This article originally appeared in the August 26, 2013 issue of The Arkansas Traveler.
The Arkansas football team moved into the Fred W. Smith Football
Center at the end of July.
The highly anticipated, $40 million facility pleased the players
and coaches, but here’s a look at how it compares to other new facilities
around the Southeastern Conference and at Oregon.
Price
While $40 million seems like a lot of money, it isn’t the most
spent on a football facility in the SEC.
Since 2011, both Tennessee and Georgia have spent $45 million on
new or renovated facilities. However, Alabama’s renovation that was completed
this year only cost $9 million.
At Oregon, Nike founder Phil Knight funded a $68 million
facility.
Size
At 80,000 square feet, the Fred W. Smith is neither the largest
nor the smallest facility in the SEC.
Tennessee’s complex is the largest in the conference, at 145,000
square feet. Oregon’s is the same size.
Because it was a renovation of an old complex, Alabama’s
facility is only 9,000 square feet, the smallest of the new facilities in the
SEC.
Locker Room
In the locker room at the Fred W. Smith Football Center, the
word “ARKANSAS” is spelled out with large, backlit letters. The lockers
themselves are large enough for players to “sleep in,” tweeted redshirt
freshman kicker Adam McFain.
Ole Miss is still working on their facilities, but they have
already completed a locker room that features electrical outlets and
ventilation in each locker.
To an uninformed person, Oregon’s locker room looks like it
could be on a space ship. Each locker has a metallic door that swings open and
can be pushed back into the locker when opened.
Bells and Whistles
Many of the new football facilities contain more than the bare
necessities.
At Arkansas, there is a players’ lounge with pool tables,
couches and flat screen televisions. In the lobby, one wall is made of wood,
similar to a basketball court, and features a large Razorback.
Above the lockers, there are NFL helmets that represent where
former Razorbacks have played or are playing.
Alabama’s facility pays tribute to former players in the NFL
with a wall lined with jerseys of first round NFL draft picks.
Their player lounge features foosball and pool tables, as well
as arcade games that don’t require quarters. There is also an anti-gravity
treadmill in their training room and waterfalls in their hydrotherapy room.
The most notable feature of Tennessee’s facility is a MMA cage.
Oregon doesn’t have an anti-gravity treadmill or an MMA cage,
but they seem to have everything else.
Ducks coaches can relax in their own hot tub and watch TV on televisions
embedded into mirrors in their locker room.
The head coach’s office has two walls of windows that overlook
the practice fields and that can be shaded for film review with the touch of a
button. There are also two television screens that drop out of the ceiling in
the head coach’s office.
The team meeting room, which seats 170, has a 30-foot projection
screen that can be retracted to reveal windows overlooking Autzen Stadium.
Their facility also features a war room with six 80-inch
monitors and black magnetic walls that are writable/erasable.
To pay tribute to their NFL players, each former Oregon player
drafted has a duck with his initials on it.
Like Alabama, the Ducks have foosball and pool tables in their
players’ lounge, but they also have hand-woven rugs and a barbershop.
Finally, in the lobby, there are
64 55-inch televisions that can be connected to show one image, or 64 different
images.
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