The Virginia Mason Athletic Center (VMAC) is the headquarters and practice facility of the NFL's Seattle Seahawks, in Renton, Washington. It is a privately funded facility, situated on 19 acres (77,000 m2) of industrial property along on the shores of Lake Washington. The team holds mini-camps and training camp here. Beginning the 2009 season, the Seahawks opened their training camp to the public.
The site is bounded by Interstate 405 to the east, Lake Washington to the west, residential properties to the north and open land area to the south. Its southern boundary is located approximately 1/4 mile north of NE 44th ST.
Video Virginia Mason Athletic Center
History
The site was formerly home to a coal tar refinery and creosote plant. Paul G. Allen, owner of the Seahawks, purchased the land in 2000 through his company Vulcan Real Estate, with approval from the City of Renton and Washington State Department of Ecology. Along with the construction of the facility, an agreement was created to restore the environmental climate of the site and its wetlands by improving and redeveloping the site.
During the Seahawks' first ten seasons (1976-85), the team's headquarters was located in Kirkland at Carillon Point on the shores of Lake Washington. Their training camps were held at Eastern Washington University in Cheney, just southwest of Spokane. When the team's new headquarters in Kirkland was completed in 1986, the Seahawks held training camp there for the next eleven seasons. While there, the players stayed in the dormitories of the adjacent Northwest College, now Northwest University.
In 1997, the team returned training camp to Cheney through 2006. It returned to Kirkland in 2007 because of the scheduled China Bowl game that was later canceled. On May 9, 2006, the Seahawks announced plans for a state-of-the-art training facility to be located along Lake Washington. The 200,000-square-foot (19,000 m2) waterfront facility, second-largest in the NFL, would be located within the northern city limits of Renton and opened in the summer of 2008.
Maps Virginia Mason Athletic Center
Naming & partnership
Following plans for the new headquarters, the Seahawks announced an expanded partnership with Virginia Mason Medical Center.
Facilities
The VMAC features four practice fields, three outdoors and one indoors. The outdoor fields are natural grass whereas the indoor field is FieldTurf. The indoor field has a clear height of 95 feet (29 m) to allow both kicking and punting. The facility also features a large berm just beside the outdoor fields for Seahawks fans to watch training camp from. The first floor of the building, approximately 50,000 square feet (4,600 m2) holds an auditorium and the team area, this includes the: locker room, lounge, training room, weight room, team meeting rooms and media production studios. The second floor, approximately 48,000 square feet (4,500 m2) houses the Seahawks football administration of coaching and football personnel offices, the draft room, cafeteria and weight room mezzanine. The third floor holds Seahawks administrative offices. The on-site parking lot holds 275 vehicles. A dock was constructed in order to accommodate boats of the team personnel along with seaplanes that fly free agents directly to the facility.
Notes and references
Size
External links
- Seattle Seahawks official website about the VMAC
- Virginia Mason Medical Center
Source of article : Wikipedia
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