LSU Board of Supervisors approves expansion of LSU Hitting Facility

Soon enough the LSU baseball team won’t need to make the trek to the Football Ops Building to lift weights anymore.

The LSU Board of Supervisors approved on Friday an expansion of the indoor hitting facility at Alex Box Stadium that will add 4,300 square feet of space to the facility, including a 3,500 square-foot weight room.

Construction on the project will begin on June 1 and is scheduled to be completed in August 2019. It’ll be fully funded through private donations raised by the Tiger Athletic Foundation.

“This is a major upgrade for our facility,” LSU coach Paul Mainieri said via an official release. “It will provide a tremendous benefit in recruiting, and it will enable our players to operate in a much more efficient manner with their weight training schedules. An on-site facility serves a valuable time-management function for the players in satisfying all of their athletic and academic requirements.”

In addition to the weight room, the facility will also include a nutritional fueling station for student-athletes and a locker room for former LSU players to utilize when preparing for MLB spring training.

“I think the former players’ locker room will also be a boost to recruiting,” Mainieri added. “When recruits come through and they see the lockers with names like (DJ) LeMahieu, (Alex) Bregman, (Kevin) Gausman and (Aaron) Nola, that’s got to impress them. It demonstrates that if they come to LSU, their development as ball players can ultimately lead to them playing in the Major Leagues.

“The facility also makes a statement to our former players that once you leave LSU, it doesn’t end your relationship with LSU. When you become a part of our program, it’s for your entire life, not just the three or four years that you matriculate at our school.”

Approval of the project and the imminent groundbreaking makes good on a promise the LSU administration made to Mainieri when he signed an extension in 2016. The raise and facility guarantees were part of a deal struck amid a serious push from Texas to hire the coach away.

Here’s a list of features that’ll be part of the expanded facility, according to LSU’s official release.

• 1,700 square feet of renovated space
• 4,300 square feet of additional space
• Weight Room – 3, 500 square feet with 10 racks, 8 Iso and Leg presses and 5 free weight benches with dumbbell racks
• Cardio Mezzanine – 920 square feet with 2 Elliptical Cross-Trainers, 2 Treadmills and 2 Stationary Bikes, with room for more equipment
• Views from the Main floor and the Mezzanine floor into the Batting Cages
• Athletic Training office with views into the Weight Room and Batting Cages
• Locker Room for use by former LSU players preparing for MLB spring training
• Nutritional Fueling Station for student-athletes
• New state-of-the-art audio-visual system and graphics

Below are more renderings, which were posted in the Board of Supervisors agenda.