NFL teams with indoor practice facilities averaged 4 more wins in 2010

[Atlanta Skins Fan]

My biggest reason for them wanting an indoor practice facility is to get the timing and crispness of the offense and defense down. Weather effects practice. It's nice to practice in the elements, but watching our team over the last 20 years, we need all the good practices we can get. Practice makes perfect. Sometimes weather gets in the way and you need some indoor time.

Yes, you see the essential point. See how Steelers coach Bill Cowher reacted to his new indoor facility, compared to his complaints about rain affecting training camp. He specifically complained that the rain and field conditions disrupted the ability of the QB and receivers to develop timing.

As background, the Steelers had previously been taking a bus to the Cost Sports Center (University of Pittsburgh) when it rained, 1990-99. Then they moved their entire operation to the new facility that opened in 2000, with an indoor practice field onsite.

Compare their performance:

• 1979: last Super Bowl Championship
  
• 1999 (last year before new facility): 6-10
  
• 2000 (first year in new facility): 9-7
  
• 2001: 13-3, AFC title game (lose to Super Bowl Champion Patriots)
  
• 2002: 10-5-1, 1-1 playoffs
  
• 2003: 6-10 (see training camp rain complaints below: same year)
  
• 2004: 15-1, AFC title game (lose to Super Bowl Champion Patriots)
  
• 2005: 11-5, Super Bowl Champions
  
• 2006: 8-8
  
• 2007: 10-6, playoffs
  
• 2008: 12-4, Super Bowl Champions
  
• 2009: 9-7
  
• 2010: 12-4, Super Bowl (lose to Packers)
  

Summing up:

• 3 game improvement, first year in facility
  
• 7 playoffs in next 10 years
  
• 2 AFC Championship losses to Super Bowl Champions (Patriots)
  
• 1 Super Bowl loss (Packers)
  
• 2 Super Bowl championships
  

New indoor facility gets accolades from Steelers

Friday, October 06, 2000

By Gerry Dulac, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

It's not that the Steelers had been hoping for inclement weather. But, after having nearly $5 million spent by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center to build a new indoor practice facility, they wanted to at least get some use from the complex.

Yesterday, they finally did.

Because of rain, the Steelers practiced for the first time in pads in the indoor facility that features a regulation field made of Field Turf -- a synthetic mix of indoor/outdoor carpeting, sand and recycled rubber from the bottom of sneakers. The indoor complex is located across the parking lot from their offices and outside practice fields at the $30 million South Side facility.

"It's great ... it's unbelievable," Coach Bill Cowher said. "We actually have more field here than the other side of the building. It allows us to never have a setback [because of the weather]."

"We're finally up to date with all the other teams," said wide receiver Hines Ward. "It's something we'll need when the weather's bad. We don't have to drive over to Pitt now."

When the Steelers were housed and practiced at Three Rivers Stadium, they would have to bus to Pitt's Cost Center or the indoor bubble at Duquesne University when the weather was bad.

Now they merely walk across the parking lot and use a field similar to ones installed at the University of Nebraska, University of Washington (where the Seattle Seahawks will play for two years) and Ringgold High School. The surface also is being used for practice areas at some golf courses, including Southpointe Golf Club in Canonsburg.

The artificial grass has a longer blade and is not as condensed as Astroturf, making it a little softer. The sand and rubber particles settle at the base of the surface and help provide better traction.

"It feels like softer Astroturf," Ward said.

Inclement weather has Steelers scrambling for practice time (Training Camp at St. Vincent College)

Friday, August 15, 2003

Steelers coach Bill Cowher wouldn't think of throwing cold water on the hopes and dreams of his team's fans.

But why shouldn't everyone get wet? He's had enough rain dumped on him the past three weeks to cause him concern over the lack of progress his team has made at training camp.

"We are definitely not where we need to be at this point," Cowher said Thursday while his team continued preparations for the preseason home-opener Saturday against the Philadelphia Eagles at Heinz Field.

