Regents voting on new weight room this week

Submitted by Maizen on

The $21 million project would construct a 32,000-square-foot weight room, including a 5,000-gross-square-foot mezzanine level, within the existing building for strength and conditioning training.

According to the Regents' action request, the project also would address infrastructure and life safety needs, including replacement of the existing roof, installation of new fire alarm and suppression systems and upgrades to the heating, ventilation, air conditioning and lighting systems throughout the 78,000-square-foot building.

http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2017/02/new_football_weight_room_inclu.html

Maizen

February 13th, 2017 at 12:44 PM ^

umbig11 was spot on with his post in November.

Rough outline of what will be built and when: - 31,000 sq. ft weight room (largest in the country) - Renovated Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation space - Upgraded Sports Performance Nutrition - Hydrotherapy The total project ($35 million) - $21 million already raised - Phase 1 in begins in May '17 (building the new weight room) - Estimated completion by January 2018 - Phase 2 (need to raise $14 million this year) Once the remaining funds are raised, phase 2 will begin. The plan is to have the facilities ready for the 2018 season.

http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/facility-upgrades

Wolverine Devotee

February 13th, 2017 at 12:45 PM ^

Important to note that Oosterbaan can still be used as a practice facility for other sports. The field just got trimmed to 75-80 yards.

Some Call Me.... Tim

February 13th, 2017 at 1:51 PM ^

Oosterbaan will be cut further than that, down to roughly 65 yards of playable surface, I am a member of one of the teams that will be affected by this expansion.  There's something like 9 club sports (many of which are very competitive, including Rugby) that WILL be displaced if this expansion is passed

Eat Your Wheatlies

February 13th, 2017 at 2:04 PM ^

Coach should send the team over to the construction site for some off-season weight training. He seems like a man that could get behind swinging some sledges around. I imagine they'd have that think built and ready to use in no time at all with his leadership/encouragement and a little sweat equity.

Gobgoblue

February 13th, 2017 at 2:05 PM ^

Jim Harbaugh asking for more things from regents is like the opposite of "and it's gone" on South Park.

JH: Hey can you guys build me a new-
BOR: Yes.

Coldwater

February 13th, 2017 at 5:10 PM ^

It's the one facility that Michigan lacks compared to other Power 5 teams. From the pictures I've seen of the weightroom, it looks woeful compared to other schools.



JWG Wolverine

February 13th, 2017 at 5:17 PM ^

Sometimes it's too bad to do such a big project on a weight room, but it is necessary to make sure that no condition hinders our recruiting success. The weight room is one of those conditions unfortunately. Especially when you have other schools setting such crazy high expectations when it comes to weight rooms.

lhglrkwg

February 13th, 2017 at 7:01 PM ^

This sort of stuff makes me go back and forth on whether to pay or not to pay players. On the one hand, big time football schools make money hand over fist off of football. OTOH, a free education at one of the finest universities in the world plus all the insane perks of being on the football team seems like a pretty nice payment

crg

February 13th, 2017 at 9:30 PM ^

Instead of us agonizing over whether college athletes get paid something while pursuing their full-ride at a world-class university, maybe we should instead be asking what else could be done with $21M? There are hundreds of homeless people in SE Michigan who might be more interested in a meal, a place to sleep, clean and dry clothes, etc. Just one possibility.

4yearsofhoke

February 13th, 2017 at 11:50 PM ^

Has anyone been to the CCRB and/or IM post renovation? Those were also embarrassing just a few years back.

Edit* - Just looked at the IM renovations... Those are nice. Saw the CCRB pictures as well. Looks like lipstick on a pig. Free weight/dumbell section at the CCRB HAS to be bigger for a University like Michigan. It's really a shame when you compare it to OSU/PSUs/other universities i've been to. Even the small University of Miami has a better weight room when I took a trip down there.

Not saying the football team doesn't deserve a renovation, but you'd think the regents could siphon some money off to make two legit central campus gyms without raising student fees.

UMProud

February 14th, 2017 at 2:00 PM ^

Absolutely.

And these kids need access to the latest equipment and plenty of it.  Waiting in line for the squat rack or moving your routine around cause you can't get access doesn't cut it.  There are only so many hours in a day and lots of equipment helps to allow the students to get in & out of the gym + juggle their studies.