Boca Goes Big Time
Written on September 22, 2011 at 10:26 am
Boca Raton is getting its first big-time sports venue and the opening is now less than a month away. Driving down I-95 you may have noticed the new 30,000 seat Florida Atlantic University Football Stadium. Opening day is October 15, when the Owls face Western Kentucky. We had a chance to tour the new stadium and came away extremely impressed. Danburg Management will be sponsoring the Owls this year. Watch our website for details and ticket giveaways!
The $70 million stadium was built in less than a year without a penny of public funding, thanks to the efforts and vision of it’s legendary head coach. Howard Schnellenberger, who will be retiring at the end of this season, was Don Shula’s offensive coordinator for the Miami Dolphins’ 1972 perfect season and Head Coach of the University of Miami’s first national championship team in 1983. He started the football program at FAU in 1998 and has led the Owls to 2 bowl victories.
An on-campus stadium will help FAU (with 28,000 students enrolled) to shed its image as a commuter school. It will also give FAU a major boost in recruiting. It was hard for both recruits and fans to get excited about playing in a high school stadium in Fort Lauderdale. Now, with a first class on-campus facility complete with a stadium club, luxury boxes and a recruiting center, it will become a lot easier to attract top prospects.
These prospects can’t come soon enough. The Owls suffered tough losses in their first 2 games against national powerhouses Florida and Michigan State. Saturday night (September 24), they face the defending national champions at Auburn. The good news is that the revenue from those games helps foot the bill for the new stadium. In addition, the Owls face much softer Sun Belt Conference opponents for the rest of the season. This includes the October 15th home opener vs. Western Kentucky. While it appears this will be a down year for the Owls, we’re hoping that the new venue will provide the team with a much needed lift. We’re sure that the best is yet to come for the team from Boca.