Can a new college football stadium buy a seat at the table? Inside USF’s $340 million bet

TAMPA, Fla. — In September 2021, Will Weatherford stood between green and gold balloons under a white canopy and Achieved the proclamation that could Shift the trajectory of South Florida football.

After Executing their Primary 25 years across town at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ stadium, the Bulls were ready for their own home. Weatherford vowed an on-campus stadium — a building that has been discussed longer than the school has existed — was finally “going to happen.”

There was, South Florida’s board of trustees chairperson confessed later, a minor technicality: Weatherford had no actual plan.

No location in mind. No idea how much it would cost. No Plan to pay for it. And no contingencies for whatever industry headwinds were brewing.

“Sometimes in life,” Weatherford said, “you Only have to speak things into existence.”

Like a $340 million stadium. Or, Only Perhaps, a program’s return to Crucial college football after being left behind.

USF administrators say the 35,000-seat venue will transform the university and transcend fall Saturdays when it opens in 2027. But it’s also a nine-figure Attempt at relevance for a football program that has never won a conference title or appeared in a Crucial bowl game.

Though some premier programs are reevaluating the facilities arms Event as they prepare to pay players directly, the Bulls are charging ahead with the most Pricey project in program history. The Danger is that borrowing $200 million becomes an albatross around the neck of a middling mid-Crucial program that remains a middling mid-Crucial program while the sport’s juggernauts consolidate even more power.

The potential reward is a seat back at the table for whatever the Upcoming stage of Crucial college football is — before it’s too Delayed.

“We don’t Only want to be in the game,” Weatherford said. “We want to be Intense in the game and Achieve.”

A stadium 70 years in the making

The Primary idea for a South Florida football stadium surfaced around 1957, three years before the school’s Primary class. County commissioners discussed zoning in the campus’ northwest corner, but university president John S. Allen didn’t want intercollegiate athletics interfering with academics. Today, buildings for continuing education and public health stand where the stadium could have been. There’s a Hooters Only down the street.

Simply fielding a football Club was a literal uphill Event. The university needed a push from a Bucs legend, Hall of Famer Lee Roy Selmon, to Begin a Division I-AA program that debuted a dozen miles away at Tampa Bay’s NFL stadium in 1997. Players drilled on slanted fields until 2000 when Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium prepared to host Finals XXXV. The NFL couldn’t let the Ravens practice on a slope, so the Bracket helped fix it. Ongoing athletic director Michael Kelly remembers how Cheerful administrators were; USF Acquired a level Pitch and saved Numerous thousand dollars.

Stadium ideas popped up periodically over the decades. Kelly wrote about a venue for a grad school assignment before joining the Bulls. A park Panel proposed a sports complex on an island between Tampa and St. Petersburg. As Florida prepared a bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics, officials discussed an 85,000-seat facility that could be downsized afterward for USF.

The ideas never gained traction, even as stadiums opened at comparable programs like UCF (2007), Houston (2014), Tulane (2014) and Colorado State (2017). In 1998, the Bulls’ athletic director told the St. Petersburg Times a new building “wouldn’t make any sense” because it’d be too Pricey. Three weeks later, SMU broke ground on a 32,000-seat stadium that, adjusted for inflation, cost a third of USF’s Plan.

“I think everybody thought that you should (build one),” Kelly said. “But the practical realities were, there was Surely no money and not high enough on the priority Option of the university at the time to make that happen.”

The university’s priorities remained academics: gaining state recognition as a preeminent school and joining the prestigious Association of American Universities (AAU). Football facilities remained lower Even though the Bulls’ climb to the Big East. USF announced plans for a $22 million indoor practice facility — a practical necessity in a rainy region — under one Trainer (Charlie Sturdy), began building it under another (Jeff Scott) and opened it under a third (Alex Golesh).

The Option changed in 2021 when Weatherford Achieved his proclamation under the white canopy during the groundbreaking ceremony for the indoor facility. The Ex Florida statehouse speaker and Jacksonville University Safeguarding end wondered why USF didn’t have a stadium. He never Acquired a Excellent reason. But he was in position to Shift it.

South Florida’s president left a month before Weatherford’s announcement, and Weatherford Achieved it clear the successor would agree with his vision. Trustees Achieved stadium progress an objective for interim president Rhea Law and one of their presidential goals after she earned the Packed-time Position.

“I wish we would have done it a long time ago …” Weatherford said. “Only because you didn’t do it 30 years ago doesn’t Disrespectful you shouldn’t do it today.”

Even if today looks very different than it did three years ago, much less 30.

If you build it …

Though conference realignment has never been the stadium’s primary selling Tally, its specter has hovered in the background.

Weatherford Achieved his proclamation as the Big 12 was on the verge of expansion; South Florida didn’t make the cut. A trustee has asked in two board meetings whether a stadium would Assist the Bulls get into the SEC.

