The Tampa Sports Authority is negotiating to operate the University of South Florida’s new on-campus stadium, in accordance to a time period sheet introduced to the authority board Tuesday.
The facility working settlement lays out basic phrases, together with the sports activities authority receiving 15% of the income from non-USF video games booked by the college and 20% for any occasion booked by the TSA. All different income would go to the college.
The board voted to permit sports activities authority president-CEO Eric Hart to negotiate a closing settlement with the USF Intercollegiate Athletic Association. He expects that to be introduced again to the authority in August.
Although the stadium will not open for one more 15 months, the association would start this July 1 and run for 4 years, with choices for 2 renewals of three years every.
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“There is a lot work to do to open a constructing,” Hart said. “There could also be issues that we discover out. We are opening a brand-new constructing. There’s issues they do not know; there’s issues we do not know; and and that is regular, that is a pure course of.”
According to the term sheet, the sports authority would operate the stadium like other facilities it manages. This includes oversight of law enforcement, security, parking, maintenance, supplies, booking, marketing supporting and capital project coordination.
Hart said the authority’s experience launching and operating a large venue like Raymond James Stadium was a major factor in the arrangement.
“I believe that our purpose with this was is to get the college up and established. It’s so important. Our mission is about supporting the town and the county and the residents,” Hart said. “If we now have it, the income coming in ought to offset any losses probably in occasions that could be between the 2 buildings.”
Hart said the arrangement is structured so the authority has no upfront financial exposure in operating the stadium.
“We’re not investing any money, they’re (USFIAA) protecting all of our prices, so we actually do not have that upfront publicity,” Hart said. “As a company, they’re assuming all of it.”
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USF’s responsibilities would include existing service contracts, university police coordination, concessions and sponsorship sales.
The 35,000-seat stadium is under construction on the Tampa campus and is scheduled to open Sept. 5, 2027, when the Bulls host Louisville.
USF has been playing at Raymond James Stadium (or predecessor Tampa/Houlihan’s Stadium) since the football program’s inception in 1997.
Hart said early planning for the stadium is already underway and will require coordination across multiple jurisdictions, including transportation, parking and traffic management.
“You’ve bought a whole parking plan to construct that is by no means been parked,” Hart said. “We’ve bought the (Florida Department of Transportation), we now have (Hillsborough) County, we now have Temple Terrace, we now have the town — that is all bought to be labored out via all these points.”
Hart said those early conversations already include planning around the surrounding Fowler Avenue corridor, including the MOSI campus area, where the authority’s role could expand into redevelopment projects under consideration by the county.
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The sports authority has been discussed as a potential operator of a planned $70 million indoor sports fieldhouse, part of a broader 74-acre redevelopment of underused land at the MOSI campus across from USF’s athletics district, which also includes the new stadium.
County Commission Chair Ken Hagan, a member of the sports authority board, said the project would be anchored by the fieldhouse and could eventually be operated by TSA.
“The county redeveloping MOSI goes to be anchored by the sector home that I’ve championed for years, and in two or three years this whole hall goes to be fully remodeled,” Hagan said. “When you take into account the truth that TSA goes to have a major presence at MOSI … it is very easy to see the synergies that that may exist between TSA and USF there.”
County commissioners are scheduled to take into account funding for the challenge on June 17.
The USF Intercollegiate Athletic Association is a direct assist group that gives monetary and operational assist for the Athletic Department.