Facilities tour by Leadership

[BTG_Fan1]

 

[UNTLifer]

5 hours ago, AustinFromUNT said:

It will also help during the summer when it is around 10000000000 degrees outside (at least it feels that way)

Or we could haul the team down to Junction for a couple of weeks to get them ready for the season.  My how times have changed.  It's not that you really need an IPF, but you have to keep up with the Joneses.

[EagleMBA]

17 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

Or we could haul the team down to Junction for a couple of weeks to get them ready for the season.  My how times have changed.  It's not that you really need an IPF, but you have to keep up with the Joneses.

Good points. If the IPF was in place now, would we be acclimated on 9/2/17? Would we wilt in the second half like yankee teams when they come this way? The weather has been a competitive advantage for us in September.

Edited February 21, 2017 by EagleMBA

[UNT Mean Green]

8 hours ago, FirefightnRick said:

I'm still trying to understand why they flew across country when all they needed to see is a 3 to 4 hour drive? 

 

Rick

Where in a 3 to 4 hour drive are there comparable facilities to Liberty (best in FCS), Marshall (best in CUSA), Miami (best G5), Colorado (best PAC 12 without flying to Oregon or Seattle), and Oklahoma State?

[FirefightnRick]

1 hour ago, UNT Mean Green said:

Where in a 3 to 4 hour drive are there comparable facilities to Liberty (best in FCS), 

 

Rick

Edited February 21, 2017 by FirefightnRick

[UNT Mean Green]

5 hours ago, FirefightnRick said:

 

Rick

If you take a quick look at the facilities this group toured, these were obviously carefully selected, strategic destinations. And yes, these schools that were visited have newer and nicer indoor practice facilities than what is available 3-4 hours via car. Just do a little google search and you'll see that there was obviously plenty of due diligence and planning involved in this trip for President, AD Leadership, and Head Football Coach. Impressive and can't wait to see what comes of it!

[Cerebus]

The most exciting part of this is that Smatresk is onboard, in more than one sense of the word.

If you add up all the days lost to inclement weather across all sports, an IPF should help us on the field.  It will definitely help us in recruiting, any school planning to be a G5 power better have a very good one.

We seem to lose at least one day to lightning every spring ball...

 

[FirefightnRick]

1 hour ago, UNT Mean Green said:

If you take a quick look at the facilities this group toured, these were obviously carefully selected, strategic destinations. And yes, these schools that were visited have newer and nicer indoor practice facilities than what is available 3-4 hours via car. Just do a little google search and you'll see that there was obviously plenty of due diligence and planning involved in this trip for President, AD Leadership, and Head Football Coach. Impressive and can't wait to see what comes of it!

So your thinking we will build a nicer IPF than what Texas, A&M, Baylor or TCU currently have?

 

Rick

[UNTFan23]

17 hours ago, FirefightnRick said:

I'm still trying to understand why they flew across country when all they needed to see is a 3 to 4 hour drive? 

 

Rick

They would have flown down to Waco, not driven. Also, visiting multiple facilities exposes you to more ideas in what you might be looking for in an IPF.

[TheReal_jayD]

37 minutes ago, FirefightnRick said:

So your thinking we will build a nicer IPF than what Texas, A&M, Baylor or TCU currently have?

 

Rick

If everything goes as planned from what I am hearing it is going to be top of the line.

[UNTFan23]

40 minutes ago, FirefightnRick said:

So you're thinking we will build a nicer IPF than what Texas, A&M, Baylor or TCU currently have?

 

Rick

I think we can do better than "The Bubble" at Texas.

[Eagle-96]

59 minutes ago, FirefightnRick said:

So your thinking we will build a nicer IPF than what Texas, A&M, Baylor or TCU currently have?

 

Rick

Why not? We can't just ho hum and say "Welp we're poor little ol' UNT let's just hope we can build a tarp and some tent poles to cover the DD fields. We have to aspire to the very best in everything we build now. Let's get the best design and then task Wren et al to go get the money to make it happen. If we don't think we can build at the highest level then we damn sure won't.

[TreeFiddy]

Baylor and A$M both have football only facilities. Pretty sure we are looking at a multi use facility like those at Liberty, Marshall, and Miami. 

Not sure what the purpose of visiting CU and OSU.  Maybe we have contacts at those locations. 

No reason to think we haven't already visited TCU.

[UNTLifer]

We could have walked to our next door neighbor's house and someone would bitch about that.  If we wouldn't have toured "the best" someone would have bitched about that.  Sometimes you just can't win.

