Before and after every practice, ASU football is forced to play Tetris with golf carts.
To get from their lockers at Mountain America Stadium to the Kajikawa practice fields, they have to travel about half a mile. That process sees the team transport their players across Rural Road, one of campus' busiest roadways.
To do so, the team relies on golf carts, as well as a 56-seat bus, to get the players back and forth. Along with safety concerns, the expedition takes up valuable time, about 20 minutes each way.
"It was super difficult getting ready, and the golf cart situation was always a hassle," former offensive lineman Ben Coleman said. "From a player perspective, it brings you out of your routine a little bit, because your routine is dependent on being patient on somebody else."
Along with the help of a local donation, ASU plans to fix both problems simultaneously.
Powered by a $55 million donation from Align Technology, ASU is set to open the Invisalign Performance Center in 2028. The team will gain a new home for practice that is within walking distance, allowing them to spend less time navigating campus and more time preparing for the season.
Coleman said this willallow for more time spent on players receiving their treatment, coaches analyzing film and staff getting back to work.
"Every second really does matter," Coleman said. "How efficient can we be pre-practice, and then how efficient can we be during the practice and then how efficient can we be even getting back? I know it seems like a small, minute thing, but when you really add it all up, those are the differences in winning big games in those close moments."
The facility will primarily function as a practice field for ASU football and volleyball. It will feature 100,000 square feet of turf, including a 100-yard indoor field, a covered half-field, a new volleyball practice facility and a full outdoor practice field. It will take over the space previously home to Lot 59.
While improving the way of life during the season, it also opens an easier avenue for players to get work in during the offseason.
"I can't use the word efficiency any more than we already have because it's just going to create everything being so much more efficient, to get more work in an easier avenue that's safer for our athletes," Bryan McGinnis, the assistant athletic director for football operations said.
Align Technology, best known for developing Invisalign, already has signage at Mountain America Stadium, Desert Financial Arena and Mullett Arena. The donation continues the company's relationship with ASU while creating opportunities for potential career paths for students.
"What Align was able to do to help support that is amazing," McGinnis said. "It's a great partnership between the university, the athletic department and a supporting company that sees value in putting their name on a facility and supporting it financially."
When head coach Kenny Dillingham arrived in Tempe, he didn't just ask the Valley to tune into the Sun Devils. He asked it to become a part of them.
Along with improving the daily operations of the team, the facility also furthers Dillingham's hope to "Activate the Valley" — a mantra he preached during his hiring, calling for the community to buy into ASU athletics.
For die-hard Sun Devil fans, that has meant enduring the heat and sweating through their ASU gear while generating a game-day ambiance on Saturdays. They too will now have a new home for those festivities.
The new infrastructure will double as a sports bar-esque atmosphere for fans on game days, protecting fans from the Arizona heat while providing a centralized location to congregate. It reinforces ASU's focus not only on producing a winning product, but on growing the culture around it.
"It's just the Valley being activated," senior defensive tackle C.J. Fite said. "It's cool to be able to involve fans and be able to interact with them. Have fans meet players and do things like that."
It's a crucial step toward building the kind of program ASU wants to become.
"The success of any football program only goes as far as your community is willing to support it," McGinnis said. "If you look at the most historic programs in the country, they have huge community involvement."
The local donation from Align and the plans to use the site as a tailgating hotspot will alter what it means to support ASU football.
The hope is to make the program run better while bringing the Valley along for the ride- just without the golf carts.
Edited by Alex Swift, Alan Deutschendorf and Sophia Keeling.
Reach the reporter at jakobarnarsson@gmail.com.
Like The State Press on Facebook and follow @statepress on X.
