Rendering courtesy of LBSU Athletics.

Long Beach State Athletics announced yesterday that construction will begin in early 2018 on a locker room facility to accommodate the women’s soccer and softball teams.

“This locker room and clubhouse is a multi-million dollar project that is going to flip the vision of what recruits and the community see at soccer or softball games,” Athletics Director Andy Fee said during the press conference.

The new clubhouse will be located between the softball diamond and the George Allen Field to the convenience of both teams and will include individual lockers, a sports medicine space and team rooms. Both teams were previously using public locker rooms in the kinesiology building and the Walter Pyramid for meetings and sports medicine treatment.

Funding for the construction of the clubhouse was achieved through donations from the Long Beach community, Long Beach State Board of Directors members and the university.

“As a former Long Beach State softball student-athlete and current Beach employee, I want to express my passionate support for the new soccer and softball locker rooms,” Deputy Athletics Director Cindy Masner said in a statement. “I am pledging a financial commitment of support towards the project to show appreciation to the softball program and the athletics department that has played a large part in who I am today.”

Masner made a challenge gift and offered to match up to $50,000 of donations for the new clubhouse.

“The clubhouse is important because it shows a commitment from our University, and it shows a commitment from the community that we’re serious about competing at a national level,” women’s soccer head coach Mauricio Ingrassia said in a statement.

“It’s a big, big deal,” head softball coach Kim Sowder said. “It’s a place where we can bring recruits, and really show them what our culture is really about.”