Maryland has submitted a plan to the Board of Regents to re-purpose Cole Field House into a new, $155 million indoor football facility and complex. The school will present its proposal to the Board’s Finance Committee later this week for the new facility, which would also house an academic and research facility.

The 10-person committee will hear the proposal Thursday at the University of Maryland’s University College, and if the body approves, the project would then be subject to approval by the full Board of Regents on December 12.

While the athletic department has been weighing the conversion of Cole Field House into an indoor football facility this fall, the project’s viability was confirmed Monday morning when the Finance Committee released the meeting’s agenda.

According to the proposal, Maryland would construct the new facility in two phases, with the first consisting of the construction of the indoor football facility. The building would be expanded to the north to hold a 100-yard football field, while the second phase would include renovations of the building to the north, south and west to house a football training complex. Phase two would also include construction of a Center for Sports Medicine, Health and Human Performance. It would also include the construction of two outdoor practice fields west of the facility.

The new facility would also include a campus‐wide innovation and entrepreneurship program.

The plan, if approved by the Board of Regents, would begin principal design in May 2015. The first phase would begin construction in December 2015 and conclude in April 2017, while the second phase would be wrapped up by June 2018.

The $155 million would cover project design, modification and expansion, site work and utilities and the relocation of existing occupants. The project would be funded from $25 million in state funds, $25 million in institutional funds, and $105 million from a combination of private gifts, institutional funds and clinical revenues from the facility. The institutional funds would be repaid with Big Ten revenues.

Maryland is the only Big Ten school without a football facility, and it has long been viewed as a top priority by the athletic department. The school announced in a commission report in August 2013 that a proposed facility must be built through capital fundraising and not Big Ten revenues, and Maryland President Wallace D. Loh estimated the cost to be in the range of $50 million to $80 million.

The school also explored a multi-phase plan to build a facility on the grounds of the current Maryland football practice fields and Shipley Stadium, which is home to the Maryland baseball team. But that project was estimated to cost $187 million, and would include $15 million to relocate Shipley Stadium to another area of campus.

Built in 1955 and considered one of the more storied buildings on campus, Cole Field House was the home of Maryland’s basketball teams until 2002. Still utilized as a student activities center, the building sits near Byrd Stadium and the Gossett Football Team House. In a radio interview with Baltimore’s 105.7 The Fan last week, Maryland Coach Randy Edsall called it “a great facility” that would have adequate width and height for his team to properly practice.

“When you take a look at that structure from the ground floor to the height of the ceiling you’d be able to do all those sort things. There’s things I’m sure they’d have to do to get it the way they’d want, but that’s what you have architects and construction engineers for,” Edsall said, noting that the building would need heating and air conditioning.

Edsall also spoke briefly about the $50 million dollar indoor facility that was built during his time at Connecticut, and how a similar move would help bring his team up to speed in the arms race of Big Ten football.

“It helped in so many different ways in terms of player development, and all of the things that you need to do to be able to compete against and win consistently against your Ohio States, your Michigans, your Michigan States, and all of the teams we’re going to be going against in future years.”