Major Milestone

Start of Vandy United construction marks new phase in $300 million campaign

In February 2023, Vanderbilt marked a major milestone in the Vandy United campaign with a groundbreaking ceremony for the new basketball operations center. The ceremony included Chancellor Daniel Diermeier, Vice Chancellor for Athletics and University Affairs and Athletic Director Candice Lee, BS’00, MEd’02, EdD’12, and leadership-level donors who gathered to celebrate and reflect on Vandy United’s progress toward transforming the athletics footprint on campus.

“Today, by the very act of turning the earth, we turn a page in the Vandy United story,” Lee said during the event. “Today isn’t the final chapter, not by a long shot. But it is a new chapter as the first of Vandy United’s cornerstone projects moves from draft board to building site.”

Joining Diermeier and Lee at the ceremony were John Ingram, MBA’86; Billy and Jennifer Frist, BS’93; George Huber, BA’79, and Cathy Huber; and FirstBank President and CEO Chris Holmes. Several key donors—including Fred Lummis, BA’76, and Claudia Lummis, BA’76, and Fred Hall, BA’74, and Karen Hall—were unable to attend. Diermeier and Lee expressed gratitude for their generosity as well as credited multiple anonymous donors, and all donors of record who have joined the unprecedented $300 million campaign since it was publicly launched in 2021.

“Today is a celebration of—and the product of—the teamwork that is in Vanderbilt’s DNA,” Diermeier said during the event. “Our university was founded on the principle of unity. Now, on the eve of our Sesquicentennial, we are driven more than ever by the idea that together we can accomplish anything. We see this belief borne out every day in our classrooms, our laboratories and performance spaces and, of course, on our fields of play.”

Located near the current north end zone of FirstBank Stadium, the multistory men’s and women’s basketball operations center will feature two practice gyms spanning more than 90,000 square feet, student-athlete facilities and easy access to Memorial Gymnasium, as well as premium hospitality areas overlooking the football stadium. Concurrent north end zone construction will connect the stadium’s east and west concourses and include a new videoboard and premium seating experiences.

The basketball center is only one of Vandy United’s signature projects. Work also has begun on the south end zone project, which includes a new seating bowl and a multistory building spanning more than 130,000 square feet and housing a new student-athlete training table and dining facility, among other amenities.

Learn more about Vandy United here.