From napkin to reality: How USC's new football facility 'blew me out my socks'

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LOS ANGELES – In his first conversation he had with Southern California about potentially taking the football coach job, Lincoln Riley asked for the moon: a new football facility on campus. 

He had never been on campus, but he — and many others — knew USC was miles behind most powerhouse programs, and there weren’t ever plans to change it.

He needed some assurance, and got it, so when he was on his way to Los Angeles for the first time, he decided to start writing concepts on a napkin, eager to make this more than just a conversation.

“Around the country, you knew ‘SC did not have good football facilities. It is what it is, like it's pretty commonly known,” he said. “That was a little bit at that moment of my way to test how committed ‘SC was.

“When that was met with no hesitation, that was a pivotal part to me taking this job. That's probably fair to say if that commitment hadn't been made, I probably wouldn't be here,” Riley added.

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Fast forward five years later, and that commitment has finally come to life.

USC opened its Bloom Football Performance Center, a $225 million, 163,000 square-foot facility solely for the team, something the Trojans believe is the missing piece in the program returning to its glory. 

The grand opening was Wednesday, Aug. 5, opening in time for the start of the 2026 season fall camp, and it’s been met with some extremely positive first impressions.

“It was hard to even put into words,” Riley said. “You walk in here and it wows you. It really does.”

It was a long process to make the idea come to life. USC senior associate athletic director of operations and capital initiatives Jeff Fucci said officials spent about a year just touring Power conference schools across the country, in addition to professional teams in Los Angeles, to get an idea of what would and wouldn’t work for the Trojans.

Media were given a tour of the facility on Thursday, Aug. 6 to see every aspect of what makes it a state-of-the-art facility, one that greets you with a reminder of where USC stands among the landscape with its record eight Heisman trophies and 11 national championships displayed in the lobby, alongside the 14 Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees.

The three-story building was designed with a first floor dedicated to players, the second where players and coaches meet with the third for the staff. 

The first floor is where all the glitz and glamour are at, with a 12,000 square-foot strength and conditioning center. Not only is it connected to the practice fields instead of walking across campus, it is the first college program to have Nike Strength custom weight racks with an ability to track just about anything with a rep of a workout: bar speed, power and explosiveness.

“It blew me out my socks,” said safety Christian Pierce. “Man, it's truly a game-changer.”

The locker room has everything and more a player needs. Reclining zero gravity chairs make it “a great nap spot,” said offensive lineman Tobias Raymond, and that’s even when there’s a recovery room with infrared therapy beds, sleep pods and AI-powered massage chairs from Japan.

“It's about players trying to optimize on Saturdays. It's about not peaking in Week 3. It's about the attrition of what it takes to win a national championship, go through a war of attrition to win a College Football Playoff and a national championship,” Fucci said. 

Also connected to the locker room are hydrotherapy and recovery pools that feel like a spa, and a player’s lounge with games and — yes — an in-house barber.

Where the team comes together on the second floor is a two-story team room with theater-quality surround sound, the first time USC can fit its entire program all in one room. Just outside are dedicated position group rooms, where former Trojans-turned-NFL stars reside on the walls. Also there is a creative space where USC can not only film its content, but use it as a recruiting tool.

Then the best spot resides at the top: On the third floor is an open area with a basketball hoop and pickleball court overlooking the practice fields, where you can see the rest of the USC campus, Los Angeles skyline and Hollywood sign all in one view. USC took advantage of the California sunshine, with natural light making up a large portion of the building, far off from the dark spaces it had been used to. 

“At the old studio, it's definitely awesome, but you don't really get any natural light, so it's a little gloomy down there,” Raymond said. “But it's so bright now that you walk in and you just feel awake when you get in here.”

Not just impressive, but it’s astonishing considering how long it was thought to be impossible to have a football facility on a crowded USC campus. There’s no space to expand, and somehow, the stars aligned for it to still happen — and be built in 636 days no less while undergoing administration changes.

USC believes this not only puts it at the forefront of football facilities across the country, but it is the final piece needed for an expecting big 2026 season, one with College Football Playoff expectations. If so, pretty remarkable where a napkin can take you.

“There's 226 acres on this campus, a special campus. We're not getting any more land,” Fucci said. “We had to maximize it, and now we have space where our football program has all the amenities and resources that they need to be successful.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: From napkin to reality: How USC's new football facility 'blew me out my socks'

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