A new indoor practice facility is in UT's future, per Texas AD Chris Del Conte
During a virtual townhall meeting on Monday, Texas athletics director Chris Del Conte announced that a new indoor football facility is in the works for the Longhorn football program. Del Conte also announced other facility improvements to Darrell K Royal – Texas Memorial Stadium related to branding, lighting, and more.
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“One of the things we’re in the process of right now is identifying the proper place for the indoor football facility along with the field,” Del Conte said. “We have great plans in place for that. We’re just looking to see where it fits on our campus (and) the right proximity in terms of football training every single day. They’ve got to go to class, they’ve got to see (senior associate athletics director for student services) Marnie (Binfield) and our entire academic staff constantly. That’s why they’re here. At the same time, they’ve got to get to practice.”
Del Conte continued: “Once we get the practice facility identified and we start raising money for that, we’re going to go to grass at DKR. It’s just a timing issue, but I can assure you we all want to go to grass. (Steve Sarkisian) wants to go to grass, but we have to be on FieldTurf until that time because of the proximity for where we’re at and how much usage a field gets.
“We know the practice facility is coming. Hopefully, at the latest, in two months I’ll tell you exactly where it’s going to go. We’ve hired an architect. We’re in the process of designing it in several locations. Once that’s designed, we’ll go to President (Jay) Hartzell for approval and then we’ll go to the board of trustees and move forward.”
The facility will replace “the bubble,” located at the corner of Red River and Dean Keaton Streets, just north of the Frank Denius Fields. Officially known as the “Indoor Practice Facility,” the building was opened in the early 2000s and was considered state of the art at the time.
However, programs around the state, in the Big 12, and across the Football Bowl Subdivision in recent years have built practice facilities that put “the bubble” to shame. Texas had been playing from behind in an important part of the facilities arms race, but efforts announced by Del Conte will now put the Horns at the forefront of the battle.
Del Conte provided details on other football facility topics during the townhall. Texas just completed its new south end zone project, but Del Conte announced another expansion to come at that facility. The athletic department plans to build a football recruiting lounge “where the old Mack Brown tent used to be” on the south side of the building.
Del Conte announced they are currently collecting bids for the 10,000 square foot facility.
In addition, the large Longhorn logo currently on a mesh tarp covering the south façade of the scoreboard will be replaced by a LED-backlit logo. That will be added during the summer, per Del Conte
Signs and lettering celebrating Darrell Royal, National Championships, conference titles, and more will be updated with new backlit lettering ahead of the season. Del Conte referred to it as an attempt to “rebrand and refresh” the interior of DKR.
During the course of the summer, Texas will also add a new LED lighting system to DKR akin to those seen at programs like Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama. That project will begin following graduation.
“The idea is that the whole stadium can go dark, we can have orange lights, we can do a lot of things that are interactive in the stadium,” Del Conte said.
Del Conte also announced several other gameday improvements, including new concessions in the upper deck. Del Conte said there would be 22 new points of sale, more grab-and-go concessions, more craft cocktails on tap, and expanded collections for YETI drinkware.
Something that is not in the plans is replacing bench seating at DKR. Del Conte cited complications with the grandstand’s run and rise that would cause seating capacity to drop if new chairback seating was added.
Texas has not been shy about upgrading facilities under Del Conte, whether it be Darrel K Royal – Texas Memorial Stadium itself, or any other building related to football.
That will continue in the near future, and in several different areas sorely needing attention.
