Big changes are coming to football in Tempe.
Arizona State shared its first renderings of its previously announced indoor football practice facility on Thursday. The new facility includes 106,000 square feet of turf in a substantial upgrade for the Sun Devils in conditioning, recruiting and more.
The project has a $35 million price tag, and is connected to the renovation of the Desert Financial Arena for the school’s basketball teams.
Go inside a full gallery of project renderings at the Sun Devil Club website.
The daily high for the Phoenix-Tempe area in August is 106 degrees; Spending all of fall camp outside in that kind of heat sounds absolutely miserable.
Sun Devils head coach Kenny Dillingham shared Thursday that a big-time donor pushed the project, led by the Sun Devil Club, with a nearly eight-figure payout. That’s some serious cash, and I’d hope they’re getting a private box or something out of the deal. At least a few tickets to throw around or maybe the coin toss – sheesh.
Modern, indoor practice facilities are pretty much the norm for college football, especially at the FBS level. Texas Tech built its facility in 2012, and that’s west Texas we’re talking about. It’s become a major facet in recruiting to have the newest bells and whistles when stepping on campus for a visit.
ASU gave Dillingham a $400,000 raise on top of what he was already owed this offseason, bringing his base pay to $6.4 million – the most of any state employee in Arizona history. You can bet his marketing of the program’s indoor practice facility project was part of that consideration.
