new era in SEC football.”

  1. TennesseeDawg
    January 21, 2015 at 9:43 AM

    We have an IPF. It was built specifically to run only our red zone plays

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  2. 202dawg
    January 21, 2015 at 9:45 AM

    They already have the plans… AND it’ll be done by ‘early September’? Ok.

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    • watcher16
      January 21, 2015 at 11:27 AM

      My thoughts exactly. If it is taking us this long to plan and get schematics and what not, the one in Athens better be state of the art.

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      • JCDAWG83
        January 21, 2015 at 11:51 AM

        I think the one in Athens is going to have a roof and walls and electric lights. There is only so much you can put in one of these things.

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        • Keese
          January 21, 2015 at 12:01 PM

          BM will require a another year or so of ass scratching and donor matching making us the last program in the SEC to have one. The Georgia Way I’m sure will be a fully “functional” facility

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      • Bazooka Joe
        January 22, 2015 at 2:27 PM

        but it wont be…. it will be the minimum McG can get away with.

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  3. Bulldawg165
    January 21, 2015 at 10:01 AM

    One day we’re gonna look back on this and realize how stupid it was to not compensate athletes at all but drop $100M+ in these facilities that could cost $500K and provide the same utility

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    • PansyTheDawg
      January 21, 2015 at 10:43 AM

      It’s going to be especially painful if the unthinkable happens and football goes the way of boxing. Then we’ll be left with these fancy stadiums and facilities that no one uses.

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      • Twistification
        January 21, 2015 at 10:52 AM

        What? Are you saying there are pay for view plans for college football? 😉

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      • AthensHomerDawg
        January 21, 2015 at 11:08 AM

        Boxing is not dead. Neither is horse racing. They’re probably not on your radar. ESPN has a lot invested in semi-pro football. They are the reason folks stay home and watch college games on the tube. Attendance at games declines but viewership is up. They still need a field to play on. And if they did shut some stadiums down… just like the big box stores that were closed up at one point, stadiums and facilities would be repurposed too. Wynn DIxie on Barnett Shoals now houses Good Will. When Lowes moved to Oconee Counties to escape taxes Habitat for Humanity moved in and started a ReStore facility. The old Sams is now a mega church with one of the largest congregations in Athens.

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        • Bulldawg165
          January 21, 2015 at 11:40 AM

          A building could be re-purposed, yes, but not necessarily a massive football stadium. Here’s the issue though: This IPF is going to cost upwards of $100M. Think about that. Who is going to buy the $100M facility if/when we don’t need it? There’s no way to re-purpose a $100M building that provides $500K of utility without throwing money down the drain.

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          • PatinDC
            January 21, 2015 at 11:48 AM

            How if UF building theirs for $15 mill and ours is $100 mill? Crazy.

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          • MagnusDawgus
            January 21, 2015 at 11:50 AM

            Where do you get this $100 Million number? Tech built an IPF for about $7 million; Clemson’s was $10 million. FSU’s is supposed to cost around $15 million.

            http://www.syracuse.com/orangefootball/index.ssf/2013/02/acc_football_facilties.html

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          • JP
            January 21, 2015 at 11:56 AM

            Definitely not $100M. UGA already has the cash on hand for the IPF, they are just fund raising so that the reserve fund doesn’t take a hit. No way they have $100M cash on hand.

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          • Bulldawg165
            January 21, 2015 at 12:18 PM

            Ok, I googled it and Texas Tech’s plans were $100M including a lot of stadium renovations. My bad.

            Regardless, $15M is quite a bit (although not nearly as bad as $100M I must admit)

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          • AthensHomerDawg
            January 21, 2015 at 12:18 PM

            I have thought about it. We sometimes drop Google Building images of IPFs on the practice fields just to see how they would fit. And No Where have I read that it would cost 100 million dollars. Kansas State has the largest and it’s not 1/3 that cost. Most IPF are around 80,000 sq feet and run 12-15 million as an average. Ours located on the last practice field across from the Steg shouldn’t cost more than 15. Tennessee dropped a lot of coin on their IPF. It is way more than an IPF . More of a monster Athletic Facility. Apples and oranges. Georgia could build exactly what they need for less than 18 million. And you want it close by… not way out in the sticks.
            “You don’t have to miss a beat — you keep the rhythm, keep the same continuity of how you practice. You don’t have to go stretch again…now that’s how a lot of injuries occur, you know. A guy gets loose and stretched out and then goes back in and he don’t get stretched out again when he comes back out, it changes the mindset of the game.”
            The facility would benefit other sports in addition to football, McGarity said, particularly track, baseball, softball and soccer. for crying out loud.

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      • Mayor
        January 21, 2015 at 2:05 PM

        ^^This. If they keep raising ticket prices and peeing on tailgaters pretty soon people will opt to watch on TV instead.

