Former Athletic Director Jim Weaver identified a new practice facility as a need not long after being hired in the fall of 1997. In 1998, he received permission to build the facility from then-president Paul Torgersen, but other facilities needs took precedence at the time, putting the project temporarily on hold.
Over the next decade, the athletics department built the south end zone structure at Lane Stadium and then a new structure on the west side of the stadium. The department also constructed a basketball practice facility, a new football locker room, a new Olympic sports weight room, and it embarked on several other smaller projects.
Movement on the practice facility project began again in earnest in 2012, but finding a site proved problematic as the university and the athletics department worked out issues related to finding a location.
In September 2014, a building and grounds committee of the Board of Visitors approved the site with all sides coming to an agreement that the best place for the facility was on part of the existing football practice fields – specifically, the east practice field adjacent to the football locker room.