The Virginia Athletics Department held a formal groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday to launch the construction of a new Football Operations Center. Putting a shovel in the ground was a symbolic step, but without question an important one as UVA attempts to rejuvenate the football program in earnest.
Fixing football, of course, stood at the top of the list when Virginia selected and hired a new AD in 2017. The Cavaliers lagged behind their ACC and Power 5 peers in facilities, operational support, and more. Their on-field results featured just two winning records from 2006-2017 and no bowl wins.
In other words, there was much to be done. UVA Athletics Director Carla Williams began working on the fixing football directive within days of her arrival from Georgia. There have been small strides in the years since, but breaking ground on a new facility represented the giant step forward that the program needed to chase sustained success.
“It’s been my focus this last four years. So I feel really good about where we are,” Williams said. “Obviously with the groundbreaking today, that’s a huge step. We started an emergency fund not long after I got here for football, and we were able to add positions for strength and conditioning, for recruiting, for nutrition. All of those things are paying dividends now. The structure is being repaired. We’re not there. We still have a long way to go. But we have made great strides in making sure that we have a healthy football program. All of us, we know the benefits of a healthy football program.”
Cavalier coach Tony Elliott called it a landmark day for the program and praised Williams’ vision on the project.
“I think back to 2016 [at Clemson], winning the National Championship and then moving into a brand new facility, the forever home of that football team so now we’re going to have the forever home of the Cavalier football team,” Elliott said. “So that’s what I said it’s a landmark day.”
Williams’ mention of structure refers to the underpinnings of a program that help it function. That can include support staff and increased personnel as noted, but that’s only part of the equation. In the 30+ years that passed since Virginia opened the McCue Center in 1991, technology, sports performance and conditioning, nutrition, and medicine all have changed significantly.
UVA made renovations and updates to the existing building over time and added the George Welsh Indoor Practice Facility in 2013. Some things, however, cannot be addressed within the current building and its footprint.
Williams used a weight room as an example. The McCue spot has space for limited numbers of standard racks, dumb bells, and so forth but it’s crowded for a roster of 120+ players. There’s also no additional square footage for things like recovery and stretching or alternative methods like band work. That doesn’t even account for technology upgrades with equipment that can enhance the strength and conditioning portion of training.
Now expand that thought out to the sports medicine staff. And nutrition stations. And film. And more.
“We’ve done I think an exceptional job during these trying times to have a project of this magnitude, to bring it to a groundbreaking,” Williams said. “So we’re excited about that. It is not flashy, but it is exactly what we need to compete for championships. That’s what we wanted. You’ll have everything that it should have. State-of-the-art sports medicine, which includes everything: strength and conditioning, coaches’ offices, nutrition, the technology to help our players and coaches prepare, that’s huge nowadays.”
The building will certainly provide the needed space for those types of upgrades. It’s 90,000 square feet with an $80 million price tag. It will be a two-story building to include new locker rooms, strength and conditioning spaces, nutrition and dining hall space, team meeting rooms, sports medicine area, coaches’ offices, video space, and more. There will also be an outdoor terrace and promenade area.
The project calls for 14,000 square feet for strength and conditioning, 7,000 square feet for locker rooms, 6,000 square feet for a team lounge and dining area, 5,000 square feet for sports medicine, 4,000 square feet for team meeting rooms, and 7,000 square feet for position meeting rooms.
Elliott said there’s no question the impact it can have on Virginia student-athletes and their development.
“There’s nothing like walking into a facility knowing that you’ve got the full support of all those who are investing in you and providing you the resources that you need to grow and develop in all areas of your life so that you can become the best version of yourself,” Elliott said. “You know it’s only a temporary time here, but what happens in these three to five years on these Grounds paves the way for the next 40, 50 years of your life.”
Virginia and construction manager Barton Malow expect the new Football Operations Center to be completed by 2024. UVA met the fundraising goal to complete the football part of the overall athletics master plan.
“We’ve met our fundraising goal for the football facility, not for the master plan in total, because it’s huge. There’s a lot to do there,” Williams said. “It was last August that Bronco [Mendenhall] said we were dead last in the ACC in our facilities. I’ve kept him abreast of the progress, because he’s interested, because he cares. So we are, with the completion of this facility, having made the enhancements we’ve already made from a personnel standpoint, which was huge, and that helped. We’re in a much, much better place. I think one of the great things about UVA and one of the things that quite frankly attracted me to UVA is that every sport has the university to sell and recruiting. You can never underestimate the value of a UVA degree, education. All of our coaches use that. I use that. So the facilities will enhance that. The personnel additions will enhance that. So we’re on our way. We’ve got a lot to do because no one’s standing still.”
As noted, the Olympic Sports Complex does not begin with this phase of the master plan. In phase one, Virginia demolished University Hall and added natural grass practice fields. The football facility will be phase two. In phase three, McCue Center renovations as well as new buildings will address the teams currently working out of temporary spaces.
Williams said “ideally we will break ground for the Olympic Sports Complex in spring of ’23 with an anticipated completion spring of ’25. Ideally that’s what we’re shooting for, that’s what we’re working toward.”
