As the fall 2016 Texas Tech football nears, construction crews are keeping busy making changes to both the Jones AT&T Stadium’s north end zone, and building a new athletic training building for student athletes.
Robert Giovannetti, the TTU Associate Athletic Director for External Operations, says the “Sports Performance Center” is being built above where the Athletic Training Center once stood. The ATC had been around since the eighties. In January, its roof collapsed as a result of heavy snowfall.
The new Sports Performance Center will house a practice football field and track, and will be able to seat more than 2,000 spectators. It will be used not only for football, but also Big 12 indoor track events and local high school games.
“There are not many programs that have an indoor facility like we’ll have here with this. This is going to be, not just for football, but for track and field, and also locally.”
Since the roof collapse, the student athletes have been able to take their weight training to the student recreational center. The new facility is expected to be up and running by summer 2017.
Giovannetti says the new changes are exciting, but some feel more bittersweet than others, such as the removal of the Double-T structure at the north zone end which had been there since Giovannetti was a kid attending games with his family. He says even for him, the change hits a little close to home.
“My parents would stick me in the grass end zone and we would lock the gate and it would just be hundreds of kids in there going crazy and sliding on the Double-T and all that.”
Now, the Double-T has been removed and all that remains is a knoll of dry grass where it once stood. Just above it, construction crews are clearing the way for the installment of a new club area with loge seating, a series of private box seats surrounded by televisions and tables.
While the old one has been taken down, an new Double-T will go up in its place, one that Giovannetti says may actually be even bigger than its predecessor.
The installment of the new Double-T and lodge seating is expected to be complete before the first Texas Tech home football game on September 3.
“Enjoy a game here. I think we have the greatest fans in the world and I think we’re making this one of the best facilities there is in the United States,” said Giovannetti.
