Virginia Mason Athletic Center

The Virginia Mason Athletic Center (VMAC) is a privately funded sporting facility situated on 19 acres (77,000 m²) of industrial property along the shores of Lake Washington in Renton, Washington. It is the headquarters and practice facility for the NFL's Seattle Seahawks. 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 of mile north of NE 44th ST.

History

The site was formerly home to a coal tar refinery & creosote plant. With approval in 2000 from the City of Renton and Washington State Department of Ecology, owner of the Seahawks Paul G. Allen purchased the land through his company Vulcan Real Estate. 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 (1976–86), the team's headquarters was located 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 (1986–96). While there, the players stayed in the dormitories of the adjacent Northwest College, which is now Northwest University. In 1997, the team returned training camp to Cheney through 2006. In 2007, training camp returned to Kirkland 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.

Naming & Partnership

Following plans for the new headquarters, the Seahawks announced an expanded partnership with Virginia Mason Medical Center. During the announcement, Seahawks CEO Tod Leiweke stated "Virginia Mason is recognized as one of the top hospitals in the country," and "the VMAC will allow our organization to consolidate into one facility, attract and retain free agents and bring training camp back home. The Seahawks, like Virginia Mason, strive to be at the top of our profession and this partnership helps accomplish that goal."^[1]

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
• Blog with VMAC Pictures
• Interactive Breakdown of VMAC
• Virginia Mason Medical Center