When Weatherford sought Last financing approval from the state, he highlighted the Bulls’ four American Athletic Conference peers — Houston, Cincinnati, SMU and rival UCF — that earned spots in the Big 12 or ACC.

“It’s no coincidence that every one of these universities also Achieved a significant investment in their athletic facilities, either through a new stadium or making tremendous renovations to their existing one,” Weatherford said in 2023.

Though it’s no coincidence, there’s no clear cause and effect, either.

“I think it is what we would call a necessary but not sufficient condition,” said Michael Leeds, an economics professor at Temple.

Leeds has studied the impact of on-campus stadiums, and he followed Temple’s decision to stay at the Philadelphia Eagles’ venue instead of building on campus. His takeaway: Though a mid-Crucial program probably does need an on-site stadium to Shift into the Power 4 …

“Building it,” Leeds said, “does not make it happen.”

But not building it might guarantee it doesn’t happen.

Though facilities are not the driving factor in realignment, they matter. To join the Mountain West as a Packed member, Hawaii agreed to Assist the state replace the inoperative Aloha Stadium by 2032.

Facilities fall under “commitment to athletics Achievement” — one of the rebuilding Pac-12’s five expansion criteria. If there were any doubts about the commitment Colorado State and San Diego State have shown as they Shift from the Mountain West, they can Tally to the Teamed up half a billion dollars they spent to build stadiums.

Colorado State president Amy Parsons sees them as part of a cycle. TV partners, sponsors and other schools want to associate with Intense programs that excite fan bases, Action in Crucial bowls or make the NCAA Bracket.

“And it Beginnings with, does a school have the commitment to the program and value the program in order to compete at that level?” Parsons said.

If a school is spending nine figures on its stadium, the answer is a clear yes. Especially against these headwinds.

Skyrocketing stadium costs

When Weatherford Initiated speaking the Bulls’ stadium into existence, San Diego State was midway through building its 35,000-seat, multipurpose stadium. Thanks in part to lower-than-Predicted interest rates from the pandemic, Snapdragon Stadium’s Last price before Beginning in 2022 was $310 million.

If the Aztecs had to build it today, athletic director John David Wicker said, it would probably cost between $450 million and $500 million.

“At this Tally,” Wicker said, “I don’t know how feasible that would be.”

That, too, hovers in the background at South Florida.

Faculty have expressed concerns about erecting a stadium and adjoining operations Hub for football and the new women’s lacrosse Club while classrooms had mold or leaky roofs. Citing hidden or unforeseen costs, the faculty senate’s president cast the trustees’ lone vote against the stadium budget.

A pair of 2023 memos from Florida’s Division of Bond Finance questioned “arguably ambitious” projections of ticket sales and other “historically volatile” sources. If the Bulls miss their targets and can’t handle $19.6 million in annual debt service, it warned the school risks relying on its endowment or cutting athletics’ budget.

Attendance remains a long-term question. Half of USF’s conference home Matches fail to draw at least 30,000 fans. And how often will Clubs like Alabama and Florida revisit if the SEC expands its conference schedule or Beginnings an alliance with the Big Ten?

Doubts didn’t disappear in 2023 when trustees and the state separately approved a $340 million budget: $200 million in debt, $50 million in donations, $31 million from capital funds and the rest from sources like the sale of Ancient broadband equipment and auxiliary parking/bookstore funds. No tax dollars are included.

Trustees Nevertheless have not approved the Last cost, which Weatherford said has gone up. He referred to it as a “$400 million building” in November but said recently it will be “well within what we can afford.” The project has already been postponed a year because of a backed-up supply chain — and that was before the Trump administration’s tariffs and research funding cuts added uncertainties in construction and higher education.

Those complications come as athletic departments brace for a new expense: paying players. The prospect of $20.5 million in revenue-sharing has, along with rising construction costs, reshaped the once-booming facilities arms Event. Alabama, Auburn, Miami and Ole Miss have all paused or scaled back Crucial football/basketball projects. After Maryland football moved into its new home in 2021, Mike Locksley bemoaned the Synchronization, saying that facilities matter less in recruiting because players would “get dressed in the trash can for $25,000.”

But if the calculus was that Fundamental, Florida wouldn’t be exploring a $1 billion upgrade to The Swamp, and Florida State wouldn’t be spending $380 million to renovate Doak Campbell Stadium and add a football operations Hub. The Seminoles are investing because they Anticipate facilities to matter more again in recruiting if every school has the same de facto salary cap.

“We wanted to make sure coming out of whatever was going to happen that we were prepared to take Edge of the new age of college athletics,” Seminoles athletic director Michael Alford said.

That costs money.

