TAMPA — “Making progress” — those were the words from the CEO of athletics at USF, Rob Higgins, when he met with the media Wednesday to give the first of many updates to the progress of a new on-campus football stadium.
If all goes according to plan, in 427 days, the Bulls will be playing at the stadium and hosting Louisville.
“We are making great progress every single day,” Higgins said. “It’s around the clock, and we could not be more fired up to have this home that we have waited on our entire lives.”
Construction of USF’s new stadium takes shape. (Spectrum News/Mike Cairns)
The bowl of the stadium is beginning to take shape, from the steel where the student section will hold up to 8,000, to the biggest piece, the 150,000-square-foot facility called the TGH Communications Center.
That will house coaches offices, the press box, suites and the Bulls locker room facilities on the bottom, all accented at the very top by what USF is calling the state of Florida’s largest rooftop bar.
Higgins said the work is on time for a fall 2027 opening, and it will be something that has been long overdue for the Bulls.
“You see it not only with our football team, you see it also with the general student body,” he said.
Higgins said he will update the media every three months or so or as new things get put up, and he says the progress is even faster then they thought, as the weather has cooperated.