FAU on the verge of getting a $70M stadium

[wyvernmcd]

I'm kind of torn on this. I like that the university is trying to make itself better but pouring all of its financial resources into just football?? This is not "Field of Dreams" in my opinion

Article Below from Sun Sentinel:

FAU seeks approval for football stadium financing

The Board of Governors will consider giving the final go-ahead for FAU's 30,000-seat football stadium. A yes vote Wednesday or Thursday would put the wheels in motion for construction to begin on the $63.5 million project. (FAU, courtesy / September 14, 2010)

A stadium is on the horizon.

The Florida Board of Governors, which oversees the state university system, will decide this week whether Florida Atlantic University can move forward with its plans to build a 30,000-seat football stadium on the Boca Raton campus.

The university could take a major step toward shedding its "commuter school" status and realize its goal of becoming a traditional university.

And Boca Raton hopes the growing stature of the university will reverberate throughout the community, spurring economic development and the city's visibility.

"The evolution of Florida Atlantic University is one of the most exciting things happening in higher education today, and on a national scale," said Chancellor Frank Brogan, a former FAU president.

The proposed stadium is part of the Innovation Village project being built on the north side of the campus that includes an alumni center, student housing and recreation and a wellness center.

The university already kicked in $20 million from non-academic sources, such as concessions and parking revenue, to pay part of the $70 million total project cost.

About $45 million would be borrowed from Regions Bank.

If approved, the university expects to begin construction immediately and have the stadium ready by next fall.

And that means home games finally would be held at FAU.

FAU head coach Howard Schnellenberger has been pushing for a stadium since he arrived on campus in 1998 and began putting together the football program.

Since 2003, the Owls have been playing at Lockhart Stadium in Fort Lauderdale. Before that, they were at Sun Life Stadium.

Playing in a high school stadium about 15 miles from the Boca Raton campus hampered recruiting and rallying fans, Schnellenberger said

"It has been the missing piece for these many years," he said. "It is a profound piece to the puzzle. It is going to give credibility to what we have been doing. It is going to improve recruiting, improve fundraising and boost attendance."

And university officials expect a new stadium would begin the transformation they seek.

In recent years, the university has built a fitness facility and added restaurants. There has been a waiting list for FAU's residence halls. A new campus theater is under construction.

"With 1,200 new dorm beds, right next to a stadium coming out of the ground, it will be a game-changer for the university," FAU President Mary Jane Saunders said.

University officials expect the stadium would help recruit students who are looking to have a complete college experience that includes a stadium and football.

"Look at the University of Florida," said FAU Provost Diane Alperin. "As their football program grows and their academics grow, more and more students apply, and they can start picking from the top students."

Ayden Maher, FAU student government president, said there's no place on campus that can hold more than 3,000 people. He foresees the stadium would be used for fireworks shows, commencements and concerts.

Commuter students also would enjoy coming on campus for games and special events, Maher said. He predicts attendance at home games would soar.

"I think the stadium is a crucial piece to Florida Atlantic becoming a top-tier institution," said Maher, a 21-year-old senior from Coral Springs. "It will bring attention to all seven of FAU's campuses and sites, not just the Boca campus."

At the same time, Boca Raton hopes to ride the wave of the university's potential growth and visibility, even if residents face traffic jams during home games.

"The positives so far outweigh any possible negatives," Mayor Susan Whelchel said.

If the university can attract high-caliber students, Whelchel imagines many of its graduates would stick around, open businesses and become part of the community.

And it's easy to envision thousands of fans converging on Boca Raton, where they would spend money in restaurants, shops and hotels, said Troy McLellan, president of the Greater Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce.

"I think it's a significant economic stimulus to Boca Raton," he said.

The city played a key role in supporting the stadium proposal.

In a 2002 campus development agreement between FAU and Boca Raton, the university agreed not to build the stadium until work had begun on an Interstate 95 interchange serving the FAU campus.

But the two sides agreed last year to drop that requirement.

The Florida Department of Transportation continues its planning for an interchange at Spanish River Boulevard, but no money has been allocated for construction.

