Posted today in the thread of the bottom of the last post, it's not a bubble but like Texas A & M. Quoting both Ryan McKinney and Michael Traini.

MT

Quote:Just as with the pics of a new stadium plan, these are just mock ups and are not final until released by the school in an announcement of construction, which we have not had yet of course.

Looks like the school has partnered with Legacy Building Solutions (https://www.legacybuildingsolutions.com/), a company that specializes in fabric buildings, but again these are not bubbles. Legacy built the McFerrin Athletic Complex on the campus of Texas A&M in 2007 (http://12thman.com/sports/2015/3/23/GEN_2014010157.aspx)

Not only would this building give the school an IPF for all sports, it would also give the T&F program a new competitive space as well. UMass needs one of these for its entire athletic department more than absolutely anything else right now. Hopefully they will be able to get it to come to fruition.

RM

Quote:^ It's not the prettiest thing in the world, but frankly if it'll help produce more competitive teams it sounds good to me.

I have to say, according to their website legacy seems to offer some really cool features. It's durable in all weather, including "icebreakers" to break up snow and ice that slides off the fabric roof, the fabric allows in natural light, it supports solar panels, it's supposedly more corrosion resistant than traditional buildings, and it can be built faster than a traditional building.

MT

Quote:That's a quite impressive facility IMHO, particularly for UMass who has always had issues getting things like this for athletics off the ground, the JFK CC and FPC notwithstanding. It gives them everything they could need and gets T&F a brand new competition space, which is a very good thing.

Legacy Building can put that thing up very fast as well. Given the way they construct these buildings it would be a relatively quick turnaround in construction terms as to how long it would take from groundbreaking to completion. The biggest issue with be breaking ground however, as it usually is. If they can get to that point, it could easily be up before the subsequent football season starts.

Always cool and adding this.