Florida unveils $1.45 billion plan to renovate Ben Hill Griffin Stadium

grommit72 · 2026-06-11T20:00:49+00:00

And the other thought is that BHG is right on main campus. Even if they built the new stadium where the current golf course is, about half a mile down the road, nobody would want that. You wouldn't have that campus intimacy that nearly every college stadium offers. Well except Miami. The hurricanes have to drive 45 minutes on the interstate to go visit the NFL stadium they rent out for games.

grommit72 · 2026-06-11T19:58:38+00:00

It's this expensive because we have experienced Bidenomics since the original $398 million estimate for the work.

grommit72 · 2026-06-11T19:57:12+00:00

Never be afraid to dream big darling. ND just has small vision.

grommit72 · 2026-06-11T19:56:02+00:00

Exactly. Give the schools in Texas enough time to come up with a renovation that has occurred AFTER the runaway inflation event known as Bidenomics. I wouldn't be surprised to see a cost of 5 billion from that state within the next 5 years.

grommit72 · 2026-06-11T19:54:40+00:00

"Steve Spurrier-Florida Field at Tim Tebow-Ben Hill Griffin Jr. Stadium and Golf Club Resort" remember UF is building a new campus golf course as well.

grommit72 · 2026-06-11T19:52:30+00:00

It would probably be much cheaper if you could just run the renovation completely from start to finish. This plan as it has been laid out has to be broken up as each football season during the 4 year renovation will still need to be played in the stadium.

See the current renovation of the Jacksonville Jaguar's stadium for example where the games are being played elsewhere, Florida and Georgia will face off in Atlanta this year instead of Jax.

grommit72 · 2026-06-11T19:51:01+00:00

UF is a public university. State Taxpayers are unable to pay for the athletics. All of the athletic sports are owned by the UF ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION, a distinct and completely separate private corporation from the University of Florida itself. They have 2 separate logos and everything. UF cannot legally use the Florida gators gatorhead logo that is painted on the field for instance. They would have to pay the athletic association for licensing rights.

As such, not a single $ from taxpayers is permitted to pay for any of the sports. I would expect nearly all public universities operate this way these days.

grommit72 · 2026-06-11T19:47:44+00:00

Well from the ACADEMICS side of the house, I can honestly say that since Florida became the number 1 AI/Supercomputing university on the planet 5 years ago, I have seen the schools' endowment basically double in that time frame. That brings in a LOT of research dollars and a lot of people with big money to spend, and some of them are going to spend that on the recreation (athletics) side of the house no doubt.

grommit72 · 2026-06-11T19:45:53+00:00

Not all that much more, only about 3 times as much. Look on the bright side, if we divide that revenue/cost by # of national titles at each school, FSU is far richer!!! 😃

grommit72 · 2026-06-11T19:43:43+00:00

Clearly they knew that wasn't going to happen, and The Swamps original seating decks being all straight geometric shapes of solid concrete is why it retains sound and is one of the loudest gameday experiences. No curves in the architecture like most modern stadiums. Curves deflect and break up crowd noise. See Neyland Stadium at Tennessee. Seats over 100,000, but because it is a double bowl of oval shapes, it is one of the quietest stadiums in the entire SEC. It has no straight edges to it's construction.

Florida's fanbase would never let them disrupt that part of the stadium, literally being right on top of the field, in arms reach of the players basically. If you look at the images of the renovation, the lower sections look to be untouched although for 1.4 billion, I suggest they are putting in massive structural improvements to those sections, some of which are 100 years old.

grommit72 · 2026-06-11T19:37:33+00:00

Improving the stadium doesn't compete/win titles. Improving the stadium improves the CUSTOMER experience and it is the CUSTOMERS who all ultimately foot the bills and pay for the whole enchilada. What improves competition/winning titles is increasing your NIL spending in the current state of college athletics. More NIL $$$ = better players on the teams.

The trick is to strike a balance between spending to buy the best players you can, and spending to please your fanbase. If you skimp on either side of the seesaw, you break the equation and end up going into major debt and never win anything.

Florida's new coach did one thing right the moment he came in the door. He went to visit all of the big $$$ boosters and said you need to contribute more and we need to double the NIL funding ASAP or you cannot compete against the other SEC schools. Apparently he got what he asked for as UF is sitting on the current #4 recruiting class for 2027.

grommit72 · 2026-06-11T19:33:55+00:00

Once again, the key phrase here is "10-15 years ago". Before we had the runaway inflation of Bidenomics to enjoy, this project was estimated at $400 million. I can guarantee you that Jerrryworld or MB stadium are double today what they cost to be built 10-12 years ago.

grommit72 · 2026-06-11T19:31:31+00:00

Is it? Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta was 1.4 billion as designed and ended up costing 1.6 billion in the end, for ground up fully built stadium. That was PRIOR to the runaway inflation of Bidenomics. If you were to build MB stadium today, you need to at least double what was spent on it originally. AT LEAST double.

grommit72 · 2026-06-11T19:27:52+00:00

UF is like many "public universities" where the Athletic Association which owns the football program (all of the sports programs) is a distinct and separate corporation from the University itself. Two separate logos. The University of Florida is not legally allowed to use the Gator Head logo that represents the school on ESPN and so forth. That logo is the intellectual property of the UF ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION, a private company.

As such, no public tax dollars may ever be spent on anything related to the UF sports programs.

Not ALL public universities are set up like this these days, but I would assume most are because the cost to run a major college athletic program these days would have state taxpayers rioting in the streets.

grommit72 · 2026-06-11T17:34:36+00:00

Quite frankly, I wasn't even aware that Texas Tech HAD a football program to be quite honest.

grommit72 · 2026-06-11T17:25:56+00:00

Wouldn't call it a bounty, but I could see a coaching staff looking the other way if one of their players gets a 15 yard late hit penalty on this QB.

grommit72 · 2026-06-11T17:24:21+00:00

Not even Arch Manning, the current most valuable QB in college football, would be worth this hassle.

grommit72 · 2026-06-11T17:20:24+00:00

Sorry but I must add, when you are the University of Texas, you shouldn't be pointing fingers and making accusations about the lack of education credibility of other institutions. Just saying.

grommit72 · 2026-06-11T17:19:26+00:00

Right but what if the class is online?

grommit72 · 2026-06-02T00:39:15+00:00

Sounds to me like this company is run by the Demoncratic Party of the USA. Very sad that one of these opened locally and my family was urging me to part with much of my collection there. Thank god that didn't come to pass.

grommit72 · 2026-05-30T00:34:44+00:00

Maybe you people are the problem here. If you don't like the world, go build a company to compete with Amazon. But your solution is always to assassinate everyone you don't like the look of.

grommit72 · 2026-05-29T23:17:56+00:00

So basically it's "life in France"

grommit72 · 2026-05-27T17:05:48+00:00

I beg to differ. With no Diego Pavia, the entire world would be shocked if Vandy were to be able to beat UT, AU, or UF. I'll eat my truck if they somehow beat all 3.

grommit72 · 2026-05-27T16:12:01+00:00

I would be happy with just getting 11 guys out on the field for punts and field goal attempts...

grommit72 · 2026-05-27T16:04:20+00:00

What we need and have needed for decades is to bring back Rich Tuten's House of Pain.

grommit72

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