I missed this story when I was on vacation last week, but it sure is in character.
There’s always something next for Kirby Smart it seems when it comes for facility upgrades at Georgia.
The school’s now complete $80 million expansion and renovation of the Butts-Mehre building with a new football operations center brought an expanded weight room, new coaches offices, a player locker room and dining area and more.
Sanford Stadium will undergo $68 million in improvements to improve fan amenities and access and add premium seats and restrooms.
So what does the Georgia football coach want next for facilities or construction? He was asked that by host Scott Howard on the “Bulldogs Live,” UGA coaches show Thursday night.
“Yeah, there’s a lot of things that we continue to talk about and work on,” Smart said. “One of the toughest for us here is the field space. We’re not able to operate on side-by-side fields, which right now we’re the only team in the SEC that has that. It makes it tough when you try to transition and practice outside.”
The only team in the SEC without? Shit, we can’t have that, can we? The problem is that real estate on campus is at a premium. Well, a problem for some, maybe.
Georgia has two outdoor practice fields in the Butts-Mehre area. One is next to its indoor practice facility and the other is next to the Spec Towns track.
“It’s very convenient for us to go inside-outside with our indoor and our practice field, but it’s tough in terms of side-by-side fields,” Smart said. “It’s something that we’re always talking about visiting on as an athletic department and athletic staff.”
He said athletic director Josh Brooks and his staff has done a “great job,” with a “master plan schedule.”
…Track coach Caryl Smith-Gilbert said last year her program could have a major facility project in the future to open up space for the football program.
“I know Kirby wants our track land for football,” she said. “Maybe we could talk about building a new stadium somewhere else which would be great because then we can make it how we want it.”
I suspect that conversation has already taken place.
(h/t Groo)
Get The Picture 
Now I’ll have to drive out to south milledge to run on the UGA track. It’s a little inconvenient but also closer to Peppinos.
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The yankee Army used to run in boots to include the PT test. In 1981 we took the test at the UGA track. No boots allowed. I wore my old Adidas tennis shoes and knocked over a minute off my previous best two mile time. Additionally my shins weren’t screaming in pain. I started running at the track regularly and that healed shin splints that had been bothering me for years. Yeah, it’s boring as hell running a quarter mile oval. But that soft surface more than made up for it.
Siskey, I’d think the track has been updated since then?
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RR, the baseball team had to run two miles in under 14 minutes every year on that track when we started our season. It was very doable for most, save one of our super stars! Jeff Treadway never could make that run! He had one thing going for him…he could hit frozen ropes to the wall when he fell out of bed in the mornings! He went on to have a great career with the Reds & Braves until Cox started his pet player, “Dirt”, at second base…
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I believe so. They have a rubber track now and the whole setup is much nicer than when I used to go play on the artificial turf as a teenager.
I think that it is inevitable that they put something “more valuable” there on Lumpkin than Spec Towns but I doubt it will be limited to just an extra 100 yard practice field. My guess is that ultimately Butts-Mehre will be entirely remade into some combination of recruiting palace and place for well off donors to park and be squired to the games.
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I got shinsplints running on that track. Coursen explained I had to change directions because of the stress on the inside leg!
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This shall not stand! 🙂
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Let ‘‘em take Foley field and Stegeman while we’re at it. Apparently we don’t need them
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Honestly, I’m ok with moving the baseball field. I wish they do that instead of the drip/drip updates.
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How much land does UGA still have that we could build upon? Would we have to use part of the intramural fields?
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Stay off the original Rugby field. Lots of ashes have been spread there.
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I think Coach Smith-Gilbert understands the inevitability of this and is positioning her program to get the most out of it. Good move on her part.
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I was thinking the same.
It would actually be great to have a new track facility. UGA could really build someting
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Give me your land or I will drink it through my straw.
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DRAAAAAINAAAAGE !!!
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Since the state is giving away huge tracts of land, providing utilities, handing out tax breaks, and building infrastructure like roadways, interstate on/off ramps for the likes of Rivian, Hyundai, etc., I don’t consider Kirby’s request to be unreasonable. At least his projects get substantial funding from the private sector.
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Sounds more like a done deal with the details being worked out.
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An optimist would say that we’re the only team in the SEC with fields that aren’t side-by-side.
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Premium seating and bathrooms will certainly solve problems for the vast majority of us and make good use of the limited real estate.
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It certainly does in row HD…
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The arms race, she rolls on. But, look on the bright side we have two, 50-yard fields, side by side.
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Once upon a time Illinois had a beautiful grass field with a great track. When Craig Virgin was a senior we had the NCAA’s there and we were going to be the “Track Capital of America”. Then Mike White came in and insisted on astroturfing the sucker from wall to wall and they took the track out and built a little track and field facility.
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