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Article in the Boca Raton News

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This is the first time I've ever seen the BRN with a new story or beat another paper to it. Usually they will report news a week late.


http://www.bocaratonnews.com/news/local/650-its-first-and-goal-for-fau-stadium-says-coach.php

It’s first and goal for FAU stadium, says coach
Published May 9th, 2008
By Dale M. King
CITY EDITOR

Florida Atlantic University Head Football Coach Howard Schnellenberg knows where he expects to be on Aug. 30, 2010.

“Michigan State will be playing FAU – in our new stadium,” he told members of the Federation of Boca Raton Homeowners Associations at Tuesday’s meeting.

The famed coach who was called to FAU in 1998 to craft a football program said the university is sticking to its schedule of having a 30,000-seat stadium up and running by the 10th year of the century.

The city of Boca Raton isn’t so certain.  In fact, City Manager Leif Ahnell recently wrote to FAU telling the university to slow down. Ahnell said an FAU master plan has to be approved first.  Also, the question of where the interchange from I-95 to Spanish River Boulevard will be located is still up in the air.  The new ramps are critical to the construction of a stadium.

Schnellenberger offered a sometimes light, sometimes serious look at the FAU football program.  He said naming rights are available in various parts of the proposed stadium, and donations are also needed. The coach estimates the cost of the new athletic facility at “between $65 and $75 million.”

“It needs to be in place by 2010.  That’s the timetable we are on.”

The coach said FAU has never really had a “home” field. Early in its incarnation, it used what was then called Pro Player Stadium in Miami.  Now, it uses Lockhart Stadium in Fort Lauderdale.

He said he expects university fundraisers will have $12 to $14 million in hand soon.  That will make the stadium “bondable,” he said.  “Then, we can ‘sell’ the stadium,” he said.  “When the project is bondable, we can do all the money-raising aspects.”

The FAU Fighting Owls football team will open its season this year on the road against the University of Texas in Austin. Then, the University of Alabama-Birmingham will come to the area for an FAU home game.  Next, it’s on the road for the Owls against Michigan State and then on to Minnesota.


FAU - THE REAL SLEEPING GIANT
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Re: Article in the Boca Raton News

Article in the Boca Raton News

Maybe coach is cashing in his pension plan?

I'm a proud lifetime member of the FAU National Alumni Association. Are you a member? Join now at www.faualumni.org.
Tradition in the Making, One Alum at a Time…
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Re: Article in the Boca Raton News

When are the Boca city "leaders" going to realize that it is obvious that Brogan and Coach would like to accommodate them but this stadium is moving forward whether they "approve" (that's funny) or not. 

GO OWLS!
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Re: Article in the Boca Raton News

yeah this Leif person is really getting on my nerves. I don't remember hearing anything about him/her? telling Boca High to slow down when they redid their stadium or the mall to slow down with their expansion. It's on FAU's campus and there's really not much you can do about it so quit your whining and helps us get some money in here to get this thing built, THEN worry about building exit ramps and extra roads to the stadium.

My two favorite teams are FAU, and who ever is beating FIU!
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Re: Article in the Boca Raton News

New ramp or not, Boca could easily help themselves & relieve some of the traffic problems.

They keep using the traffic issue, and they have been talks about expanding part of Glades up to the University, yet NOTHING has been done and this has been talked about how long now?  If Boca was so concerned with traffic, the very least they could do is their part getting those extra lanes build already.

Time is starting to be very important now & Boca will continue to drag their feet as the problem they keep complaining gets worse, instead of doing something constructive.  They would rather continue to complain about the problem and use FAU as the scapegoats.

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Re: Article in the Boca Raton News

Jab979 said

yeah this Leif person is really getting on my nerves. I don't remember hearing anything about him/her? telling Boca High to slow down when they redid their stadium or the mall to slow down with their expansion.

Good call… didn't think about that. Boca High you can argue that you'll get, what, a couple of hundred more people every Friday but Boca Mall easily increases traffic (especially since they have a California Pizza Kitchen there now… sooo good).


EDIT: Apparently Boca has fast-tracked this

Funding for design of I-95 interchange in Boca due in July
Published May 6th, 2008
By Dale M. King
CITY EDITOR

The new I-95 interchange planned for Boca Raton has moved from the slow lane to the fast track.

That means city officials have less than two months to select from two suggested designs for the road.

Mayor Susan Whelchel told the Boca Raton News the matter came up during last week’s two-day goal-setting sessions attended by the mayor, City Council, city manager’s staff and department heads.

The Florida Department of Transportation notified the city, she said, that funding for the design phase of the project will be available in July.

On the table are plans for a “full-blown” interchange – one that will have exits and entrances on Spanish River Boulevard.  The other is a crossroad that would serve Florida Atlantic University, giving students a direct way in and out – with the intention of alleviating heavy traffic on Glades Road.

While the City Council has yet to decide which design to pick, Whelchel said she’s got a good idea which it will be.  “It’s the design that gets the money.”

She referred to federal dollars to help build the interchange.  If traffic is directed on and off at Spanish River Boulevard, a public street, the federal government will fund the project.  If the interchange becomes an FAU-only project, Uncle Sam won’t fund it.

Whelchel said the city hasn’t discussed the matter yet with officials from FAU, but she figures the university will opt for the design that will bring federal cash.

After getting the news at the goal-setting session, Whelchel said she is canceling a proposed trip to Washington, D.C. to meet with the city’s congressional delegation to find out what’s happening with the road.  She can have that meeting later, she said.

While the proposed interchange has the advantage of federal dollars backing it, there is a drawback.  Spanish River Boulevard residents may not be pleased with the additional traffic passing through the neighborhood.

Whelchel said all the options will be discussed, but with haste because of the impending timetable
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Re: Article in the Boca Raton News

"Ahnell said an FAU master plan has to be approved first."

Whaaa??

Lol!
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Re: Article in the Boca Raton News

Florida_Owl said

"Ahnell said an FAU master plan has to be approved first."

Whaaa??

Lol!

One of the older articles on this very thing said that the stadium has to be amended to the Master Plan and Boca has to approve that amendment in order for FAU to move forward. You may recall that they released the newest Master Plan a little while back and had several meetings with Boca officials and the public.

What's strange is… I am pretty sure they already approved the new Master Plan and the stadium was on it… so I'm not sure why they would need to approve it again.

There was talk on a skyscraper message board that I randomly came across where they were talking about the I-95/Spanish River Interchange. One guy said he talked to urban engineers and city planners and "the soonest they can realistically construct this is 2012."

May just be one guy's opinion but then again, maybe Boca is trying to stall us out until that date. Who knows.
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Re: Article in the Boca Raton News

It's State land - not city.

Boca has no "authority" over it…
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Re: Article in the Boca Raton News

Florida_Owl said

It's State land - not city.

Boca has no "authority" over it…


I wouldn't trust anything from Boca News.

Like things, love people.
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