Vanderbilt announced additional details regarding the Vandy United plan on Tuesday, including an aerial facilities map, two additional target areas and an updated timeline—indicating construction will begin following the 2021 football season.
“We continue to be excited about the transformation of Vanderbilt Athletics,” athletic director Candice Storey Lee said in a press release. “Commodore Nation’s response to Vandy United has been nothing short of overwhelming. There is much work that remains, but it’s great to see our future begin to take shape.”
In March, Vanderbilt released the Vandy United plan, Vanderbilt’s biggest athletic renovation project in school history with a total fund of $300 million. The fund will be used to build a new football operations building, a new basketball operations building and a new indoor football practice facility, as well as to renovate the McGugin Center and upgrade the stadium fan experience. On Tuesday, Vanderbilt offered additional details regarding the location of these buildings and logistics behind their construction.
Per the university press release, the north end zone of Vanderbilt Stadium will house the basketball operations building which will include practice courts, locker rooms, offices and a weight room specifically for the men’s and women’s basketball programs. The south end zone will be revamped with additional fan experience amenities including premium seating options, hospitality spaces and new food and beverage options.
The current home of athletics, McGugin Center, will also be getting a facelift with new training rooms, a sports medicine facility and sport performance center. Beside McGugin Center, the Vandy United fund will help create a football operations center and brand new indoor practice facility that will be built alongside Natchez Trace, adjacent to the current outdoor practice facilities.
The school also announced additional focus areas for the fund, noting that it will also be used for upgrades to the Currey Tennis Center and the track and field complex. Vanderbilt’s already state-of-the-art baseball facilities will also be evaluated throughout this process.
“Vandy United is guided by the same core values we all share at Vanderbilt: collaborating across the Vanderbilt community to realize a bold vision and pursuing excellence no matter what obstacles may lie ahead,” Chancellor Daniel Diermeier said. “Candice and I are equally committed to solidifying a student-athlete experience at Vanderbilt that is second to none.”
In addition to the help of architecture company Populous, Vanderbilt will welcome the Barton Malow company to campus to lead construction efforts. With a strong Nashville presence, Barton Malow has operated more than $5.4 billion worth of projects in higher education, including Northwestern University’s new athletic fieldhouse.
