College football traditionalists will have none of this, but Wet ‘n Wild may soon be a term you hear to describe future UCF football games.
Thanks to a $1 million donation this week from a pair of alumni, the school announced that they are finalizing plans for ‘Recovery Cove’ as part of a new $30 million UCF Athletics Village. As the name implies, the area will be for athletes of all sports to come to relax and recover and now will feature a pool, a lazy river and various other amenities.
“Florida weather is one of our greatest competitive advantages,” athletics director Danny White said. “UCF student-athletes have very demanding schedules. Having a recovery and leisure space so close to the Wayne Densch Center for Student-Athlete Leadership and the Garvy Center for Student-Athlete Nutrition will significantly enhance the UCF student-athlete experience. Recovery Cove will also deliver one of college football’s most unique game-day premium experiences for UCF fans.”
Yes, it that last little bit wasn’t clear, Recovery Cove will be opened up before football games for tailgating. The school eventually expects to even make quite a bit of money off the project as fans and others pay to get in and use the facilities before and after the Knights take the field at nearby Spectrum Stadium.
A timeline for the project was not released but any construction will naturally begin in the offseason. While we’ve seen pools at stadiums in the state before (such as Jacksonville’s TIAA Bank Field), Recovery Cove certainly is stepping things up in a new and unexpected way in Central Florida.
