November 7, 2024 • 11 mins
Friday (Nov. 8), the University of South Florida holds the official groundbreaking for its new on-campus football stadium. We speak with USF VP of Athletics Michael Kelly about how this will change the university, the athletic program and the fan experience. Photo: USF Athletics
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Gordon Bird here Beyond the News. It's a moment that's
been decades in the making. USF is breaking ground for
its on campus football stadium Friday afternoon. We have the
university's vice president of Athletics athletic director Michael Kelly with
us to talk about it. Michael Kelly, Welcome to Beyond
the News.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Gordon, thank you, it's honored to be with you.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Well, first we want to acknowledge some news that broke
just before we recorded this podcast. A very well known
Tapa family is making a big gift to the USF
stadium effort, if you want to fill us in on that.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yeah, with this whole exciting week coming up with the groundbreaking,
it's been awesome to see the momentum continue in. Just
today we were able to announce a one million dollar
gift from the gon Smart family. Obviously, so many people
are aware of the impact that the gons Marts have
on the community on so many different causes and so
for so many different organizations, and they've been longtime supporters
(00:52):
of USF and particularly USF Athletics, and we're so pleased
and appreciative of their generosity.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
A million dollar gift from the Gonsmart Family Foundation. And
if you're not from here or I haven't been here
long and aren't familiar with the name Columbia Restaurant, U
Lele and a number of other restaurants that are a
part of the Gonsmart Family Restaurants and they, as you mentioned,
have been supporters of USF for a long time. And
this is a big deal. You've had support from many
(01:20):
of Tampa's mover and shakers and donations big and small
as you have been raising funds to build the stadium.
Now this dedication, this groundbreaking was originally scheduled a few
weeks back, but got moved back because of the hurricanes.
And now it's coinciding with homecoming. That must work out
very well. And how does it feel after all this
(01:41):
time to be bringing this effort home to get the
football stadium up and running at USF.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Well, it's a week of long anticipation and a whole
lot of excitement. As you mentioned, to have some gifts
continue to roll in the philanthropy that's been associated with
this is one thing. But you know, I was fortunate
to be here in the late nineties when football was
just getting started as an associate ad and remember the
(02:08):
initial conversations when we were starting football about Wow, I
won't it be great to one day have our own
own stadium, But you know, you have to you have
to walk before you can run, and we had to
kind of put focus on building the program up. And
we've had a lot of success over these twenty seven years,
but the time was right just a couple of years
ago when we had another important facility we needed to
build in our estimation, and that was the indoor practice
(02:30):
facility that we built a couple of years ago. And
it was really somewhat poetic that at the groundbreaking for
that event is when our chairman of our Board of Trustees,
Will Weatherford challenged all of us to go build this
on campus stadium and he said, we need one. The
time is now, and between the leadership of President Law
and Jay Stroman, the head of our USF Foundation, and
(02:53):
others that have worked really hard to kind of get
us to this point. So we're honored to have it.
It's going to be such a transformational product, not just
for athletics. I mean, of course it's going to be
huge for us, but for the whole university. For a
lot of different reasons, we think that this facility from
an athletic standpoint, will complete or be close to completing,
what we think will be one of the finest athletic
(03:14):
districts in all of college sports. And what I mean
by that is that it's such a what We're going
to have great modern facilities, well thought out and plan
for what the current athlete needs. And they're all on
such close proximity to each other. So to have this
whole east side of campus all be focused and you know,
directed to athletics makes current Bulls and future Bulls have
that just much better of a of a situation to
(03:38):
kind of be their their very best. And I say
that respectfully to even other great athletic departments around the
country where they might be a couple hundred years older
than us or one hundred years older and us that
they've got great facilities, but when they build new ones,
they've had to build them maybe a mile or two
away from the rest of campus. And for us, because
we're relatively young, we're able to control and plan the
real estate in the States where we're able to put
(03:59):
that to our advantage and career. This stadium, which I
think is going to be just a wonderful masterpiece to
the overall campus master plan.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
And one of the aspects of course, is going to
be the students section and being on campus. If you've
been to or seen or went to one of the
universities that have an on campus stadium, you know about
the excitement that occurs when you have that stadium. Tell
us about how that aspect of it having that presence
(04:28):
on campus really changes the atmosphere for a football game
or any other big sporting event for the university.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Yeah, I think it just elevates the entire campus aspect
of campus life and school spirit and everything that goes
with it. And some of the greatest things about college
sports are obviously the pageantry and just the fund that
students have and the loudness that comes in the stadium,
the home field advantage that really gets sparked mostly from
the student body, and to make something that much more
(04:59):
convenient for them that they can literally just walk down
the street on campus or have a very short walk
or commute from somewhere nearby, as opposed to know, planning
for potentially a thirty minute drive or getting an uber
or whatever. And so while Raymond James is obviously an
amazing facility. We're very grateful to still play in it now.
