The University of South Alabama has launched a fundraising campaign with the goal of building an on-campus football stadium by 2020. The campaign, called Get On Campus, is part of a comprehensive effort to fund a new stadium.
An on-campus football stadium will propel South Alabama football and all Jaguar athletics programs to a new level of excellence, success and prestige. The stadium will enhance the identity of Jaguar sports among prospective student-athletes, increase opportunities for regional and national television coverage and elevate South Alabama’s ability to recruit at a higher level in all sports.
“Our students, fans, alumni and visiting fans deserve to be on our beautiful campus to enjoy a traditional college football game-day,” said Joel Erdmann, the university’s athletic director. “Our team and those we host deserve to play in a modern stadium, which properly aligns us with those who compete at the elite level of the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision and the College Football Playoff.”
The state-of-the-art football stadium will provide students, alumni and the Mobile community with an unrivaled fan experience at Jaguar football games and will significantly elevate the university’s growing national profile in athletics, academics and student life. The future stadium will be adjacent to the Jaguars’ football field house and newly opened Jaguar Training Center.
The university has committed that the stadium will not be paid for with tuition dollars from students. The debt service on the stadium project will largely be paid from redirected, internal expenditures that are currently being used toward rent at Ladd-Peebles Stadium, selected expenses specific to playing at Ladd-Peebles, and campus auxiliary revenue and new external revenues from ticket sales, donations, suite and club sales and parking.
“We are committed to having an on-campus football stadium at South, and we are committed to doing everything within our power to have that stadium open for the 2020 football season,” said Dr. Tony Waldrop, the university’s president. “We also are committed to not using our students’ tuition dollars to build a stadium.”
Fundraising efforts for the stadium will be an ongoing project. The Get On Campus campaign will be evaluated continuously, and the campaign’s progress will determine how quickly the university can move ahead to the next phases of construction.
“Now is the time to give all of our alumni, fans and supporters the opportunity to get involved in the Get On Campus campaign, which provides opportunities for everyone, at all levels of support, to help make our on-campus stadium a reality,” said Waldrop.
With more than 6,000 employees and close to 15,000 students, and an annual payroll of nearly $500 million, USA is a primary economic driver in the Gulf Coast region, providing billions of dollars in economic impact to the city and county.
