The UNA athletics department has secured funds to build a new weight training facility to replace the current weight room located in Flowers Hall.

At the March 12 Board of Trustees meeting, the board approved $150,000 in university funding for the project. The athletics department will repay this money over a five-year period, said Bill Cale, UNA president.

The project is expected to cost $440,000, according to an earlier article in The Flor-Ala.

The new facility will be located behind Hal Self Field House and to the west, near Circular Road. The building will be approximately 5,000 square feet.

The current weight room is 1,500 square feet.

“It’s about the size of a racquetball court,” said Mark Linder, athletics director.

This causes a problem, Linder said, for the 250 UNA athletes having to share the small facility and is particularly troublesome for the larger teams such as football and baseball.

“Football and baseball can’t work out together; they are having to split up into six, seven, or eight workout groups,” Linder said.

This has a negative effect on overall team chemistry, Linder said, and a larger facility would help with that.

“If you have the whole team working out together, that assists in team chemistry,” said Linder.

The athletics department has already raised $290,000 in in-kind contributions for the project.

Linder said the building itself, which he hopes will be completed by fall 2013, will cost $150,000. Linder will be working with Director of Facilities Administration and Planning Michael Gautney in the coming weeks to come up with a plan for the construction.

The athletics department is currently working with companies to determine what equipment they will purchase for the facility and how much it will cost. Linder said the plan is to have free-weight and Olympic equipment.

“We wanted to make sure we’d be able to secure funding for the building itself first, and now we’re talking to companies about equipment,” he said.

Linder said the facility has not been updated in a long time.

“I believe the last time we updated the weight facility was during Bobby Wallace’s first tenure here,” said Linder.