It's just not the same as being able to have
(05:19):
something designed by USF and for USF and something that
the students school will love.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
So we've been.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Able to early focus groups and we started designed to
really hear from a lot of different student groups to
kind of say what would they really like and if
we could really start and as we do from building
a stadium from scratch, and part of what they wanted
was someoneted to be really close to the action where
they could paint themselves and be right in the throes
of things. We've got seats for that. And then there's
some just wanted to kind of standing room only and
(05:44):
be able to kind of have more of a social
and leisurely atmosphere. We've got that wanted something iconic that
could be unique from everything else, and we've literally we're
not just putting students into a action the stadium. We've
actually designed this whole quadrant of the stadium, if you will,
to be dedicated exclusively to students, and so that'll be
just a lot of fun. That's what makes it special.
(06:05):
It's being informed by them in the design and something
they're going to execute and have a really great time.
So we think we've done this really well. And I
know our students for now and for the long into
the future are just going to have a really special
atmosphere which for our teams is going to make just
again as I mentioned earlier, just an amazing home field advantage.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
And the big lighted USF Bulls logo right in the
middle of that section. I'm sure that's going to be
a big rallying point.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Oh, I love it, you know everyone, it's great when
you can find some sort of unique feature. You know,
the Bucks have the pirate ship and for us to
have what I already think is an awesome logo and
the bull youu and to have it lighted feature an
animated one, that laminated one that can just showcase itself
amazing from the blimp views that will happen amazing from
the top of the tower. But again just identifiable. But man,
(06:50):
you're walking in here, you know that is when you
turn on a game on television, that is USF Stadium,
that is the USF student body. Don't want to play there,
and that's kind of Atmosphary one. I'm very intrigued to
see what we do with this believe that's in the
middle of that student section. You know there's special seating
and special kind of standing room, drink rails and stuff
(07:10):
in that area. I'll be fascinated to see what organically
grows as to who goes into that area. Is it
going to be the most loyal students that attend everything.
Is it going to be some sort of honor that's earned. Again,
we don't plan to prescribe that that's going to be
something that's organic about what our students want to do
in that area, but it'll be something very special and
very unique.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Tell Us about the rest of the stadium experience as
you visualize it up to this point. You have the
concourse area, you have the area on the north lawn. RM,
I understand you're planning some special things. How do you
see things at this point in the development of the stadium.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
That's what I love about being involved in this process
is an ability to take in so many things into
consideration and design. And you mentioned some of the features.
We've already talked about the student section, which is really
really unique and awesome. The concourse you mentioned, we've got
ten rows of seats of chairbacks all you know, on
both sides of the stadium and really around the whole deal,
which is really great seats, all chairbacks, just a great
(08:06):
environment for people to buy and purchase. But when you
go to that concourse ten rows up, you literally can
walk around the whole stadium, but it's rare and that
usually when you walk around the stadium you might get
fortunate enough to see a TV at the concession stand
or something else. You'll be able to see into the
field the whole way, so you're never going to feel
like you're away from the action if you have to
take a break from you know, from just to go
(08:26):
under undercover, use the restroom, buy some concessions, whatever it is.
And I think that's really really unique in a very modern,
you know, designed feature. And then when you go up
further and you start thinking about man, especially in a
great pro market like Tampa, you know, our fans that
come outside the community, you have expectations because we've been
in a great stadium like Raymond James Stadium, so we
(08:48):
couldn't a lot of let's face it, a lot of
college football standing around the country a very pedestrian. They
might be seventy or eighty years old. They're bench seating.
You know, the atmosphere is really cool, but it's not
the most comfortable place. In this case, we're building something
and it's not only you know, situated to be to
be great for the students, but it's also going to
be able to fit the modern amenities that are expected.
