UAB Blazers have final approval for new practice facility

Well, we have finally arrived at the moment we've been waiting on for a good while now. What was previously a strong sense of momentum and good intentions has finally culminated in firm and concrete results, as the Alabama Board of Trustees has now given full and final approval for the construction of a $20 million practice facility to replace the severely outdated base of operations the Blazers had been working from prior to their vanishing act.

IT’S OFFICIAL! UA Board of Trustees approves Football Operations Center.

Read: https://t.co/CNMF1py6KR pic.twitter.com/tFtY10yxWH

— UAB Football (@UAB_Football) June 17, 2016

The Blazers may not quite be done yet, as they are an additional $2.5 million worth of fundraising away from adding two additional practice fields to the design you see there, which I would consider little more than a formality given how well the fundraising has gone thus far.

I'm not yet sold on Hatton Smith's assertion that the construction of this facility will be the snowball that finally gathers enough downhill momentum to lead to the new stadium at the BJCC or the subsequent renovation/redevelopment of the Legion Field area. Then again, I was impressed that getting this facility done was little more than the checking of sequential boxes on a procedural list, so perhaps I'll be pleasantly wrong about this one, too.