Jim Harbaugh is getting a shiny new toy to play with in the form of a new football building.
Michigan announced on Thursday that the university’s board of regents had approved a $14.8 million football performance center in Glenn E. Schembechler Hall, the site of the team’s current training facilities. The project, which is more of a renovation than anything, will include “approximately 24,000 square feet and construction of an additional 8,000 square feet for athletic medicine, rehabilitation, wellness and nutrition for the football program.”
Team meeting, equipment rooms and administrative spaces will also be redone as part of the update, which will be fully funded by athletic department gifts and revenues. A design is not yet finalized but you can likely expect the latest bells and whistles when the project is ultimately completed.
The school’s regents already approved a $21 million weight room upgrade for the football team back in February. The soon-to-be-redone Bennie Oosterbaan Field House is connected with Schembechler Hall, meaning there will be plenty of construction around the team in the coming years and we’re not just talking about the starting 11 on the field either.
As one of the richest athletic departments in the country, it’s not like Michigan is scraping by to come up with the cash for all these renovations.The Wolverines have already shown they are willing to back the Brink’s truck up for Harbaugh and his staff and now that attitude is spilling over to the facilities side of the game as well.
The only question left might be to ask what Ohio State and Penn State will now announce to keep up with their peers in Ann Arbor.
