The new Alabama basketball facility is one step closer to reality.
The physical properties committee for the University of Alabama System Board of Trustees voted Thursday to approve the project budget and proposed architectural design for the new Alabama basketball training facility as well as the renovation at Coleman Coliseum. The full board of trustees will vote to approve as well later Thursday.
These are the third and fourth stages of approval needed from the board of trustees.
Construction has already begun outside Coleman Coliseum. The Crimson Tide is working toward building a new training and development facility for men’s basketball near Coleman Coliseum. The new gym for Nate Oats’ team will be connected to the current practice facility for the men and be 48,883 gross square feet; The gym the men are using now will be upgraded for the women to use.
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UA will look to have the new facilities fully operational by 2026. The project has a price tag of $58.67 million, with about $56.95 million for the upgrades.
“The practice gym is the coach’s classroom,” Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne told The Tuscaloosa News in June. “It’s where they teach and they develop. We’re doing this right now to take a very significant step for our basketball programs and then allowing us to navigate the waters that we’re in in college athletics right now. Then realizing the arena still has to be addressed.”
Byrne has made clear the new facility doesn’t mean a new arena won’t happen. The new facility is the focus in part because it’s something that can happen quicker. There’s also the uncertainty about the impact of House vs. NCAA that has caused UA, and many athletics departments, to pause. Byrne doesn’t want to be irresponsible with new costs on the horizon for college athletics. But he also realizes Coleman Coliseum will need to be addressed before long considering it opened more than 50 years ago.
Nick Kelly is an Alabama beat writer for AL.com and the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X and Instagram.
