Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
FAU progressing toward construction on $40M academic, athletic complex
BOCA RATON — Nearly four months after a ceremonial groundbreaking, Florida Atlantic is inching toward construction of the $40 million Schmidt Family Complex for Academic & Athletic Excellence.
FAU Athletic Director Pat Chun said this week the university is planning meetings with both the architecture firm (HKS Architects) and the construction company (DPR Construction) for the 96,000-square-foot facility, which will include new football offices, a weight room, training room and study rooms.
Chun did not identify a date to begin construction, but FAU’s plan released in October slated construction to begin on July 14. Chun said “we’re probably still in that same [time] frame.”
“I don’t want to guess on what the actual date is, but everyone’s working fast to try to get something into the ground as soon as possible,” Chun said. “Probably within the next couple of weeks, once we get the full programming to a place where we can move forward. That’s when I’ll have a better idea of when the scheduling is.”
The facility is scheduled to open in the summer of 2018.
Chun said fundraising for the project was still ongoing. At the ceremonial groundbreaking in January, Chun said the school had $30 million of the necessary $40 million. The project is backed primarily by donors Dick and Barbara Schmidt, who contributed $16 million, the largest gift in FAU history.
“Like every project, this will go down to the very end,” Chun said. “The good thing is the shovel’s in the ground, people know the project’s happening.”
The Schmidt Complex will also include academic and administrative space for the MBA Sport Management program. Chun said the meetings generally center around fine tuning what the building should look like, what it houses, and how it fits into campus.
“The one challenge [FAU president John Kelly] had for all of us was he wanted this building and athletics integrated with campus,” Chun said. “So it’s just trying to figure out what are the natural parts of campus that can be a part of this building.”
Small(er) screen
FAU football games could be streamed on Twitter this year as part of a merger that included American Sports Network, Campus Insiders and 120 Sports. Earlier this month, the combined venture unveiled STADIUM, “a new, original, fully programmed, 24⁄7 linear experience will stream live on Twitter in the coming months,” according to a release.
The stream would be free and would offer an alternative to traditional television consumption of college sports.
“In college athletics, like any business, we got to be able to forecast what the market is going to dictate and adjust to it,” Chun said. “It’ll be interesting to see where this ends up. There’s no question this is a time of maybe drastic change in sports rights and media rights.”
Conference USA’s media rights reportedly dropped from $15.4 million in 2015-16 to $2.8 million in 2016-17. That revenue is split among the 14 member institutions.
“It’s not a bad thing, at all, by any stretch of the imagination, if our content ends up on some over-the-top type of method,” Chun said.
Chun said he would learn more about the arrangement at the upcoming Conference USA spring meetings. Last season, FAU had two games televised by ASN and one carried by Campus Insiders.
The conference already announced FAU’s game against Navy on Sept. 1 will be on ESPNU and its contest against Marshall on Nov. 3 will be on CBS Sports Network.
Highest APR ever
FAU’s football team recorded its highest Academic Progress Rate in school history during the 2015-16 academic year, according to a report released by the NCAA on Tuesday.
The Owls received a 972 score in former coach Charlie Partridge’s second year in Boca Raton. The rate was up from 956 in 2014-15.
Overall, seven FAU teams recorded perfect APR scores of 1,000: men’s soccer, women’s basketball, women’s cross country, softball, beach volleyball and women’s tennis.
The APR is “a team-based metric that accounts for the eligibility and retention of each student-athlete for each academic term,” according to the NCAA.
“Our coaches are creating, or have, the types of environments where student-athletes are staying and ultimately graduating and earning their degree,” Chun said.