To deal with the stadium traffic, the university would pay $1.7 million for improvements to the city's traffic signal system on parts of Glades Road, Military Trail, Spanish River Boulevard and Yamato Road to improve traffic flow, especially during stadium events.

It also will continue contributing money to a shuttle service between the Tri-Rail station at Yamato and the campus.

FAU and city traffic engineers have been meeting monthly to get ready for the stadium, said Doug Hess, the city's traffic engineer.

A traffic consultant's study estimated that 10,200 vehicles, most coming from the south, would converge on FAU during a sold-out home game. It would take those vehicles about three hours to get to the stadium and three hours to leave.

But the stadium's impact would be limited. As part of its agreement with the city, FAU can have no more than 15 events there per year, not including events specifically for students and faculty.

Events would include six FAU football games, only one of which could be held during the week.

A maximum of eight Friday-night high school football games could be held.

There could be only one special event per year.

But will Boca Raton became a college town? Whelchel doubts it. As she explains it, Boca Raton is a city with a university, not a Gainesville that is a university with a city around it.

Still, she figures the university would have greater prominence in Boca.

"I think we are what we are," she said. "I think we're going to become, in a very positive way, more aware of our college students and of our college opportunities."

Angel Streeter can be reached at astreeter@SunSentinel.com or 561-243-6537.

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The board will decide Wednesday or Thursday whether to approve the university's financing of the $70 million stadium.

If the stadium rises, there are high expectations for its overall impact.

A football team that has struggled to find a home could finally impress new recruits and fans with a bastion for Owls football.

[Dave Gray]

I am in favor of the stadium, so long as it is on campus, and I think it should probably get its own 95 ramp directly into the stadium.

It's hard to get excited for a team when you have to drive 30 minutes away from campus to watch them.  You need to get your on-campus fans, drunk and rowdy.

[Fau Teixeira]

Yay me I get a stadium!

[Phishfan]

The only way I would attend a school without a football stadium is if it didn't have football.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Yay me I get a stadium!

LOL, first thing I thought of when I saw the title.

Some flaws here.

 

The university could take a major step toward shedding its "commuter school"

 

There has been a waiting list for FAU's residence halls

Want to stop being a "communter school"?  -- Build more dorms.  A communter school is not defined as a school without an on-campus stadium, it is defined as one where most of the students live off campus and commute in.  You fix that with more dorms not a football stadium.

As for getting more students to attend the games that live on campus can be accomplished without building a stadium.  1. Offer a FREE shuttle bus from dorms to stadium.  2) Ignore the fact that said students are drinking on said bus.  3. Set up a tailgate BBQ in the parking lot, allow students who are on the campus meal plan to use a meal plan meal for admission to the tailgate party, charge a reasonable fee to students who are not on the meal plan.   

[Phishfan]

^^^ Student housing is part of the construction project (although it is not included in the stadium dollar figures).

[SportsChick]

must.... graduate..... soon. I am not going to be able to afford all the oncoming fees

[wyvernmcd]

LOL, first thing I thought of when I saw the title.

Some flaws here.

    

Want to stop being a "communter school"?  -- Build more dorms.  A communter school is not defined as a school without an on-campus stadium, it is defined as one where most of the students live off campus and commute in.  You fix that with more dorms not a football stadium.

As for getting more students to attend the games that live on campus can be accomplished without building a stadium.  1. Offer a FREE shuttle bus from dorms to stadium.  2) Ignore the fact that said students are drinking on said bus.  3. Set up a tailgate BBQ in the parking lot, allow students who are on the campus meal plan to use a meal plan meal for admission to the tailgate party, charge a reasonable fee to students who are not on the meal plan.   

Well, the thing that got me was that the stadium was not so far away from the campus that they should have a better commuting system for students, fand and alumni to get to the stadium and back. Also, I knew and saw preliminary design plans back in 2007 but they were nowhere like this because it was a beginning football program. It was not $70M to construct it (just the stadium, nothing else). The current design makes it look like the school wants to directly compete with the higher level schools (though attendance capacity is much higher than 30k for football) and possibly have the option for future expansion (hence why a domed building idea was not accepted but was part of the potentials).

