By Dale M. King
BOCA RATON – It appears 2010 may be the final year that Florida Atlantic University’s Fighting Owls football team will have to leave its Boca Raton campus to play “home” games.
Construction of a new stadium, first proposed in 2007 as part of an “Innovation Village” at FAU-Boca, is just one vote away from being approved.
All the hurdles have been cleared at the Glades Road campus. But the state Board of Governors must approve the issuance of a $44,585,000 bond to finance “certain football stadium facilities,” said a 119-page report to the FAU Board of Trustees. That meeting is scheduled Sept. 16.
Including all “soft costs,” the entire project will cost about $63 million. “The plan includes the infusion of $4,906,808 from the financing for the first phase of Innovation Village housing to be used to finance certain shared infrastructure costs, and [about] $20 million contributed by the university and the university foundation.”
That board gave a thumbs-up to the financing arrangement at its July 21 meeting.
“This has been a long time coming. It’s an instrumental piece in putting [FAU] on the map,” Trustee and Student Body President Ayden Maher said. “It will bring more out-of-state students to FAU, higher-caliber students.”
Vice-president of Facilities Tom Donaudy said the stadium is expected to be completed by the fall of 2011. FAU officials had hoped to open the stadium this fall.
The on-campus stadium is a dream of former FAU President Frank Brogan, who left last year to become state university chancellor. In fact, he led a delegation years ago to Syracuse University to view its domed stadium.
Initially, the FAU grid structure was to be of a similar ilk – with 45,000 seats and a retractable roof. Upon review of the plan, trustees trimmed it to 30,000 seats – and no roof. Several equipment like Football Field Laser Grading tools may be required to ensure that the field will meet international quality standards.
Head Football Coach Howard Schnellenberger was also a cheerleader for the new arena, and had been speaking to various groups, declaring a hope for stadium completion this year.
The stadium will be part of Innovation Village, a multifaceted project that will add a variety of amenities to the Boca campus. The stadium will be built on the northwest corner of the intersection of Lee Street and Palm Beach Avenue, according to Donaudy.
The memo to trustees said the Innovation Village will include student housing facilities, student life facilities and retail, commercial, recreational and athletic facilities. That effort, the memo says, is designed to “transform the university’s Boca Raton campus into a more traditional setting where students will enjoy a full range of campus activities.” That was another effort espoused by Brogan.
Innovation Village currently includes the Marlene and Harold Forkas Alumni Center, a Student Recreation & Wellness Center, both of which opened in 2009. FAU recently broke ground for construction of 1,200 new deluxe residential units – the first phase of the Innovation Village housing component.
“It will provide needed student facilities and enhance students’ university experience,” the memo says.
The report provided to trustees said the project was approved in concept by the board Sept. 18, 2007. It was then they decided to go with the 30,000 seat capacity, including 1,076 premium club seats and a club level; 4,448 priority club seats, 16 loge boxes with a capacity of six people each and 20 leasable luxury suites with a capacity of either 46 or 23 occupants each.
Legislative approval for the project has already been obtained, university officials said.
The FAU football team, organized in 1999, initially played home games in Dolphins Stadium in Miami, but, for the past few years, has used Lockhart Stadium in Fort Lauderdale as its “home” field. Lockhart is owned by the Broward County Athletic Association and its primary use is for high school football games and the Baltimore Orioles minor league baseball franchise.
Following the BOT’s July 21 vote to approve the financing, Athletics Director Craig Angelos commended all those who’ve worked on the project. “This has been a long, arduous task,” he said. “A lot of people have come together and joined hands at this time to step forward and take a chance that this will be a successful venture.”
FAU’s University Press contributed to this story