UAB Football Operations Building

Rendering of the proposed UAB Football Operations Building

The UAB Football Operations Building is a planned 46,000 square-foot facility to support the UAB Blazers football team when it returns to competition in 2017.

The building will include administrative offices, meeting and film rooms, locker rooms, weightlifting areas and other training and support functions. The overall development also includes upgrades to the adjacent outdoor turf practice field. The building is planned for the south side of 6th Avenue South at 11th Street South, next to the Wallace Physical Education Building, and north of the Ullman Building. It is also just south of an area identified in the February 2011 long-range campus master plan as the future site of an on-campus football stadium.

Funds to repay construction bonds for the Operations Building are being raised through the UAB Athletic Foundation. Protective Life, headed by trustee Johnny Johns, committed a $500,000 gift toward the facility. The Board of Trustees voted in February 2016 to allow UAB to proceed with commissioning a design for the building from Goodwyn, Mills & Cawood.

The facility is expected to open just prior to fall practice in 2017.

References

• Champlin, Drew (March 25, 2016) "Protective announces gift to jump-start UAB Football Operations Building fundraising drive." The Birmingham News
• Stein, Kelsey (February 5, 2016) "$15 million UAB football facility, turf field get greenlight from Board of Trustees." The Birmingham News