ATHENS — The indoor facility that Mark Richt long waited for but now won’t get to coach in will begin construction next month.

The actual construction will begin “as planned” the week of Dec. 21, according to a media advisory by UGA on Tuesday.

There will be a groundbreaking ceremony on Feb. 16 at 3 p.m., just prior to the Athletic Board’s winter meeting. Presumably the next coach will be at that ceremony.

The facility, budgeted at $30.2 million, will be built on the football team’s current outdoor grass fields, adjacent to the Butts-Mehre building. As a result whoever is the new coach will lead his team’s practices one mile away at the site of what had been club team fields. The team will bus to and from the fields during spring and fall practices.

The aim now is for the facility to be ready at the start of the 2017 calendar year.