So we've got a great club level club seating, lows boxes,
(09:11):
living room boxes, a field box suites, and then all
the way up to a rooftop patio that will be
you know, stretch the entire length of the field that
will be have this tremendous views and kind of a
standing you know, social area up there to kind of
enjoy the game. So we're trying to find some feature
that appeals to everyone to make sure they kind of
make the experience the way they want it. And again,
(09:34):
I can't think of any college stadium that has these
the type of variety and these type of amenities like
like we will have at USF Stadium.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
The groundbreaking is Friday. Of course, what's the timetable as
you see it now to get this finished and hold
the first event there at the stadium.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Well, we have the ceremonial groundbreaking tomorrow, and we expect that,
you know, construction and Earnest will probably start and you know,
there'll be some ground clearing going on in January and
going to Earnest in February, and the whole track would
be to be ready for the very first event and
game would be September fourth of twenty twenty seven as
our first football game that's contracted to be in there,
(10:09):
and then we would hope to get it sometime in
that late spring or early summer of twenty twenty seven
to be able to you know, kind of move into
the operations component of this for our football program, but
then also to be able to you know, work out
all the operational kinks over the course this summer to
make sure that first game on September fourth is as
great as it can be as we move into our
new home.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
People are going to want to look in on this.
If they're not able to be at the groundbreaking in person,
I understand you're going to be streaming it.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Yeah, and we certainly expect a huge crowd in person,
but we also know it's three thirty on a Friday,
might be hard for a lot of people to get to.
But yes, we are streaming at live on our YouTube page,
and it'll also be available for those that have ESPN
Plus because we know there's some people, you know, bullstands
all over the country that can watch on either one
of those. But we're excited to kind of showcase this
to the country all sports fans that might have ESPN
(10:59):
Plus to be able to watch this. This is a
big deal. They're not. We know it's a huge deal
for USF and for Tampa Bay, but there's there's no
there's only one other school I think building a stadium
at this point in time, like like we are, and
that makes it very newsworthy in the sports business scene.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
University of South Florida Vice President of Athletics Athletic Director
Michael Kelly, thank you very much for joining us on
Beyond the News and Go Bulls.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Thank you, Gordon, Go Bulls.
Gordon Bird here Beyond the News. It's a moment that's
been decades in the making. USF is breaking ground for
its on campus football stadium Friday afternoon. We have the
university's vice president of Athletics athletic director Michael Kelly with
us to talk about it. Michael Kelly, Welcome to Beyond
the News.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Gordon, thank you, it's honored to be with you.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Well, first we want to acknowledge some news that broke
just before we recorded this podcast. A very well known
Tapa family is making a big gift to the USF
stadium effort, if you want to fill us in on that.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yeah, with this whole exciting week coming up with the groundbreaking,
it's been awesome to see the momentum continue in. Just
today we were able to announce a one million dollar
gift from the gon Smart family. Obviously, so many people
are aware of the impact that the gons Marts have
on the community on so many different causes and so
for so many different organizations, and they've been longtime supporters
(00:52):
of USF and particularly USF Athletics, and we're so pleased
and appreciative of their generosity.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
A million dollar gift from the Gonsmart Family Foundation. And
if you're not from here or I haven't been here
long and aren't familiar with the name Columbia Restaurant, U
Lele and a number of other restaurants that are a
part of the Gonsmart Family Restaurants and they, as you mentioned,
have been supporters of USF for a long time. And
this is a big deal. You've had support from many
(01:20):
of Tampa's mover and shakers and donations big and small
as you have been raising funds to build the stadium.
Now this dedication, this groundbreaking was originally scheduled a few
weeks back, but got moved back because of the hurricanes.
