Stadium is appoved by BOT!

[faualum]

I thought I should start a thread announcing the stadium approval. Its worth it. ;D

Unanimous approval by the board.

weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/sports/college/fau/blog/


FAU on-campus stadium APPROVED

> Posted by Ted Hutton at 2:25 PM

This just in: By unanimous vote, the BOT has approved plans for a $62 million, 30,000-seat on-campus stadium to open September 2010.

The vote was no surprise, but it took forever to get there. Nearly five hours of presentations, speeches, most b-o-r-i-n-g but I guess necessary. There were a couple nice hilites.

Couple heros for stadium backers: BOT chair Norm Tripp, who really did get choked up when he gave his speech, which was comparable to anything I have heard from The Voice.

"When [the state] gave us a university, they didn’t tell us we had to be a second rate university forever. We have the right to make this a world class institution right now. We have a right to bring to this university a full experience. We have the right to become a world class university."

Great stuff, and there was more.

And Craig Dunlap (see below).

WORD OF CAUTION: There is still work to do. The stadium is supposed to be self sufficient, so the money needs to come from sale of naming rights, suites, club seats, other sponsorships, donations, etc.

FAU has about a year to get the money lined up. Is there a chance they won't get it? Slim one, but I really, really doubt anything can stop this now.

More later, but I have to interview some folks. I do work for a newspaper.

….

Let’s call the stadium UCF Lite. Similar looking, just fewer seats.

[mh2os]

If you look carefully at the full picture, you can see the runways of the Boca Exec Airport...sooo if the location is correct on the picture, I'd expect it there. Perhaps Just north of the main part of campus along the border of the airport?

[faualum]

Speaking of Airport,

I don't know how many colleges charter jets to fly the team. It would be pretty cool for a team that does to fly into the Boca Airport and see the stadium as they fly in and land right next to it.

Some teams might think the FAU has its own airport.

It does seem strange that the opened end of the stadium would face the airport and not the campus. The noise of jets taking off would roll right into the stadium.

[TeamBeer]

What a great day...another one for the history books.

Now get out those checkbooks!!!

[CanadianOwl]

I would think they definitely want the luxury boxes, club seating and press boxes to face East, so that we are not looking directly into the setting sun on game days.

[faualum]

This is the South Florida Business Journal with some different information in the article.

Apparently there was some success in that questionaire emailed out a month or so ago regarding suite sales. Read on:


www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/stories/2007/09/17/daily21.html



FAU trustees approve stadium plan
South Florida Business Journal - 4:17 PM EDT Tuesday, September 18, 2007by Brian Bandell

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Florida Atlantic University's board of trustees unanimously approved a plan to build a 30,000-seat football stadium on its Boca Raton campus in a $62 million project.

The Tuesday vote authorized FAU President Frank Brogan and his staff to secure bond financing, a letter of credit from a financial institution and assemble a design and construction team. In order to obtain financial backing, FAU will begin selling box suites, club seats, sponsorships and naming rights. The state university's foundation will begin a fundraising drive.

Brogan said 15 people wanted suites before the stadium was even approved. He is optimistic that the university will meet all of its revenue goals for the project.

"When the Legislature gave us this university in Broward and Palm Beach counties, they didn't say we had to be a second-rate university forever," FAU board of trustees Chairman Norman Tripp said. "We have the right to make this a world-class institution now. We can bring to this university the full experience."

The steel stadium will be on the northeast corner of the campus. One end zone would be left open to allow for expansion. Construction would start in spring 2009 and finish in time for the fall 2010 season.

Plans call for 25 box suites - with 20 of them available for lease at about $45,000 each - and 1,000 club seats selling for $1,000 each. An analysis by Chicago-based C.H. Johnson Consulting estimated first year revenue of $6.7 million and operating expenses of $1.4 million. The operating income after debt service would be $4.8 million.

That's based on attendance averaging 16,200 a game, plus several high school football games and one special event. Last season, the Owls' average attendance of 9,726 ranked last in the Sun Belt Conference.

Charles Johnson, principal of the consulting company, pointed to big attendance boosts at the University of Central Florida and the University of Connecticut after completing their on-campus stadiums as precedent for FAU's success by doing the same. He said the estimate for FAU was conservative and attendance was bound to improve over time.

Johnson noted that UCF sold out its suites and club seats and wished it planned for more.

"This is a stronger market than Orlando, even through it is more competitive here," he said after describing the large population and wealthy demographics.

[faualum]

No doubt things will be changed by the time this is ready to start building so until then, this is our new stadium!

[Essency]

Congratulations on the new digs! Hopefully we'll get a series going soon and get a visit in. Y'all are doing it right.

[faudiehard]

essency said:

Congratulations on the new digs! Hopefully we'll get a series going soon and get a visit in. Y'all are doing it right.

Thank you and I agree...But why do you have a picture of OUR stadium on your signature?

[rdownin1]

Yeah the similarity kind of sucks but im sure a few areas might change while construction is in the midst