FIU Football Stadium Construction To Begin

MeanGreen61 · March 22, 2006

Post on the Sun Belt board by PantherFan.

FIU FOOTBALL STADIUM

Construction to begin next year

BY PETE PELEGRIN

ppelegrin@MiamiHerald.com

Florida International athletic director Rick Mello met with the university's board of trustees Tuesday to present a rendering of the Golden Panthers' new football stadium, and the school will begin construction on the stadium in January 2007.

FIU will play all its home games this season at FIU Stadium. Originally, the Golden Panthers were going to play this season's home games at the Orange Bowl. The dates for the home games will remain the same.

''The stadium consultants did not want to rush and put ourselves in too tight of a construction schedule,'' said Mello, who had planned for construction to begin this summer. ``Our 2007 home games are likely to be at the Orange Bowl, with the new stadium opening in 2008 for our home opener against South Florida.''

The stadium will have a seating capacity of 25,500 with the plan of eventually expanding up to 50,000 seats.

The stadium also will have 13 luxury suites, 1,400 club seats, a new press box, new lighting, a jumbotron scoreboard and new coaches offices, locker rooms and expansion of the weight room.

Mello said the luxury suites will double as graduate school classrooms.

The estimated cost is $31 million, which Mello said will be funded through private money and guaranteed money from out-of-conference road games.

Mello added that, "no state monies or monies earmarked for academics will be put into the stadium.''

The stadium is also expected to play home to high school football games, concerts and possibly FIU soccer.

Edited March 22, 2006 by MeanGreen61

SilverEagle · March 22, 2006

Mello said the luxury suites will double as graduate school classrooms.

Hmmm, could it be that they are looking at having a "bonding experience" with students that are more likely to go out and make more money than the general student population?

If so, pretty forward thinking on their part.

DeepGreen · March 22, 2006

Did FIU read the "How To Expand The LSU Football Stadium For Academic Offices And Classrooms With Taxpayers Money" manual from the 1930's????

ADLER · March 22, 2006

Did FIU read the "How To Expand The LSU Football Stadium For Academic Offices And Classrooms With Taxpayers Money" manual from the 1930's????
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LSU didn't use federal money for their stadium. They used federal money to build an oval shaped dormitory that just happened to have seating capacity for 60,000 on the roof.

LoveMG · March 22, 2006

LSU didn't use federal money for their stadium. They used federal money to build an oval shaped dormitory that just happened to have seating capacity for 60,000 on the roof.
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sounds pretty smart to me. too bad the eaglepoint planners didn't do the same for unt.

DeepGreen · March 22, 2006

LSU didn't use federal money for their stadium. They used federal money to build an oval shaped dormitory that just happened to have seating capacity for 60,000 on the roof.
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I was close enough for Louisiana politics!

NT80 · March 22, 2006

The estimated cost is $31 million, which Mello said will be funded through private money and guaranteed money from out-of-conference road games.
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So, how can FIU do this and not UNT? We're in a population center of 5 MILLION people and can't find a business(es) to donate $30 million in exchange for prime Interstate 35E/W advertising?

USF, UCF, Troy, and now FIU moving up; how about UNT ????????????

meangreendork · March 23, 2006

Let's sell off to the Richards Group in Dallas. They're one of the biggest agencies in the business, and certainly one of the larger ones in Dallas. Or, sell off to Microsoft; they have a unit in Irving.

NT91 · March 23, 2006

"The stadium will have a seating capacity of 25,500 with the plan of eventually expanding up to 50,000 seats."

Dont you have to have 30k plus for 1-A?

Baby Arm! · March 23, 2006

"The stadium will have a seating capacity of 25,500 with the plan of eventually expanding up to 50,000 seats."
Dont you have to have 30k plus for 1-A?
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Not anymore.... not exacty sure when that rule was dropped, but it was sometime after we added 10k bad seats to Fouts to make the jump back to 1A

letsgiveacheer · March 23, 2006

This reminds me of the old Marx Brothers movie, "Duck Soup".

Groucho proposes to tear down a student dorm to build a new football stadium. One of the trustees asks him, "where will the students sleep?'

Groucho replies, "where they have always slept...in the classroom"!

NorthTexasFan · March 23, 2006

This reminds me of the old Marx Brothers movie, "Duck Soup".
Groucho proposes to tear down a student dorm to build a new football stadium. One of the trustees asks him, "where will the students sleep?'
Groucho replies, "where they have always slept...in the classroom"!
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That's a good one!!