The Univ. of Kentucky has released renderings of its planned $45M football training facility, and it "appears to be every bit the glittering 'one-stop shop' athletic director Mitch Barnhart promised back in January when the school's Board of Trustees approved the privately-funded project," according to Kyle Tucker of the Louisville COURIER-JOURNAL. This new facility "will be more than 90,000 square feet," and will "house state-of-the-art dining facilities, nutrition and health care services, spacious strength and conditioning areas, a massage therapy room, smoothie bar, hot and cold pools (with flat-screen TVs mounted overhead) and even a barber shop." Scheduled to open in the summer of '16, the facility "will also include a tricked-out new locker room, featuring a giant interlocking UK on the ceiling, and players lounge with multiple TVs and a gaming area." There "will be new meeting rooms with theater-style seating and new coaches' offices overlooking two grass practice fields." UK Deputy AD DeWayne Peevy said football coach Mark Stoops was "very involved in the planning of the training center, taking time out to be at a large number of the design meetings along" with UK Dir of Football Recruiting Dan Berezowitz. Peevy said that $26.3M toward the training facility "has already been pledged or received." Peevy: "We have had conversations with additional potential donors and hope to have the remainder raised by the start of the 2016 calendar year" (Louisville COURIER-JOURNAL, 10/15). In Lexington, Jennifer Smith noted the entire facility "was a vision" of Stoops. He said that he "tried to be involved in every aspect." UK Exec Associate AD/Internal Operations Marc Hill: "When we've had big decisions to make, he's been in the room. He's been a lot more involved than I thought he would be." The practice facility "will have many of the same architectural features" of the $120M redesign of Commonwealth Stadium (LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER, 10/15).
