The Bucs’ indoor facility costs $20 million and will seat 3,500

It’s a bit of a mystery why the Tampa Bay Buccaneers never added an indoor practice facility when they built their shiny new and still state-of-the-art facilities a decade ago. But, well, they didn’t—until now.

The facility should be done by September, too late for HBO’s Hard Knocks and training camp, but ready for the regular season. That’s in part because this facility will have some ridiculous features. According to the Tampa Bay Times, those will include 4K video boards, camera’s, a massive outdoor plaza and 3,500-person bleacher seating.

It’s like they’re building a mini-stadium there.

The Bucs themselves tell the Tampa Bay Times that they’re doing it for two reasons: to avoid dehydration, which is a big issue in the outdoor heat, and to avoid practice problems caused by weather, which has caused the Bucs to cancel practices or move them to the Tampa Bay Rays’ Tropicana Field in the past few years. Good stuff.

I wonder whether this field will become the Bucs’ main practice site given fall of those goodies. I imagine the camera coverage will be especially attractive to coaches, in addition to the climate control advantages.