Ask The AD With Craig Angelos

November 15

Question from Greg
Will there be a web cam for the construction of the new stadium?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
A web cam has been purchased. It has been installed and is currently feeding back to the camera company. We have seen the designs for the camera angles and are awaiting the correct script to incorporate into the stadium website www.faustadium.com

December 15
Question from Dale
Now that football is over, what is on tap for FAU athletics?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Thank you for your question. Our football season has come and gone but we cheer for our Sun Belt Conference schools as they participate in various bowls. Every bowl victory helps the league as a whole; therefore us. Things that will directly impact our fans include the construction of the stadium and all the projects that will support the growth of both the stadium and athletics. Basketball is well under way and at the turn of the New Year, we will quickly transition into our spring sports. As you may remember, FAU baseball captured the 2010 regular-season Sun Belt championship. We will have a ring ceremony and will be there as they begin their request to defend. Until then, please have a safe and happy holiday season. During your down time visit the new stadium website at www.faustadium.com

July 15, 2010

Question from Joe
Hello,
FAU will probably clear $2 mil from the MSU game. Or close to it. The money is earmarked for the stadium. Will $2 mil really make a difference in the stadium funding or would funding the athletic program, particularly the football team be a better use?

I am an accountant and I think about these things.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Joe,
I am in receipt of your email regarding the MSU game. The projected $2 million in ticket revenue is earmarked for the financing package that will be roughly $74 million. We are looking at taking out a $62 million loan and utilizing $12 million in cash. The $2 million is part of the $12 million in cash we are putting into the package. It's like buying a house and putting 20% down in order to get your loan. Since cash is king that $2 million will be quite helpful in securing the financing package for the stadium. We hope that we're going to be able to get the complete package done soon. Stay tuned.

Craig W. Angelos
Director of Athletics

December 1, 2009

Question from Bobby
Do you lobby for FAU to join the Big East or is that just wishful thinking?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
I have had casual conversations with the Big East personnel about what they see in their future as it relates to future expansion. They do not have any foreseeable plans to expand. In the meantime, we need to get our stadium built and continue to upgrade the quality of our football and basketball teams success and just try to be attractive if conference expansion occurs again. I should note that the Sun Belt is a very fast moving and growing conference and will continue to raise its profile dramatically. Without our invitation to the Sun Belt we would be no where as an athletic program so I am extremely grateful they let us in the conference five years ago. We will see how everything evolves over time.

Thanks
Craig

November 10, 2009

Question from Dave
The Board of Trustees is set to approve an agreement with the City of Boca Raton that stipulates a future 7500 seat convocation center/arena. Considering that our current arena holds 5000 seats and that the new arena will be our final basketball facility since it costs tens of millions of dollars to construct these things, why would we build a 7500 seat arena instead of a 10k seat arena? Or am I reading this document wrong and we'll build at LEAST a 7500 seat arena? I understand our attendance thus far doesn't necessitate even a 7500 seat arena but considering this is going to be a venue for concerts and so on, shouldn't we build a 10k seat arena to be on par with the peer institutions we seek to emulate?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Dave, We do have a placeholder in the overall master plan that would involve a basketball arena/convocation center. When I first arrived at the Institution they had a planned 15,000 seat basketball arena. Myself and President Brogan agreed that was way too much and we scaled it down to around a 10,000 seat basketball arena. Therefore, when we get around to building a basketball arena it is my hope it will hold approximately 10,000 fans. I think that is about the right size for us as we build for the next 30 years. Thanks for your question.

Sincerely,
Craig Angelos

November 7, 2009

Question from John
Hi,
When do you anticipate we will have enough money in the budget to hire a special teams coach for football? Thanks!

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Good Question. We do have one and in fact many of the coaches contribute to our special teams, but unfortunately our execution has not been real good lately. Hopefully it will improve.

Craig

Question from Shane
Do anything you can to hire Charlie Strong.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
We don't need him yet. We have Howard Schnellenberger! Maybe he will be available in a few years.

Craig September 25, 2009

Response from Head Coach Joan Joyce
Craig asked me to follow up on your question. The most challenging non-conference opponent will be UCLA. If you have followed us, you know we will play one of the more difficult schedules around. The most challenging conference opponent is always ULL. They have represented the SBC at the College World Series.

Do I think we can compete? Absolutely!

Question from Brian
Who do you think is going to be your biggest competition this year for softball? Also, does the team have a chance to win conference or more?

September 15, 2009

Question from Joe
Just an FYI. During the Nebraska game many of us were listening to ESPN 760. Commercials were running during the play by play throughout the game. During the first half alone, most of the game was not broadcast and commercials were aired instead. Several people called ESPN and were told there was a problem. The conversation about this can be seen on the game day thread on the Owlsnest board.

I'm not sure if you were aware of the incident.

Response from Associate AD Dexter LaMont
Hi Joe-
Craig Angelos asked me to respond on his behalf.

First and foremost, let me apologize for the inconveniences with the ESPN760.com broadcast of the FAU-Nebraska game. ESPN760 stream was checked and set correctly, nonetheless, their Ando Media schedule was the problem. I was told by ESPN760 representatives that it was brief and has since been resolved.

For future FAU games, www.fausports.com is the preferred vehicle to provide enhanced streaming online at no cost, making free content available to FAU fans worldwide.

Thank for your continue support of FAU Athletics!

Regards
Dexter

August 17, 2009

Question from Rob
Mr.Angelos:
Now that the Crocker deal is in place, it looks like we are on track to play in a home stadium come 2011. Can we switch our Michigan State home game to 2011, playing there in 2010 instead? That way the fans can road trip to UF, come back to an awesome opening game against MSU, then get back on the road against Auburn! What an awesome opening stretch that would be to build excitement for our program. Again, can we bring MSU here for 2011?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Rob,
I appreciate your interest in seeing if we can switch the Michigan State Game from 2010 to 2011. I have talked with Michigan State about this and will continue to explore the possibility but football schedules are designed many years in advance and many times it is hard to flip at the last minute because of the need to have a certain amount of home games, etc. Right now I am considering that point as well as possibly taking the game as a neutral site game to either Detroit or Chicago or even Dolphin Stadium, if possible. We will continue to explore what to do with this game but I would like to see if it could somehow benefit our stadium through the generation of additional revenues, or reschedule it for 2011, which will be very difficult. We will see how this goes.

Thanks,
Craig August 13, 2009

Question from Alan
Congratulations on the Crocker agreement! It was a vital step forward for FAU.

Ted Hutton of the Sun-Sentinel last released stadium renderings showing undulating wave colors in the seats, a boardwalk area near the entrance and a concessions area that looked like a Bahamian country club. I truly loved these designs. I believe they are unique enough to inspire fans to make the road trip down here, thus boosting attendance and the game-time atmosphere.

So the question is: how close to the final design are those images?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos Alan,
Thank you for the email. We wish we had more football fans like you living in the Boca Raton area. I will tell Coach Schnellenberger Hello for you and please be sure to follow the Owls on our FAU sport website. Have a great summer.

Craig

July 15, 2009

Question from Robert
Hello Mr. Angelos,

I am a student at FAU that is highly interested in track and field. I was wondering if there is any progression on the school starting a men's track team for the upcoming season. Please email me with any information you may have.

Thank You in advance,
Robert

Response from FAU Athletics
Robert,
Thank you for your interest FAU Athletics and more specifically in our track and field program. Craig Angelos has asked me to respond to your inquiry.

At this time we do not have intentions of adding a sport at FAU. As you know the economy has challenged causing us to look for new ways to decrease our spending and increase our revenues while still maintaining a competitive Division I athletics program. The economic challenges before us make it fiscally unsound to try to expand our programs at this time.

Each year we complete a survey of all full time undergraduate students at FAU in an effort to evaluate the student body's interest in sports that we do not currently offer. We do this survey to comply with the 1972 Title IX of the Education Amendments and to ensure that we are meeting the needs of our students.

It might interest you to note that over the past two years there has been minimal interest expressed in the addition of men's track and field. Even with this in mind, we have investigated the costs associated with starting a men's team due to its potentially positive impact on our overall program. Unfortunately, the funding is simply not available at this time.

I hope this answers your questions and invite you to contact me directly if I may be of any further assistance. I may be reached via e-mail at mdawson@fau.edu or via telephone at 561-297-2683 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting561-297-2683end_of_the_skype_highlighting.

Thank you again for your interest in our program!

Go Owls,

Melissa Dawson
Associate AD/SWA

July 7, 2009

Question from Tom
Craig,
I want to comment and maybe expand on a posted response by Terry Mohajir on a grassroots fundraiser for the stadium. I was talking with another alumnus about the stadium, and we felt that an effort by the Alumni Association could help. We have over 100,000 Alums and even a small donation ($10 - $100) from each could go a long way toward building the stadium, may even name the place "Alumni Memorial Stadium." :-) Can this be added to the planning effort?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Tom,
You have a very good idea in trying to involve the Alumni Association. I know they have been involved with this process, but we haven't launched an all-out campaign with the alumni as of yet. We have reached out to a number of alumni for support but have not been successful with that as of yet. We have been trying to secure the major gifts to enable us to go to the bond houses. This will allow us to break ground and then circle back and to launch a campaign with our alumni. We are very much hopeful that our alumni will get excited about the progress that is being made at their former institution and will then want to get behind us in our effort to get the stadium built. Thanks for your ideas. Keep them coming.

