UVA BOV Approves $180 Million Master Plan To Move Forward

The University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors approved an estimated $180 million master plan for the school’s athletic facilities to move forward during its meeting on Wednesday.

Long-term goals include the renovation of the McCue Center, along with construction of a 260,000 square feet, state-of-the-art building to house UVa’s football program, and the Olympic sports programs. In addition, two natural grass practice fields will be added where University Hall, Onesty Hall, and The Cage currently sit (they are all scheduled for future demolition).

The entire project will be funded by private gifts.

Once completed, the area will house six practice fields and increased parking.

The McCue Center, dedicated in 1991 at a price estimated at just over $10 million, presently houses the Cavaliers’ football program (offices, meeting rooms, weight and training rooms), the athletic department’s administrative offices and more. However, the football program has outgrown the facility as UVa has fallen behind most of its ACC competitors in this area.

Many of the Olympic sports programs are scattered in trailers outside of U-Hall, the school’s former basketball arena, which is filled with asbestos in its ceiling. The arena portion of the building has been sealed for some time.

While UVa football presently has two practice fields, both are field turf, including the George Welsh indoor facility. Coach Bronco Mendenhall said it would be nice to have a natural grass practice field because his Cavaliers play on natural grass.

Current plans call for the Olympic sports building to be connected to the McCue Center in the direction toward Emmet Street. The new football building would interconnect to the Olympic sports facility and the Welsh indoor facility.

Virginia athletics director Carla Williams told this writer in a sit down interview last week that she has already been makings “asks” for contributions to the proposed football home.

“For the last eight months, I have talked to anyone who would listen about what the program needs and why the program needs it,” Williams said in reference to the facility. “Once we get board approval and get closer to designing the facility, we’ll be able to talk more specifics to donors.”

Williams said the football program, in addition to the Olympic sports programs have basic needs for the student-athletes so that they can train and condition and practice and develop safely, so that they can be consistently competitive.

“We don’t have a desire to be in excess,” she said, referencing some of the over-the-top facilities that dot the college football landscape at such places as Northwestern, Clemson, Oregon, and others.

“We really haven’t looked at some of the other schools because they are doing things they feel like they need to do for their programs,” Williams added. “We have to do what we think is what we need for our program, fill the basic needs for our student-athletes and our coaches.”

In other athletic department-relation actions by the Board of Visitors on Wednesday, it gave its final blessing to a new softball stadium, which will be situated where the current men’s and women’s soccer teams practice at the intersection of Massie and Copeley Roads.

Also, the board approved naming rights for the new UVa men’s and women’s golf teams facility. It will be named the Thompson “Tom” Dean Golf Facility and Performance Center. It is located at Birdwood Golf Club and is adjacent to the old Birdwood mansion on the property.

Dean is a UVa alumnus and long-time supporter of the College of Arts & Sciences and the school’s athletic program. He has been a contributor to the VAF annual fund, the UVa golf facility, men’s basketball and football coach initiatives, football facilities, and endowed athletic scholarships, while also in support of curriculum innovation.