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Friday, March 29, 2024
<p>UF athletics director Jeremy Foley speaks during new head football coach Jim McElwain's opening press conference on Saturday in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.</p>

UF athletics director Jeremy Foley speaks during new head football coach Jim McElwain's opening press conference on Saturday in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.

The Florida football program will soon have its crown jewel facility.

The school announced Wednesday that an indoor practice facility housing a 120-yard fully synthetic turf field will be built on the existing land at Sanders Practice Fields, adjacent to the O’Connell Center.

The estimated $15 million facility will be financed through private gifts and capital financing according to a release.

Florida is the last of the 14 Southeastern Conference teams to build an indoor facility, and the project is slated to be finished by September.

However, the facility will not be available for the team during fall preseason practices.

"This is something we have talked about internally for some time," Florida Athletics Director Jeremy Foley said in a statement.

"We have always been able to utilize The O’Connell Center as an indoor option for the football team, but with the renovation starting this spring, it will no longer be available."

The plan is to keep intact two of the fields at the Sanders complex. One, a full field and the other a 70-yard field with one end zone.

It also includes a new entrance to McKethan Stadium and moves the entrance of the practice fields from the east side to the south side.

The project design was created by Davis Architects, a firm based in Birmingham, Alabama.

The firm boasts a portfolio that includes expansions to both end zones of Alabama’s Bryant-Denny Stadium, Auburn’s recently constructed basketball arena and the O’Connell Center’s gymnastics practice facility completed in 2013.

 Follow Richard Johnson on Twitter @RagjUF

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UF athletics director Jeremy Foley speaks during new head football coach Jim McElwain's opening press conference on Saturday in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.

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