Craig

July 1, 2009

Question from Tom
Craig - I want to comment and maybe expand on a posted response by Terry Mohajir on a grassroots fundraiser for the stadium. I was talking with another alumnus about the stadium, and we felt that an effort by the Alumni Association could help. We have over 100,000 Alums and even a small donation ($10 - $100) from each could go a long way toward building the stadium. May even name the place "Alumni Memorial Stadium." :-) Can this be added to the planning effort?
Tom FAU '85.

Response from Associate AD/External Relations Terry Mohajir
Alumni donations, no matter how large or small, are part of the plan and are always appreciated. Our concentration has been getting the large capitol dollars to get shovels in the ground. Once that is in place the $10 gifts and more will find their place.

Question from Chris
Hi.
I talked to a manager at Duffy's to find out why they don't have an FAU football helmet among their other college helmets on display (there are not one but TWO UF helmets!). She responded that they asked for a helmet and FAU never responded. Is that true? Do we have an extra one we can give to them to help the FAU brand penetrate into the local community? Thank you for your time.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Dear Chris,
I checked with our equipment manager and he said that Duffy's on St. Andrews does have a helmet because he saw it there a few weeks ago.

Nevertheless, we do clean older helmets, that can no longer be used, with new logos and provide them to people in the community for either public relations events or for donors as a gift for their generosity toward the program. Certainly, we have to be judicious about that since there are a lot of vendors in the community that we would like to provide with a helmet. If you let us know which Duffy's you are referring to, then I will make sure that they get one of these helmets.

Thanks for your email and your interest in better branding our program throughout our community.

Craig

Question from James
Watch parties for the football games: where and when?

If you don't know yet, when will you know? Is there a deadline? The fear is that "GameDay" will come and people will be running around going, "Where is the game? Where is the game?"

Thank you!

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
James,
We are currently working with our restaurant partners to establish a place for our fans to watch this season's games. As of right now it looks like five of our football away games will be televised. We will have a release on this once everything is finalized.

While we do not have a deadline for establishing a location, it is our goal to provide our fans with ample time to plan to watch the game with us! As soon we have established a location, we'll announce it via www.fausports.com, as well as through e-mail and the local media outlets. I encourage you to also follow the Owl Club on twitter at http://twitter.com/FAUOwlClub for important updates.

I look forward to seeing you on September 5th when we kick off another great season of Owl Football!

Question from Greg
Hello Craig,
I was browsing the internet looking for FAU merchandise and have ultimately found next to nothing. Why is it that we have such little merchandise when other schools have so much? Will there be any new merchandise being produced any time soon, and what does it take to get to have a steady line of merchandise?

Thank You
-Greg

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
We currently have a product mix of 11 different categories with multiple items in each. We will have a lot of new merchandise going into the store in July and August. Much of what is there now is the end of the season and closeout type things at season's end. June is notoriously a very slow month so we would never break out new product in June. According to our online partner, we will be fine come the end of July and August.

Thanks

Craig

June 18, 2009

Question from Shane
I understand it's been a struggle in these hard economic times to raise money for a football stadium but how come no small time donations program for your average income FAU grad or even students. I feel like there is no way the small fan can help with the stadium effort I feel like if you would have used a small donation program like Obama used during his campaign where people could donate as little as a 1$ I believe it would have added up to a lot if you something like that on the athletics website or even create a future FAU stadium website where people get more info on donating naming rights etc.

Response from Associate AD/External Relations Terry Mohajir
Shane,
Craig Angelos has asked me to respond to your question, as the point person for the stadium campaign. First, thanks for caring about this project and FAU. I appreciate your question.

It has been our plan, all along, to have an inclusive campaign. We will start a grass roots campaign that will allow all people regardless of economic status to get involved with the stadium once we receive formal approval from the FAU Board of Trustees. I am confident everyone will have the opportunity to contribute. We believe we'll receive strong support financially from the community either through donations and/or ticket sales.

Again, thanks for your support, and just like you, we're eager to get started.

Terry Mohajir
FAU Athletics

Question from James I recently read that some universities are doing away with media guides for football because the cost is so high ($100,000) and instead the university is just putting it online for fans to download and print out. What is FAU's stance on the subject? How much do we spend on it? If we can save $100,000 and instead spend that money to advertise our money sports on billboards, buses and local cable TV commercials, I think that may be a better investment for us.

Response from Assistant AD/Media Relations Katrina McCormack
We began the process of phasing out media guides a year ago for two reasons: cost and progression. It was our feeling that many of the sports were making more use of the web in recruiting and that reporters were using the web as well. So in five sports we elected to use the media guide money towards a recruiting video and to include all information on the web. We will continue in this direction in 2009-2010 and will add sports to this list of web only information. In the sport of football we will produce a guide this season as it remains a sport that media uses the guide for information and our coaches use the guide to help in recruiting. The most we have ever spent on guides was approximately $54,000 (18 sports). Last year it was about $30,000 (13 sports). I expect it will be less than $20,000 this year.

While it would be great to put the money into billboards, buses and local cable TV commercials that really would not fulfill the need for recruiting and media coverage in multiple sports. It just needs to be more comprehensive.

Thanks for your support and keep pulling for the Owls.

June 14, 2009

Question from Jake
Is it possible to build part of the stadium with the money we have now so we'll have something for the opener in 2010? We have like $4 million, right? Could we get the bond for say 10k seats with that funding? Then work on the rest as the money comes in?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Jake:
Your question about building part of the new stadium and doing it in segments has been discussed at length. There is a lot of merit in doing it that way. Getting something on campus and starting from there is a great way to go. However, my concern with taking that approach has been that once we get a small stadium up on campus that the drive to build a nice 30,000 seat stadium might be deminished. Therefore, we might be living with a small segmented stadium for quite some time.

It reminds me of people who build homes and move in when it is partially completed with the idea of completing the rest of the house while they are there. But because they have to go to work and get on to other things, they don't complete their house until many many years later. That kind of idea worries me about building something really small on our campus just to get a stadium here. My personal choice would be to hold off and play in Lockhart until we are able to move into our nice 30,000 seat stadium. Nevertheless, we will see how this plays out.

Thanks,
Craig

Question from Scott
Dear Mr. Angelos,
While I'm sure you're tired of hearing about it could you please give us an update on the stadium?

As we are now rapidly approaching into summer of 09 it seems less and less likely that the stadium could be built on time for a 2010 opening day against Michigan State.

In this difficult economic time I'm sure that attracting naming rights on this issue is incredibly difficult. Has FAU reached out to Palm Beach County for assistance with the stadium in exchange for allowing county wide championships and other sporting events to be hosted at FAU's stadium?

Not only would this help get the stadium funded (perhaps by getting stimulus dollars) but from a community involvement standpoint would be a win/win allowing FAU's main campus to become one of the centerpieces of the county.

Were all keeping or fingers crossed.

Thank you for your time.

Scott

Dear Scott:
Sorry for the delay in my response to your email. We are still holding our breath as we move into the summer months as far as trying to get the stadium built. We were hoping to have a shovel on the ground by June in order to be playing in August of 2010. Nevertheless, even though we have not starting digging yet we are very close to finalizing a naming rights partner and also a partnership with the developer who would build our 2,400 bed facility as part of our Innovation Village. At the time we can contract with those two entities, we will then be ready to the financing stage. This has continued to linger and frustrate many people but we are trying to do it in the most difficult times since the great depression. We are still persevering and hoping that we will be successful here soon.

It is possible that perhaps we could get the stadium up before the last part of the 2010 season but if not it will have to roll over to the 2011 season. We will continue to keep you updated as we continue to progress.

Thanks for your patience.

Craig Angelos

Question from Justin
I appreciate what you do, I love the school just as much as the next guy, maybe more. I'm just fed up with the stadium. It's been too long and you've blown numerous opportunities. The players and coaches deserve all the credit in the world for what they've accomplished, the administration should and needs to be held accountable. Instead of passing the buck, which is the only thing that has been done for the last eight years, what are you doing now, not what you're doing in July, August, May 2010, November 2011, ect...

Will there be a stadium on campus in 2010? Yes or No is the answer the players and fans deserve.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Justin:
I certainly appreciate your email and your recognition of what has been accomplished in the last eight years. It does take a team approach to make things happen. Generally, when things are going well on the field there must be something going on positive off the field. For example, getting us to I-A, negotiating our way into the Sun Belt Conference, and adding 23 scholarships all in one year, I think helped propel us up to the next level. Then, coming up with the whole concept of Innovation Village, and coming up with a way to pay for it, I think is contributing to the process also. Finally, finding ways to fund the program seems to me to be a positive contribution as well.

With regard to the stadium, my ideas of bringing it to fruition are close to happening. Trying to accomplish this feat in the worst economy since the depression will be monumental when we pull it off.

Stay Tuned.

Craig

March 24, 2009

Question from Adam
Hi Craig,
Does Owsley's girlfriend have a name yet?

I wanted to suggest "Owlivia."

Have a good day! GO OWLS!

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Adam,
Thanks for the email. I really like your suggestion on naming Owsley's girlfriend that was introduced last year. I think Owlivia is an excellent name. I will talk with our marketing people and see if we can put that in place. Thanks for the great idea.

March 12, 2009

Question from Dave
Hello Mr. Angelos,
I understand that while fundraising is the key component, the football stadium design is coming along as well.

