BREAKING>>Parking Garage Benefits Fans, Students, Staff, Says Bjork

Parking garage slated to open in the fall of 2014.

During Christmas break, construction began on a new five-level parking garage located next to Vaught-Hemmingway Stadium. This is the first phase of a two-phase construction project that will culminate with a sparkling new basketball arena.
“It’s (parking garage) going to accomodate about 840 spots, will be centrally located and will benefit our students, faculty and staff during the week,” said Ole Miss Director of Athletics Ross Bjork. “On game weekends — whether it’s football or basketball — the new parking lot will be useful for athletics and general parking in the heart of the campus.”
The parking garage location will be where the northern-most football practice field is now, providing prime spots for people to access all campus facilities and attractions.
“People see parking as premium so they want to park close to campus,” Bjork said. “We think the parking garage is in a great spot and it’ll be a much-needed, valuable asset for our University and our campus in the future as we grow. We’re glad that the University moved ahead on the project with the Athletics Department as partner.”
The new garage will require changes in the current practice field configuration. Utimately this will benefit football preparation as the final result will be two practice fields instead of the one-and-a-half fields the Rebels practice on now.
“Our current practice fields will be enhanced, Bjork said. “We’ll convert our northern-most field into a regulation, one hundred-yard facility. Right now, it’s only 60-yards long. We’ll end up with two full practice fields.”
Once the practice fields are complete, they’ll provide more room for the parking garage.
“Our construction plans will result in more elbow space because we’re expanding the access road and building the parking garage,” Bjork added. “When all is said and done, we’ll have a much better practice setup for our football team than we have now.”
If all things go well, construction will be complete by the end of March. The five-story garage is expected to be finished and ready for general use by the fall of this year.
–Adam Brown is the Sports Editor of HottyToddy.com. Email him at adam.brown@hottytoddy.com