It’s first and goal for FAU stadium, says coach
Published May 9th, 2008
By Dale M. King
CITY EDITOR
Florida Atlantic University Head Football Coach Howard Schnellenberg knows where he expects to be on Aug. 30, 2010.
“Michigan State will be playing FAU – in our new stadium,” he told members of the Federation of Boca Raton Homeowners Associations at Tuesday’s meeting.
The famed coach who was called to FAU in 1998 to craft a football program said the university is sticking to its schedule of having a 30,000-seat stadium up and running by the 10th year of the century.
The city of Boca Raton isn’t so certain. In fact, City Manager Leif Ahnell recently wrote to FAU telling the university to slow down. Ahnell said an FAU master plan has to be approved first. Also, the question of where the interchange from I-95 to Spanish River Boulevard will be located is still up in the air. The new ramps are critical to the construction of a stadium.
Schnellenberger offered a sometimes light, sometimes serious look at the FAU football program. He said naming rights are available in various parts of the proposed stadium, and donations are also needed. The coach estimates the cost of the new athletic facility at “between $65 and $75 million.”
“It needs to be in place by 2010. That’s the timetable we are on.”
The coach said FAU has never really had a “home” field. Early in its incarnation, it used what was then called Pro Player Stadium in Miami. Now, it uses Lockhart Stadium in Fort Lauderdale.
He said he expects university fundraisers will have $12 to $14 million in hand soon. That will make the stadium “bondable,” he said. “Then, we can ‘sell’ the stadium,” he said. “When the project is bondable, we can do all the money-raising aspects.”
The FAU Fighting Owls football team will open its season this year on the road against the University of Texas in Austin. Then, the University of Alabama-Birmingham will come to the area for an FAU home game. Next, it’s on the road for the Owls against Michigan State and then on to Minnesota.
Dale M. King can be reached at 561-549-0832 or at dking@bocanews.com.
|
