Construction is imminent on a pair of on-campus facilities that are designed to enhance the student-athlete experience at Clemson.
A 100-yard wellness center and the Clemson Athletic Branding institute are being built in and around the Allen N. Reeves Football Complex. Clemson athletic director Graham Neff told The Clemson Insider that both projects, which have a price tag of $5 million each, are expected to be completed sometime this fall.
Neff said the wellness center, which is an add-on to the football complex, has already started construction.
“It’s an expansion of the training room and some of our applied science and then just growth of those services from a health and wellness standpoint,” Neff said.
The athletic branding institute, which will total more than 12,000 square feet, is being built in conjunction with REIGN, the school’s multi-faceted name, image and likeness (NIL) program. When it officially announced the program last month, Clemson touted itself as the “first athletics program in the nation” to dedicate a space solely to the education and development of athletes’ NIL activity.
Neff acknowledged there’s a lot of focus on football with the facility, which is being constructed adjacent to the football team’s indoor practice facility and weight room. But Neff said the space will also include a photo shoot area, audio studio and media work room in addition to “just some swing space and growth space for future needs of NIL” that all athletes will be able to access.
Neff said the idea of becoming the first athletic department to have a dedicated NIL space happened somewhat by accident. The department, he explained, was in the midst of a fundraising campaign for facility enhancements last summer when the NCAA introduced an interim policy that made NIL profits legal for college athletes. Many states, including South Carolina, followed with their own NIL bylaws soon thereafter.
“July 1 (of 2021) was when NIL was allowable from an NCAA standpoint, so it became one of those where it was like, ‘Gosh, we have an opportunity here to be intentional and focused on what that facility can be right when everyone is trying to figure that out,’” Neff said. “It just kind of evolved.
“There’s other utility with it. There’s an NFL locker room for former players. … We just kind of grew it into having some use for branding and creative studio there that speaks to an NIL standpoint. It just kind of all came to a head with a need for space from a football standpoint, the fundraising aspect of it and then NIL going into effect and how we could be leaders and the first to have bricks and mortar and dedicated space to that from an NIL standpoint.”
Later this year, Clemson will begin expanding the facilities for rowing, lacrosse and gymnastics. Neff said construction on those $27.5-million projects will continue throughout most of next year. The school announced the addition of lacrosse and gymnastics as women’s sports last year.
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