I: Executive Summary

The University of Miami is an amazing school in a thriving location of the country. One

thing that is not thriving is the Miami Hurricane football program at this moment. The fan base

needs a new stadium to gain excitement back into the program, and our new proposal will do just

that. With a city like Miami, we should have no issues putting fans into the seats as tourist

always come in masses to the South Beach area. Away from football, this stadium will bring in

many events to the campus to indirectly market the school and bring in more prospective

students. This is because we plan to build the new stadium on Miamis campus on land that they

already own. This eliminates the need to buy new land for a football stadium and will allow

Miami to move its football stadium from 45 minutes away, where it currently sits, to directly on

its campus.

Along with this, the financial benefits of a new stadium would be massive for the school,

its partners, and the economic impact around the city and school. By splitting the cost of our

$800,000,000 new stadium between the new Miami MLS team that David Beckham owns, along

with the money that Miami-Dade County helped put towards the construction, we can

successfully build a new stadium that will be a revenue generator for years to come. The school

has the ability through a tuition bump and booster donations to take out a loan to pay off its share

of the construction. Once the new stadium is built, cash flows will begin to pour in through a

reenergized fan base with merchandise, media contracts, and most importantly ticket sales for a

stadium that currently is struggling.

We would conclude that this would be a fantastic investment for the University of Miami

and Miami-Dade County to invest in and construct to better both of them for the future.

II: Introduction
 The University of Miami football, once the king of college football, has now hit a lull in

what seemed to be a dynasty in the early 2000s. Most pundits across the country blame

numerous reasons to the collapse of the powerhouse program from scandals to coaching. With

this collapse has come a loss in interest in the program from students, alumni, and south Florida

residents. The University of Miami is in desperate need for a new football stadium if they would

like to compete to the levels of where many of the elite programs in the country. Their current

stadium is just not adequate anymore to support the team or fan base. Away from being over a

half hour with no traffic from campus, the current venue at Sun Life Stadium is just not what you

would expect for a college team of their prestige. Assets like ticket sales are doing awful as well

as football activities like recruiting which has become such an important aspect to running a

program if you would like to reassert yourself as one of the elites. Along with the football

program needing a new stadium, the student body and fans need a new venue to reenergize the

fan base as well as bring prosperity to the South Florida area again in terms of economic impact.

We can complete this by constructing a new football stadium through a smart approach that will

create happiness for both the citizens of south Florida, alumni, and student body. With the

economy that Miami has through tourism we should have no issues with making all sides of this

deal happy in the long run in creating a venue and atmosphere that will create wealth and success

for years to come for the Miami-Dade County area.

III: Market Analysis

The city of Miami is located at Floridas Southeastern tip with a population of 2, 496,435

people and an average median age of 38.2 (2010 census). According to Sports Business Daily,

82% of college football fans are white and 59% are between the ages of 18-44. The University of

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Miami Hurricanes currently call home Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens, located roughly 35

minutes and 21.5 miles away from the University of Miami campus in Coral Gables, Florida.

The suburban city of Miami Gardens has a total population of 107,167, roughly 18% of which

are white. Coral Gables has a smaller population of 46,780 but 91% are white. The demographics

of the average college football fan match up much more closely with the Coral Gables

population. With an average attendance of just 52,518 in a stadium that seats over 65,000 in

2014, we feel that by building a new stadium in the Coral Gables area would be much more

profitable and increase fan attendance. The new stadium would be located closer to the college

campus and would be in a location that would match the demographics of the average Miami

citizen.

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 IV: Project Description

Miami currently plays in Sun Life stadium which is a 35 minute drive from campus. This

has been a major factor in Miami not currently being

able to fill up the stadium. In 2014, the Miami

Hurricanes averaged only 52,518 fans a game during

their 7 home games (NCAA). Sun Life Stadium has a

maximum capacity of 65,000 fans for football games

(Dolphins), which means that on average, they only

fill approximately 80% of the stadium. This is well

below what elite programs around the country are

doing week in and week out.