And now it's coinciding with homecoming. That must work out
very well. And how does it feel after all this
(01:41):
time to be bringing this effort home to get the
football stadium up and running at USF.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Well, it's a week of long anticipation and a whole
lot of excitement. As you mentioned, to have some gifts
continue to roll in the philanthropy that's been associated with
this is one thing. But you know, I was fortunate
to be here in the late nineties when football was
just getting started as an associate ad and remember the
(02:08):
initial conversations when we were starting football about Wow, I
won't it be great to one day have our own
own stadium, But you know, you have to you have
to walk before you can run, and we had to
kind of put focus on building the program up. And
we've had a lot of success over these twenty seven years,
but the time was right just a couple of years
ago when we had another important facility we needed to
build in our estimation, and that was the indoor practice
(02:30):
facility that we built a couple of years ago. And
it was really somewhat poetic that at the groundbreaking for
that event is when our chairman of our Board of Trustees,
Will Weatherford challenged all of us to go build this
on campus stadium and he said, we need one. The
time is now, and between the leadership of President Law
and Jay Stroman, the head of our USF Foundation, and
(02:53):
others that have worked really hard to kind of get
us to this point. So we're honored to have it.
It's going to be such a transformational product, not just
for athletics. I mean, of course it's going to be
huge for us, but for the whole university. For a
lot of different reasons, we think that this facility from
an athletic standpoint, will complete or be close to completing,
what we think will be one of the finest athletic
(03:14):
districts in all of college sports. And what I mean
by that is that it's such a what We're going
to have great modern facilities, well thought out and plan
for what the current athlete needs. And they're all on
such close proximity to each other. So to have this
whole east side of campus all be focused and you know,
directed to athletics makes current Bulls and future Bulls have
that just much better of a of a situation to
(03:38):
kind of be their their very best. And I say
that respectfully to even other great athletic departments around the
country where they might be a couple hundred years older
than us or one hundred years older and us that
they've got great facilities, but when they build new ones,
they've had to build them maybe a mile or two
away from the rest of campus. And for us, because
we're relatively young, we're able to control and plan the
real estate in the States where we're able to put
(03:59):
that to our advantage and career. This stadium, which I
think is going to be just a wonderful masterpiece to
the overall campus master plan.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
And one of the aspects of course, is going to
be the students section and being on campus. If you've
been to or seen or went to one of the
universities that have an on campus stadium, you know about
the excitement that occurs when you have that stadium. Tell
us about how that aspect of it having that presence
(04:28):
on campus really changes the atmosphere for a football game
or any other big sporting event for the university.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Yeah, I think it just elevates the entire campus aspect
of campus life and school spirit and everything that goes
with it. And some of the greatest things about college
sports are obviously the pageantry and just the fund that
students have and the loudness that comes in the stadium,
the home field advantage that really gets sparked mostly from
the student body, and to make something that much more
(04:59):
convenient for them that they can literally just walk down
the street on campus or have a very short walk
or commute from somewhere nearby, as opposed to know, planning
for potentially a thirty minute drive or getting an uber
or whatever. And so while Raymond James is obviously an
amazing facility. We're very grateful to still play in it now.
It's just not the same as being able to have
(05:19):
something designed by USF and for USF and something that
the students school will love.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
So we've been.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Able to early focus groups and we started designed to
really hear from a lot of different student groups to
kind of say what would they really like and if
we could really start and as we do from building
a stadium from scratch, and part of what they wanted
was someoneted to be really close to the action where
they could paint themselves and be right in the throes
of things. We've got seats for that. And then there's
some just wanted to kind of standing room only and
(05:44):
be able to kind of have more of a social
and leisurely atmosphere. We've got that wanted something iconic that
could be unique from everything else, and we've literally we're
not just putting students into a action the stadium. We've
actually designed this whole quadrant of the stadium, if you will,
to be dedicated exclusively to students, and so that'll be
just a lot of fun. That's what makes it special.
(06:05):
It's being informed by them in the design and something
they're going to execute and have a really great time.
So we think we've done this really well. And I
know our students for now and for the long into
the future are just going to have a really special
atmosphere which for our teams is going to make just
again as I mentioned earlier, just an amazing home field advantage.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
And the big lighted USF Bulls logo right in the
middle of that section. I'm sure that's going to be
a big rallying point.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Oh, I love it, you know everyone, it's great when
you can find some sort of unique feature. You know,
the Bucks have the pirate ship and for us to
have what I already think is an awesome logo and
the bull youu and to have it lighted feature an
animated one, that laminated one that can just showcase itself
amazing from the blimp views that will happen amazing from
the top of the tower. But again just identifiable. But man,
(06:50):
you're walking in here, you know that is when you
turn on a game on television, that is USF Stadium,
that is the USF student body. Don't want to play there,
and that's kind of Atmosphary one. I'm very intrigued to
see what we do with this believe that's in the
middle of that student section. You know there's special seating
and special kind of standing room, drink rails and stuff
(07:10):
in that area. I'll be fascinated to see what organically
grows as to who goes into that area. Is it
going to be the most loyal students that attend everything.
