USF football stadium awarded construction contract, groundbreaking date

TAMPA — After hearing broad ideas about increasing revenue and cutting costs on Tuesday, USF Trustee Oscar Horton put forward one of his ideas.

“If we have football and basketball programs that we invest in, and we get into the SEC and all this, that has to be worth a lot to us, right?” Horton said. “It’s a return on investment.”

Horton and the rest of the USF board of trustees took the next step in that investment by providing updates to the Bulls’ proposed 35,000-seat football stadium.

One of them is formality. The board signed a contract with Manhattan Construction Company to build a stadium and football/lacrosse operations center north of the team’s current practice facility. Because the council’s finance committee quickly and unanimously approved the terms two weeks ago, the full council didn’t even have to discuss it on Tuesday.

The second is less significant but more interesting. Board chairman Will Weatherford announced the groundbreaking will take place on Oct. 18, the day before the Bulls’ homecoming game against the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

“It was a long time in the making…” Weatherford said. “We have made it happen. Very proud of our team. A lot of work has gone into finding the right place, designing the right facilities and helping us create an environment that will activate our campus in a way it has never been activated before.”

The work is not finished. Athletic director Michael Kelly said the Bulls are fine-tuning design details for the premium seating area to begin showing fans some options as soon as this fall. USF officials also spent a lot of time looking at the functional aspects a modern operations center would need. The facility is planned to open in 2026, a year before the stadium is built.

There’s at least one other hurdle remaining. USF has agreed to up to $340 million for the stadium but has not set a final cost, the so-called maximum guaranteed price. The board must approve the fees in the coming months.

But before USF can reach that stage, it must complete the construction contract. According to the term sheet, the builder will receive 2.25% of the construction costs. The builder will owe USF $2 million for every 2027 game in which the stadium cannot be used.

The Bulls have the option to cancel at any time, and the collective goal is to shift 36% of design/construction costs to small businesses or companies owned by veterans, women, or minorities.

“Knowing that you’ve completed a formal contract and knowing that you’ve set a groundbreaking date is pretty special,” Kelly said.

USF plans to fund the $140 million stadium through donations, broadband equipment/license sales and other ancillary accounts. This includes $6.3 million in the 2024-25 fiscal year from the student capital improvement trust fund.

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The school borrowed another $200 million through a 20-year taxable loan at 6.48% interest.

This is a great investment. But the rewards could also be big, if Horton succeeds in achieving his wishes. UCF, Cincinnati and Houston all made expensive facility upgrades before they moved from the USF (American Athletic Conference) league to a power conference (Big 12). SMU is undertaking nine-figure upgrades to its football stadium as it moves from American to ACC.

Weatherford told Horton he liked the initiative – and the idea of ​​generating $100 million more per year from a league like the SEC.

“Someone call Commissioner (Greg) Sankey,” Weatherford joked.

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