Has FAU considered designing its facade to be similar to Key West architecture, like Duval Street or the entrance to Sea World?

The light colors, wood paneling, and so on would be very unique among other football stadiums in the nation and surely complement our "beach" theme.

When fans of Big Ten teams come to play at our house, we could give them a Key West experience!

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos Dave,
Thanks for the email. I like your suggestion of designing the stadium with a Key West motif. We will certainly consider it.

Thanks,
Craig

Question from Kelly My son is graduating from Dwyer High School in May. He would like to apply to FAU but would like to find out what it takes to make the football team. Can you give us any guidance?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Kelly,
Thanks for your email. As far as your son getting on the football team, I would suggest you and your son contact Kurt Van Valkenburgh, Assistant Head Football Coach and Recruiting Coordinator at 561/297-0068. His email address is kvalvalk@fau.edu. He is the gatekeeper and the person who can help you.

Good luck.

Craig

Question from Ryan
Craig,
I would like to say congratulations on helping FAU showcase its talent to a national audience. I wonder if the new stadium will be built in time.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Ryan,
I appreciate the congratulations. It is exciting to see FAU grow. We all enjoyed seeing the front page article in the Sun Sentinel. It really showcased how this university is growing in stature. We are still working on trying to secure naming opportunity as well as someone to outsource the dormitories which will help us get the needed cash to go to the bond markets to get the loan to build the stadium. I know it will happen, but the question is when these pieces will fall into place that will allow us to move forward. Stay tuned . . .

Thanks,
Craig

February 25, 2009

Question from Ryan
How's the new stadium process going?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Dear Ryan:
The progress on the stadium continues to be a topic of discussion. There have been numerous articles written in the newspapers about it. Let me summarize by saying that in my opinion the stadium is still on track to be built by 2010. I liken the example to a train in that it is moving quickly towards the finish line of its destination of 2010. We have hired architects and construction companies and continue to plan accordingly but do need the financing piece to drop into play in order for this engine to continue to roar down the tracks at its current pace. If we cannot get the financing together then the train will slow up and it won't arrive at its destination until a later time. We are still hoping to sign a development deal where we outsource the 124 beds of housing as far as the Innovative Village to a private developer for an up-front cash payment, as well as continuing to find an organization willing to name the stadium, and thirdly, continue on with our philanthropy. If we can get these three pieces to fall into place, then we will stay on track for the 2010 opening.

Craig Angelos

January 31, 2009

Question from Adam
Hello Mr. Angelos,
I know you're probably sick of answering update questions about the stadium so I'm not going to ask you about the stadium.

Instead I'd like to ask you about the specific status of the other components of the Innovation Village... the retail, dining, student services. How is that coming along?

Along those lines, who do I speak to about it? I have some suggestions (video/gaming/comics store, cell phone store, Apple store, vegetarian restaurant like Crispers, a legitimate college bar with pool tables and juke boxes and trivia games on the TVs, etc) that I'd like to pass on as a student. Thanks!

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Adam,
You mentioned you wanted to find out who to talk to regarding the adding of different elements as it relates to Innovation Village. I would say that the first domino that needs to fall I this Innovation Village is the financing for the stadium to turn the shovel to get that going. Once that gets going, the other elements of retail dining and student services will be coming along. So as of right now it is still a little early, however, I would suggest making your suggestions to Tom Donaudy, who is the University's architect and is responsible for making sure that all the different elements come together when it is time to build. Stay tuned and we will see how it all progresses.

Thanks

Craig Angelos

Question from Grant
Hello!
I was looking at the new stadium renderings on Ted's blog. What's going on with Innovation Village? It's not on there.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Grant,
It is still on track quickly. The stadium has been designed, the construction and architects have been chosen but we are still working on the financing piece of this project. That continues to be the most important piece of any economy due to the economy. We have been hurt in our ability to obtain that kind of financing. Nevertheless, we are still going strong and hoping that it will happen. I'm not sure why Ted doesn't have it on his blog any more, but we do need to get a shovel in the ground and get this project moving.

Thanks,

Craig Angelos

Question from Jeremiah
Hey Mr. Angelos,
I watched the Innovation Village video. Impressive stuff. Will there be a hotel there?

It seems like a natural fit since visiting fans can use it for games and visiting professors/VIPs/out-of-town high school students could use it during other times. I know the Hospitality and Tourism management program is having ongoing serious talks about constructing an academic hotel on campus for their students. They were thinking of having a hotel name (Hilton, La Quinta, etc) build the facility, FAU students work there, and then the hotel owners pay FAU a portion of the gross profit.

Maybe it can all be worked into one big thing, build the stadium, hotel, Greek housing, parking all in one fell swoop?

Maybe the Hospitality and Tourism Management program wants something on Glades Road, however... something more visible and accessible?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Jeremiah,
With regard to a hotel in Innovation Village, we have been pushing that concept hard. We think it would work great on our campus and even contribute to the cost of building the stadium. Nevertheless, we haven't been able to get much traction on that concept. We are hoping that once we get the original Innovation Village done that people will feel more comfortable adding more elements to the project. I now the City of Boca is a little hesitant for us to involve ourselves in that project. So as of right now it is not part of Innovation Village but perhaps in the future it can be added if there is enough support.

Thanks,
Craig Angelos

Question from Ryan
Hi, Craig!
I feel proud of the FAU Owls football team for winning the Motor City Bowl. Is the new stadium gonna be built in 2010?

Thanks,
Ryan

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Ryan,
You asked about whether the stadium would be built in 2010. Our window of opportunity for financing is running out in the next couple of months. We are still hopeful that we can cobble up enough resources together through philanthropic gifts, naming rights for the stadium, as well as an upfront payment in exchange for the development of our 2,400 beds. We are very close on all fronts, but as you know the economy has really hurt us in regard to our solicitation of funds. Nevertheless, I am optimistic. Stay tuned . . .

Craig Angelos

Question from Alan
Hello Mr. Angelos,
I was recently in Gainesville and noticed that the front piece of the Pepsi machines at their Publixes have special Gator designs, much like we have FAU designs on our Pepsi machines on campus.

I know that every year or so, the contract comes up for renewal and turns into a bidding war of sorts between Pepsi and Coke to become the official soft drink for FAU, giving us some leverage in working out terms of contracts.

The next time the contract comes up for renewal, can you please ask/require them to apply the special FAU designs to all the Pepsi machines in the Boca community?

It would not only happen advertise our program but also make Boca more like a college town because you'd be reminded of FAU when you were off-campus.

Thank you!

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Alan,
We do have a ten year Pepsi contract. Coke was never too interested in our University. We have enjoyed our sponsorship with Pepsi and hope that it continues. They have done FAU designs on Pepsi machines on our campus but they have not done it in the Boca community. I will recommend they do that and see if we can make that happen.

Thanks for your e-mail.

Craig Angelos

Question from Steve
Craig,
From what I see, there is still one more home football game left for FAU to schedule in 2009. What are the possibilities of scheduling the University of Miami at Dolphin Stadium? It would be a home game for FAU and UM would have no travel expenses. I think the atmosphere would be like the USF game was in 2007, with a good crowd and with a win, it would give FAU a better hold on recruiting in South Florida as well. I am assuming FAU can still consider Dolphin Stadium as a neutral site even though it is where UM plays their home games.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Steve,
We do have one remaining game to be scheduled for 2009 which needs to be a home game. We will try to schedule a I-AA game. The University of Miami did ask us if we would be willing to play them in 2009 at Dolphin Stadium. However, the guaranty they were willing to pay us was very low and I elected to play South Carolina in that spot for a lot more money. We would love to play the University of Miami but not at the expense of making a lot more money on a guaranty game that could really help our budget.

Hopefully one day we will play them on a regular basis.

Thank you,
Craig Angelos

December 11, 2008

Question from Greg
Craig,
Excellent work on getting the Bowl invite! Very exciting to be playing in our 2nd bowl in just 8 seasons. Playing in Detroit the day after xmas will make it tough for us fans to travel. I have a suggestion on how to sell some tickets to the game. How about you offer fans the chance to buy 1 or 2 tickets to the game that can be donated to a local charity in Detroit. As an added incentive, offer those who purchase 2 donated tickets a commemorative Motor City Bowl ticket autograpghed by Coach Schnellenberger. I have one of the autographed NO Bowl tickets and it is a great keepsake.

Just a thought.

PS. Any word on the stadium?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos

Greg-
Thanks for your ticket sales suggestion below. We are truly excited about the second-consecutive bowl bid and opportunity to showcase FAU to a national audience. FAU Athletics has created several different ticket options for the Motor City Bowl. Several of our ticket options include a ticket donation program.

For more Motor City Bowl information, visit www.fausports.com and click the "Tickets on Sale" button.

November 14, 2008

Question from Alejandro
Mr Angelos,
Why are there are no FAU logos on the soccer field. The branding process needs to spread all over the school on every single sport. If the school has the money to build new sky boxes for basketball; the school has money for logos on the fields and the name of FAU on the fences. I still see the bball players wearing the uniform with no marks. I am sorry for being so pushy about the logos, but advertising and putting our mark out there helps the school to get better recognition nation wide.

