The Auburn Board of Trustees recently approved a $16.5 million indoor practice facility for the Auburn football team.
Construction for the new facility will begin at the end of the 2010 season and is scheduled to be finished for the start of fall practice for the 2011 season.
"We definitely needed it," said Clint Moseley, a redshirt freshman quarterback from Leroy, Ala. "Now we will actually be able to have a complete practice indoors."
The new facility will contain a full-length field of 120 yards and will be more functional for the football team and other Auburn athletic teams.
The current indoor practice facility is only 40 yards long, a length that can limit the team. It does not allow the team to practice on a true game-like field and forces the defense and offense, during bad weather, to practice separately.
"We have been forced indoors from the rain a couple times this summer," Moseley said. "The current indoor field doesn't let the offense and defense practice together, and doesn't allow us to run the full offense."
The new 92,000 square-foot facility will also be available to the soccer, baseball, softball and track teams during inclement weather.
The new indoor field will be the same length as the outdoor practice fields. It will cut the number of outdoor practice fields from three to two and feature an east-west layout, instead of the current north-south layout, while running parallel to Samford Avenue.
Moseley is also confident the new practice facility will help in recruiting.
"I don't think it will be the deciding factor for a recruit, but the new indoor field will definitely help," Moseley said.
The $16.5 million project is the biggest for Auburn since the $90 million construction of Auburn Arena, the new basketball facility that opens next season. The new indoor facility will be funded entirely by the athletic department.
"It's just another step in our master plan that we put together five years ago to compete at the highest level in all sports," said Auburn Athletics Director Jay Jacobs to al.com.
Chase Parks, junior in electrical engineering, thinks it is time Auburn upgraded its football practice facilities.
"I am glad Auburn finally decided to build a new indoor facility," Parks said. "I think it will help the team in a lot of ways and help us compete with Alabama even more."
With the completion of this new facility, Auburn will become one of only seven schools in the South Eastern Conference to have an indoor practice facility of at least 100 yards.
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