| |
Posted Feb 14, 2020, 9:34 PM
|
|
Registered User
|
|
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 2,275
|
|
Eyes of Texas: Construction has UT football scattered
via Chip Brown at 247
Quote:
For the next 16 months, Texas football is … well … scattered all over the place.
What was south is north. What was north is east and west.
That gorgeous locker room with all those state-of-the-art-patented lockers? Gone. Demolished in January. (The lockers themselves were removed and preserved for future use.)
Anyone seen the weight room?
Wait, Tom Herman’s office is now right next to athletic director Chris Del Conte’s? Talk about bonding.
(No wonder Herman has been dressing in sports jackets at press conferences since signing day in December.)
And talk about irony, Texas is now in the locker room that LSU coach Ed Orgeron said had no air conditioning.
Yes, folks, for the next 16 months, everything we’ve come to know about the location of Texas football on campus is upside down and inside out.
Moncrief-Neuhaus, which has housed Texas football since its construction in 1986, has been demolished. To the studs. To make room for a palatial new, $200 million south end of DKR that will be done in August of 2021.
Last year, the construction caused some of the student section at home games to move from the south end zone to Section 19 in the northeast corner of DKR - while the rest of the students sat in sections 30, 31 and 32.
That caused a ripple effect for the LSU game that saw more than 15,000 students cram their way into overflow seating.
Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte said an estimated 116,000 people were in DKR (capacity 100,119) for the LSU game.
“The fire marshall wasn’t happy with us,” Del Conte said. “But our staff was simply overwhelmed by the number of students and basically got bum-rushed.
“We had people sitting in the aisles, standing on bleachers. Let’s put it this way, if you got up to go to the bathroom or to get a drink, you weren’t getting your seat back.”
This year, the construction has caused the coaches, players and the entire Longhorns’ football operation to be displaced.
The Dr. Nasser Al-Rashid Strength Complex, also known as the Texas football weight room, is now in the student recreation center just to the south of DKR.
Football has rented one of the full-length basketball courts in the recreation center for 18 months and moved its entire weight room there.
Players shower in the recreation center or in their 50-year-old locker room, because their plush, new locker room as of three years ago, is now construction dust.
“It’s not ideal by any means,” one team source said. “But then you keep reminding yourself of what’s coming. It’s one year.”
The coaches’ offices have been moved from the south end to the seventh floor of the north end, where Del Conte and his staff, compliance and the media relations departments have been housed.
But part of Del Conte’s staff, compliance and media relations have been moved to various points throughout DKR/Bellmont Hall to make room for the coaches’ offices.
“I’m not sure there’s another Power Five program in America where the football coach’s office is practically next door to his athletic director,” one UT source said.
“But considering we just hired seven new assistant coaches, it’s probably good that everyone is huddled together for this year, so everyone gets to know each other a little better.”
So, until the Joneses of college football can once again live like the Joneses of college football, they’ll live like That ‘70s Show - or at least live out of a locker room that was last used by Texas in the late 1970s.
“It’s a huge shift from what the players were used to,” one team source said. “It’s a visitor’s locker room. It’s not supposed to make you feel at home.”
The south end zone construction also means the Longhorns will enter the field at DKR for home games this season out of the main north end zone tunnel used by the band to enter the field.
Visiting teams will use the visitor's locker room used decades ago in the bowels of the southwest corner of DKR and enter the field from the southwest corner of the stadium.
And as for the fans, they’ll experience inconvenience, too.
The great part about having nearly $800 million in athletics construction happening in the same part of campus simultaneously is that championship facilities for football, swimming and diving, track, soccer and men’s and women’s basketball are all on the way.
The negative aspect is traffic in and out of campus. If you thought it was bad before, wait until the city shuts down Red River between Manor and MLK (which will happen before the 2020 football season).
Deadman Drive leading into Moncrief-Neuhaus from Red River has already been shut down to make room for construction of the new, $388 million Moody Center basketball arena and the new practice facility for men’s and women’s hoops (all due to be completed in early 2022).
Fans at Del Conte’s recent Town Hall meeting on Feb. 2 complained that it often took at least 90 minutes to get out of the LBJ Library parking lot after football games. Just to get out of the parking lot.
Del Conte said that’s part of the reason athletics officials are trying to come up with more things for fans to do AFTER games, such as the postgame silent disco parties on the LBJ Lawn.
And while Del Conte said UT is working with city officials and police to figure out new ways to alleviate the traffic, it’s probably going to get worse before it gets better.
Texas is trying to come up with more and more things to do in and around the stadium before games, so people will feel more comfortable tailgating on Bevo Blvd. or at Longhorns City Limits and will use car services or shuttles onto campus, rather than parking.
But school officials know many traditionalists simply want to bring in their smokers and tents to tailgate the same way they’ve always done it before Texas games.
As is the case with any remodel, it’s never easy or comfortable, so Longhorns Nation just needs to be prepared.
But, hey, there will be an attempt to improve the sound system inside DKR this season, Del Conte said at the Town Hall meeting.
The problem with sound inside DKR is the configuration of the stadium. Because the west side has the upper deck and because all the sound emanates from south end, it bounces off the north end and echoes up to the upper deck.
Currently, your ability to hear the sound system inside DKR depends on where you’re sitting. Some folks in lower sections near the video board complain the sound is too loud. Others can hardly hear it.
School officials are bringing in sound engineers to best figure out how to configure the sound once the south end renovation is completed. The most likely answer will be to disperse speakers throughout the stadium, which could be incredibly costly considering all the concrete that would need to be penetrated to install such a system.
|
So basically they stripped Montcrief to the skeleton to avoid having to demolish and re lay the foundation and structure. That probably saved a couple months on the schedule.
Last edited by freerover; Feb 18, 2020 at 8:25 PM.
|
|
|
Prev
Linear Mode