Thanks

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Alejandro thanks for your email. The reason we do not have our logo on the soccer field is due to costs. We would have to create a stencil and purchase it for over $3,000 and then we would have to find someone to paint it on and continue to paint it and touch it up. It might not be a bad idea to purchase that and use the same for the Lockhart Stadium, but the upkeep and maintenance costs so much money even after purchasing the stencil that we have elected to not go that direction as of yet due to costs. I agree with the whole concept of branding as much as I initiated that when I first got here for the athletic department and expanded it to the entire university. Costs are the only thing that precludes us from getting our name and logo out there in the community even more. Thanks for your question and we will continue to try to expand our brand and our logos.

Thanks
Craig Angelos

Question from Alan
Hi Craig,
I recently heard that it costs alumni (and any entrepreneurs in the general public) a pretty hefty fee ($10,000) to license the FAU logos for use on shirts, vanity plates, mugs, tailgating gear, etc. I understand that the university has to "control its image", especially in the wake of Barry Kaye calling himself an FAU professor on a brochure, though at the same time I feel like the most important thing for us is to get our name out there. UF, FSU and Miami stuff can be bought at grocery stores, gas stations and even family stores like Wal-mart and this causes all of those schools to seem like they're even bigger schools than they are. It extends the reach and broadcasts the fact that people are proud to be affiliated with those institutions. At this point, when school spirit is surging and we're trying to grow FAU into at least a local brand name if not a national brand name, isn't there a way that FAU can set up a less expensive but still tightly regulated process for FAU alumni to start businesses that provide these things? The Campus Bookstore and the Athletics Online Store are nice but often times they have a very limited selection. So I'm writing to ask if you can lower the cost for alumni so we can grow our brand and cut out our niche in a Gator-flooded market.

Response from Assistant Athletics Director Dexter LaMont
Alan
I hope this message finds you well. Craig asked me to respond on his behalf regarding the license fee. There is a non-refundable application fee of $75 for a new applicant. The only other fees that are collected on behalf of FAU are royalties that are generated through the sale of licensed merchandise (8%). For more information about Florida Atlantic University Licensing program, please visit http://www.fau.edu/branding/vendors.php.

Thanks for your continue interest in the growth of your alma mater, Florida Atlantic University.

Regards, Dexter Assistant Athletic Director - Licensing, Marketing & Business Development

October 29, 2008

Question from Luke
Hello Craig.
Three questions:
- Will there be a Coach's blog with Jarvis up on the FAU Sports site soon?

- If we're going to be in the Burrow for awhile, ever thought about giving the roof some height in the form of a convex, curved roof expansion that could be lit up along the bottom like the Louisiana Superdome?

http://nbcsportsmedia2.msnbc.com

It would give the Burrow some additional stature and visual appeal.

- Will there ever be a complete sidewalk leading from Parking Garage 1 (by the library) westward toward the Burrow along Volusia? Many people walk that route (not just for games but graduation ceremonies, speakers, etc) and it's really dangerous since they have to walk in the street as cars zoom toward Broward Avenue.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Luke:
With regard to a Coach Jarvis blog, a blog is currently housed on the men's basketball site. Please feel free to ask a question. I think your idea about getting more of a curved roof expansion would make the "Burrow" look even better. However, we just spent about 11 to 12 million on it in the last year to fix the roof and renovate it inside and out. I don't believe we have the funds to go in and make any more corrections on the arena as of right now. We still need to spend some money on our baseball stadium to make sure that gets up to standards.

With regard to a complete sidewalk from the parking garage to the "Burrow", I think that is a great idea and I am going to pass that on to Tom Donaudy, who is the Vice President of Facilities. Feel free to also pass that information on to him from a student perspective of how valuable that could be for the students.

Thanks for your interest in the program. Take Care.

Craig Angelos

October 14, 2008

It's unfortunate that Hampton is lost for the season. I learned first hand that injuries are part of the game with a knee injury last season. I wish him all the best in rehab and encourage him to stay focused on getting healthy.

Question from Ros
I am a women's tennis fan and try to go to as many matches as I can. Are there any plans to fix the on campus tennis courts or build an on campus facility?

Thanks,
Ros

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Ros:
As of right now, there are no plans to enhance the campus tennis courts. I had determined that the venue was not very good. Then it received quite a bit of damage due to Hurricane Wilma. Campus sports and recreation put some money to bolster it a bit, but we decided to move all of our matches to Patch Reef Park, which is a very nice set up, even though it's about three miles from campus. I would like to build an on-campus facility. We have had a couple ideas and a couple people come forward. We have the land to build it. I just need to get the funding. If you have anyone that would like to be involved in funding the project, we would love to build it on-campus.

Thanks,
Craig Angelos

Question from Chip
Please talk to #92 about knocking the dirt off his cleats on the unprotected head of the Troy player's head after their first TD. He just got blamed incorrectly for a facemask on the previous play, but no excuses, the replay going to break showed it again. No class on national television would bother me as an AD.

Thanks for your time.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Dear Chip
Thank you for your email. In regard to the play in which you are referring, I did not see the play since I was attending to my duties as an Athletic Director with the donors. However, we have and certainly will address this issue and any other issues with our players. We too, feel it's very important to represent our university in a first class manner whether it is on the field or off the field. From what you mentioned in your email, apparently this did not happen on this play. We will continue to work on that.

Thanks for pointing that out to me.

Sincerely,
Craig Angelos

Question from Alvin
With the economy being what it is wouldn't you say that it's unlikely you'll get a football stadium on campus?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Alvin:
The current state of the economy certainly does make it more difficult to raise money to get the stadium built. As you know, we haven't seen these tough economic times for generations. Nevertheless, I am always hopeful that the necessary elements will fall into place to still allow us get it built by 2010. Stay tuned.

Thanks,
Craig Angelos

September 26, 2008

Question from Chad
Hey Craig...
Any plans to replace the FAU sign on the west side of the Oxley? It's all beat up and has the wrong owl logo. I know its like number 50 on your list of to-do's but I was wondering how it might impact potential recruits coming thru there. Don't know how much signs cost. Anyhow keep up the good work man

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Chad,
You bring up a very good point about the logo on the west side of the Oxley Center. It is the old logo and the lights are burned out too. Because we think this is a representation of the whole university, we try to get the central university to help fund the upgrade to this project. I believe they have agreed to restore it back to working order which is going to cost about $6,000 to $7,000. I think the plan is to restore it back to working order and then we will try to cobble together money in the future to eventually replace it with the new logo since the costs are so high and times are tough for everyone right now. Hopefully this will help for awhile. Thanks for your question.

All the Best,
Craig

Question from Nicolas,
Dear Mr.Angelos,
I know we are in the thick of negotiating a football stadium and then after that's done, you said you'll likely be turning your attention to a new 10,000 seat basketball arena that could also be used for concerts and special events like conferences.

When that happens, I wonder if you'd consider approaching the management at Hard Rock to strike some sort of deal with them. The deal could call it something like the FAU/Hard Rock Arena, allowing them to establish a foothold in this area; they could hold concerts there and even generate a profit by building a Hard Rock restaurant INTO the Arena itself.

I've heard that colleges can now secure full liquor license by arguing that it is better to keep drunk college kids on campus to walk home to dorms rather than drive home... so I imagine with persistence we could do the same and Hard Rock wouldn't have to lose alcohol-related profits.

It would be totally unprecedented. This would REALLY make the Innovation Village stand out among the universities so we can be a forward-thinking school and provide the ultimate experience to our students.

Is this possible or just crazy?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Nicholas,
Thank you very much for your idea. I think you are right on as far as trying to come up with nontraditional ideas. That's how the whole innovation village thing got started and certainly these are different times than in the past. We do have a relationship with the Hard Rock Hotel through their marketing people. It is certainly an idea that could be broached with them and/or someone similar to them. We are currently entertaining similar ideas as part of Innovation Village. Hopefully we will be able to get that one done first and then turn our attention to the arena. Unfortunately, the way the economy is, I am afraid the arena is going to be a little further down the road. Nevertheless, keep the good ideas coming.

All the Best,
Craig Angelos

September 22, 2008

Question from Jean
Are we moving ahead with development rights on Innovation Village housing? Has the contract been finalized and/or signed? If it was, how soon would dorms go up and how many beds would be built at once? Are we talking 600 beds added per year or 1200 per year or something else? Thanks Craig.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Jean:
With regard to Innovation Village, we are currently negotiating a potential opportunity to outsource our 2,400 beds. They would construct those in 600 bed increments. However, if the institution believed that we could fill 1,200 at one time, the institution would certainly consider that trade if you recall, we had about 500 people on a waiting list at the beginning of the school year. There are a lot of people who believe that we could fill 1,200 bed spaces all at one time with the proper marketing to the upper division students and to freshman, which has not taken place. Nevertheless, the goal is to have the first 600 up by next fall, but that is a tight time-frame that will be determined in the next month or so after these negotiations are completed. The total new dorms in Innovation Village are calculated at 2,400 beds and the time-frame is yet to be determined, but hopefully as soon as possible according to the demand that the institution has.

Thanks for your support.

Craig Angelos

Question from Jennie
I know that football, basketball and then baseball are our current funding priorities in terms of new facilities.

Does it make any sense in the future for FAU to consider constructing an indoor pool facility for the swimming team at some point in the future? Or is that a waste of money in the climate of south Florida?