I believe they have at least 1 bus that they pack with alumni and other students that head to Lockheart for most of the home games. I believe there is drinking before, during and after said bus transport (was not on it but I used to work with a school alumnus before being transferred to another office). I think the students pretty do whatever they want for tailgate parties.

The issue that the school has always had was student attendance for games. On a Saturday most students do not want to drive to a game (or at least a majority of the FAU fans) when they could drive to other places and have fun doing other things or watch football from other places. The school wants to make it easier to have students show up to games so the attendance numbers go up and they get a nice paycheck from the NCAA for making the attandance qualifications for Division 1 football. They have already had previous threats from the NCAA that they would be forcibly downgraded to a lower division simply because of their fan attendance.

As far as I know they are building dorms as fast as they can (I did a walkthrough of one of the partially constructed building when I attended the school), even though it is on the opposite side of the campus, so students will be mostly beginning to populate the school more than commuters. There was an issue about this a while ago where the school was planning to force all incoming students have a minimum of 2 years where they must live on campus regardless of whether they were commuting or not or they were not able to graduate (I think). I have not really heard anything else about this but considering that the staduim has pretty much been green lighted, the school may reconsider doing this to drive up the on campus attendance and the probability that many of them will attend a football game rather than watch other games in the comfort of their dorm or homes. I thought legally that the school was not allowed to do such a thing but I graduated before I heard anything else about that.

What also drove me nuts about this is that the school continuously kept telling us that they were having to cut programs and some classes because the school could not afford it. I am not liking that the school is throwing everything into this basket. They cut some programs I wanted to participate in (related to engineering and other stuff) but that money went to the football program instead. Why are they cutting education programs and feeding it into sports when they dont have the money for it?

If the stadium is built will the people really come?

[SportsChick]

There are new dorm buildings going in - they're stealing precious parking spots for them

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

I believe they have at least 1 bus that they pack with alumni and other students that head to Lockheart for most of the home games.

1 Bus    That is the problem, that's only 30-35 people.  There should be multiple buses.  Staggered.  So folks who want to tailgate for 2 hours can as well as kids who want to get to the game 20 mins before kickoff.  And there should be an absolute ban on anyone who has a resident parking sticker from parking at the stadium.  The kids absolutely should not be being encouraged to drive to the stadium.  Lets face, they are gonna drink.  Not gonna stop the drinking.  So stop the driving. 

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

There are new dorm buildings going in - they're stealing precious parking spots for them

Replacing parking spaces with dorms! That is how you stop being a commuter school.  Stadium has nothing to do with it. 

[SportsChick]

Parking has been a mess to begin with, they need more spaces not less. I'm not looking forward to being back there in the spring where you need to be there almost 2 hours prior to class to find parking

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Parking has been a mess to begin with, they need more spaces not less. I'm not looking forward to being back there in the spring where you need to be there almost 2 hours prior to class to find parking

Best bet would be to sign up for the first morning class of the day.  If the first class of the day is 8 am you probably can find parking at 7:45.  Odds are you need to get there at almost the same time to find parking if your first class is at 11 am. 

[Dave Gray]

The reason that FAU is a commuter school is because there's not a lot of on-campus activity that keeps you around.  That has slowly changed over the years.  It's not just a lack of housing.

I don't think the bus idea works so great.  I think that you need to make the game an impulse decision, too.  ...let students stumble over there at the last minute on foot. 

As for parking, that needs to be addressed with or without a new stadium.  I assume that they'll need parking garages.  They will be for general student parking during the week, and then double as stadium parking on gameday.  I do think that a stand-alone 95 exit is pretty important.  I don't think that the entrances from Glades or Spanish River can accommodate that kind of traffic.

A stadium like this is an investment.  These schools make a ton of money off of football, and if you can start getting some big games, TV contracts, jersey sales, etc., it can do a lot to bring up and create jobs for the school and community around it.

[SportsChick]

Best bet would be to sign up for the first morning class of the day.  If the first class of the day is 8 am you probably can find parking at 7:45.  Odds are you need to get there at almost the same time to find parking if your first class is at 11 am. 

you get there at 7:45 and the spot you get is a 20 minute walk to the building and you're late for class.