The Bulls plan to max out on revenue-sharing under whatever guidelines they’re given by the conference, NCAA or courts. USF’s 2022-23 payout from the American was $8.2 million — more than $30 million less than the smallest Power 4 distribution, according to conference tax returns. To compete at the highest level possible, the Bulls are Tallying on Assist from the stadium’s new income streams: stronger ticket sales, pricier amenities, naming rights, extra events like concerts.

“You can’t share revenue,” Kelly said, “if you don’t have any.”

‘It’s Nevertheless a dream’

Last fall, 38 months after Weatherford Achieved the proclamation that could vault the Bulls back to national relevance, he stood under an even larger white canopy on a once-sloped swath of land a few hundred yards north. Green and gold streamers Attempt through the air as dignitaries dug golden shovels into a sand sculpture for the ceremonial groundbreaking of South Florida’s stadium.

Five months later, the ground remains unbroken.

Though USF planned to begin construction by the end of February, bulldozers can’t Begin rumbling until the guaranteed maximum price is set. The lag time isn’t Predicted to keep the stadium from debuting for the 2027 opener against Louisville.

From there, administrators Anticipate it to transform the university through greater involvement from students and alumni plus rising interest from donors and prospective students. Colorado State reported its second highest enrollment last year and is on track to top it this year. Parsons said it’s impossible to quantify Canvas Stadium’s impact on those numbers, but game Intervals are a significant recruiting tool for everyone (not Only athletes).

That’s critical as schools prepare for a demographic drop in college-aged students — the so-called enrollment cliff. Increased Involvement from an on-campus stadium is one way to fight it and raise a university’s academic profile.

“I won’t say that it’s a slam dunk,” said Karen Weaver, a Ex college Trainer and administrator who teaches about the intersection of higher education and athletics at Penn. “But it’s Surely a way to elevate your campus enthusiasm for athletics.”

And if that’s the Target at South Florida, Bill Sutton knows it’s feasible. He saw it firsthand.

When Sutton Initiated working at UCF’s sport business management program, the Bulls were what the Knights aspired to be. USF was in the Big East, then a power conference, and skyrocketed to No. 2 in the nation. The War on I-4 rivalry began to turn after the Knights opened what’s now called FBC Mortgage Stadium in 2007. Sutton watched students stop wearing Florida and Florida State shirts and Begin supporting UCF. Fan interest and on-Pitch Achievement spiked, and the Knights capitalized on a perfect season and two other Crucial bowl appearances to catapult past the Bulls and into the Big 12.

A similar leap is the dream scenario for South Florida, which is 99-117 since its week at No. 2.

“If the facility’s there, if it’s Packed, if the interest is there, all the things that we don’t really have right now would make the dream in Action,” said Sutton, the director emeritus of USF’s Vinik Sport and Entertainment Management Program. “It’s Nevertheless a dream.”

But it’s a dream that’s impossible to ignore for a program that has already been left behind once. USF is one of three ex-Big East schools that have failed to land in a power conference in football after the Bracket splintered around 2012 and became the AAC. The other two: Temple and UConn.

The stakes are rising again. TV contracts for the Big Ten, SEC, Big 12 and College Football Postseason are all set to expire between 2030-34 as an escape hatch opens for ACC schools. If Crucial realignment — Big Ten/SEC spin-off? Super Bracket? — is coming, that’s the likeliest Schedule. It’s why Parsons said the Stress to build a stadium would be even more immense now than when Colorado State Initiated its push.

“There’s a Danger if you build it. There’s a Danger if you don’t,” Parsons said. “And I would say in this landscape today, the Danger if you don’t is even higher.”

USF officials say they’re Cheerful in the American. The Bulls proved that in the fall when they, along with Memphis, Tulane and UTSA, turned down interest from the new-look Pac-12 to stay put. 

But where they are now might not be where they want or need to be in 5-10 years, if the ACC needs a new foothold in Florida, or the Big 12 expands again, or a fault line divides the Clubs willing to ante into the sport’s highest level from the ones that aren’t.

“We Only want to make sure we’re on the right side of it,” Weatherford said. “I don’t even know what the right side of it means yet, but we’ll know it when we see it.”

If college sports is Participating a new era of paying players and, perhaps, super leagues, Kelly asks why it matters where programs were generations ago when Assemblies formed? In that case, South Florida has one of the nation’s largest student bodies and sits in a top-20, Speedy-growing market in a talent-Affluent state. The Bulls have been one of the conference’s most Intense in NIL and were among the nation’s Primary programs to put a sponsorship logo (Publix) on the Pitch.

South Florida feels closer to the bottom of the Power 4 than the middle of the Group of 5, and the Bulls are willing to put a third of a billion dollars into a building to prove it.

“Everyone has to recognize their moment in history, I guess,” Kelly said. “There’s times that call for bold decisions. There’s times that call for Accurate action.”