Photos, everything else you need to know about Auburn's Woltosz Football Performance Center

_JHokanson

AUBURN — Auburn will open the Woltosz Football Performance Center “soon,” but on Friday, the media received a tour of the $91.9 million facility.

Here’s just about everything you need to know about an absolutely remarkable facility that will rival any football facility in college football.

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— the entire facility is built on 12 acres

— looked extensively at the Bears and Dolphins facilities, plus LSU and Clemson, the Nashville Predators, and even English Premier League facilities

— the lobby is the only publicly accessible part of the facility; everything past that is accessible by credential only

— 3,000 sq. ft. of digital media (monitors) space in the facility

— multi-purpose room in the front of the facility

— “NFL” display only has one static NFL logo (the shield), but everything else associated with the NFL display is digital and can be updated immediately; the space can be activated in real time, change content for players drafted, Pro Bowl selections, etc.

— coaches office above the weight room

— weight room is 25,000 sq. ft., about the size of the new Publix in downtown Auburn

— theatrical lights in the middle of the weight room, so each individual rack can be highlighted on “max” day and other times

— new ramp that connects to a garage door that opens into the indoor facility, so plenty of runway heading onto the ramp or down from the ramp

— 22 racks, with each rack having a “perch” system with a camera scanning the player during their workouts; scanning reps, range of motion, anything and everything, and all the data is transmitted in real time to tablets and screens in the weight room

— new indoor practice facility has all LED lighting, very bright, plus sunlight coming through windows on either side of the field

— very quiet facility, even with air conditioning running (sock system), helps with coaching and communicating

— speakers throughout the indoor facility allow for 130 decibels of sound to be pumped into the facility

— Catapult system linked throughout the indoor facility to track player movements through GSP monitoring through an invisible web displayed across the field

— NO camera perches, all video is done with remote cameras attached throughout, and all video and sound goes back to a video room/booth where staffers can run the entire practice from a control room, zoom in on specific drills or players, etc.; no camera towers needed

— two complete outdoor fields that run north and south, same as Jordan-Hare Stadium, with tons of extra artificial grass room around the outside of the fields

— crown of the field with less slope than inside JHS, more accurate with other opponents’ fields Auburn plays on

— the outdoor field are is around 4-5 acres

–hydrotherapy with four pools; the Hydroworks2000 has under water cameras and a treadmill that raises up and down in the water, hot tub, small cold tub, and large plunge pool designed for the players to enter after any lift or practice

— plunge pool temperature is 55 degrees, basically an ice bath after working out

— all offices, like player personnel and creative, are next to other offices, so collaboration and communication is made easier

— dedicated players’ entrance, not through the lobby

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— showroom for innovations for equipment staff, including Falcon Pursuit machine that scans the entire body and 3D printing can take place to make inserts and braces for injuries

— scans create accurate data points for player performance, center of mass, weight gain

— Gatorade created one of their largest food/drink bars they’ve ever created heading into the locker room

— first of two locker rooms is the “lounge” with individual lockers circling around a main lounge area in the middle; this “locker room” has no actual equipment, it’s a clean room where each individual locker has a zero-gravity chair, TV, charging station — it’s a place to relax and focus before practice, with the lounge area in the middle with beanbags and chairs

— lighting in the “lounge” locker room can change from “chill” mood lighting to brighter lighting that lets players know practice time is getting closer

— 9×28 foot videoboard in the lounge area where it can be split into two screens, film, play video games, you name it

— lighting can be programmed to change as practice time gets closer

— the “armory” is the second locker room/equipment area that lets the players know it’s “go time”

— this locker room is where players get prepared for practice, stainless steel seats designed to get ready and go practice

— helmets, shoulder pads, cleats and equipment all have their individual places within each locker with dryers built in; very unique concept of keeping dirty stuff and clean stuff very separate

— players have a “car wash” that they walk through to rinse off on the way to the hydrotherapy pools

— team room sits 180 people with a wall that can come down in the middle and separate the room into 90 and 90 people

— two very large HD boards on each side of the team room

— unbelievable virtual reality-type room where Auburn’s offense and defense can actually line up in formation and look onto a giant, wide screen where the opponents’ formation can be displayed in actual size, and film can be run so the offense or defense can see pre-snap motion and the actual play being run based on scout team film

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— this VR-type room can take the place of classrooms and you’re seeing, while not having to be on the field, formations and motions in preparation for games (LSU, Patriots, Texans, Bears, all have this)

— “cat bird” space is high and in the middle of the facility, and can overlook into the weight room, overlook the indoor facility, as well as the lobby; great place for families, guests to hang and watch into those different spaces