Would it make any sense to have a putting green for the golf teams or no because they practice off-campus at local golf courses?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Jennie:
Thanks for your email. We have never considered constructing an indoor pool simply because we live in South Florida and you can swim outdoors all year long. However, we have come up with different areas in which to construct a short game facility for our golf teams where they could use it for pitching and putting. We began that process last summer, but we ran short of funds and delayed it. That is something we would like to do on-campus. Luckily though, our men's and women's teams have nice facilities to play and practice on at golf courses around the county so they are well taken care of, it is just a little further away from campus. Nevertheless, thanks for your interest and support.

Craig Angelos

Question from Alejandro
Craig:
Has FAU thought about investing on a set of nets for the goal posts at Lockhart stadium? During the game against UAB; Leroy kicked a 30 yard FG that was good. The referees said it was not good! We all saw it going through the goal posts. If we would have had the net, the ball would have been caught in the net and would have avoided a bad call from the referee. The nets could go to our new stadium in the future.

Just think about it! If the game depends on a field goal, that can cost you a game.

Thanks for all your hard work.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Alejandro:
With regard to nets behind the goal post, they are generally constructed for the protection of the fans from getting hit by balls either in practice or in the games and it also helps limit liability for institutions. It is even used as an advertising device for All-State as you see for many of the stadiums around the country. Because it is a shared use facility with the community, we have not invested any money in there. We would certainly like them to put up nets, but they have not done so and we have not felt the need to incur that cost. Nevertheless, I am hoping that the referees who stand right underneath each side of the goal post are capable of looking up to see if the ball crosses within the goal posts or not. That seems to be the best way to ensure accuracy of the call, but apparently their sightlines must have been off during that particular field goal. Nevertheless, thanks for your interest and support.

Craig Angelos
Director of Athletics

Question from Mike
Craig,
FAU athletics is doing a lot with a little and fans appreciate your team's effort. The burning question however for many of us remains. Will we play football in an on campus stadium in 2010? On July 10th you answered my question about progress on stadium funding by saying "We will know for sure around September 1, 2008 when we have to make the determination of whether we have enough money in cash and pledges to permit us to get the bonds to build the stadium. If we do, the stadium will be done for 2010. If we don't then it may not be until 2011." Today is September 9th. We need an update. Where do we stand?

Thanks
Mike

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Mike:
Here is an update on the stadium. We still believe that we will be playing football in our on-campus facility by 2010. We have selected an architect (HKS) and we have selected a builder (Balford Beatty & Jim Cummings). We are having weekly meetings and are currently designing the stadium. They are on the payroll and we are moving forward. The third component is the toughest and that is naturally the financing of the stadium. We have been raising money through private philanthropy and also pursuing a deal whereby we would outsource our 2,400 beds as part of the innovation village and use some of that money also. We are currently negotiating with that developer at this time. If that comes through, we will utilize the money cobbled together to go to the banks and try to get a letter of credit and then we will have the final piece in place. So, in summary, everything is moving in the right direction to have a 2010 opening of an on-campus facility, but the financing piece will be the final and most important piece to the puzzle and that hopefully will be in place this fall. Thanks for your inquiry and support of the program.

Craig Angelos
Director of Athletics

Question from Alejandro
Alejandro:
You make a good point that our branding campaign that we engaged in about four or five years ago has been a great success. I think our marks look great; however, it is true that we have not been able to get that mark on the football field. Much of it has been because of the cost associated with getting a logo and then having it painted on the field. The other part has been the fact that it's a shared use facility where the high schools play Friday night and it's very difficult to put any extravagant logo like ours down by the next day on Saturday. Therefore, we have continued with the same block FAU. I know it's not the best solution and we are working on how to rectify that, but we will certainly have it rectified in our new stadium.

Thanks,
Craig Angelos
Director of Athletics

September 18, 2008

Question from Jason
Hey Craig,
I know that when you were hired, one of your primary concerns was updating the facilities. With the Arena renovation, some improvements to the baseball stadium and the forthcoming football stadium, it certainly looks like you have put FAU on the right path.

My question is... what do you envision, in totality, are FAU's facility needs? Given infinite money (and I know that's not the case), what would FAU hope to build or renovate?

Thank you for your time.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Jason:
Thank you for the email. When I first got here, I put together a master plan for facilities that I thought needed to be built in order to make this a first-class athletic department. We have started with a 4.5 million track, a 11 million renovation of the arena, we are beginning some upgrades on the baseball field, and also spent a lot of time trying to build a football stadium. Once we get the football stadium built, I would like to renovate our baseball stadium, build a new 10,000 seat basketball arena, build an on-campus tennis facility, and expand the Oxley Center, specifically the strength room. We have outlined the plans for each one of those facilities as well as approximate costs and I do promote that at any time knowing that it just takes someone coming forth with enough money to help this become a reality. If you know of anyone, let me know. Thanks for your support.

All the best,
Craig Angelos

September 4, 2008

Question from Tom
Craig,
As I look at the local cable television listings, I see shows like 'Troy Football' and 'The Rick Stockstill Show' (Middle Tennessee State). Are we producing a "Howard Schnellenberger Show" to highlight and promote our program?

Response from Craig Angelos
Tom,
Craig Angelos asked me to respond to your question. A weekly coach's show would cost anywhere between $3,000 and $6,500 depending on how elaborate the production is. Multiply that by 16 weeks and the cost is getting up there ($48,000 - $104,000) especially for a show which may or may not have a time slot that would be convenient for fans. Many of the productions you are seeing are produced by the student broadcast departments. At this point in the growth of our University, we do not have an organization that is willing to do this at no cost or little cost. With that said, we have decided to apply that money towards the cost of televising a football game. Something we know fans will watch and gather in a manner that we promote in a festive manner. Most would suggest that the show could be sold and this is a true fact. The cost to run an add on a cable network is usually bundled to $35 per spot on cable. With six minutes a spot you are looking at approximately $600. The corporate sales track record has shown that directing advertisers to other areas proves to be more economical for the department.

Yours is a good idea and one that we have explored and would love to do in the near future. The ground work has been placed for the possibility as soon as the funding is available.

Katrina

August 11, 2008

Question from Mike
Craig,
I wanted to first congratulate you on the excellent job you and your team are doing with FAU Athletics. I am looking forward to watching FAU defeat Michigan State on campus in our home opener in 2010.

I have a quick comment in reference to our team's logo(s). With the marketing campaign a few years back to refresh the image and brand of FAU, professional and exciting logos were created. I am a bit concerned however of the 3 logo's on top of each other. It is extremely cluttered to see the FAU wings logo, Florida Atlantic banner, and the Owl head logo placed one on top of the other. It leaves (in my opinion) a sense of uncertainty for the direction of our athletic program. I do understand that this may be done to promote a sense of identification and recognition of our school and the program; however the three logo's does not work. When you look at teams throughout college football they use 1 or 2 logo's to identify their program, I just don't see the need for the banner in there for example.

I have seen just the FAU wings logo on SportsCenter when highlights are shown and it looks great, I have seen just the owl head alone or w/ FAU wings and that looks great, but to me it loses its luster when everything is all together at once. These are my thoughts and suggestions for the program moving forward. Keep up the good work. Go Owls!

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Mike,
Thank you very much for your email regarding logos. When we first went through the rebranding process, we wanted to cut out all the different logos that were being utilized and just have one logo for athletics and one logo for the university. However, both could have extensions to the logo, but not a variation of the logo. I hear what you're saying and I'm going to ask Dexter and Katrina in our office to look at how we are currently using our logo and whether it's getting too cluttered by putting all the extensions on the original logo itself. Thank you for bringing that to my attention.

Best wishes.

Craig

July 30, 2008

Question from Ben
Craig,
For the 2009 season marketing, can we drop the "Hoo hoo!" part of the "It's Owl Time! Owl Time! Hoo hoo!" because it's embarrassing. A much better idea would just be, "It's Owl Time!" and then hear actual samples of crowds chanting either "F-A-U!" or "Let's go Owwwwwwwwls!" That would really pump people up. Also could you send out something with the ticket purchases (season or otherwise) informing people that Schnellenberger wants people to wear BLUE to the games? Maybe he could pen a short message talking about the importance of creating unity among the crowd and a hostile environment for enemy teams to play in. Thanks!

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Ben,
Thank you very much for your email. I decided to ask our director of marketing, Dexter LaMont, to answer some of your questions regarding how we identified our direction as it related to some of the issues you mentioned. Below is his response back to me. I hope this helps.

All the best,

Craig

FAU marketing department decided to continue with the "It's Owl Time" theme, but added the slogan "Reaching Higher" to support Coach Schnellenberger team goals.

With that being said, much of the campaign creative elements were already in place - therefore, we continued with the "It's Owl Time" jingle from the '07 season that features the "hoot hoot" at the end of each radio and television spots. This creates and builds on the excitement and success of last year while maintaining the branding we have established. In addition, the actual Owls "hoot hoot" sounds have become very popular at home games during third downs when our team is on defense.

In effort to continue build the identity as well raise the awareness of Florida Atlantic University the athletic department promotes fans to show Owl spirit by wearing the school colors to athletic events (FAU Blue and Red). Nonetheless, there will be special theme events where we will ask fans to wear a specific color (ex: Bury The Burrow In Red). In fact, the 2008 homecoming game theme is "Blue Out Day". We will encourage all fans to wear BLUE on Saturday, November 8 when the Owls face North Texas.

