FIU Approved For New Stadium

MeanGreen61 · September 29, 2006

Posted on the Sun Belt board.

FIU approved for new football stadium

BY PETE PELEGRIN

ppelegrin@miamiherald.com

Florida International took the penultimate step to securing approval for its football stadium on Friday morning when the FIU Board of Trustees gave approval for the Golden Panthers to build a new FIU Stadium.

The next step occurs in January 2007 when FIU is expected to receive the go-ahead from the Florida State Board of Governors to break ground on the stadium.

''It was a historic day for FIU,'' said FIU athletic director Rick Mello. ``This stadium will really assist us in delivering the intangibles that football was intended to deliver. That is building affinity with students, alumni, fans and faculty and this stadium will give us the opportunity to attract the top recruits we need. With the new stadium I see there is no reason why this program shouldn't be a perennial top 25 program.''

Once the board of governors approves the stadium, FIU is expected to break ground on the stadium in March and the stadium is expected to be ready for the team's home opener against South Florida in 2008. The total cost of the stadium is expected to be $54 million.

The Golden Panthers will play their home games in the Orange Bowl next season.

Mello said the stadium, which will be horseshoe shaped with the east end zone being the open end, will initially seat 20,000 and eventually 45,000. The stadium will have 14 luxury suites and a club level with 1,400 club seats. There will also be a video scoreboard.

The stadium will be built in four phases. Phase I will be the stadium itself.

Phase II will include a welcome center on the north side of the stadium which will house all student services which are currently in the on-campus Perry Building. The welcome center will serve as the facade of the stadium, similar to Florida State's Doak Campbell Stadium.

Also in Phase II will be the construction of a football building encompassing the Golden Panthers locker room, clubhouse and coaching staff's offices. Phase II is expected to be completed by 2009.

The current football fieldhouse which serves as the locker room for both FIU and its opponents will remain as the visitor's locker room and officials dressing room.

Phase III of the stadium will finish the open end of the stadium and Phase IV will deal with the construction of the upper decks of the stadium.

LoveMG · September 29, 2006

must be nice. wghen is ours coming

Stan R · September 29, 2006

starting at 20K seats, eh? hmmm.

CaribbeanGreen · September 29, 2006

starting at 20K seats, eh? hmmm.
←

you should see the joke of a "thing" they play in now. This is huge for FIU.

chrisfisher · September 30, 2006

FIU are building a 45,000 seat stadium that will be ready in 2009. A previous GMG poster was speculating if UNT could build our stadium (similar size) by 2009, so based on the FUI build time it appears it could be ready if we wanted it.

Also, did you notice FIU said they see no reason why they will should not be a top 25 team after the stadium build.

Edited September 30, 2006 by chrisfisher

MeanGreen61 · September 30, 2006

FIU are building a 45,000 seat stadium that will be ready in 2009. A previous GMG poster was speculating if UNT could build our stadium (similar size) by 2009, so based on the FUI build time it appears it could be ready if we wanted it.
Also, did you notice FIU said they see no reason why they will should not be a top 25 team after the stadium build.
←

They are building a 20,000 seat stadium that can be expanded to 45,000.

foutsrouts · September 30, 2006

Damn. A lot of optimism going on down there in southern Florida. Maybe we should change our name to Texas International? With Texas being a border state, might not be a bad fit.

FIU Fanatic · September 30, 2006

starting at 20K seats, eh? hmmm.
←

Regards to Mean Green fans. Let me offer my thougths for some proper perspective, I think. As you live in South Florida, you must know that, currently, the only DI football program south of Gainesville that has an on-campus "thing" to play in, is in FIU. So, while crappy as it is now, it was always intended to be a transitional stadium, until plans, and funding became available for our real thing. We've only been playing football for 4 years, this being our 5th, and to have a state-of-the-art 20 thousand seats (I heard it's closer to 25k) in the program's 7th season...you are right, it is just Huge for our program. I would even say that perhaps even for the great majority of programs in the nation in their 5th year of existence, to have that new stadium and program's growth would be acceptable at least.

We are happy and hope it is as nice as we've hoped. At the point FIU's development is, I agree it would be better to have a smaller stadium, with very nice amenities, than just a large stadium, that would look, and feel, so empty with our current fan base.

UNTLifer · September 30, 2006

FIU Fanatic, does the state assist with the cost of the construction, or must this be financed through private donations?

FIU Fanatic · September 30, 2006

FIU Fanatic, does the state assist with the cost of the construction, or must this be financed through private donations?
←

Heard the majority comes from student fees, season ticket allocations, and donations.....other than that, I don't know real specifics in terms of state dollars. They also plan on using leverage from some guaranteed money games for repayment, as I heard, since we balance the budget without guarantee monies..