By JOEY KNIGHT
In what outgoing president Rhea Law called a “red-letter” day for the school, USF’s Board of Trustees unanimously approved the expenditure of $407 million for construction of its on-campus stadium and an accompanying infrastructure project.
The approval enables construction of the project to begin in earnest, with the stadium still set to be ready in time for the 2027 season opener against Louisville.
“It’s a transformative moment for our university,” Board of Trustees chairman Will Weatherford said during the recent virtual meeting, which lasted roughly 20 minutes.
“It’s about as big of a check as we’re ever going to write for anything at the University of South Florida. I’m a believer in measuring twice and cutting once. I think our team has done a good job of measuring here and trying to build in all the contingencies that you possibly can for a project of this size and scale.”
The final price tag (guaranteed maximum price) includes $348.5 million in projected costs for the stadium and $47.9 million for “East Campus Infrastructure” that includes utility and environmental investments, roadway plaza and walkway improvements, green-space development and security cameras. An additional $10.5 million for owner’s contingency (a reserve set aside to cover unexpected costs) was added.
The $348.5 million for the stadium is only $8.5 million more than the initial projected cost approved by the board in June 2023. Since then, some design and structural upgrades have been added to allow for possible future stadium capacity expansion and enhanced locker-room amenities, among other enhancements.
“In order for us to move to hopefully where we want to go potentially, with a lot of realignment conversations out there, maybe a super conference coming at the end of the day, we wanted to be able to add on to this stadium from a capacity standpoint and also a revenue standpoint,” USF Foundation CEO Jay Stroman told the group.
Link:
www.orlandosentinel.com
In what outgoing president Rhea Law called a “red-letter” day for the school, USF’s Board of Trustees unanimously approved the expenditure of $407 million for construction of its on-campus stadium and an accompanying infrastructure project.
The approval enables construction of the project to begin in earnest, with the stadium still set to be ready in time for the 2027 season opener against Louisville.
“It’s a transformative moment for our university,” Board of Trustees chairman Will Weatherford said during the recent virtual meeting, which lasted roughly 20 minutes.
“It’s about as big of a check as we’re ever going to write for anything at the University of South Florida. I’m a believer in measuring twice and cutting once. I think our team has done a good job of measuring here and trying to build in all the contingencies that you possibly can for a project of this size and scale.”
The final price tag (guaranteed maximum price) includes $348.5 million in projected costs for the stadium and $47.9 million for “East Campus Infrastructure” that includes utility and environmental investments, roadway plaza and walkway improvements, green-space development and security cameras. An additional $10.5 million for owner’s contingency (a reserve set aside to cover unexpected costs) was added.
The $348.5 million for the stadium is only $8.5 million more than the initial projected cost approved by the board in June 2023. Since then, some design and structural upgrades have been added to allow for possible future stadium capacity expansion and enhanced locker-room amenities, among other enhancements.
“In order for us to move to hopefully where we want to go potentially, with a lot of realignment conversations out there, maybe a super conference coming at the end of the day, we wanted to be able to add on to this stadium from a capacity standpoint and also a revenue standpoint,” USF Foundation CEO Jay Stroman told the group.
Link:
USF trustees approve $407 million for stadium, infrastructure project
The price tag was unanimously approved, allowing construction of the stadium and infrastructure to begin in earnest.
www.orlandosentinel.com
