A close look at the construction of Texas A&M's new indoor football facility
It isn’t pretty now, but the early stages of the new Texas A&M football facility — along with a number of other new buildings as part of an upgraded athletic complex in College Station — appear to be clipping along smoothly. In a video posted by the Houston Chronicle’s Brent Zwerneman, at least one large fieldhouse-like structure has been framed up.
Elsewhere, dirt and rubble littered on the grounds around Kyle Field. It’s all part of a massive capital campaign to build out a new athletic complex at Texas A&M.
Along with a new football facility, there will be an indoor track stadium, a new indoor football performance center — that’s the building which is already framed up in the video — and an academic and wellness center for athletes.
According to the website for the this facilities project — dubbed the Centennial Campaign — the indoor practice facility will feature 160 yards of practice field, an elevated observation area and dedicated space for sports medicine and strength & conditioning.
“There won’t be anything like it in the country. The Football Indoor Performance Center is going to allow us to keep attracting and developing top student-athletes,” head coach Jimbo Fisher said in a quote on the site.
The project will also feature expansions to the Bright Football Complex, which first opened in 2003. The improvements will include an expanded locker room, team meeting, treatment, rehab and recovery areas, an added office space for coaching, recruiting and support staff, some dedicated recruiting spaces and state-of-the-art audio/video and film technology systems.
And the academic and wellness center will have various amenities. Included among them are a student-athlete dining and nutrition center featuring a teaching kitchen, expanded resources dedicated to student-athlete services including sports psychology, academics, leadership development, nutrition and compliance, an AMPLIFY studio for student-athlete content creation and brand development, and modern, up-to-date spaces to meet and do academic work.
“When we recruit student-athletes to Texas A&M, we are investing in them athletically, academically and in their personal lives,” athletic director Ross Bjork said on the campaign site. “The new Academic & Wellness Center will be at the center of their complete development as leaders who will be equipped to impact the world. It’s going to be a place where our student-athletes can gather and get the support they need to grow each and every day.”
An opening date for the various facilities isn’t yet clear, but they should be a sight to behold once all the rubble is cleared and all that’s left is a gleaming new athletic complex at Texas A&M.