DL

July 24, 2008

Question from Mike
In an effort to help fund the stadium, it seems as season ticket holders are sent their renewals it might make sense to add a checkbox on the form to donate $10? $50? $100? other amount? toward the stadium fund. Similar to the way the State of Florida asks when we renew our license plates, driving and fishing licenses, etc. I have to believe the vast majority of season ticket holders would contribute for to an on campus stadium.

Also as an alumnus, I have never been asked directly for a donation to help build the stadium. I know there are many ways to donate but I have not seen a formal long range plan to raise money (beyond the Owls Club) on a consistent basis from alumni.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Mike:
Thank you for your email. I think it's a great idea that we put an opportunity for people to donate to the stadium through the ticket renewal forms. I will work with our ticket manager to see if we can include that as soon as possible. Also, we do plan on soliciting the alumni and giving them an opportunity to be apart of the stadium. We were waiting to launch a campaign to the alumni once the funding is in place and the trustees give us full approval to start building the stadium. I believe that once they saw the momentum was going forward and that the stadium was actually going to happen that it would become more real to them and they would feel a need to get on board at that point. Hopefully that works. Again, thank you for your suggestion. I welcome them at anytime.

Craig

July 10, 2008

Question from Chris
I read that the athletic fee hike in 2005 of $2 a credit makes $1M/year. Considering this is what we are looking for from a sponsor for the stadium, why not pursue this funding source as a valid alternative that would cost the average student only $50/yr extra.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Chris,
I like your thinking. I approached the student body leaders last year to discuss this idea but, did not get much traction with it. I know some other schools commit a $10 block fee per semester. I am still pursuing this idea in hopes that the students may want to leave a legacy of helping get this stadium built.

Craig

Question from Greg
Hello Mr. Angelos,
Would the new Convocation Center/Arena host concerts/comedians like Dave Matthews Band, Chris Rock, etc?

UCF did a similar thing with theirs, hosting bands like Coldplay which also then brought in big crowds to support the Village retail/restaurant establishments.

Boca doesn't really have a venue like that (save for Mizner and that is barely used for concerts like that) so it would definitely help the city too.

What do you think? I know the convocation center is way out there but is that part of the plan?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
We would love to build a convocation center/arena and use it for a host of events, similar to what UCF does. We modeled our concept of "Innovation Village" after what UCF did. We plan to build the football stadium first and put some events and concerts in that facility. Then work on building an arena and doing the same with it. Let's hope it is sooner rather than later.

Craig

Question from Mark
Hello Mr. Angelos,
I'm an English major and a fan of FAU basketball.

I am writing because I am confused why the student section of the FAU Arena says "Welcome to the Burrow" in quotation marks.

It seems as if they were added for emphasis and this is a classic (and somewhat embarrassing considering this is a university) grammatical error.

I believe the words should just be WELCOME TO THE BURROW without the quotation marks. Can someone correct that?

As an FAU student, I want to make a good impression to visiting teams (and the community). I'm sure you feel the same.

Thanks!

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Thank you for your input on this matter. I was an English major in college for a short tie before I changed to American Studies and then went to law school. Perhaps there was a reason I was not cut out to be an English major. We will try to rectify this mistake. I have been told that it will most likely be covered up now that we are putting new chair back seating on that side of the arena and therefore, may be a moot issue. We will monitor it.

Thanks again,

Craig

Question from Tom
Today's (5/18) Sun-Sentinel had an article about Boca Raton wanting an I-95 interchange at Spanish River Blvd. as a condition for FAU to build the stadium. While there isn't much that we didn't already know, I was wondering what will be the city's contribution to the interchange, as the article implied that Boca Raton wants the interchange anyhow to relieve traffic on Glades Road. What are they putting on the table? At the Ceremony for the football team, I got the impression that the mayor of Boca is interested in seeing the stadium built. A second question: Since I-95 is a Federal Highway, can our congressional delegation get some Federal money to help fund the interchange? (See you in Austin!)

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
The interchange is something we all want. It is a federal government project and has been approved and is in their pipeline for projects. The question is how soon we can get it started. The city officials have been pushing the project the best that they can. FAU officials have been working with city officials to come to an agreement for who and when we could sue the stadium that would work for all parties. This ability to work together on this is demonstrated every year for the 4th of July fireworks show in which at least 30,000 people descend on this campus and are then able to systematically exit after the event. It can and has worked and will work when we have a stadium. So it will happen, the only question is how quickly the federal government will fully fun the project and get it completed. I look forward to seeing you in Austin.

Craig

Question from Mike What's the latest status on the stadium? Will we be playing on campus in 2010? Yes or no? Thanks

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
We are still planning to open the stadium by 2010. We will know for sure around September 1, 2008 when we have to make the determination of whether we have enough money in cash and pledges to permit us to get the bonds to build the stadium. If we do, the stadium will be done for 2010. If we don't then it may not be until 2011.

We'll see how it proceeds this summer.

Craig

Question from Jay I've heard that they are adding luxury suites to FAU Arena. Will these be ready for the 2008-09 basketball and/or volleyball seasons? How many suites will there be?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
We are adding four luxury suites located in the balcony behind the south side basket. They will be done for the basketball season. This summer we are doing that project and adding chair-back seats on the east side of the stadium and renovating the bathrooms. Once all this is done, it will be a completely new facility. If you are interested in purchasing a suite, please let me know.

Craig

Question from Alejandro
Hello Mr Angelos,

Thanks

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Alejandro
First, we do have banners hanging on the street lights along Lee Road that look good. We did that last year. With regard to other locations, that is a great idea.

Secondly, I know that we develop posters and schedule cards way in advance, but please call Dexter LaMont, our Marketing Director at 297-2953 and offer your services.

Thirdly, you are absolutely right with regard to baseball uniforms. We continue to buy a new uniform each year but, some of these old ones are holdovers that we are trying to phase out.

Hopefully, they will be out of the rotation this year.

Finally, the helmet was sent and I hope you will be proud when it is displayed.

Thanks for all your interest in the program.

Craig

Question from Dave Hello Mr. Angelos,
The newer, photorealistic renderings of the football stadium have red seats (with blue for club seats). This looks AMAZING and would really substantiate the stadium as a landmark both from the air and the ground. However, I'm wondering if FAU will preserve those red seats in the final product because I don't know what sort of additional cost that would be over not painting the aluminum (?) seats.

Also, regarding the Convocation Center/Arena immediately to the left of the football stadium... will that be funded with money used to build academic facilities since it will host graduations, conferences and concerts? Will it open in 2010 with the football stadium or is it expected to be added later in 2012?

One final question: who do we petition to change the name "Lee Street" to "Stadium Way" (or something similar) in 2010? Or are there already plans in place to call it something like Innovation Village Drive.

Thanks!

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Dave,
Thanks for your e-mail. I am not sure what the final seats will look like. I have taken the approach now of not concentrating on what we want necessarily in a stadium but rather what we can afford. The funding is hard to come by, so once we get it, we will decide what we can do.

Secondly, the new arena will be located somewhere near the stadium. The current drawings have it almost behind the stadium but, access would be a problem so, we will see where it ends up. The new arena will be built with all private money and therefore be built later on. We will start working on it when the stadium gets done.

Finally, I think it is a great idea to change Lee Road to Stadium Drive. I would petition the President's office with your request and let him assign it to someone to carry the ball on it. I like the idea though.

Thanks for your interest.

Craig

Question from Janette
Hello Mr. Angelos!
Will you be posting this year's basketball schedule soon?

Also, I heard Miami wants to play us... could we get them at home? That should be an amazing turnout.

Have a wonderful day!

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
This year's basketball schedule should be posted in the next two weeks.

Actually, we are scheduled to play UM in Miami, this year, towards the end of December or the first of January. We have not been able to have them play us in Boca Raton, in many years, but will continue to try.

Nevertheless, I hope to be able to sell out every game this year.

Thanks

Craig

July 7, 2008

Question from Joe
Craig,
Just curious. Was it difficult to keep other baseball coach candidates interested after they got a look at the facilities? That was a lot to pile on Coach McCormack. Get to the CWS and recruit CWS caliber players with a run down under sized baseball stadium and locker rooms that could scare a rat away.

How is this going to be done?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Joe:
Thank you for your question. Actually, I had many, many qualified candidates who wanted the baseball position very badly. Guys who were former head coaches in major conferences who had lead their teams to Omaha before. Coaches who were sure they could put the program on their back and take it to greater heights, guys who were current head coaches and many top assistants too. Why?...because FAU/ Boca Raton is a great place to work, live and recruit. There are great players with plenty of good ones within an hour of campus. We have a lot to offer. Every program has strengths and weaknesses including ours. We are fixing up our locker rooms to be very nice. Our dorms and classrooms are first class. Our stadium does need work but our playing surface is fantastic. So yes, we need to upgrade our stadium but stadiums don't score runs or win ballgames. Stadiums are for the fans. It is true that great facilities attract better players but we can and have gotten great players in the past and will continue to do so.

So to answer your question, in my opinion it is and was absolutely fair to create the expectation to go to the regional every year, then win five games and get a berth to Omaha. It is very much with in our power to do so and John feels the same way. That is why we play the game. We are not interested in just throwing out the balls and bats and saying "go have some fun". That does not happen at the collegiate level. There is no reason why FAU and its fans should continue to apologize for our existence. We can play at the same level as UF, FSU and Miami in this sport, especially. We are relevant on the sports landscape and we need to and can be first class. Our most pressing obstacle is getting first class facilities but until we do we can still be good and reach higher. We only need to look at our football program last year being the only Florida University to win a bowl game and we don't even have our own stadium yet.

