Iowa indoor football goes to the Regents

The "Bubble" will be no more.

The University of Iowa will ask for approval for a new indoor football facility with a budget of $19.5 million at a Board of Regents meeting next week.

This means the "Bubble," the UI's indoor football practice facility for the last 25 years, will be torn down. A Board of Regents document stated the space the Bubble occupies has become "critical for the advancement of the UIHC Children's Hospital project." Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz and his wife, Mary, are ardent supports of the UIHC Children's Hospital.

The new facility, 102,100 gross square feet, would be located west of the existing Recreation Building and south of the existing outdoor practice facility. The exterior will be masonry at the lower wall, with pre-finished metal panels above on the north, east and west facades of the building. The top portions of every facade would be translucent insulated panels that will allow daylight into the interior space.

The color of the metal panels and the standing seam metal roof will match the metal panels and the roof of the Kinnick Stadium press box.

The facility will house a full-length football field with appropriate run off space on the sidelines and end zone.

In March, Iowa athletics director Gary Barta has Iowa had funding commitments ranging from $13 million to $15 million and that no taxpayer money would be used on the project. The Board of Regents document states the source of the funds will be athletics department gifts and earnings and UIHC and Recreational services improvement funds.

In 2009, businessmen Bruce Rastetter of Alden and Richard Jacobson of Des Moines donated $5 million each to the University of Iowa Foundation for the school's proposed renovations of football facilities.

From the Board of Regents document: "Relocating the indoor practice facility is a first step in the Athletics Department's plan to update and modernize UI Football operations, while enabling the transportation center, and thus, the UIHC Children's Hospital project to move forward."

The Regents will vote on this proposal next Thursday.