It’s about that time of the year again—athletes have sacrificed hundreds of hours of pain and sweat, and fans have started searching for the perfect team t-shirt to wear to the party. Soon enough, athletes will start lining up to put on a show for the fist-pumping, anthem-singing fans who have been waiting for this moment for 365 days. In this article, I used TaskEasy.com’s handy tracing tool to measure the sports facilities of all participating Pac-12 schools. The purpose of this project was to determine the top five schools with the biggest fields, and the largest amount of training facilities available to student athletes. Along with square footage totals, I’ve thrown in a few other random stats on each school for your reading pleasure. Enjoy!
“Washington State University, Pullman” by “Jeremy Segrott” (CC-BY 2.0)
Students sure have plenty of room to practice their throws and tackles in this state of the art school. Washington State University ranked #1 with the help of the Cougar football complex and the Martin Stadium measuring together at approximately 759,885 square feet. Aside from the impressive football facilities, the university holds an indoor baseball practice space rated as one of the best facilities within Pac-12 schools. Consequently, what made WSU surpass athletic space by 1,078,260 sq ft was their expansive Palouse Ridge golf course occupying a space of 315 acres and hosting Pac-12 championships and NCAA divisions over the years.
Stanford University surpassed the rest of the Pac-12 schools with their prestigious 30 acre golf course where top PGA tour athletes like Tom Watson and Tiger Woods originated their careers. On the other hand, the Stanford Stadium (which surprisingly was renovated in 42 weeks with a budget of $100 million) has hosted many remarkable events in history including the Super Bowl XIX, FIFA World Cup soccer games, and olympic level matches.
There is no surprise behind Arizona state’s #1 spot in seating capacity due to the vast amount of students attending the school. What happens when most students get together to cheer for their team? In 1996, Sun Devil Stadium held its largest crowd in history at 74,963 people playing ASU 35 vs. California 7. The massive space dedicated to sports in campus came in at #3 surpassing nine Pac-12 candidates with different indoor and outdoor facilities. One of Sun Devil’s most innovative structures is the dome—In the temperature controlled bubble, students are able to practice without having to battle the desert’s unforgiving heat.
The University of Utah has demonstrated their dedication to improving athletic facilities for students and staff long before hosting the famous 2002 Winter Olympics. Most recently, The Jon M. and Karen Huntsman Basketball Center was built with a budget of $36 million and is scheduled to open for the first time this fall, 2015. The 80,000 sq ft training facility includes practice gymnasiums, sports medicine facilities, fancy athlete locker rooms, and comfortable office and meeting rooms for staff. Aside from a new basketball facility, just this year, the school has added an additional soccer field on the rooftop of their newest parking garage for soccer-crazed students to take over.
The University of Washington caters 1,851,550 sq ft of space to its athletic students. Modes of transportation to these facilities include bikes, buses, cars, and boats. That’s right, the Husky Stadium is one of the most unique stadiums in the Pac-12 division for this reason and more. With 70% of seating arrangements between the end zones, when at capacity (70,138 seats), the crowd noise may produce up to 100 decibels. For six years in a row this massive stadium has hosted tournaments facilitating Washington State’s athletes to advance to the College World Series.
After hours of tracing school’s campuses, we’ve concluded that Washington State, Stanford, Arizona State, University of Utah, and the University of Washington host the biggest athletic facilities within Pac-12 schools. Hopefully this article inspired you to get tickets to a game or at the very least get the tv ready for some heavy use this fall season. If you are curious to find out how big your school’s facilities are, I found the tracing tool at taskeasy.com very easy to use. Feel free to comment on your school’s standings!
