USF’s On-Campus Stadium Nears Reality as Construction Continues
Rob Higgins provided an update on the construction of USF's on-campus stadium on Wednesday.
The countdown is on.
There are 471 days until the University of South Florida hosts its first-ever on-campus football game to kick off the 2027 season.
On Wednesday, USF hosted members of the media to provide an update on the stadium’s construction progress.
“To finally have a home of our own is really special, and it’s a total team effort,” Higgins said Wednesday with the exoskeleton of the Bulls’ future stadium as a backdrop.
The first thing Higgins mentioned about the incoming stadium was the student section — an 8,000-seat area shaped like USF’s “Bull U” logo located on the west end of the stadium.
Earlier this year, a beam was placed in the Marshall Student Center so students could sign it before it was built into the new student section. Higgins said more than 5,000 students signed the beam. USF administration originally expected 500 to 600 signatures.
Located in the east end zone is the field club, a seating area near the tunnel where USF players will run out, giving fans an up-close vantage point of the team’s pregame entrance.
The south side of the stadium is the most developed area of the construction site. The foundation has been built for all three sections of the south tower. The highest level will house the rooftop bar, which Higgins said will be the largest rooftop bar in the state of Florida, spanning from end zone to end zone. The second level will feature the sideline club area with premium seating, along with the media and broadcast area. The sideline club will hold about 1,000 people. The first level, closest to the field, will be a general seating area.
Along with the stadium, the Tampa General Hospital Center for Athletic Excellence is also under construction. Attached to the south side of the stadium, the facility will serve USF football players. The new facility will feature coaches’ offices, position meeting rooms, weight rooms, a sports medicine recovery area and more.
“Anything and everything that our football student-athletes need to be successful will be located in the TGH Center for Athletic Excellence,” Higgins said.
Even in the shadow of a stadium still far from completion, Higgins’ excitement about his university’s football team finally having a home is palpable.
“We’re a school that has largely, throughout my entire life, been viewed as a commuter school. We’re a school that’s had an inferiority complex, and we really have only leaned into that over the last three decades by playing our home games 30 minutes away. Again, Raymond James Stadium has been a phenomenal home to us, but to now have this opportunity to have our student-athletes playing on their campus, and have their classmates walk from their nearby dorms or apartments to cheer them on, it does something that’s indescribable,” Higgins said in a recent interview with Athlon Sports.
Bulls fans won’t have to continue dreaming about having an on-campus stadium — they’ll just have to wait a little longer. But considering they’ve already waited 29 years, another 471 days doesn’t seem so bad.