The Arizona Athletic Department is making progress on their facilities

Inching through the year, the Arizona Athletic Department is continuing to make progress in the construction of their athletic facilities.

It takes money to make money, or at least that’s how the saying goes. This past year, the Arizona Athletic Department is proving that they are committed to improvement.

As you are hopefully familiar with by now, it’s that Arizona has committed to upgrading a few of its facilities on campus, allocating a massive budget of $66 million approved by the Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) to conduct the projects.

Arizona Wildcats

That large budget has been going towards making improvements to Arizona Stadium (which will be done in phases), renovating the Hillenbrand Aquatic Center, the Hillenbrand Softball Stadium, and building the long overdue indoor practice facility!

Here is the list of projects, along with their forecasted budget(s), and estimated construction time according to the schools’ Planning, Design & Construction website:

• Hillenbrand Aquatic Center
  • Budget: $13.25 million
  • Construction Schedule: April 2018 – December 2018
  • You can also follow the live build here. The school recently filled the pool and is nearing completion of the revamped aquatic center.
  • The project provided a replacement to the old Pump/Filtration system and Chemical Room. The pools structural integrity was severely degraded and the mechanical filtration system was corroded and unsafe. The new pool will not only be significantly longer (70m) but will have state-of-the-art technology for practicing and for competition. The pool will also accommodate multiple bulkheads. The Old Dive Pool was demolished to create the space needed for the longer pool.
• Hillenbrand Softball Stadium
  • Budget: $8 million
  • Construction Schedule: June 2018 – February 2019
  • The live build can be followed here
  • The project will add more sun shading for fans, as well as new lodging and standing areas. Upgrades will be made to the press box, dugouts, as well as replacing the backstop netting system, while adding new restrooms and concessions.
• Arizona Football Stadium
  • Budget: $25 million
  • 1st stage of the construction began January 2018 and was completed in September
  • As we stated, renovations to the stadium will be done in phases, starting with the East side, which has already been completed. The overall project will improve the infrastructure of the stadium, as well as improve safety, provide code upgrades, increase fan circulation, improve restrooms, concessions and fan amenities. With the renovations brought to the east side, they also added new concessions and restrooms, and improved the student seating area, and the southeast entrance.

• ICA Indoor Sports Center
  • Budget: $16 million
  • Construction Schedule: April 2018-January 2019
  • Live construction of the facility can be watched here
  • The construction of the new indoor facility is moving along just fine! It’s located at the old Sancet Stadium site and site to the current outdoor practice fields. The stadium will provide multi-use purposes that is envisioned to benefit multiple sports and could also possibly serve as an additional game day venue. The facility is impressive so far and we are surely excited to see the finished project!

At Zona Zealots, we are excited to see the continued growth and development of the athletic department and can’t wait to see of the finished facilities to come! Bear Down, Arizona!