Land Swap Agreement Signed For a New Football Indoor Practice Facility in Eugene

EUGENE, Ore. — Two years after the announcement of plans for Oregon’s new indoor football practice facility, it is finally on a formal timeline for construction.

Negotiations between the city of Eugene and the University of Oregon for the new indoor football practice facility took nearly a year and a half. The negotiations were around facilitating UO to reroute Leo Harris Parkway. In response to a public records request, the Oregonian obtained documents that show that the agreement was signed on December 21.

According to the agreement, the university is to give the city 8.15 acres south of the Willamette River in exchange for 5.55 acres of land opposite the UO athletics complex, upgrades to nearby Alton Baker Park, and parking lots along Leo Harris Parkway. The Leo Harris Parkway is 1.5 miles away from Autzen stadium.

The 2024 Oregon Ducks football schedule can be found here.

For various aspects of construction and Leo Harris Parkway rerouting, the university will receive Privately Engineered Public Improvement (PEPI) permits from the city. Once that work is finished, and at closing, the two parties will exchange the deeds. Per the agreement, this should occur by September 30, 2025.

The new indoor facility has no start date for the construction listed. However, as per the agreement, it is stated that the construction of the facility should be completed by December 31, 2029.

An athletics spokesperson at the University of Oregon said, “The plans for the approved project are moving forward as expected.”

The University of Oregon Foundation’s board of trustees approved a lease agreement on June 6. This was for a portion of the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex and the land being acquired from the city. Phit Too, LLC, will oversee the new 170,000-square-foot facility and will donate it to the university after its completion. The cost of the project is not known but is donor-funded.

Prior to the construction of the new indoor facility, parking lots surrounding the Eugene Science Center will be constructed from now until June. Leo Harris Parking will be realigned during the first half of 2025, and work on two outdoor practice fields next to the new indoor facility will start in January 2025 as well.

By September 30, 2025, the university must start building other city facilities, as per the agreement, and finish by December 31, 2026. This includes the canoe canal bridge and parking near Cuthbert Amphitheater. This is dependent on “future designs pending approval by the city.” By December 31, 2025, the parties must also agree on a project that will benefit the community, to which UO contributed $1 million.

The most notable development in the process last month was the signing of the land exchange agreement that started when UO first revealed plans for the new facility on October 19, 2021, with the aim of finishing the facility before the 2024 football season. The agreement was signed between Sarah Medary (Eugene city manager) and Jamie Moffitt (UO chief financial officer), last spring. In July 2022, the Eugene City Council gave Medary permission to begin negotiations with the university on the specifics of the land swap. In January 2023, the council gave her permission to conclude the agreement.