Football facility estimated to cost $91.9 million

[aubiefifty 12,074]

Auburn’s new football facility estimated to cost $91.9 million

By Tom Green | tgreen@al.com

2 minutes

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A rendering of the new standalone football facility. (Image courtesy Auburn University)

Auburn’s new standalone football facility has a new estimated price tag and expected date of completion.

The Tigers’ new Football Performance Center is expected to cost $91.9 million and be completed by July 2022, according to materials related to Auburn’s next board of trustees meeting, which is set for Feb. 5. At that meeting, the project will be up for final approval.

The program’s standalone facility is set to cover 12.5 acres and sit at 233,400 square feet, with construction taking place at the site of the old Hutsell Track on Biggio Drive. The project will house Auburn’s football operations building, a new indoor practice facility and two natural turf practice fields. It will include a new weight room, locker room for players, a players lounge, barbershop, two recording studios, a flight simulator and team meeting rooms while also being home to the program’s sports medicine and nutrition offices, football administration offices, equipment rooms and laundry.

The football operations building will take up 138,100 square feet, while the new indoor practice facility it set to span 95,300 square feet.

The $91.9 million cost of the project is expected to be financed by university bonds, with the debt service to be paid by Auburn athletics department funds.

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.

[aublaise 164]

The athletic department surplus from this past year will cover a good chunk of the cost. WDE

[Timbeaux38 271]

22 minutes ago, aublaise said:

The athletic department surplus from this past year will cover a good chunk of the cost. WDE

they might wanna save that surplus to offset the 2020 shortfall......

[Butthead 496]

They should sell the naming rights. Maybe a giant yella’ Building?  Or a big ass apple?

[AU9377 2,809]

How can Clemson build a "state of the art facility" that they opened in 2017 for $55 million and less than 5 years later we build a comparable facility for $91 million?  I am all for having the best, I just don't believe the best costs $91 million.

[Hydro-Logic 49]

5 minutes ago, AU9377 said:

How can Clemson build a "state of the art facility" that they opened in 2017 for $55 million and less than 5 years later we build a comparable facility for $91 million?  I am all for having the best, I just don't believe the best costs $91 million.

There's a lot more to it for sure, but in my piece of the construction industry not uncommon to see 2 fold price increases from our Engineer's Estimate of Probable Cost that were scoped even 2 to 3 years ago. Now $91M is a lot of dough though, you'd think there'd be some more savings realized at that scale...

[AUBourne 425]

39 minutes ago, AU9377 said:

How can Clemson build a "state of the art facility" that they opened in 2017 for $55 million and less than 5 years later we build a comparable facility for $91 million?  I am all for having the best, I just don't believe the best costs $91 million.

And up to this point just looking at the design plans I thought the Clemson facility was much nicer. Like Disney vs Six Flags. 

[boisnumber1 2,721]

1 hour ago, AU9377 said:

How can Clemson build a "state of the art facility" that they opened in 2017 for $55 million and less than 5 years later we build a comparable facility for $91 million?  I am all for having the best, I just don't believe the best costs $91 million.

Construction costs have definitely sky-rocketed.

[JDUBB4AU 3,819]

18 minutes ago, boisnumber1 said:

Construction costs have definitely sky-rocketed.

Look at the steel and lumber markets . It’s a mess right now . It’s not only high, but it’s difficult to get. The basic rules of supply and demand 

[TigerOne 890]

Why do they need Another indoor practice field? Isn’t the one we have basically new? But then we always had great practices, so maybe another one will lead to super great practices.

and it’s an ugly ass building, for that amount of money it should be impressive instead of some nondescript boring forgettable brick building. Poor architecture on Auburn’s newer buildings is rampant .

Edited January 29, 2021 by TigerOne

[woodford 2,770]

4 hours ago, JDUBB4AU said:

Look at the steel and lumber markets . It’s a mess right now . It’s not only high, but it’s difficult to get. The basic rules of supply and demand 

40 million in 4 years though? The price tag just seems a bit high. I understand the basics of economics, that doesn’t mean I can’t be skeptics about the price. 

[woodford 2,770]

9 hours ago, Butthead said:

They should sell the naming rights. Maybe a giant yella’ Building?  Or a big ass apple?

Or Regions 🤣

[JBiGGiE 2,459]

5 hours ago, TigerOne said:

Why do they need Another indoor practice field? Isn’t the one we have basically new? But then we always had great practices, so maybe another one will lead to super great practices.

and it’s an ugly ass building, for that amount of money it should be impressive instead of some nondescript boring forgettable brick building. Poor architecture on Auburn’s newer buildings is rampant .

My understanding is that the current indoor facility would be remodelled for track and field (since we're building on the current track and field plot.

[AU9377 2,809]

8 hours ago, JDUBB4AU said:

Look at the steel and lumber markets . It’s a mess right now . It’s not only high, but it’s difficult to get. The basic rules of supply and demand 

That is just silly though.  There is no way that any reasonable explanation can account for that kind of increase.  It isn't real.

[AU9377 2,809]

3 hours ago, woodford said:

40 million in 4 years though? The price tag just seems a bit high. I understand the basics of economics, that doesn’t mean I can’t be skeptics about the price. 

