University of Nebraska officials have unveiled plans for a new $155 million training facility, with the project to include improvements to Memorial Stadium.
As part of plans revealed by the university on Friday, a new 350,000-square foot training facility will be built on a site north and east of Memorial Stadium that currently includes Ed Weir Track. The complex will feature training table and academic support spaces for all student-athletes, along with football facilities that include a locker room, strength and conditioning space, an athletic medicine facility, equipment room, meeting rooms, coaches’ offices, and an outdoor practice field.
On its own, the facility should yield upgraded amenities for Nebraska athletic programs, but the overall project is expected to include improvements to Memorial Stadium. Design plans call for a glass facade structure that Nebraska officials have dubbed the knuckle, which will connect the facility to Memorial Stadium’s North Stadium structure. This area will help improve access to the higher levels of North Stadium by housing elevators and escalators and university officials are anticipating other changes, including new suites. More from the Lincoln Journal Star:
“The knuckle at this point, on the north and east corner (of the stadium) is really going to be the focal point when you look at it,” [Nebraska director of development Brenden] Stai said. “The vertical transportation with the elevator and the escalators for an experience on the other side, kind of like Colorado when you look at that. But it’s going to be more transparent, more glass. So you’ll have some premium space there.”
One of the stadium improvements athletic director Bill Moos wants to make in this phase of the project is easier access up into the higher reaches of North Stadium. The knuckle will help with that, providing elevators and escalators up to the top of the bleachers….
“There will be four or five, maybe six new suites that will benefit us in regards to our foundation, our development people and those kind of things that we can utilize to hopefully raise more money for more projects,” Moos said.
The addition, should it come to fruition, will be the most noticeable change to the stadium itself and will rise directly over the new complex below it.
According to a press release issued on Friday, Nebraska athletics is hoping to raise approximately $100 million to fund the project. Plans for the project call for the track to be replaced by a new stadium on Innovation Campus. Under the current timeline, construction on the training complex could begin next summer in anticipation of a summer 2022 opening.
Coming Soon.#TheGoodLife x #GoBig pic.twitter.com/IwtypWmkBl
— Nebraska Football (@HuskerFBNation) September 27, 2019
Rendering courtesy NU Athletic Department.