The Best Damn Band in the Land is known for its precision drill work and articulate musicianship. However, as with any successful organization, it takes hours upon hours of practice to give a flawless performance.

Enter the Joan Zieg Steinbrenner Band Center, a $5.1 million facility built into Ohio Stadium for the sole purpose of providing the OSU Marching and Athletic Bands a home for rehearsing, said Jon Waters, assistant director of the OSU Marching and Athletic Bands. Although it was first used during winter quarter 2001, the three-year-old facility is not finished yet.

Named after the wife of Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, the 22,000-square-foot band center is located inside Ohio Stadium. Diamond Ohio glass doors mark the entrance to the two-floor facility positioned below A deck on the east side of the stadium.

“The things that remain for sale (to be named) are the rehearsal hall, the audio/visual room and the horn practice room,” Waters said. “Other than that, the building is pretty much done.”

While the band center is used year-round, its heaviest usage occurs during the fall, when the marching and athletic bands combine for about 10 to 15 hours of rehearsal per week. It is also open late night for members of either band to practice on their own, and the band center opens around eight hours before kickoff on home football game days.

Although band usage drops off in the winter and spring, the facility has begun to play host to a wide assortment of classes and activities. In addition to his directing duties, Waters also teaches a marching band techniques class that he holds in the band center.

“It’s a drill-writing class – a general organization of a marching band program and philosophy,” he said. “We teach it in the band center because of the technology we have here. We have the ability to show DVD and video and annotate those by highlighting individuals or formations with the Telestrator, and we can broadcast those over a good sound system and a good video system that we don’t have access to anywhere else on campus.”

Students not only like the idea of having class in Ohio Stadium, but they also like the advantages of the band center.

“I like the fact that the band center provides the opportunity for a large group of people to perform analysis when viewing videos or listening to music,” said Joe Nunez, a junior in mechanical engineering. “I do not believe this opportunity to learn how to be the director of a marching band would be as effective in a normal classroom.”

Paul Zubrod II, an artist in residence in feature film scoring and a lecturer for the School of Music, moved two of his classes to the band center for many of the same reasons.

“It’s the only facility on the university campus that offers the highest technology, staff, cleanliness and the ability for students to work in a first-class environment,” Zubrod said.

“(The band center) is very hands-on; it allows for a lot of experience and what it’s like to be in the thick of things instead of reading it out of a book,” said Daniel Hange, a senior in music composition and student of Zubrod’s. “It has the ability to record a full orchestra, which we’ll hopefully be doing in a few weeks.”

The facility will receive national attention when it plays host to band directors from across the country during the second annual National Collegiate Marching and Athletic Band Symposium in early June. The event allows for these directors to share tricks of the trade they have picked up over the years with their peers.

In addition to numerous special events, the band center is also the home for various groups, camps and clinics, especially during the summer. Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma, the band program’s honorary fraternity and sorority, also use the sectional practice rooms for weekly meetings.

The first floor offers a nearly 5,000-square-foot rehearsal hall, director and staff offices, and practice and storage rooms for different sections of the band.

The second floor houses the audio and visual control room, a lounge for OSUMB alumni, men’s and women’s locker rooms, uniform and instrument storage offices and an instrument repair shop. Windows allow students to look onto the A concourse from a variety of places on both floors, and the facility has three separate entrances to the stadium.

Visiting the Steinbrenner Band Center is possible through tours of Ohio Stadium. For more information, call the Athletic Facilities Office at 292-2661.