If you’ve been on the USC campus lately, you’ve probably noticed a lot of construction fences, especially around various sports facilities. There are new fences around Howard Jones Field and McAlister Field, while the stands behind home plate at Dedeaux Field have vanished. As a result, the Trojan baseball and lacrosse teams aren’t playing at their usual on-campus sites this spring.
The main piece of news that grabbed headlines was plans for a new football performance center, in addition to a full second practice field. Other projects included a remodeled soccer and lacrosse stadium, as well as renovations to Dedeaux Field, which has housed USC baseball for half a century.
“The three primary objectives of the vision are to position USC Athletics for success with world-class facilities, promote gender equity in support of Title IX and maximize space use through innovative planning,” a statement from the university said.
It’s barely been a decade since the 2012 opening of John McKay Center, USC’s 110,000-square-foot facility for athletics that cost $70 million. In that center are a locker room for the football team, a weight room and a training room, along with dozens of meeting rooms and offices for everyone and everything associated with USC Athletics.
So, why does the Trojan football program already need a new facility? Jeff Fucci, USC’s senior associate athletic director of operations and capital initiatives, explained to Annenberg Media why now is the time for these renovations, and how they will last much longer than just the next 10 years.
“Our coaches are completely bought in to where we’re going to go being ultimately worth it,” Fucci said. “We just have to make sure we deliver on that.”
Let’s start over at McAlister Field — the former home of USC lacrosse and soccer — which will become Rawlinson Stadium once it’s revamped with new amenities. Construction is slated to end in early 2025.
This is a long overdue project, considering the field’s subpar turf and practically non-existent fan amenities and capacity. Fucci mentioned this renovation project has been in the works since 2019, and construction is set to begin within a matter of days. It’s also going to be a natural grass pitch, an important factor for the safety of athletes in comparison to the potential dangers of using synthetic turf.
Updates to Dedeaux Field are also warranted, as Fucci notes the original stadium missed out on its 50th birthday by just a couple of months. The desire for diverse seating options also exacerbated the need for an upgrade. Fucci is calling upon his knowledge from overseeing improvements at the L.A. Coliseum in 2019 in order to improve the fan experience at the new Dedeaux Field. However, it appears that the stadium’s capacity of 2,500 will remain about the same.
Of course, with football, it’s no surprise that USC wants to put its most prestigious — and important — athletic program in the best possible position to succeed. Its new three-floor performance center will have everything: player lounges and a locker room, areas dedicated to recruiting and meetings, and several different spaces focused on physical health and development.
“Anytime you can upgrade your facilities and become one of the top echelon of the college football world from a facilities standpoint, that’s always going to be a great thing,” new defensive line coach Eric Henderson said last week after USC hired him away from the Los Angeles Rams. He also mentioned the upgrades that the Trojans’ coaches will receive with the new building, perhaps alluding to the allure of the facilities in his own decision to jump to the college level this offseason.
Nevertheless, the McKay Center is still a fraction of the age of its two counterpart facilities. One could argue USC shouldn’t already need major improvements just 12 years later. But, as Fucci explained, a lot has changed in the last decade — and even the last couple of years — in college sports, both at USC and around the country, which makes a new building a necessity.
Various NCAA rule changes, from the transfer portal to NIL to roster and staff sizes, have crowded the building more than originally anticipated. Of course, the athletic department probably didn’t expect to move to the Big Ten when it first planned the McKay Center, and it’s not a coincidence that this project is kicking off as USC prepares for a massive change awaiting in the fall.
With that move, Fucci echoed the immediate importance of competing with other national powers when it comes to player amenities.
“The peer group has changed,” Fucci said. “We benchmarked ourselves against the Pac-12 and a handful of national competitors. Now, it’s the Big Ten plus national competitors. It’s a step up, so the timing component is good because it creates an urgency.”
Additionally, Fucci mentioned the limitations of USC’s urban, 226-acre campus, which is dwarfed by other top athletic schools in more sprawled, typical college towns. USC can’t compete with land-grant universities in how much space it can dedicate to sports, which is forcing Fucci and his team to be more purposeful and strategic in developing multi-use facilities that maximize the school’s dense University Park Campus.
“How the west side of campus was laid out — from an athletics perspective — wasn’t necessarily the most efficient and responsible use of campus acreage,” Fucci said.
That’s why he and other USC administrators are focused on redesigning these sports-focused areas of campus in a manner that is more sustainable for the future of the university. It’s not simply for the benefit of the football program either, as Fucci asserted that other sports will also reap significant rewards.
The departure of the football program, which currently takes up around half the space in the McKay Center, will open up around 55,000 square feet that will then be allotted to USC’s 20 other teams. The other programs will have a modified weight room that caters more specifically to their needs, as opposed to accommodating the massive football squad.
Fucci added that his department is still working through exactly how the McKay Center will be reorganized, but he emphasized its commitment to student-athlete wellness, development and academic services, including for the football team. With many of those athletes about to embark on significantly longer road trips to the Midwest and beyond, it will be particularly important for USC to take care of those athletes’ well-being off the field.
USC’s golf teams currently use a small practice green out behind the center field wall of Dedeaux Field; they will also get a new training area. Its exact details are still being ironed out, though Fucci reaffirmed his focus on efficient planning in the construction of that facility.
Meanwhile, that new second practice field won’t just be dedicated to the football program. Other teams, such as soccer and lacrosse, will have more flexibility when it comes to field space during offseason training.
USC’s approach to these renovations is pretty clear. The next couple of years will be pretty hectic, with teams playing off campus and practicing under unconventional constraints. The university also has to be practical in how it goes about the construction itself; with students in nearby dorms, work can only occur at certain times of the day. The athletic department is also cognizant of the extensive research occurring elsewhere on campus, which can be affected by inconsiderate construction.
But Fucci is confident that his efforts will be worthwhile. He believes that it’s the right time to recalibrate the university’s athletic spaces given the changing landscape of college sports. It’s an important, enduring change to enhance USC and all of its athletics — not just football — according to Fucci.
“Everyone will get a lift from this,” Fucci said. “The part that everyone has to contend with is there are short-term challenges. … If we’re going to go through the challenges of the construction, it has to be a really impactful feature, and that’s what we’re committed to doing.”