The Virginia Tech Board of Visitors has approved the new location for the new indoor practice facility. The building will be placed on part of Tech’s existing practice fields.
It is expected that the facility will be built on the eastern portions of Tech’s current practice fields. That placement preserves all the trees in the Stadium Woods, which has been a big center of controversy. As a result, the current outdoor practice fields will have to be shortened, likely to either 75 yards or 60 yards.
The approximate cost of the project is $25 million. The cost will be paid for through private donations.
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I am glad the University decided to keep as much of the woods as possible, for the trees sake, as much as the compactness of the campus. Placing the indoor facility right next to the practice field and lockers will create a great compact facility, without it becoming over-bearing on Washington st. I am with Bugzy, I think the outdoor field will quickly become 1 full field with an extra area for training.
Next up, making the North End zone a decent looking part of the stadium, hopefulyl with larger capacity, but I am fine if it stays the same size and is just upgraded. Frank and the Staff get 99% of what they want, and they are getting an indoor facility.
I like having the forest beside the stadium. Don’t care if its old growth or not. I think the natural beauty of VT’s campus sets it apart from so many other schools. Many schools don’t have the space that VT has so they have to cut everything down. But, I think if you are going to make the forest such a big deal, then put some paths, benches and stuff through the forest so people can enjoy it. It can add real character to the campus but don’t leave it completely untouched.
The problem is the university bowed down to a fraction of the total amount of students and staff. The “old growth” argument is a bunch of hogwash as you can take a hike in many of the forests in Virginia and they will look exactly the same as what’s behind the stadium. After a certain period of time a forest that has been timbered and a forest that hasn’t been touched are indifferent. No difference between a 150 yr old original tree and a 150 yr old tree that has been planted or grew after logging.
That’s the problem I have with the greenies/econuts, there’s no compromising with these people. The University could vow to plant 1,000 oaks across Montgomery County and they still would be in an uproar.
This is a no different than a number of year back when the Audubon Society was able to shut down miles and miles of beaches on the OBX, impacting the local communities, due to a few birds nesting in the dunes. The buffers were too aggressive…yet that was OK for a small minority while everyone else had to suffer.
Yes but the trees would not be on campus. I own a farm and I log, but I like having a wooded area on campus. I am not in favor of the new building that is going to take place on 460 leading to campus.
I watched an old tree die in the cold winter of ’37. He had been kept alive for 173 years with tubes and braces. The wretched, pitiful old thing just bent further and further over, begging to be allowed to go to the big forest in the sky. Then one day, when all his leaves and bark were gone, the huggers deserted him and he fell over naked in the snow and froze to death. But he’s happy now; he had planted his seed so the next generation could prevent the building of the children’s hospital. And life goes on.
If JW had anything to do with it, I would guess lowest cost factored into it.
All the “huggers” did was weaken the program with their “pothead” mentality. Even worse…someone listened. If you want to be the leader, you cant run with the slowest runner. Leaders lead from the front.
What about all the moles , worms , ants and beetles that will be slaughtered …. I am working on my protest sign tonight !!!
If they throw a big pile of dirt on the practice field making a hill in the middle, they can probably get an extra 10 yards out of that area, depending on how steep of a hill.
This is unfortunate. My late wife went to Indiana State, whose nickname is the Sycamores. She used to yell “Go Trees” during the games. I feel a special bond with her today as the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors is cheering this as well.
“Without football, our university becomes less significant.” Really? Squirrel gonads!!! Not everyone associated with VT is a diehard football fan.
The country really hasn’t been the same since the gonad plague. Very few full sets left.
Amen! Trees for god sake. We have to compromise on a practice facility because a very loud minority of idiots wants to protect TREES! Good lord. Look at what Oregon has and then look at what we will have. No comparison. Progress shut down for the sake of a squirrel. You environmentalist tree hugging schmucks sicken me.
I really wish they picked the south end zone location with concourse. That was my favorite of the proposed sites I remember seeing.
I agree. I was hoping that would be the choice too.
In all honesty, how often do you practice a play that needs more than 75 yards to run? Sounds like a good compromise to me.
I agree.
How often are 100 players on a football field? We’re talkin bout practice!
Football is Virginia Tech. Without football, our university becomes less significant. Money runs things and football is money.
Forget the trees and build a first class facility. Look at OREGON.
+1
Just know if you go the UO route, you’re putting your football facilities off-campus.
Virginia Tech fields a good football team, but Virginia Tech is much more than football or its money.
What’s frustrating is that even if they’d put it where they originally wanted it, the facility would have only impacted 3 out of the 14 acres of the Stadium Woods. There would have still been plenty of old trees for the Earth Mothers to hug.
The whole thing is beyond ridiculous, but at least now it’s been resolved.
This is where you are short sighted and completely wrong. Academics and research are VT
VT is more than a football factory? You wouldn’t know it from most of the comments in this thread.
Chris (or anyone really) — Are there any concept drawings publicly available?
Save the trees, really? Why not plant trees in the farm lands around campus instead of shorting the practice field.
Because someone lit a fire under the tree-huggers. I’d be willing to bet not 2% of the people against the woods location ever even stepped foot into the area.
There is an entrance to the stadium through those woods. I’d be most opposed to the woods location have been in those woods many, many times.
The proposed indoor facility is not in this area, so the woods behind the stadium would NOT be impacted.
Because you can’t plant old growth trees. I’m glad there were those who took a stand against the stupid idea of tearing down hundred plus year old trees to build the facility.
WTF??? They’re TREES, for Pete’s sake!!!! Get it? They don’t have feelings, they don’t have souls, and they don’t feel pain. Moreover, there are untold MILLIONS of them within a 10-mile radius of Lane Stadium, including, I’m quite sure, many that are hundreds of years old!!!
I swear, if people like you had their way we’d have never gotten out of Jamestown.
Ha! We never would have gotten to Jamestown.
Counting is pretty hard, huh.
I would suggest to you that, “IT’S JUST FOOTBALL for Pete’s sake!!” Football is fleeting, transient-a GAME; old-growth forests are rare, precious-a true, living historical marker. Saving this forest makes sense, more so at Virginia Polytechnic Institute- a land-grant institution.
Really…you obviously are a history scholar so I guess I don’t need to remind you that Jamestown settlers were starving because a majority of their time was spent in search of gold not planting food
I guess by your logic you would rather the university should keep looking for the gold (which is really just the next dollar Nike or espn offers to stick down our jock straps).
I am in the camp that educating my fellow and future hokies.
Football is but a portion of what defines virginia tech.
Do us a favor and stick to analyzing the college decisions of 16 & 17 year olds and read a book before you think of your next brilliant comparison
i’m not convinced the Athletic Dept didn’t use the shorter fields as a negotiating tool to get another location. i think we will have 1 full sized field parallel to the indoor facility when the final design is complete.