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USF Unveils Plans For Indoor Football Center

USF Athletics
Artist's rendering of the proposed facility

A new indoor training facility for the University of South Florida Bulls football team will be built at the Tampa campus.

University officials unveiled the plan Thursday. It will be located next to the Lee Roy Selmon Athletics Center, near the Sun Dome.

“We are very excited about the plans for this truly transformational facility, which will provide a world-class training center and base of operations for our outstanding football program,” said Athletic Director Mark Harlan. “The addition of more than 160,000-square feet of state-of-the-art space dedicated to student-athlete excellence will have a profound impact on our ability to recruit and prepare the best and brightest for competition at the highest level.”

The USF Football Center will cost an estimated $40 million. It will expand upon the Morsani Football Practice Complex and feature an 83,000-square foot indoor practice facility housing a 100-yard turf field. It will also feature a more than 80,000-square foot, two-level building providing a state-of-the-art home for the entire football program.

"There is so much potential in this university, this athletic department and this football program that we have just begun to tap,” USF football head coach Charlie Strong said. “The USF Football Center will be a key step in drawing high-level student-athletes to USF and empowering our coaches and staff to develop those student-athletes, tap that potential and compete on an elite level."

Here's some details provided by USF:

Among the highlights included in the initial plans for the USF Football Center provided by the global design firm HOK are: • A stunning entry façade, lobby and multi-purpose space for recruiting • Indoor practice facility with a 100-yard turf field • More than 12,000-square foot football strength and conditioning center • Nearly 10,000-square foot football locker room • Players’ lounge and adjacent social patio • Team auditorium with tiered seating • Sports medicine and rehabilitation facility • Nutrition center • More than 12,000 square feet of team and position meeting spaces • Coaches and staff offices • Equipment room, video operations, laundry and other support operations

“Our athletics program and our football program, in particular, have never been stronger and we are committed to putting the resources in place to achieve success at the highest level,” Harlan said. “This will be a donor-driven project with a vision toward elevating our program and ensuring we remain nationally competitive. ”

Credit USF Athletics
Artist's rendering of the proposed facility

Steve Newborn is a WUSF reporter and producer at WUSF covering environmental issues and politics in the Tampa Bay area.
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