If a major university builds a new indoor track fieldhouse, how big is the track and what does it cost?

$5M for banked. $50M for building.

$5M for banked. $50M for building.

I looked into this a couple years ago. I researched the cost of a lot of newer community and university indoor facility projects.

Here was my wish list for what would be in the facility:

1. 300m flat 6-lane MONDO track (8 lane straight

2. Two 2-way jump pits

3. PV pit in the corner

4. SP area

5. FieldTurf 100 yard football field (it fits snuggly inside the track, with the corners of the endzones cut off a bit)

6. 4 batting cage nets that descend from the ceiling

7. Curtain that can separate the track and football/soccer area

8. Necessary rooms/offices inside the facility: locker rooms, athletic training, admin offices, large storage room for equipment

Before the pandemic, a facility with all this likely would have cost $15-20 million.

Post-Pandemic, double to triple that cost.

fieldhouses are cheap and paid for by football

You'll need to build a big enough field house to put in a 300m track. The reason is that you need to be able to use the infield for football which is the sport that will be paying for it. On a side note, the soccer teams will also be able to use the facility as well.

Yeah, I was looking at 200m indoor facilities cost probably 5 years ago. It was probably $5 mill at the low end up to about $20 mill with all the bells and whistles and depending on location. Most came in around $8-10. $15-20 seems about right for 300 meter. Again those were all pre pandemic. Price probably close to double, triple seems high, but in some regions that might be true.

I didn't read your post, but I'm going to guess 1.8 billion United States dollars.

Go check out the Saginaw Valley or Grand Valley tracks in Michigan. Both top notch.

Tennessee has one in their budget for 39 million. It will probably be similar to the one at Arkansas. They already have a first class indoor football facility.

Oklahoma St. going with this. No idea how much of the $325M overall multi-facility cost goes towards the indoor track.

An indoor track and field facility south of the existing outdoor complex. It will include a 200-meter banked track, indoor field event space, spectator seating, athletic training rooms and more.

oklahoman.com

Oklahoma State unveils $325 million plan to upgrade and add athletic facilities

@theoklahoman_

Oklahoma State unveiled a $325 million plan to upgrade and add athletic facilities across several athletic programs on Monday.

Link:www.oklahoman.com/story/sports/college...

Yep. Ran in the GLIAC for 4 years and why anyone would build a new, non-300m indoor track is beyond me. SVSU and GVSU rotate hosting indoor conference; I'll venture a safe guess and say those tracks have paid for themselves at least twice over...

A banked 200m track is just as fast or faster than a flat 300m track, is better for injury prevention, and fits in a much smaller and cheaper building that requires less land and costs less to heat and cool. The 300m tracks are really about having a field in the middle to keep up with the football training facilities arms race.

UW has a nice 300m track and I'm sure they have no trouble finding pacers... and yet they flew all the way to Boston this weekend just to run a mile time trial. That should tell you a lot.

No to all of that lol

Washington previously held a time trial and ran just as fast, probably faster actually on their home track. They traveled to boston because the quality of the field and they have a couple guys who are potential risks of not making nationals. They weren't hosting a meet and needed a countable competition to be eligible for qualifying.

A 300m track is easier on the legs and thus better for injury prevention. You'd still need a hydraulic system for the 60s and that would expensive.

If you won a billion dollars in the lotto, would any of you build an indoor facility? I think I would at least build my own outdoor track.

First order of business would be a few fully maintained soft surface trails like Pre’s trail and some improvement grants for other trails in the area.

300m flat track = asymmetric lateral forces = injuries. Even the turns on a 400m track can be rough on the legs, that's one reason people switch it up and do some workouts on the roads and/or alternate directions on the track if they can. On a banked track the runner experiences little to no lateral forces, plus you can make the track bouncy for even more injury prevention. No hydraulics necessary for the 60m, the sprint lanes are in the center.

Seems like the Boston meet was a success for UW, their #4-7 guys all had massive PRs and all but one got off the bubble. Their 1-3 guys didn't run as well but they didn't need to.

Is BU faster than Dempsey? Just look at the track records, or the hundreds of Letsrun posts calling it a "cheater" track.

Actually I agree with everything except the part about the UW hosting a track meet. They were in fact hosting a track meet, The Ken Shannon Last Chance Invite, on Friday, 24 February and Saturday, 25 February. There were actually some good times posted in the Men's mile (3:55) 3000 (7:42) and the 5000 (13:29). The women's side of the meet was also very competitive.