{"id":425972,"date":"2026-08-07T01:40:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T01:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/425972\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T01:40:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T01:40:17","slug":"from-napkin-to-crown-jewel-inside-uscs-football-training-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/425972\/","title":{"rendered":"From napkin to crown jewel: Inside USC’s football training center"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The initial concept for USC\u2019s Bloom Football Performance Center<\/a> was first born on the back of a napkin. It was late November 2021, and Lincoln Riley<\/a> was on a plane to Los Angeles, where he was slated to be introduced as USC\u2019s coach.<\/p>\n

The then-hypothetical facility had been a critical contingency for Riley, who never toured USC<\/a>\u2019s facilities, but knew \u2014 like most people around college football \u2014 that the Trojans were seriously lacking in that department. For years, USC officials had resisted doing anything about it. The John McKay Center hadn\u2019t even been around a decade, they\u2019d inevitably say. Plus, there was the not-so-insignificant problem of where to build a new facility on campus.<\/p>\n

Riley knew that. And he asked anyway<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a little bit, in that moment, my way to test how committed SC was,\u201d Riley said Thursday. \u201cThis honestly was probably the biggest test of commitment for, \u2018How invested are we to get this program back?\u2019 When that was met with no hesitations, that was a pivotal part of me taking this job. I think it\u2019s fair to say, if that commitment hadn\u2019t been made, I probably wouldn\u2019t be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The Bloom Football Performance Center on the campus of USC.<\/p>\n

Almost five years later, the plans Riley sketched out that morning have been brought to life in one of college football\u2019s finest facilities, the towering jewel of a $225-million capital project at USC that also includes a new baseball stadium (Dedeaux Field) and a women\u2019s soccer and lacrosse field (Rawlinson Stadium).<\/p>\n

The three-story, 163,000-square-foot football-only facility opened Wednesday night, with Riley reflecting back on that napkin and marveling at how far the program had come since. But this gleaming building and its array of amenities had far exceeded his initial expectations, he said.<\/p>\n

He called it \u201cmagical.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can say or promise that you\u2019re gonna build a facility, and then you can halfway do it or you can do it right and just go over the top and just really not hold back in any way, and that\u2019s what our university has done,\u201d Riley said. \u201cI\u2019m proud and thankful for the university for making this happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

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1. Bronze plaques of previous USC players adorn the wall of the Mark and Mary Stevens Trojan Legacy Wall at the USC Bloom Football Performance Center. 2. The weight room of the USC Bloom Football Performance Center. 3. A wall of USC players drafted by NFL teams at the Bloom Football Performance Center. 4. Trophies won by the USC football program on display at the Bloom Football Performance Center. <\/p>\n

The real magic was that it happened at all, considering all that changed or had gone awry. The athletic director who first agreed to Riley\u2019s facility request, Mike Bohn<\/a>, resigned. The university president who signed off on it, Carol Folt<\/a>, retired.<\/p>\n

The cost of doing business in college football also went up exponentially with the advent of revenue sharing, all while the university was going through a financial crisis. None of which helped when it came to asking for $200 million in private donations.<\/p>\n

Then there was the matter of physical space. The only option to build the facility was to demolish the Trojans\u2019 longtime baseball field and displace the program for multiple seasons.<\/p>\n

\"Hot <\/p>\n

Hot tubs at the USC Bloom Football Performance Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cThink of what Coach Stank and the baseball team, what they had to give up to make this work,\u201d Riley said. \u201cThe importance of just getting everybody together and on the same page and pushing in the same direction, this building is one of the first real signs of that. Because this took everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Riley, in particular, proved to be \u201cvery influential\u201d in the process, according to Jeff Fucci<\/a>, USC\u2019s senior associate athletic director for capital projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoach was tireless in making sure that this was something that was not going to just be a vision and something that was talked about and not followed through on,\u201d Fucci said.<\/p>\n

It also took endowing just about every physical space in the facility to raise the necessary $200 million to build it, from the \u201cPeets Family Atrium\u201d to the \u201cAl Cowlings<\/a> Defensive Tackles Room\u201d to a hallway labeled as the \u201cMark and Mary Stevens Legacy Walk.\u201d Even some of the bathrooms bear plaques from donors eager to get their name somewhere in the building.<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The locker room at the USC Bloom Football Performance Center,.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been a huge, huge investment from the university,\u201d Fucci said.<\/p>\n

The result is a facility that stands in stark difference from the John McKay Center, which cost $70 million when it opened in 2012. That building was \u201c80% subterranean\u201d, according to Fucci \u2014 with not nearly enough space to contain the football program, let alone the other sports programs that used it.<\/p>\n

Natural light pours into Bloom Center, by contrast. Thirty-foot glass doors open up onto the Trojans\u2019 practice field from a 12,000-square-foot weight room with towering vaulted ceilings. From above, an outdoor terrace is outfitted especially for hosting recruits or other luminaries, complete, for the time being, with basketball courts and pickleball.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love coming to the weight room in the morning,\u201d said offensive lineman Tobias Raymond. \u201cThe sun is coming up, and you can see it, and you open the doors and you get the fresh air blowing in.\u201d<\/p>\n

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1. Jeff Fucci, USC senior associate athletic director, leads the media on a tour of the Bloom Football Performance Center on Thursday. 2. USC players make their way to the locker room. 3. Mannequins on display with USC football uniforms outside of the on-site cafeteria at the Bloom Football Performance Center. 4. The cafeteria at the Bloom Football Performance Center. 5. The weight room opens near the practice field. <\/p>\n

Riley wanted the facility to put a special emphasis on recovery. So now, players have access to infrared beds, sensory deprivation tanks and AI-led massage chairs. There are hot tubs and cold tubs and a players-only sauna, while every locker is outfitted with a leather zero gravity chair. There\u2019s even a barbershop.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to get our players out of here,\u201d Fucci said.<\/p>\n

Riley has been no different. Shortly after moving in, with his family out of town, the coach said he hunkered down for five straight days in the facility.<\/p>\n

Before, that would\u2019ve meant barely seeing the sun. But now, as the sun poured through the third-floor atrium of the Bloom Center, Riley couldn\u2019t help but point out the symbolism of such an ambitious undertaking actually coming to life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said it couldn\u2019t be done,\u201d Riley said. \u201cBut here we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

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1. The football practice fields next to the Bloom Football Performance Center. 2. The rooftop deck, an event-ready space at Bloom Football Performance Center. 3. USC football coach Lincoln Riley, left, speaks to the media in the team room at the Bloom Football Performance Center on Thursday. 4. The lobby of the Bloom Football Performance Center. <\/p>\n

Injury update<\/p>\n

Projected starting center Kilian O\u2019Connor suffered a non-contact injury during USC\u2019s camp practice Wednesday and will be out for the rest of the season, Riley announced.<\/p>\n

\u201cTough one for the guys to see,\u201d Riley said. \u201cA great reminder for all of our guys just how nothing in this game is ever guaranteed. We\u2019re fortunate to have enough depth on the O-line that we\u2019ve been working on to continue to push forward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The initial concept for USC\u2019s Bloom Football Performance Center was first born on the back of a napkin.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[169765,4188,110926,4690,1321,1512,169764,48,52,51,32698,47,50,49,169767,169766,4576,14791,23138,1816,3533],"class_list":["post-425972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-bloom-football-performance-center","tag-building","tag-capital-project","tag-coach","tag-college-football","tag-facility","tag-jeff-fucci","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-lincoln-riley","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-multiple-season","tag-napkin-sketch","tag-program","tag-sun","tag-trojans","tag-university","tag-usc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}