Looking to turn around what has been a chaotic offseason, the Bethune-Cookman football program has unveiled plans for new facilities that will be ready in August.
The plan includes a new practice field, locker room, laundry facility, and storage space with a cost estimate of $5,082,004.
“I’m extremely excited,” B-CU athletic director Reggie Theus said Saturday during a groundbreaking ceremony. “I’m almost as excited to have coach Woodie to be our football coach. It’s an amazing opportunity for us. It’s an amazing opportunity for him. It’s something that hasn’t happened here in a long time. I really believe it’s going to change the trajectory of the football program.”
The new locker room will be put in place of the existing parking lot next to the training center allowing for better access to the laundry facility.
The synthetic turf field itself will cost almost $800,000, interim university president Lawrence Drake told the Dayton Beach News-Journal. After goalposts, fencing, and other necessities, the practice field will total $2.5 to 3 million, the newspaper reported.
A HISTORIC day for B-CU Athletics.
Coming August, 2023…#𝙇𝙚𝙩𝙨𝙂𝙤 | #𝙃𝙖𝙞𝙡𝙒𝙞𝙡𝙙𝙘𝙖𝙩𝙨 | #𝙋𝙧𝙚𝙮𝙏𝙤𝙜𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 pic.twitter.com/uU2O5QlSX3
— 🏈 Bethune-Cookman Football (@BCUGridiron) April 22, 2023
Bethune-Cookman’s facilities were a topic of discussion during the offseason as it was the main source of frustration for head coach candidate Ed Reed.
The Pro Football Hall of Famer ranted on Instagram Live about Bethune-Cookman’s facilities.
Bethune-Cookman administrators held a meeting featuring current players and former players to address the issues surrounding the team in the wake of Reed’s dismissal.
During the meeting, Theus foretold that the school was making plans to renovate the team’s locker rooms and practice field and that they would be done by August.
Conversations about the project started last year when basketball icon Charles Barkley donated $1 million to Bethune-Cookman. The field was in the works before the school hired current coach Raymond Woodie, the school said.