Figure 1 - Current Drive to Miami's Stadium

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 Our goal for the new stadium is to create a world-class venue much closer to campus that

will allow Miami to work its way back to being an elite college football program. Along with

this, a new stadium will allow Miami to usher in a new generation of Miami fans to rejuvenate

the fan base. The new stadium will have to be much larger to allow Miami to compete with the

current big boys of college football. A stadium around 75,000 seats would put the new stadium in

the top tier in college football in terms of capacity. Miami should have no issues with filling this

new stadium up as Miami-Dade County, where the University of Miami is located, is home to a

huge population. So large in fact, that Miami-Dade County is the seventh most populous county

in the United States (Wikipedia). At 2,662,874 people, 75,000 seats should be easy to fill up a

new stadium. Add onto the fact that the Miami student body will be much more involved and

excited to attend games. With 16,774 total students (CollegeData), the student section will fill up

a good bit of the stadium every game. Another aspect as to why a stadium move closer to campus

will help a lot is that the new stadium will be much closer to downtown Miami and South Beach,

which is where the majority of tourists like to visit. This will help to increase the amount of

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tourist that would be inclined to see a game while down in Miami.

Figure 2 - University of Miami Student Breakdown (CollegeData)

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 The one bright side about building in South Florida is that there is a lot of flat land to

build on. While looking for a spot to build the new stadium, our main focus is to get a location

on or closer to campus to allow the student body to be reenergized. Along with this, a stadium on

campus will bring in revenue to the campus, the university, and businesses on and around the

campus. Another indirect aspect of a stadium on campus is that the school will receive many

more prospective students on campus if they come in for games as well as tourist in the area

coming to see events that will take place at the venue. Our prospective plot of land is called

Yaron Field, currently an open field on the west side of the University of Miamis campus. This

is an excellent location for the new football stadium for multiple facts away from already being a

cleared field. For starters, the University of Miami already owns the field so they would not need

to worry about buying the plot of land. The location on campus is also excellent as it is right next

to both the student union, as well as the other sports venues the campus has to offer such as the

tennis courts, baseball field, and basketball arena. This will allow a centralized hub on campus

for the venues, which will drive traffic all year long to that area. In the case of the student union

and bookstore being close, revenue will soar on game days, as masses of people will flood the

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Coral Gables area to watch the Hurricanes in action.

Figure 3 - Yaron Field Location

With the amount of young people in the Miami area, the stadium is going to have to look

fresh, in terms of the outside of the stadium to attract the public. The newer and more high-tech

the stadium is, the more publicity it will get and it will be more attractive to the public. Along

with this, the stadium should have a Hispanic feel to it to. The Miami Marlins did this inside

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their new stadium and the Hurricanes should certainly match this if they would like to make the

public happy. The outside is not the only part of the stadium that should look fresh. The inside

should include amazing amenities. For starters, in this modern age there should be high-speed

Wi-Fi for all around the stadium, as well as making a party center or beach area like what UCF is

planning for their stadium. This will attract the students to come out to have a good time and

party in the stadium while they cheer on their Hurricanes. Finally a new video board, possibly

the largest in college football, should be included in this stadium to match the glam and electric

feel that Miami is known for.

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 V: Key Project Assumptions

The best part about financing a new stadium for a university is that its fairly easily to

gain capital quickly to put towards the stadium just because of the fact of its massive reach.

Financing will play a huge role in the process of building a new stadium. For a new, world-class

75,000-seat stadium, we are projecting the stadium to cost to be around $800 million dollars. We

would ask Miami-Dade County to assist in the financing 30% of the stadium funds. This can be

done by raising the hotel-motel tax in the county which will gain funds for the stadium without

affecting the actual citizens of the county and raising money through the masses of tourist that

come into the city each year.

Figure 4 - Current Tourist Tax for Miami-Dade County (Miami-Dade County)

Another approach to help gain funds will be to work with David Beckhams MLS

expansion team (Underwood) and use private funds from their sponsors to build a stadium that

both teams can share and prosper from. This is where revenue sources will begin to play a vital

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role in the construction of the stadium. If Beckham and his backers can invest half of the 70% of

funds needed towards construction of the stadium, this will cut a large amount of cost down that

the university would have to worry about. In line with this assumption, the University of Miami

would have to fundraise or put forth 35% of funds towards the $800M stadium, which would

equal $280 million that they are responsible for fundraising.