[UNT Mean Green]

1 hour ago, FirefightnRick said:

So your thinking we will build a nicer IPF than what Texas, A&M, Baylor or TCU currently have?

 

Rick

I'm not certain how you would deduce that, but that's not to say that may not be the premise. I would say that if you take a minute to look at where they visited, these destinations were very well thought out (and some "nicer" than the car ride destinations you listed):

Liberty University

Brand new Indoor Practice Facility (possibly still under construction) and Liberty has the best athletics facilities in FCS (better than most G5 FBS) with money to burn

 

Marshall

Opened in 2014 with Academics and Training facilities, this looks to be the best (and possibly only) Indoor Practice Facility in Conference USA

 

Miami Ohio and Miami Athletic Performance Center

Indoor Practice Facility opened in 2015 and newly opened Athletic Performance Center looks to be best anywhere in G5

 

Colorado

Brand new Indoor Practice Facility and Champions Center easily in Top 3 facilities in PAC12 conference, and frankly a team that we compete with recruits on

 

Oklahoma State

New(er) facility in the Big XII (more recent than Baylor or TCU), and likely on the way returning to Denton for the jet

17 minutes ago, TreeFiddy said:

Baylor and A$M both have football only facilities. Pretty sure we are looking at a multi use facility like those at Liberty, Marshall, and Miami. 

Not sure what the purpose of visiting CU and OSU.  Maybe we have contacts at those locations. 

No reason to think we haven't already visited TCU.

Absolutely. It's reasonable to think that Ryan Peck has contacts at Colorado and Wren Baker has contacts at Oklahoma State. 

Edited February 21, 2017 by UNT Mean Green

[Wag Tag]

Our goal is Boise State? Based off USA Today their budget is about $10m more a year the ours.

They have a great IPF. Natural light is important. They also have a IPF  for track, and soccer.

Today you build a combination and get all sports involved.including softball, golf and eventually baseball...indoor batting cages are very advantageous.

It needs to be very architecturally attractive especially seeing it from Apogee! 

To be able to have athletics in one location is a great !

[MeanGreenTexan]

12 minutes ago, Wag Tag said:

Our goal is Boise State? Based off USA Today their budget is about $10m more a year the ours.

They have a great IPF. Natural light is important. They also have a IPF  for track, and soccer.

Today you build a combination and get all sports involved.including softball, golf and eventually baseball...indoor batting cages are very advantageous.

It needs to be very architecturally attractive especially seeing it from Apogee! 

To be able to have athletics in one location is a great !

You likely won't be able to see it from Apogee unless you're up in the press box or at the very top of the wings.

[UNT Mean Green]

6 minutes ago, Wag Tag said:

Our goal is Boise State? Based off USA Today their budget is about $10m more a year the ours.

They have a great IPF. Natural light is important. They also have a IPF  for track, and soccer.

Today you build a combination and get all sports involved.including softball, golf and eventually baseball...indoor batting cages are very advantageous.

It needs to be very architecturally attractive especially seeing it from Apogee! 

To be able to have athletics in one location is a great !

Exactly. If we are going to compete at the Top of the G5, you have to start acting like it. Facilities are extremely important in the success of programs, and as the AD Audit conveyed, our facilities are very far behind. WHEN we finalize the Facilities Master Plan and initiate the campaign for facilities like constructing the Indoor Practice Facility and enhancing the 'Operations' Center, this will demonstrate a true commitment to helping UNT achieve these goals. It is going to take an incredible effort by Athletics Department leadership, existing donors, and faculty to pull this off. More importantly, it will not be able to be done without a new level of financial participation from existing contributors and finding new donors who believe in the project. We cannot approach it with the "same old UNT" mentality, or that is what the results will be. 

As far as architectural building style on the Indoor Practice Facility, I would expect to see a combination of brick, concrete and metal as that seems to be the norm in the industry. 

1 minute ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

You likely won't be able to see it from Apogee unless you're up in the press box or at the very top of the wings.

These buildings are very large. The ones visited on this leadership trip were all over 90,000 square feet and 70 something feet tall (according to the links provided earlier in this thread). 

[MeanGreenTexan]

3 minutes ago, UNT Mean Green said:

...

These buildings are very large. The ones visited on this leadership trip were all over 90,000 square feet and 70 something feet tall (according to the links provided earlier in this thread). 

