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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.– The funding for the Virginia Virginia Football Operations Center has crossed the goal line.
During the Board of Visitors meeting last week, University of Virginia President Jim Ryan announced a $5 million anonymous gift toward the Football Operations Center as part of Phase 2 of the athletics department Master Plan.
The funding for the $80 million facility is now complete after the new donation.
“I would like to thank the anonymous donors who got us over the goal line with this gift for the Football Operations Center, along with many other supporters who have made valuable contributions to our athletics programs,” said University president Jim Ryan in a press release.
UVA held a ground breaking for the new facility, the same day the donation was received.
“This was an amazing gift and its timing allowed us to complete the fundraising phase for the Football Operations Center,” said Virginia athletics director Carla Williams. “While the donors wish to remain anonymous, it is important for us to acknowledge how grateful we are for their generosity.
“Our donors continue to make the Master Plan a reality and that is contributing to our overall goal of making Virginia athletics a model for all of college athletics. We’ve still got plenty of work to do to complete the next phase, and as we’ve said before, we need and welcome gifts of all sizes. We have all experienced some challenging times the past few years and, despite that, our supporters have allowed us to continue to press forward. That has been inspirational to all of us.”
The Football Operations Center will include everything a football student athlete would need in one place: from a locker room, to strength and conditioning and nutrition spaces to recovery and treatment areas to meeting rooms and football offices.
Virginia head coach Tony Elliott came to Charlottesville after spending 11 years at Clemson. He knows first hand how a new facility can help a program.
“I think back to 2016, winning the national championship and then moving into a new facility, the forever home of that football team,” Elliott said at the ceremony. “So now we’re going to have the forever home of the Cavalier football team. That’s why I said it’s a landmark day.”
Former Virginia players joined the current team at the groundbreaking ceremony.
“As we’re challenging and pushing these young men towards leading us to become a model program, it’s important that we show them that we support them fully in everything that they do,” Elliott said after he asked the players to stand for an applause, “and this space in the new facility is going to give us all the room that we need, plus all the resources that we need, to pour into these young men holistically to create the model program in all of college football.”
The construction for the new building is set to be completed by spring 2024.
More information about the Master Plan is available at VirginiaSportsMP.com.