Oklahoma Getting a New Weight Room?
Posted on: January 22, 2014
Image from OU Athletics Communications
Jonathan Alvarez (a 2014 OU offensive lineman commit) told me that when he was on his visit this past weekend, Coach Schmidt told the recruits that Oklahoma is going to be doing a facility upgrade. He said they, in addition to some other facility upgrades, are going to be adding a new 20,000 square ft. weight room!
He (Alvarez) said they are going to start the project next year. He could not remember the total cost of the project. He said it was either 300 million or 3 million. If it is indeed a 300 million dollar upgrade then they must be talking about stadium renovation/additions as well which would be pretty cool. So put me in the camp of those who are hoping the 300 million number is correct!
There really isn’t any other way to say it…Oklahoma is hot right now and it looks like it may only get hotter from here. JY talked about momentum yesterday and he was right, in my opinion. You start looking at how OU has changed their 2015 recruiting tactics and become very aggressive, look at the coaching upgrades, look at the young talent, look at the new dorms, look at the big wins this seasons, look at the young talent, look at the player development, look at this year’s recruiting class, and now it appears we’re going to get some substantial facility upgrades.
If anyone doubted coach Stoops fire (and we certainly didn’t), he’s making it pretty clear that he wants to win it all again.
34 Comments
big range obviously based on 3m or 300m, not sure you could do much with 3m lol and with OU’s donor’s they probably have 1 guy that could donate the 3m, so I doubt it’s that little. I’d be willing to bet it’s 300m and includes stadium reno’s and hopefully includes remodeling the press box tower as well as adding some seats…would like to see OU get to the 95-100k mark. I think the fanbase would support it every week ( thought this is just an educated guess based on waitlist for season tickets. )
this is truly the time to strike while the iron is hot and I hope they are taking FULL advantage of it!
Ha! I was going to say, just getting my garage gym equipped to handle my powerlifting training has nearly reached the 3m point……Not really, but man, it sure feels like it….Wife also likes to act like it, too when she sees another specialty barbell show up from UPS.
Hell Billy, we’ll just send the team to your house and save a butt load of money!
Ha ha ha…..As long as they can tolerate old school weights and training, I’m down with that. 🙂
fwiw, I’ve seen the unconfirmed $300MM a couple other places as well. So I feel pretty confident in assuming whatever the number is it’s much closer to that than $3MM.
Honestly, as ridiculous as it sounds I’m not sure how much they could even really accomplish for $3MM.
100% agree, the equipment in said new room probably gets close to 3m alone…not even including the room to hold it all…
I have a great idea! Everyone who visits this site put some money in, give it to me and I will scientifically employ that money to see how much I can accomplish with 3 million dollars. I will report it to y’all and so forth.
Address please.
Can’t do that Blaster because you would spend it out of state and that would not be accurate so forward the money to me. You know, just to keep it “scientific”
Hmmmm. I knew someone would figure this out.
$300 million = upgrade
$3 million = upkeep
A new weight room sounds interesting, but what does that mean? Barbells, dumbbells, kettle bells, 1kg – 25kg bumpers, big tires, heavy sleds to push, and a rack system would go a long way (times about 20). Several million for sure, probably.
But bumpers, bars, kettle bells, and such don’t really go bad (you can break barbells if you drop them from the roof). Thus, other than new floors and a giant TV I wonder what they would build…?
Bigger. It needs to be expanded, significantly IMO, to be on part w/ other elite programs. And if they’re going to expand it, might as well upgrade it (and its surroundings).
Bigger than Bama’s. If so, yes to whatever you said.
Certainly not calling anything into question that Alvarez said or that K has written, but I would simply caution all here that one comment made to a visiting recruit is obviously far from the necessary steps/approval that would need to be taken for this to actually transpire.
That said, the press box/stadium stuff has been out there for a while so it’s certainly not unreasonable to assume this would be a part of that.
I’ve heard a rumor of some kind of announcement that could be made as early as this spring, so hopefully we’ll know something more definitive in the relatively near future.
I’ve heard from a source “in the know” that architects are still working on upgrades to south endzone seating and locker rooms/weight rooms below.. They are hoping to begin as soon as the 2014 season ends and looking at approximately 90,000 seats(5-6000 new seats).
Along with this is of course the press box upgrades, as well as upgrades to seating for the handicapped section in the south endzone..
Just ask another recruit that was there and see what the price was. I know that they would like more suits and that may be an addition with the Press Box, but they have to decide if they will completely close in the stadium, only one side, stack it, or even stack the North end zone instead.
Would be smart move to expand the seating capacity – if another conference realignment happens we’ll need to be at least 90,000 seats to get into the best grouping with elite programs.
Make hay while the sun shines.
Most kids now days put a lot of stock into facilities. If it gets the attention of the better kids, I say go for it. We need a stadium that competes in size to the biggest in the sec and big10 just to stay in the national spotlight, seems like commentators are always talking about attendance numbers.
I’m gonna crash garage sales and auctions in the spring to get a new grill. I’m too cheap to go to the store. That’s my upgrade 🙂
At least get the good hot dogs and stay away from natty light!
Beast ice all the way man. Go old school
Ugh. The Beast. You’re bringing back too many hangover memories.
Figuring the Colvin story thread about his injury is far down the list right now, I will ask my question here:
Who pays for Colvin’s surgery and rehabilitation? He is no longer in the OU program nor is he affiliated with any pro team. Does he now have to pay for the cost of treatment?
I don’t know this for a fact, but my assumption is he’s still on scholarship thru the end of this spring semester so wouldn’t that mean OU still covers him?
I would think that there is some responsibility born on the Senior Bowl officials to some extent. That, in combination with some sort of OU Athletics medical plan. (I would assume that athletes would have difficulty getting normal Blue Cross rates…lol)
That is what I would think, but I would not out past the NCAA to bar something like that. I don’t think he has any connections to OU because he is not in school and most likely has an agent by now.
I hope they spend some money on some new snap backs for the recruits. Our plain and old hats are not impressive when they’re on the table.
Athletic Department as a whole, looking great! Softball National Champs, both Men’s and Womens Gymnastics ranked #1 right now, Men’s BBall ranked, Women’s BBall well known and some great wins from the FBall team this year- gotta love it. Sorry if I missed anyone.
Wresting is ranked in the Top 5 and I believe both tennis programs are performing well also.
Men’s golf is doing better than it has in years under Hybel
Good call
It’s not like OU doesn’t have the money. I for one appreciate the approaches taken to keep the momentum going in the direction it is headed.