Kansas State University recently added a new indoor football practice facility to its roster.

The state-of-the-art facility, which also includes an outdoor turf practice field, provides a significant recruiting and operational advantage to the football program and allows the team to operate more efficiently throughout the year. 

The existing indoor football practice facility was built in 1995. This project replaces the outdated practice facility, improves amenities, and locates it closer to the university’s football stadium. The new facility features a 100-yard indoor turf practice field, full outdoor turf practice field, accessibility to the Vanier Family Football Complex and Bill Snyder Family Stadium, and limestone exterior to match the stadium and campus architecture. A game changer for athletes, as well as the university, the facility provides additional practice space, allowing coaches and athletes to spread out and accomplish more during practice.  

Olsson provided site civil design and layout for this project. Work included all underground utilities, site grading, retaining wall design, parking lot layout, ADA paths, concourse grading, and site lighting. Olsson provided turf design for the indoor and outdoor fields. Because we were designing for both indoor and outdoor conditions, the turf sections and underdrain systems were different for each field.

Inside, there is a concrete slab around the perimeter of the building that we needed to accommodate and work around. Outside, we had typical rock section underneath the turf to address. As such, our team coordinated the differences between the two fields to successfully deliver designs.

Olsson provided turf layout, reviewed all design details, and assembled all specifications and bidding documents related to turf procurement, which was separate from the architectural procurement package. Although architecture and civil design were procured through the project contractor, the turf procurement package was managed through the university. We helped the university undergo a rigorous process to interview turf contractors and advertise this portion of the project.

This new facility is at the site of a former parking lot used for stadium parking, which posed a spacing and layout challenge. Our team worked to situate, build, and orient the fields, walls, and facility to take up as little space as possible while still meeting the needs and intent of the project. We overcame this challenge by making small adjustments to the design and working with the client to determine layout.

We completed our services on time and within budget. The groundbreaking occurred in December 2021, and construction was completed in December 2022. This new facility brings exceptional value for the university and athletics program by allowing the university to stay competitive and remain an active selling point for potential students and athletes.