Through fundraising, the University of Miami can quickly gain funds to put towards the

stadium because of their large reach through its boosters and alumni system. According to the

University of Miamis website, their alumni association is in excess of 170,000 alumni. If some

of these big boosters in the reach gave a generous donation, a large portion of this $280M will be

covered. After this, our final revenue stream that we would look at increasing would be a small

percentage increase to student tuition. Now while some people might be opposed to a tuition

increase, student polls might disagree if funds went to a new football stadium. When Baylor was

looking to build a new stadium they asked both students and fans their thoughts on a new

stadium. 89% of respondents indicated that they had a positive attitude to a new, on-campus

stadium (Baylor) as well as 87% of students saying a new stadium would enhance their

experience at the school. Current tuition at Miami is $22,200 per semester (UM Share). If we

raised this by 5%, we would be raising around $18M a semester in funds for the stadium, which

over the course of a few years, this tuition growth will go a far way in creating funds for

construction. Overall, we feel strongly that these options, for both financing and revenue

streams, will be seen as favorable by the majority.

11 5 - University of Miami Tuition (UM Share)

Figure
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 VI: Economic and Fiscal Impacts

The University of Miami has a tremendous economic impact on the Miami-Dade county

and the surrounding area. According to a 2012 study, it was found that the University of Miami

has an economic impact of $6.1B on the Miami-Dade County annually. With a huge population

of almost 2.5 million people, the Miami area isnt relying on the economic impact from the

Miami Hurricanes come football season, but the university still creates an enormous impact on

the city. By building a new stadium in Coral Gables, the impact on the area could still be

immense. Local businesses would benefit greatly from the increase in foot traffic on game days.

Increased attendance would benefit restaurants, hotels, and tourism in the area. The construction

of a new stadium would also create new jobs in Miami-Dade County, leading to an even greater

economic impact. Finally, a new stadium will create new development to build up around the

stadium and campus and rejuvenate the surrounding community.

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VII: Pro-Forma Financials

Balance Sheet

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Income Statement

15
Cash Flows

16
Depreciation Schedule

17
Loan Amortization Schedule

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Ticket Breakdown

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 VIII: Conclusions

After evaluating the project, we would conclude that it would be in the best interest of the

University of Miami, Miami-Dade County, and its partners to go ahead with our proposed new

stadium for the Miami Hurricane football program. We have concluded that it is feasible for the

university to build a new stadium on its campus. This will create massive amounts of cash flows

coming into the university and the athletics department. Along with the school benefiting, the

surrounding area of Miami and Coral Gables will see a positive impact of building a new

stadium on Miamis campus.

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 Works Cited

2010 Census. N.p.: n.p., n.d. US Census - 2010. 2010. Web. 20 Feb. 2016.

"2014 National College Football Attendance." (n.d.): n. pag. NCAA.org. 2015. Web. 21 Feb.

2016.

Baylor. "McLANE STADIUM - STADIUM FACTS." McLANE STADIUM - STADIUM FACTS.

N.p., n.d. Web.

CollegeData. "University of Miami - CollegeData College Profile." COLLEGEdata. N.p., n.d.

Web.

Dolphins. "FAQs - Miami Dolphins New Stadium." Miami Dolphins New Stadium. N.p., n.d.

Web.

"Fan Frenzy: NCAA Football Attendance Demographics." SportsBusiness Daily. Street &

Smith's SportsBusiness, 30 Aug. 2007. Web. 23 Feb. 2016.

Hatamiya, Lon. "The Economic Impact of the University of Miami." Miami.edu. Bendixen

Amandi International, n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2016.

Miami-Dade County. "Revenue Data - Miami-Dade County." Revenue Data - Miami-Dade

County. N.p., n.d. Web.

NCAA. "NCAA Attendance." 2014 NATIONAL COLLEGE FOOTBALL ATTENDANCE (n.d.):

n. pag. NCAA. 1 Jan. 2015. Web.

Underwood, Cameron. "Is Momentum Building for a Joint MLS/UM Stadium?" State of The U.

N.p., 11 June 2015. Web.

UM Share. "University of Miami Tuition." 2015 - 2016 Semester Tuition and Fees Rates

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 Undergraduate* University of Miami (n.d.): n. pag. UM Share. 14 July 2015. Web.

Wikipedia. "Miami-Dade County." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web.

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