Inside Maryland Sports is reporting that University of Maryland officials have finalized a plan to convert Cole Field House into an indoor football facility, expected to open in the spring of 2017.
Plans for new facility will cost around $155 million according to the Baltimore Sun.
Under Armour CEO and Maryland alum Kevin Plank is expected to donate an initial $25 million toward the facility.
“I’m not writing the whole thing. We’re all in this thing together. Everybody’s got to put skin in the game,” Plank, who started his business while playing football for Maryland, told the Sun.
The university will break grounds in the coming months.
— A full 100-yard football field inside Cole Field House.
— A state-of-the-art weight training center.
— A sports medicine center operated in conjunction with UM Baltimore Medical Center
— A new sports entrepreneurship center.
— A sports performance center in the plot where the Cole Field House tennis courts currently exist.
— Two outdoor practice fields.
— An area inside Cole Field House honoring Maryland basketball’s rich history in the arena.
— A tunnel leading from the new locker room to an entrance to Byrd Stadium.
The project must pass a vote by Maryland’s Board of Regents, but it’s been considered a foregone conclusion since early this fall.
Maryland is the only school in the Big Ten without an indoor practice facility.