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  4. AthensHomerDawg
    January 21, 2015 at 10:41 AM

    The Sanders practice fields are laid out similarly to ours. Adjacent to basketball facilities, baseball diamond and track field. Not far from the swamp either. Placing it close to the current practice field/Butts-Mehre seems Logical and Practical. I fear our AD might want to build some monster hybrid for track and soccer and stick it way the heck out near the current soccer fields. That means we can’t just sprint over to use the IPF but instead have to schedule buses and take time to load up and make the journey. That doesn’t seem prudent and defeats the purpose of having a convenient building to continue/plan practice in.
    There are a couple of older, small, buildings and a some parking, adjacent to the current artificial sod fields that would have to go to accommodate the new IPF. Any new construction at UGa( excluding Vet School expansion which takes research land for its expansions) takes place at the expense of older, outdated structures. If we are going to build it, locate it where we can get the best use out of it for the football team and lets not get too clever with a swiss army knife design.

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  5. JCDAWG83
    January 21, 2015 at 11:49 AM

    Somebody, or more likely a bunch of somebodies, is getting rich off of this IPF. There is no way the facility should cost any more than a couple of million dollars, even if it is done first class all the way. I’m guessing some of the BM crowd is lining their and their buddies pockets with this thing.

    Now that we will have an IPF, and will not lose those two or three days of practice a year, we should win every game from now on. Think of all the games we have lost because we weren’t able to practice. We should also never lose a recruiting battle because now we have an IPF. I am so tired of hearing kids say they didn’t choose Georgia because we didn’t have an indoor practice facility.

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  6. Keese
    January 21, 2015 at 12:06 PM

    I wish they’d just scape the damn track stadium and move off milledge and make that quadrant dedicated to football

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  7. washburn
    January 21, 2015 at 1:04 PM

    Maybe one day we’ll have one too. The Georgia Way.

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  8. jabo052
    January 21, 2015 at 1:52 PM

    The crazy(wasteful) thing about this is the fact that they’re getting an architect involved. If they really want to make it “fancy”, to the point that they need an architect, then it’s gonna cost a lot more than 15 mil. Otherwise, a good engineer or two to make it highly functional with some nice touches would suffice.

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    • AthensHomerDawg
      January 21, 2015 at 2:20 PM

      There are a few steps before construction docs Jaboo. Im pretty sure I’m not telling you something that you aren’t already very familiar with.

      Click to access PlanningProcess_FlowChart.pdf

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      • jabo052
        January 21, 2015 at 3:11 PM

        Certainly! I’m more referring to the design of the structure itself, though. Imo, it should be relatively simple and easy. I think the location and grounds could be equally as important to the “look” of an IPF and that’s certainly where an architect can make it shine.

        I’ll admit, though- I’m probably a bit jaded by construction, cost and maintenance issues on projects where an architect is heavily involved. In my experience, some over think and over complicate things and that often leads to issues down the road. I guess I have a rather simplistic idea of how this thing should go. It’s contradictory considering the fact that I also believe this is more about recruiting than an actual need.

        Doesn’t really matter what I think because UGA has architects and they’ll be involved every step of the way. Honestly, if they’re gonna “fancy” it up at all, I wish they’d build it where the track is. They’d certainly save $$ in earthwork and in the schedule and it would be visible. The savings there could be used elsewhere.

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        • jabo052
          January 21, 2015 at 3:14 PM

          Geez! Hopefully that made sense. Lol! Kinda composed that in bits and pieces.

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          • Meher Baba Dawg
            January 21, 2015 at 3:56 PM

            You made perfect sense and I agree with you. We’ve plopped down Clemson’s IPF on that artificial turf field, took the top of the Butts-Mehre building and made that our roof. Ran an image of the water girl through IClone5 and turned her into a bronze statue water feature. Dropped her in front of our steps leading down to the side walk running parallel to the track. We did that over pizza with a couple of laptops in the meeting room on the large screen. 400K is gracious plenty to find a spot. I think our AD thumbs his nose at Richt. Gives him what he wants but not what he needs. There is an important tension to maintain between the football program and the University of Georgia A very wise man once shared that with me. I get it. I don’t always agree with how it is maintained.

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        • Bazooka Joe
          January 22, 2015 at 2:37 PM

          but then we’d need a new track stadium… how much does that cost and where do you put it ?

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          • jabo052
            January 23, 2015 at 9:50 AM

            Stadium?! Have you ever seen it? It’s a track. I think track might be our last cared about sport and it shows in facilities and results.

            As far as where to build it- some architects would want to build it on the roof of the IPF, for aesthetics, of course. It would leak every time it rained. Lol. All I know is that the track is sitting on a prime piece of real estate that would be a perfect place to build a recruiting tool.

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  9. AusDawg85
    January 21, 2015 at 2:26 PM

    Shoot…for a few hundred thousand I could get some folks to hold tarps and umbrellas on poles for a few days a year. Propane heaters for the cold. Probably get a few fans to pay for the privilege too!

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    • watcher16
      January 21, 2015 at 3:05 PM

      Not gonna be fun in a lightning storm…

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    • Normaltown Mike
      January 21, 2015 at 6:16 PM

      you kid but the genius’s up at Haaavaaad have something similar in place.

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      • Cojones
        January 22, 2015 at 9:53 AM

        Kept reading all the posts looking for add-ons, but none were forthcoming as serious. Then you posted the photo of “the balloon” and I thought you hit the suggestion/question: How much would a permanent covering/retractable roof cost when added to planned Sanford upgrading?

        Does anyone have even a stadium (ballpark) answer?

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