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Double T scoreboard installed, provides familiar skyline for Texas Tech football

The Texas Tech football team is going to enjoy a new skyline when its takes the field in the fall inside Jones AT&T Stadium.

A new Double T scoreboard was put into place, piece by piece, over the past few days. The final piece was set on Saturday.

Fifteen months ago, the original Double T scoreboard was removed from the south end zone in which it stood since 1978 — kickstarting the beginning of the south end zone building inside Jones AT&T Stadium.

Thanks to two construction cameras, Texas Tech fans have been able to keep up with the progress of the south end zone and, now, the Womble Football Center which are both expected to be completed by the start of the 2024 season.

The Womble Football Center and south end zone will be connected by a skybridge.

Fans were able to see progress each week during the 2023 season. Shortly after the season ended, underground infrastructure work began on a new visitors' locker room at the northeast corner of the stadium. Also on the docket before the 2024 season are a new video board in the north end zone, three ribbon boards and a sound system. The amenities are part of a two-year, $242 million Texas Tech football construction and renovation project.

Target completion dates, Tech senior associate athletics director Robert Giovannetti said, are June 2024 for the south end zone building, August 2024 for the visitors' locker room and Aug. 31, 2024, for the Womble Football Center.

The Red Raiders first game of the 2024 season is against Abilene Christian University and scheduled for Aug. 31.

Below is a summary of some of the projects, which have been reported on previously by the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal's Don Williams.

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More: How Texas Tech would handle the changes proposed by NCAA president Charlie Baker

Where will visiting teams stay at Jones AT&T Stadium?

Visiting teams' game-day operations will move permanently to the northeast corner of the stadium. The new visitors' locker room and ramp will be constructed there. That's where the visitors' equipment truck and team buses will go, too.

Visiting teams to Jones AT&T Stadium in 2023 dressed in trailers. The Oregon Ducks provided positive reviews of the temporary locker rooms.

The new locker room — located near the Marsha Sharp Freeway — will be 5,200 square feet.

The Red Raiders' new entrance to the field will be directly behind the south-end goalpost beginning in 2024.

More: What went into the decision to relocate Texas Tech visitors' locker room?

More: See timelines for Texas Tech football projects at Jones AT&T Stadium

What's in the new south end zone building?

It'll have all sorts of features: a field-level club, loge boxes, concessions-laced concourse with a view of the field, coaches' offices, luxury suites — even a party deck.

Included in that will be a new entrance for the Texas Tech football team.

For years, the Red Raiders have come onto the field via a ramp at the southwest corner. Now they'll enter directly behind the south end zone goalpost — and to get there they'll pass through Red Raiders fans in the field-level club.

The coaches will also have new ways to bring in recruits and welcome back former Tech football alums. Adjacent to the field-level club, plans call for a game-day recruiting lounge for visiting prospects and their families. When the recruits move to their seats in the stadium bowl for kickoff, the lounge area will be opened to Tech letterwinners.

What's the Womble Football Center?

Back in October 2021, Texas Tech announced plans for the Dustin R. Womble Football Center with Womble and his wife, Leisha, providing a $20 million donation.

The new facility will replace the Tech Football Training Facility, erected early in the Mike Leach era, as the day-to-day headquarters for the Tech football team.

The Tech Football Training Facility, built in the early Mike Leach era, was about 20 years old. It housed coaches offices, meeting rooms, a sports medicine and athletic training room, an equipment room and a weight room. The Tech staff vacated the building Dec. 2 in preparation to begin the demolition process.

Tech coaches moved to suites on the press level of the Jones AT&T Stadium west building. For bowl prep, winter conditioning and spring practice, Tech players are using the temporary locker-room trailers in the stadium's east parking lot. Visiting teams used the locker-room trailers last season.

The athletic training and sports medicine staffs moved to the Sports Performance Center for bowl prep, winter conditioning and spring football, and the equipment staff will move to a new trailer in the east stadium lot, separate from the ones visiting teams used this season.

Tech coaches will office in the south end zone building once it's complete.

What will be the new capacity of Jones AT&T Stadium?

Stadium capacity for 2024 has yet to be finalized.

Senior associate athletics director Mike Ryan said it will remain around 60,000, Giovannetti said. The current listed capacity is 60,454.

The new south end zone building will have 17 suites, taking the total number of suites in the stadium to 102.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Double T scoreboard installed, provides familiar skyline for Texas Tech football