USC to break ground on all-sports building in January

USC will break ground in January on a $70-million all-sports building to be located directly west of Heritage Hall.

The official announcement will be made Saturday. The projected three-story, 110,000-square-foot building has not been named but is expected to be by the ground-breaking, which will honor the donors. The facility is scheduled to be finished in 18 months.

Athletic Director Pat Haden, confirming the project, said the building is needed for both practical and intangible reasons.

The practical reason is the need for additional space, which will allow the football team to move its operations from Heritage Hall into the new building. The new building also will house academic services and workout and rehabilitation facilities for all 21 USC sports. Haden said it is truly meant to be an all-sports facility. Football offices will be on the top floor.

The intangible reason is a morale boost.

“We need this,” Haden said. “It has been tough here. We’ve been slapped around, and there is the cloud of NCAA sanctions. This is both a new building and an uplifting moment.”

Haden’s office and those of other sports administrative personnel will remain in Heritage Hall, which will become one of three athletic centers at USC, the third being the Galen Center.

Heritage Hall will be 40 years old next year and, as Haden joked, occasionally shows it age.

“I was in the basement the other day,” he said, “and I ran across a cockroach the size of a Buick.”

Haden said the new building will supplant a soccer field, but that field will be relocated nearby.

bill.dwyre@latimes.com