Thank you for your support of our program.

Craig

March 20, 2008

Question from John
I have some questions about the stadium please.

1) Since we want $20 million for naming rights and the donor landscape is quiet as a mouse, shouldn't we downshift and ask for a more realistic number, like $10 million over 10 years or $5 million over five years, with the option of renewal if the benefit turned out to profitable for the company providing the money?

2) Why is it that FIU, which has the same donor/fan support issue we have (to an even lesser extent, likely) able to build a stadium through a means we haven't considered? Both FIU and FSU got money for their stadiums by integrating academic components (classrooms, etc) into their stadium facade. Can't we do the same? Build classroom space, dorms, etc into the side of the stadium itself?

3) Didn't McDonald's offer to sponsor a new baseball stadium for us? What happened there?

Thanks.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
John:
Thank you for the questions regarding the stadium.
We are receptive to any other solutions for naming rights. Certainly $10 million over 10 years has been considered or even $5 million over 5 years. We are open to various suggestions depending on the vendor that we talk to and their interest level.

With regard to what FSU did with their stadium a few years ago, that is unprecedented and I have been told by our President that option is no longer available. However, it is true that you can request State matching funds for any academic component that is built on to your particular institution. Therefore, if an academic component is built on to a stadium you can qualify for state matching funds. The issue there is that it does increase the cost of your stadium for the extra academic components that you have to build. Later you get the State matching funds on those particular academic components. With regard to FIU we have seen their pro-forma. Please keep in mind that they have an existing football stadium that they are renovating up to 18,000 seats in the first phase. This is going to cost them somewhere in the $30 million range. They have financed that through a variety of existing dollars, a new student fee amount and some other options. Their pro-forma is much different than ours. However, if we are not able to build the stadium that we would like to at this time, it is possible that we could start with a smaller one such as the FIU and continue to build on over time. McDonald's did not offer to sponsor a new baseball stadium for us. What we talked to McDonald's about was a precursor to what we have developed with Innovation Village. Namely doing a land lease with McDonald's and using the money for the land lease to help finance the renovations on the baseball stadium. We spent a lot of time with that but when we decided to go the Innovation Village route we elected to retain the inventory for Innovation Village rather than putting a McDonald's out front on Glades Road. Furthermore, the land lease from McDonald's was not as substantial as we thought it was going to be and therefore we tabled that concept for a while. We have tried to be as creative as anyone that I know in trying to utilize university inventory to generate revenue through business to business deals. In fact, that is how Innovation Village came about we talked about building dorm space, retail space, and parking spaces and using those excess revenues to fund a football stadium. While we are still committed to building Innovation Village we have elected to finance it independently now. We will see how that works.

Thank you for your interest and let me know if you have any other ideas on how to generate the revenues to make these projects work.

Craig

Question from Joe
This is just a suggestion. I don't know if it will work or not. Can the stadium be designed to accommodate baseball? Would that be too much? I don't know the logistics with the turf, size, shape of the stadium but we are all out here trying to come up with ideas.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Joe:
I appreciate the suggestion. We have not considered accommodating a baseball field within the new football stadium. We believe the footprint would radically change the configuration of the stadium and elevate the price considerably and make the seating much less desirable because it would have to be so far away from the field. Dolphin Stadium is a good example of that footprint that has to consider the baseball configurations. We are still trying to find a solution for baseball and hopefully we will be able to do that soon. Also, with regard to playing men's and women's soccer, we probably could play in the football stadium depending on what kind of turf we put in the stadium. The Beach and Parks District and the City of Boca Raton have really helped finance the other five soccer fields that we have on campus which are all really quite nice so whether we move our soccer matches over to the new football stadium remains to be seen.

Thanks again,
Craig

February 28, 2008

Question from Tim
Craig:
Why does the athletic program keep promoting red with the red shirt give away? Didn't the university spend a lot money for a branding initiative? It seems to dilute the brand that the University paid so much to have done. Thank you for your hard work and time in answering this question.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Tim:
Thanks for the email. As you may remember I was the one who brought forth the thought of branding the athletic department and chaired the committee for the university to do so. We ended up keeping our same colors, navy blue and red. Navy blue is our primary color and red is our trim color. As with any university (e.g.: Florida Gators, Florida State Seminoles, Miami Hurricanes), their secondary color is often used in promoting their program. Although all of our uniforms have blue jerseys, I don't believe there is anything wrong with using our secondary color of red when doing certain promotions that seem to come with some type of theme like "burry the burrow in red". It is all part of marketing the program without compromising our standards. We are hoping that it works but I appreciate your position because I have heard that before. Nevertheless, we appreciate your input.

Thanks,
Craig

February 12, 2008

Question from Al
Hello Mr Angelos !
Why was the FAU soccer team not recognized when winning for the first time in history the championship ?

I am great football fan, but I believe that every single athlete representing FAU should get some recognition and let the every FAU student and the community know about it.

Thanks !

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Al:
I appreciate your email. It is a very good point. Men's soccer should be recognized and was recognized for winning their conference championship. We consulted with the coach to pick a date and in fact we honored them Saturday, February 9. I understand that they do not get as much attention as football, but you are correct in that we need to recognize men's soccer for their accomplishments.

Thanks for the email,
Craig

Question from Alex
Hey Craig !
I was looking at the new renderings of the football stadium. Is this how the stadium is going to look like or other companies are submitting new designs. Saying that this is the selected design, when FAU can start building this stadium?

I really thank you for all your hard work.

Dear Alex:
Thank you for your email. As of right now we have different renderings regarding what the proposed stadium would look like. Nevertheless, we are in the process of sending out requests for qualifications to various architectural firms so that they might get proposals as to what a $62 million stadium would be if they were selected to build it. Once we receive proposals we will evaluate them and choose one. At that point we will start the design process that will eventually end up being our stadium. Things are moving quickly and we are excited about the future.

Thanks,
Craig

Question from Chris
Hey Craig,
I'm really interested in buying an FAU jersey, but I want the personalized ones from the store, when can I expect them to be back in stock, it has been sometime now.

Chris-

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Thanks for your interest and support of FAU Athletics!! Craig Angelos, Director of Athletics asked me to respond to your inquiry about football jersey.

FAU replica jerseys are available for purchase at the FAU Bookstore on the Boca Raton Campus. In addition, the FAU Athletics Department's online store (www.fausports.com) sold out of the replica football jersey within the first two months of the football 2007 season, but will have them available again online during the summer. I hope this helps...

Regards,

Dexter

January 9, 2008

Question from Tom
Craig - My congratulations to the football team on a very successful year. I was unable to travel to New Orleans for the Bowl game but watched it on TV at home (one of the more enjoyable shows I watched all year). During the broadcast the announcer mentioned that FAU is scheduled to play Texas and Michigan State next year. We would definitely plan a trip to Austin if a game there is scheduled. When will the 2008 football schedule be released?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
We will release our schedule formally soon. It has been completed since September. We are currently scheduled to play at Texas on Saturday, Aug. 30, at Michigan State on Sept. 13 and at Minnesota on Sept. 20. I am not sure where the team is staying right now but we will show up at those sites on those days and play to win. We would love to have you join us there.

Craig

November 29, 2007

Question from Alejandro
Hello Craig !
First, let me thank you for what you do at the school. I ask myself why do we play sometimes at Dolphin Stadium ? I thought we had a contract at Lockhart!. Last year we played FIU at Dolphin Stadium and this year we played Minnesota. Is that because we are expecting a large crowd? I know you already know this, but you know that FIU fans don't go to the games and for Minnesota not too many fans live down here. The reason I am telling you this is because during the game against Minnesota I took few friends with me. They felt so disappointed regarding attendance and school spirit that they do not want to come back to the games. Things would have been different if they would have attended FAU vs USF game. When we played at a large stadium; the stadium looks empty. Why don't we play our home games at Lockhart ? At least that's our home. Thank you for having the time to read our messages. bye
Alejandro

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Alejandro:
As you know, when FAU first started playing football they were only able to play at Dolphin Stadium. Later, Lockhart Stadium opened its doors to us and we moved to Lockhart. However, in order to get out of our contract with Dolphin Stadium we had to promise them one game every other year at their venue. That was designated as FAU's home game against FIU every other year. That is what we are contractually bound to do for the next six years. Also, we can rent the stadium out for big games from time to time. When we scheduled Minnesota down here they wanted to play in a "big league" stadium rather than a small high school facility as Lockhart Stadium. Therefore, in order for us to get Minnesota to come play in South Florida we needed to play the game at Dolphin Stadium. The same is true for Oklahoma State. These teams from these major conferences are not interested in playing a game at a high school stadium such as Lockhart Stadium. Even the University of South Florida requested Dolphin Stadium rather than Lockhart Stadium but the NCAA rules only allow us to play one neutral site home game a year. You are right that is better to play at a smaller venue and fill it up like we did with USF instead of a big venue where it looks very empty.

