Purdue Football Performance Facility Construction Update

Every once in a while we get some inside information here at Hammer & Rails. It almost makes us a reputable news source. This time we have an intrepid reader, who wishes to remain anonymous, contact us about the construction on the new Football Performance Facility. He is one of the contractors working on the facility and he agreed to answer a few questions about how construction is going and what to expect. Here are his responses:

A big deal is made about the weight room and being able to house the entire team. How big is the current one compared to the new?

The new weight room is easily 3 times as big as the old one.

The same with an entire team meeting room. Is there not one in the current facility? What about the individual meeting rooms. Any specifics?

I think there is but, it is more like a classroom than an impressive auditorium like the new one will be. It will have 160 seats with built-in table and power. It has an awesome AV system for film sessions, and some sweet graphics on the back wall that I can't tell you about. Sorry to tease you like that but if I told you they would know who leaked it.

What are the biggest differences between the old locker room and the new?

The old locker room is small with low ceilings and rows in the middle of the room as well as along the edges. The new one is HUGE with lockers around the edge and a 4x4 video wall at one end (4x4 - 47" TVs square). it also has a huge motion P logo on the ceiling with some other AV and Lighting features (think tricked out man cave).

Why did they choose the north end of Mollenkopf? It seems like a long walk to the field entrance compared to now. Will there be some sort of new entrance to Ross-Ade?

Due to its location between the indoor and outdoor practice fields. There are plans in the works for other updates to Ross-Ade.

If you know, how is this supposed to stack up to other facilities around the Big Ten?

This will put us up on top of the Big Ten for about 2-3 years then everyone will catch up.

Will we have anything that particularly stands out?

Yes, but again I cant tell you much.

Why wasn't a combined locker room/south end zone facility considered?

There are other plans for the South End Zone.

Of course, those plans probably involve keeping beer in the stadium because we know it will be needed for a while.