The problem has been the rainiest summer in Cowher's 12 seasons as coach. The ensuing high humidity has not allowed the fields in the St. Vincent College lower basin to dry sufficiently.

The team has turned into accidental tourists of Westmoreland County, practicing twice at Latrobe Memorial Stadium -- one scheduled, the other unscheduled -- once at Offutt Field in Greensburg that was according to plan and, finally, at Penn-Trafford High School on Wednesday after a 50-minute bus ride through heavy, rush-hour traffic. Throw in two practices last week in the college's gymnasium, and Cowher concluded that the team went seven days between productive practices.

"I think it has set us back a little bit," he said.

That's not good news for the notoriously slow-starting Steelers, who are 4-7 in regular-season openers under Cowher's guidance.

With the opener 23 days away, players on both sides of the ball agree weather has been a problem.

"I think our timing maybe has been somewhat hindered, just because of the rain and our footing is different every day," free safety Brent Alexander said. "From a personal standpoint, you want to see things at a faster pace, and when the field is wet, it's kind of like when we were playing at home last year (on the previously ragged grass of Heinz Field).

"It's hard for the quarterbacks to get exactly that timing. Tommy (Maddox) and Charlie (Batch) are looking at receivers and trying to see if they are going to stand up coming out of the cut. They want to be able to throw the ball and expect the receiver to be where he is supposed to be."

Said Maddox: "(Receivers) start kind of guessing themselves to see if they can come out of their breaks."

The footing is no problem on the St. Vincent basketball floor, but it's not conducive to preparing for a football game.

"You're in the gym Thursday and you're in the gym Friday and then you're trying to play a game on Saturday (in Detroit)," Cowher said. "I think we played really like that, very sporadically. Our timing was off."

Despite the weather, Cowher hasn't changed his opinion about the importance of going away to camp, and he has no plans to end the experience early and return to the UPMC training facility on the South Side. The team is not scheduled to break camp until next Thursday.

"I still believe there are so many plusses in going away and eliminating as many distractions as possible," he said.

[Rocky52Mc]

I'm bumping this because I do feel it has a giant role in success and preparation of a team. I feel like the bubble is a good thing, but it's nowhere compared to an actual in door practice facility, and why we don't have one, I don't know? Obviously, the bubble is a step in the right direction but it's far from an actual in door practice facility which provides far more field.

EDIT 12 months later: Clearly I'm a moron!

[KCClybun]

Right now there's a lot of people fighting to have the Washington Redskins move their facility. Can't just build a new place, gotta have a place to build it first.

[Rocky52Mc]

You do understand that competitive dynamics change over time, yes? The single wing didn't work in the 1980s, but counter-trey did. Counter-trey did not work for Gibbs the second time around.

When most NFL teams do not have world-class indoor practice facilities (as they did not in the 1980s), it's not a disadvantage not to have one. When the best teams do have such facilities, it becomes a disadvantage to lack one.

Almost all the best facilities were built in the past 15 years. The league is changing.

Having a great facility does not ensure success, but failing to have one can now prevent teams from practicing at top efficiency all 16 games and the playoffs, leading to worse records and shorter seasons. This is the inevitable effect of facing teams with similar talent and coaching, and better preparation through efficient practices.

World-class training facilities are now a necessary, but not sufficient, foundation for success in today's NFL.

Really agreed with this post. This is a bump that I find rather interesting. The Redskins were practicing half outdoors half indoors all summer, I feel like this has a massive impact on our game in terms of preparation. Granted it's just a bubble and not a full facility, the edges you gain are VERY similar to a full indoor facility with possibly no loss of edge at all between the two.

I would say that this has helped us game plan A LOT better. In the heat of the summer, when the guys get to stay inside, out of the heat, the brain works better, you have more of a will to give it all without dying of sweat. Imagine trying to run the read option in the rain all day.

HTTR!!! And thank you Shanahan for requesting the bubble of success!