New sports facilities are looming at BYU
E-mail story
It's easy. Send a link to the story you were just reading to a friend. Just fill out the form on this page and we'll send it along.
Your name and e-mail address are transmitted to the recipient. Otherwise, it is considered private information; see Privacy policy.
PROVO, Utah — Progressing quickly toward completion, the new indoor practice facility for BYU athletics is an imposing structure on campus. Nearly fully enclosed now, it demands attention as it looms on the west side of campus, dwarfing the nearby George Albert Smith Fieldhouse.
BYU associate athletic director Duff Tittle said the building is ahead of schedule and will be finished around mid-September.
It and the adjacent athletic complex of offices, training and other facilities will be ready for open houses and dedication sometime after late November, Brother Tittle said during a Church News interview.
Of the indoor practice facility, he said, "It'll be as good a building of its kind as any in the country. It's going to provide a great place for not only athletics, but also for other activities on campus."
After investigating design possibilities, the BYU building was patterned after those of the NFL's St. Louis Rams and Philadelphia Eagles, two of the best, according to Brother Tittle. And the BYU design has an even higher roof than most of its kind because "everybody we talked to said if they had it to do over again they would build it another 20 feet higher," he added.
Big enough, at 422 feet long and 222 feet wide, for full football practices, the building will also be used by other intercollegiate sports teams as well as various BYU sports and physical education groups. It will have a system of netting that will make it possible for more than one group to use it at the same time.
Ground for the new athletics facilities was broken on Sept. 16, 2002.
E-mail: ghill@desnews.com
