As students walked around campus sweating in 90-degree weather, members of the FAU Athletics Department, FAU Foundation and students rubbed their hands together nervously in the air conditioned Oaks Pavilion. They were waiting for a Board of Trustees vote that would secure a 30,000-seat open-air football stadium on campus.
“I hope that when I leave, I can be assured that we’ll be assured of this great and important addition to the University,” FAU General Counsel David Kian said.
He was assured and left speechless, along with the rest of the room, when the Board unanimously agreed on plans for the $76.57 million “Innovation Village.”
The “Innovation Village” concept includes not only the open air stadium, but also retail area (similar to the University Commons) and an additional 1,540 beds in an all-new dorm building. The “village” will be located on the Boca Raton campus north of the newly renovated arena and gym.
Port St. Lucie Prowler Director Bobby Johnsen attended the assembly and spoke before the council on behalf of popular student opinion.
“We need a place we can call home and a place to hang our national championship awards,” Johnsen said. “I think we can get there.”
The Prowlers will be there when the stadium opens tentatively in fall 2010, phased into the concept lastly after the retail and housing portions of Innovation Village.
The Athletics Department has put numerous plans in front of the Board of Trustees for approval, including a 40,000-seat domed stadium financed by private investors. President Frank Brogan has been a large proponent in the race for a stadium on campus, although he agreed the domed stadium plan was not feasible.
“Good intent is inevitable,” Brogan said at Tuesday’s Board meeting. “But at the end of the day, it comes down to the deliverables.”
FYI-Innovation Village will include residence halls for 1,545 students and 130,000 sqaure feet of retail area.
-With fund raising and money earned through naming rights, the stadium could pay for itself through operation revenues.
-President Brogan will bring the final cost and construction proposal to the Board of Trustees and Board of Governors for a formal vote in the spring of 2008.
-If the stadium opens by 2010, revenue is expected to reach nearly $6.7 million annually, with operating expenses leveling out at $1.4 million per year.