Sure.  But for most in the bowl of Apogee (and likely the club level), the IPF structure will be blocked by the Athletics Center.  Especially if it's placed back over by the Tennis courts as some have mentioned.

[Harry]

Apogee was a great facility win for UNT.  However, people forget that the athletic center and Apogee etc were in reality us "catching -up" with our peers after years of neglect.

I stated when Apogee was finalized my fear was it would allow us to fall into a false sense of "athletic facility security".

The other issue that works against UNT is our geography.  We love to tout that we are in a hotbed of recruiting yet, the fact is many high school powerhouses that have indoor practice facilities and enhanced stadiums etc.  So, when you live in a neighborhood that drives luxury suvs its kind of hard to sell less.

 

[KRAM1]

19 hours ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

No, this is the guy our softball stadium is named after.

Not quite on Ernie's or Brint's level...  but close.

I think you may be surprised to know the capabilities of this donor.

[Harry]

More details on Marshall's indoor facility:

http://www.herdzone.com/facilities/chris-cline.html

[MeanGreenMailbox aka TFLF]

19 hours ago, FirefightnRick said:

I'm still trying to understand why they flew across country when all they needed to see is a 3 to 4 hour drive? 

 

Rick

Pssht!  Jerry Jones just built one in Frisco about 30-35 minutes East.  They couldn't have just driven over there and asked him a question or two?

The other thing I find laughable is that they have to spend money to go look at these things in person...as if none of them has ever seen one or been inside of one before.  Like they are a busload of Japanese tourists. 

Pointless.  Littrell and Baker have surely been in a dozen of these facilities before.  It isn't rocket science.  It's a little building, usually shaped like a small airplane hanger, with a football field and some office inside, perhaps a weight room.  These things are not earth-shattering pieces of architecture and engineering. 

And, to Lifer's point, I was within a ball hair of just posting a picture of Bear Bryant at the thought of a Texas football school wanting to shield it's team from the heat.  

It's things like this that convince me we are not evolving or adapting.  Far from.  Our grandfathers, grandmothers, and great grandfathers, and great grandmothers toiled in the sun on farms scratching out existences and feeding the nation.  And, they did it in the blistering heat, the withering wind, a through piles of snow, harvesting crops and tending to livestock, 365 days a year - no vacations, no sick days, no pension, no health care benefits, and no minimum wage.

But, here we are just four or so decades removed from it, and we're trying to prevent football players - not ballet dancers, football players - from having the sun touch their skin for too long and to keep them from being in the heat for an hour or two.

I'm here to tell you that my ancestors who lived into their 80s and 90s in spite of their "hard living" conditions will likely outlive most of this cupcakey generation of Americans.

Pete's pepper!  I'll bet Bear didn't even give the Junction Boys any sun screen!

 

Edited February 21, 2017 by MeanGreenMailbox

[UNT Mean Green]

8 minutes ago, Harry said:

More details on Marshall's indoor facility:

http://www.herdzone.com/facilities/chris-cline.html

Facility Information on this tour:

Liberty University

Marshall

Miami Ohio and Miami Athletic Performance Center

Colorado

Oklahoma State

15 minutes ago, Harry said:

I stated when Apogee was finalized my fear was it would allow us to fall into a false sense of "athletic facility security".

Dead on. 

28 minutes ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

Sure.  But for most in the bowl of Apogee (and likely the club level), the IPF structure will be blocked by the Athletics Center.  Especially if it's placed back over by the Tennis courts as some have mentioned.

That location wouldn't make sense. Needs to be as close as possible to Operations Building and ideally adjacent to Practice Fields.

Edited February 21, 2017 by UNT Mean Green

[MeanGreenTexan]

9 minutes ago, MeanGreenMailbox said:

Pssht!  Jerry Jones just built one in Frisco about 30-35 minutes East.  They couldn't have just driven over there and asked him a question or two?

The other thing I find laughable is that they have to spend money to go look at these things in person...as if none of them has ever seen one or been inside of one before.  Like they are a busload of Japanese tourists. 

Pointless.  Littrell and Baker have surely been in a dozen of these facilities before.  It isn't rocket science.  It's a little building, usually shaped like a small airplane hanger, with a football field and some office inside, perhaps a weight room.  These things are not earth-shattering pieces of architecture and engineering. 

...

 

I'm sure WB and SL have been...  but maybe Pres Smatresk has not.   And if he says,  "C'mon folks, I want to see some buildings!", you go.