Sports
Maryland breaks ground on new basketball practice facility – Testudo Times
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Construction of the facility is expected to be finished in 2025.
The University of Maryland broke ground on the Barry P. Gossett Basketball Performance Center during an on-campus ceremony Thursday.
Plans for the new facility describe a 44,000-square foot building adjacent to XFINITY Center that will be shared by the school’s men’s and women’s basketball programs. It will feature a dedicated practice court along with a new strength and conditioning facility, larger locker rooms, updated athletic training technology, new areas for film study and fresh offices and lounge areas for team personnel.
“It has always been our vision at the University of Maryland to provide our student-athletes with the necessary resources so they can be successful athletically, academically and socially,” athletic director Damon Evans said. “The Barry P. Gossett Basketball Performance Center facility does just that.”
Evans also said that the price tag for the performance center is expected to be just over $52 million — a sharp increase from the original announced cost of $36 million that was supplanted by rising construction costs and the COVID-19 pandemic. Original plans also slated the facility to be 16,000 square feet larger and include an additional practice court.
It has been quite an endeavor for Maryland to begin construction on a dedicated basketball facility. The original plans for the building were announced in 2019 and were in the works for over half a decade before that, but rising costs and fundraising difficulties following construction of the nearly-$150 million Jones-Hill House football facility pushed the timeline back a number of years.
“Being able to, you know, put that fork into the ground and see it happen is a dream come true because I know we were planning this for a long time,” head women’s basketball coach Brenda Frese said.
Currently, Maryland and Boston College are the only two “Power Five” schools not to own a basketball-dedicated practice facility, however both have now begun construction on one. Boston College broke ground on their 40,000-square foot facility in the summer of 2022.
“I think there were a lot of questions around us simply because we were one of the last programs in the country to not have a facility,” Evans said. “When you look at the rich history of these programs … this is well-deserved. This is something that should have been done, in my humble opinion, years ago.”
The Barry P. Gossett Basketball Performance Center is expected to be completed prior to the fall 2025 semester, which is slated to begin the first week of September that year.
“I think this is one of the most important days in Maryland basketball history we’ve ever had, because this has given us — Maryland basketball — a home for the future,” head men’s basketball coach Kevin Willard said.
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