Mobile, Ala (WKRG) - The University of South Alabama wants the City of Mobile and Mobile County to each contribute 10 million dollars towards its new on-campus stadium. It’s a request that defies the norm in college football stadium financing.
Nine new stadiums have been built on campuses for Division-One college football teams in the last decade. None have included direct financial support from the cities and counties where they’ve been built.
The only new stadium in the last decade that involved a partnership with a municipality was Baylor’s $266 million stadium, built in downtown Waco where the University is located. A tax increment finance district was formed, pledging $35 over time from taxes collected at the stadium, but there was no cash outlay from the city.
Six of the college stadiums built in the last decade are very similar in scope to South’s proposed $72 million, 25,000 seat stadium.
Tulane’s on-campus 75 million-dollar stadium that opened in 2014 was entirely funded by private donations.
The University of Houston transferred more than 100 million dollars over a six-year period from academics to fund a variety of athletic facilities including its new football stadium. It also had to implement a student athletics fee.
A student fee was used to finance the stadium at the University of Charlotte that opened in 2013 and North Texas’ stadium in Denton that opened two years earlier.
USA says it won’t consider raising its student activities fee. USA’s athletics budget already is more than a third financed by a student activities fee according to a 2015 study by the Huffington Post. USA used a student fee to launch its football program a decade ago.
USA Athletics Director Erdmann also says the University’s own foundation won’t be used either.
“Their mission revolves around the academic and medical mission of the University and we respect that,” Erdmann told News-5.
The USA Foundation has more than $360 million in assets: $158 million in timberland, $134 million in equity investments, and $69 million in real estate, including $60 million worth of land at the Brookley Aeroplex.
With student fees and its own foundation’s money off the table, USA is turning to taxpayers of Mobile and Mobile County to fund the project.
Mayor Sandy Stimpson, however, doesn’t look at it that way.
“I really don’t look at this as funding South Alabama. I look at it as an opportunity for the city to solve a problem we have - a financial problem we have,” Stimpson said.
That problem, the mayor says, is the needed renovations and upkeep at Ladd-Peebles Stadium. Stimpson says an engineering study conducted in 2016 indicates the stadium needs $6.7 in structural maintenance. Until now, however, no one outside the administration has seen the study, including city council members, Ladd-Peebles Stadium Board members, and the Mishkin Group which operates the stadium for the city.
Stimpson says it would be cheaper to give USA $10 million over 20 years, with assurances that the Senior Bowl and Dollar General Bowl could play in the on-campus stadium rent-free, than it would to run Ladd for the next two decades. Stimpson wants to tear down Ladd and build a 5,000 high school football stadium in its place.
College Football Stadiums Built 2009-2017
Year School, City, Cost
2017 Colorado State, Fort Collins, $220 million
2014 Tulane, New Orleans, $75 million
2014 Houston, Houston, $120 million
2013 Baylor, Waco, $266 million
2013 Charlotte, Charlotte, $45 million
2011 North Texas, Denton, $78 million
2011 Florida Atlantic, Boca Raton, $70 million
2009 Akron, Akron, $61 million
2009 Minnesota, Minneapolis, $300 million
Mobile, Ala (WKRG) - The University of South Alabama wants the City of Mobile and Mobile County to each contribute 10 million dollars towards its new on-campus stadium. It’s a request that defies the norm in college football stadium financing.
Nine new stadiums have been built on campuses for Division-One college football teams in the last decade. None have included direct financial support from the cities and counties where they’ve been built.
The only new stadium in the last decade that involved a partnership with a municipality was Baylor’s $266 million stadium, built in downtown Waco where the University is located. A tax increment finance district was formed, pledging $35 over time from taxes collected at the stadium, but there was no cash outlay from the city.
Six of the college stadiums built in the last decade are very similar in scope to South’s proposed $72 million, 25,000 seat stadium.
Tulane’s on-campus 75 million-dollar stadium that opened in 2014 was entirely funded by private donations.
The University of Houston transferred more than 100 million dollars over a six-year period from academics to fund a variety of athletic facilities including its new football stadium. It also had to implement a student athletics fee.
A student fee was used to finance the stadium at the University of Charlotte that opened in 2013 and North Texas’ stadium in Denton that opened two years earlier.
USA says it won’t consider raising its student activities fee. USA’s athletics budget already is more than a third financed by a student activities fee according to a 2015 study by the Huffington Post. USA used a student fee to launch its football program a decade ago.
USA Athletics Director Erdmann also says the University’s own foundation won’t be used either.
“Their mission revolves around the academic and medical mission of the University and we respect that,” Erdmann told News-5.
The USA Foundation has more than $360 million in assets: $158 million in timberland, $134 million in equity investments, and $69 million in real estate, including $60 million worth of land at the Brookley Aeroplex.
With student fees and its own foundation’s money off the table, USA is turning to taxpayers of Mobile and Mobile County to fund the project.
Mayor Sandy Stimpson, however, doesn’t look at it that way.
“I really don’t look at this as funding South Alabama. I look at it as an opportunity for the city to solve a problem we have - a financial problem we have,” Stimpson said.
That problem, the mayor says, is the needed renovations and upkeep at Ladd-Peebles Stadium. Stimpson says an engineering study conducted in 2016 indicates the stadium needs $6.7 in structural maintenance. Until now, however, no one outside the administration has seen the study, including city council members, Ladd-Peebles Stadium Board members, and the Mishkin Group which operates the stadium for the city.
Stimpson says it would be cheaper to give USA $10 million over 20 years, with assurances that the Senior Bowl and Dollar General Bowl could play in the on-campus stadium rent-free, than it would to run Ladd for the next two decades. Stimpson wants to tear down Ladd and build a 5,000 high school football stadium in its place.
College Football Stadiums Built 2009-2017
Year School, City, Cost
2017 Colorado State, Fort Collins, $220 million
2014 Tulane, New Orleans, $75 million
2014 Houston, Houston, $120 million
2013 Baylor, Waco, $266 million
2013 Charlotte, Charlotte, $45 million
2011 North Texas, Denton, $78 million
2011 Florida Atlantic, Boca Raton, $70 million
2009 Akron, Akron, $61 million
2009 Minnesota, Minneapolis, $300 million
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