Is it going to be some sort of honor that's earned. Again,
we don't plan to prescribe that that's going to be
something that's organic about what our students want to do
in that area, but it'll be something very special and
very unique.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Tell Us about the rest of the stadium experience as
you visualize it up to this point. You have the
concourse area, you have the area on the north lawn. RM,
I understand you're planning some special things. How do you
see things at this point in the development of the stadium.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
That's what I love about being involved in this process
is an ability to take in so many things into
consideration and design. And you mentioned some of the features.
We've already talked about the student section, which is really
really unique and awesome. The concourse you mentioned, we've got
ten rows of seats of chairbacks all you know, on
both sides of the stadium and really around the whole deal,
which is really great seats, all chairbacks, just a great
(08:06):
environment for people to buy and purchase. But when you
go to that concourse ten rows up, you literally can
walk around the whole stadium, but it's rare and that
usually when you walk around the stadium you might get
fortunate enough to see a TV at the concession stand
or something else. You'll be able to see into the
field the whole way, so you're never going to feel
like you're away from the action if you have to
take a break from you know, from just to go
(08:26):
under undercover, use the restroom, buy some concessions, whatever it is.
And I think that's really really unique in a very modern,
you know, designed feature. And then when you go up
further and you start thinking about man, especially in a
great pro market like Tampa, you know, our fans that
come outside the community, you have expectations because we've been
in a great stadium like Raymond James Stadium, so we
(08:48):
couldn't a lot of let's face it, a lot of
college football standing around the country a very pedestrian. They
might be seventy or eighty years old. They're bench seating.
You know, the atmosphere is really cool, but it's not
the most comfortable place. In this case, we're building something
and it's not only you know, situated to be to
be great for the students, but it's also going to
be able to fit the modern amenities that are expected.
So we've got a great club level club seating, lows boxes,
(09:11):
living room boxes, a field box suites, and then all
the way up to a rooftop patio that will be
you know, stretch the entire length of the field that
will be have this tremendous views and kind of a
standing you know, social area up there to kind of
enjoy the game. So we're trying to find some feature
that appeals to everyone to make sure they kind of
make the experience the way they want it. And again,
(09:34):
I can't think of any college stadium that has these
the type of variety and these type of amenities like
like we will have at USF Stadium.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
The groundbreaking is Friday. Of course, what's the timetable as
you see it now to get this finished and hold
the first event there at the stadium.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Well, we have the ceremonial groundbreaking tomorrow, and we expect that,
you know, construction and Earnest will probably start and you know,
there'll be some ground clearing going on in January and
going to Earnest in February, and the whole track would
be to be ready for the very first event and
game would be September fourth of twenty twenty seven as
our first football game that's contracted to be in there,
(10:09):
and then we would hope to get it sometime in
that late spring or early summer of twenty twenty seven
to be able to you know, kind of move into
the operations component of this for our football program, but
then also to be able to you know, work out
all the operational kinks over the course this summer to
make sure that first game on September fourth is as
great as it can be as we move into our
new home.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
People are going to want to look in on this.
If they're not able to be at the groundbreaking in person,
I understand you're going to be streaming it.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Yeah, and we certainly expect a huge crowd in person,
but we also know it's three thirty on a Friday,
might be hard for a lot of people to get to.
But yes, we are streaming at live on our YouTube page,
and it'll also be available for those that have ESPN
Plus because we know there's some people, you know, bullstands
all over the country that can watch on either one
of those. But we're excited to kind of showcase this
to the country all sports fans that might have ESPN
(10:59):
Plus to be able to watch this. This is a
big deal. They're not. We know it's a huge deal
for USF and for Tampa Bay, but there's there's no
there's only one other school I think building a stadium
at this point in time, like like we are, and
that makes it very newsworthy in the sports business scene.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
University of South Florida Vice President of Athletics Athletic Director
Michael Kelly, thank you very much for joining us on
Beyond the News and Go Bulls.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Thank you, Gordon, Go Bulls.
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