It’s been a long time coming, but the University of South Florida football team will soon have a true home-field advantage.
In just under 500 days, the Bulls are scheduled to play the first game in their on-campus stadium, about 12 miles northeast of their current home, Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.
USF Athletics on Wednesday showed off construction progress, most visible in the growing skeleton of a steel structure.
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CEO of Athletics Rob Higgins pointed out key amenities as workers smoothed over concrete poured at 2 o'clock that morning.
Higgins emphasized the student experience as a guiding force behind the $407 million project.
“Here at USF, it all starts with the students,” Higgins said.
In addition to a dedicated section for over 8,000 students, the structure includes a steel beam bearing 5,000 student signatures.
The stadium is planned to seat 35,000 fans in an open-ended bowl design featuring a field-level club section, premium suites and the largest rooftop bar in the state.
Rising adjacent to the stadium, the Tampa General Hospital Center for Academic Excellence will serve as the team’s headquarters and a general hub for student-athletes.
The 150,000-square-foot facility also features a state-of-the-art weight room, sports medicine clinic, a barbershop and a DJ recording studio.
"Anything and everything that our football student-athletes need to be successful will be located in that center," Higgins said.
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Last November, then-head coach Alex Golesh boasted that the university spared no expenses with the stadium complex.
Since the 2025 spring semester, the project’s sticker price has shot up from $348 million. Financing is coming from capital gifts and a $200 million debt, to be repaid over two decades to the USF Financing Corp.
The investment comes as USF’s administration sharpens its focus on sports, hiring Higgins as its inaugural CEO of Athletics in September.
USF teams play in the American Conference, which is known as a mid-major or part of the Group of 6.
However, in a February conversation with "Florida Matters: Live & Local," USF president Moez Limayem suggested that an invitation to a Power 4 conference is not a remote possibility.
As the summer gets underway, workers face long days in the sun to finish construction in time for the September 2027 opener against the University of Louisville.
GMF Steel Group is a Lakeland-based contractor working on the stadium project. Spokesperson Sara Taylor said GMF is taking precautions to protect its 50-plus ironworkers from the extreme heat.
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"We're very, very big on hydration," Taylor said. "They have a lot of electrolyte packages as well to make sure they're staying hydrated."
Taylor also said the complex should stand up against the unpredictable Florida weather.
“That’s why we build in steel, because it’s better for the environment,” Taylor said. “It lasts longer than any traditional foundation piece.”
And Taylor echoed Higgins’ words about student involvement — several USF alumni are working on the project.
"We've had several interns, full-time individuals who have been studying at USF and now work at GMF, and they get to put their fingerprints on this job," Taylor said.