Increases in raw materials might justify a 10% cost increase, but no way it explains $40 million.  I don't think some people have an appreciation for just how much money that is.

[JDUBB4AU 3,819]

7 hours ago, woodford said:

40 million in 4 years though? The price tag just seems a bit high. I understand the basics of economics, that doesn’t mean I can’t be skeptics about the price. 

I won’t bore you to death with statistics and the CRU index, but this structure will be steel. Steel has over doubled for hot rolled since august of last year. They are quoting the structure based off of that and future replacement cost. Future replacement will be going up another 30-40% in the next 120 days. They may adjust later when the index goes down or have a clause in the contract adjusting for that. Something to consider is interest rates are so low it has created a huge demand and people don’t care about the price now. 

[Hank2020 2,592]

3 hours ago, JDUBB4AU said:

I won’t bore you to death with statistics and the CRU index, but this structure will be steel. Steel has over doubled for hot rolled since august of last year. They are quoting the structure based off of that and future replacement cost. Future replacement will be going up another 30-40% in the next 120 days. They may adjust later when the index goes down or have a clause in the contract adjusting for that. Something to consider is interest rates are so low it has created a huge demand and people don’t care about the price now. 

Probably just low-balled the original number. It probably was an AOM rather than an 80-20 estimate.

[gr82be 11,896]

13 hours ago, TigerOne said:

and it’s an ugly ass building, for that amount of money it should be impressive

Definitely no head turner if you were to drive by it. Maybe it gets better looking after a few drinks at 2 am in the morning???

Edited January 29, 2021 by gr82be

[keesler 5,617]

Let's think back about 10 yrs.  The inception of the first plans were born around the time AU won the NC when things were riding high and Jay Jacobs & the AD started the beginning stages of the FOF.  Years drag on and Chizik was fired and Gus was hired (goes to NC 1st year) and Gus decides he doesn't need any FOF, he just took his team to the dang NC without one!  So years drag on and Jacobs went back to renderings, and BOT approvals, etc and we were told that the BOT wouldn't give Jacobs anything and they didn't want him managing the project so I think about that time we got the AubieTron installed in JHS.  Years drag on and Jacobs takes the plans back to the BOT while in the meantime he's telling the fanbase they'll have to open their wallets to fund the thing and he's sending out questionnaires for fan feedback.  So Jacobs, in his words "goes back to the drawing board."  

Now years drag on and Gus realizes he needs a FOF and goes as far as to pledge $2mm to the FOF in and effort to spur it along. Jacobs is out the door and Greene enters and back to another drawing board they go and years drag on and now we see this thing take form to the tune of $91MM (about the same as the Arena we built years ago) and praise be....we're takin care of business! 

My time line may be off and the pesky details of behind the scenes maneuvering between the BOT/PTB/Jacobs/Malzhan/Greene are a little fuzzy.  But at the end of the day, this thing is long overdue and if costs have skyrocketed, it's no ones fault but Auburn's. 

Edited January 29, 2021 by keesler

[JuscAUse! 780]

8 hours ago, AU9377 said:

That is just silly though.  There is no way that any reasonable explanation can account for that kind of increase.  It isn't real.

Two years ago. a 2x4 stud was 2 dollars and a bit of change. They are 7.36 now, and going up.

[DAG 28,810]

Dude said I can’t be skeptical about the price like he the one forking most of the money out lol. I can’t 

[ChristoThor 70]

8 hours ago, AU9377 said:

Increases in raw materials might justify a 10% cost increase, but no way it explains $40 million.  I don't think some people have an appreciation for just how much money that is.

I'm not disagreeing that this definitely feels too high, but I know from my end of the construction industry a lot of our supplies have doubled in price and we aren't the only ones. The ones that have not doubled in price are also on the rise right now and look like they might catch up and end up doubled. The jobs we do material can sometimes take the majority of the job cost. I can't speak for everyone in construction, but that is what I have seen in my field. When everybody's material costs are doubled, it will account for more than 10% of the job. This can become even more inflated depending on the specifications of the facility.

[auskip07 927]

19 hours ago, AU9377 said:

How can Clemson build a "state of the art facility" that they opened in 2017 for $55 million and less than 5 years later we build a comparable facility for $91 million?  I am all for having the best, I just don't believe the best costs $91 million.

I dont do this kind of work but currently we slammed with work and turning stuff down left and right,  Cost of labor (with covid restriction),  Steel is very expensive,   2017 wasnt a slow time but  lots of factors come into play with these facility's.   

[auskip07 927]

19 hours ago, AUBourne said:

And up to this point just looking at the design plans I thought the Clemson facility was much nicer. Like Disney vs Six Flags. 

The university architect shaped/approved the design....     we have had more talented people at the helm in the past.   

[AUBourne 425]

3 minutes ago, auskip07 said:

The university architect shaped/approved the design....     we have had more talented people at the helm in the past.   

Do they know they can object and ask for a better product for the money being spent or did they just lazily accept the vendors first proposal?  Have they looked at what other schools have in place? The Oregon facility was $68 million. There is no comparison between the two. 

https://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2013/7/31/4574556/oregon-football-building-new