Thanks,
Craig

November 18, 2007

Question from Stargell
$500,000, is what we got. $500,000 for pretending to put up a fight, for lying to our fans about a good game, for giving up! $500,000, does FAU intend on splitting that amount with the fans that drove 300 plus miles just to watch the Owls offense completely, shut itself down, and give up with 30 minutes to play. $500,000, is that what FAU is worth? Oh! and Rusty Smith 247 yards 1st half, how do you explain the second? To the coaches, what is the key word for shut down the offense? FAU is a lot better than what I saw on Saturday. I know this because I was there for every home game, and I was there for the UF game. It hurts to watch the Owls lose like that, but its horrible to watch the Owls give up. Why take out Rusty, they only had one sack?

To Angelos, I hope you enjoyed the game from your box seats above Florida Field. Oh! and Angelos how much were you paid to lose, how much Nord, how much Hoza, how much Schnellenberger!

Good Night!

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Stargell:
Thank you very much for your email and sharing your thoughts. No one wants to lose to anybody. Unfortunately, it will happen from time to time with any program especially with one that is as young as ours. Nevertheless, I am very optimistic that we are headed in the right direction and will win our last two games and go to a bowl game. That has been our goal the whole season and now with only two weeks to go it is still within our grasp. I am glad that you are a passionate supporter of this football program and we hope it continues. We look forward to finishing strong this year.
Best Wishes
Craig

November 7, 2007

Question from Alejandro
Thank you Craig !
You've done an outstanding job. We owe you. On the other hand, why does it take so long to build the stadium? UCF built theirs in a year. I am not trying to compare FAU to UCF when UCF is a larger school, but what are the reasons that make the building process so slow? Thanks again to you, Coach Howard, President Brogan, Football Team and Fans.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Alejandro:
Again, I'm sorry for taking so long to respond to your email. With regard to the building of the stadium, it doesn't take more than 18 months to build a stadium similar to UCF's. It just takes time to raise the money and or get it from the bond houses after they have looked at your proforma and feel comfortable that you are able to repay the money. If we had the money in had today, we could have a stadium up and going by the 2009 season. However, just like anything else in life getting the money is the hardest part. We will eventually get there. Thanks for your support.

Craig

Question from Joe
Craig,
It was a pleasure to meet you Saturday at the UK game. I was the one that came up and introduced myself to you at the reception tent. You were walking around talking to all the guests and I was waiting for you to come over to our table. You never did.

I was happy to see the number of people that showed up at the tent and the number of FAU fans that attended the game. I was quite surprised. A few that I spoke to had never attended an FAU event since their graduations. This was remarkable. I know all the FAU sports deserve equal praise, but when an event like a football game can bring FAU alumni, fans and students together from all over the country, its a fun event. This is just the start. It will get bigger and better.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Joe:
I apologize for my delay. I always make a habit to respond but hopefully sooner than this. Nevertheless, I do remember our introduction at the UK game. I am sorry we weren't able to have a better showing there but we did do fairly well against the University of South Florida and have played very good up until last week when we lost in triple overtime. Our program seems to be going in the right direction and hopefully we can finish off strong so that we can make it to a bowl game this year. A winning football team certainly helps bring out the excitement in the alumni, fans and students and we hope that we can continue to do this in the future. Again, thanks for your support of the program and I look forward to seeing you again.

Craig

Question from Greg
Craig,
Just something I was wondering about...I know that the football stadium will be looking for a company to pay for naming rights as a way to raise capital for the project. Has much thought been given to selling the naming rights at the Arena? I know that the naming rights to "the Burrow" wouldn't garner anywhere near the $1 million+ the rights to the football stadium would, but I think it could be worth six figures a year to a company to have it's name on a building (and all printed materials pertaining to the building, such as schedules and billboards) that hosts probably 40 or more events every year. With the Arena undergoing such a radical renovation, perhaps now is a good time to get it a naming rights sponsor.

This is just something I was thinking about as a way to bring more funds into the athletic department. Keep up the good work! GO OWLS!!!

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Greg:
I apologize for the delay in my response. You bring up a very good point as far as getting naming rights for the arena. I had pursued that a few years ago and had an individual who wanted to name the arena at that time but the conditions did not match what we were able to provide. Nevertheless, now that we have committed $10 million to renovate the arena we have put that down as a philanthropic opportunity for naming rights and will be actively seeking that while we are also seeking naming rights for our football stadium. If you know of anyone who may be interested in either one of them make sure you let me know.

Thanks,
Craig

November 2, 2007

Question from FAUer2006@gmail.com
Hello Craig,
I read in the paper about the possibility of an FAU/UM game in 2009.

I know you can't discuss details and I read that it has to work out financially and within the scheduling model, but I just wanted to say that a game against Miami in 2009 could do wonders beyond that for our program.

Obviously, it would bring us national attention since UM is a nationally-recognized team, it would likely get a TV deal, and most importantly, it will provide the students that same gameday experience that we had against USF.

We all really really want that again and we hope that the athletics department can somehow, in any way, work it out so we play against UM in 2009.

Also, since their schedule is full until 2012, perhaps they could play against US in our new stadium in 2013? A 2-for-1 or a 1-for-1? Even if it's just the 1 game in 2009, it would be tremendous for us.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
I apologize for the delay in responding to your question. There was an article written about the possibility of FAU playing Miami in 2009. When considering a game like this I have to balance my fiduciary responsibility to the athletic department as well as the excitement of playing a local university. Ideally, I would love to have the best financial situation possible and still be able to play this game. As you may know, our budget requires us to play approximately two guarantee games a year. Therefore, we have to balance a variety of factors together when trying to put together a football schedule. Nevertheless, we are still talking with the University of Miami and we will see how this all plays out a little later.

Craig

Question from Alejandro
Hello Craig !
What a great game against USF. I noticed on the football stadium drawings that they are using the FAU typographic logo on the field. I find the owl face with letters on top much stronger for future recognition. I know Leffler Agency was chosen to handle the publicity of the athletics department for FAU; however, I also work as a graphic designer/product developer and I just wanted to share my opinion about this issue. Thank you for answering our comments.
Keep up the good work !

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Alejandro:
I am sorry that I am a little late in my response. I appreciate your view on this. I know as we get closer to our actual FAU stadium that we will make sure that our marks and our brand is absolutely consistent with what we have accepted at this University. The graphics you mentioned were produced within a day's notice for the presentation to the Board of Trustees. As we move closer, we will consult with both Liffler and our university's graphic designers for the best possible look. As always, thank you for your suggestions, they will definitely be in the mix.

Thanks again,
Craig

Question from faufsufan@gmail.com
Can we play FSU in our home stadium come 2010/2011/2012? There are more than enough Seminoles in this area. As the FAU/USF game showed, graduates of Florida universities (especially ones with good football teams, like FSU) bring lots of people and create a true college football atmosphere that we all want. PLEASE, please get us a game against FSU.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Thank you for the email. As far as playing Florida State University, I had tried to get a game with them a few years ago but they did not have the interest or availability to play us. I have not checked back with them since. I do recall they were looking for a game in 2008 but our schedule was already full so I did not pursue that one. I will definitely give them a call and try to pursue a game with them. Many teams are scheduled many years in advance so these games don't come around quickly. Nevertheless, I will give it a shot.

Take care,
Craig

Question from Phillip
Hey Mr. Angelos,
I'm a student here at FAU and thanks to you and Schnellenberger and Walters, it is becoming a trend of being "proud" to be an Owl. Thank you.

I see the pictures of the football stadium online and I can not wait until 2010 (I wish 2009). It's obvious the university and architect or whoever else designed that picture, took the UCF stadium's picture and cropped out an end zone to make the "horse-shoe" look. My question is: is that how the actual stadium is going to look? Or was that just done quickly to present to the Board of Trustees for a quicker approval? I think I speak on behalf of the entire student population when I BEG: PLEASE don't copy the exact UCF stadium. The exterior of the stadium (in that picture) is literally the exact same as UCF's. Let's get creative and make our own home.

GO OWLS!

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Phillip:
Thank you for the email. We originally looked at building a stadium similar to UCF's because of the size and cost. Our finished product will probably look different than UCF's stadium but there is only a limited amount of ways in which you can build a 30,000 open air football stadium. Our plan will probably involve putting a bid out for the project to a variety of architects with the limitation of providing a stadium concept of at least 30,000 seats for under $62 million and see what kind of ideas we get back. At that point we will then choose a certain architect and a design and go from there. It will be a great stadium and a great Innovation Village and I think everyone will be proud of it. I can't wait till 2010.

Take care,
Craig

Question from Scott
Dear Mr. Angelos,
Would it be possible for you to give us an update on donations incoming for the new on-campus football stadium? While I certainly don't expect hard number could you at least tell us if donations are either ahead or behind of estimates and if any corporate sponsors have stepped up on a naming rights deal?

I've also heard rumors that the City of Boca Raton my try to interfere with the building of the stadium citing traffic issues or some other obstacle. PLEASE tell me that they cannot stop or halt this project.

Thank you for your efforts and I'm so happy that we are going to have a good home for our Owls. It will make the game day experience that much more exciting!

GO OWLS!

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Scott:
Thank you for your email. The materials for the stadium campaign are being compiled right now. We are assembling the asking prices for club seats, suites, naming rights and other philanthropic opportunities. We should be in a position to go out and formally soliciting in a couple of weeks. Meanwhile, we have obtained at least two gifts at this point. One gift is to name the Athletic Director's suite and another to name the head coach's suite. We have a couple of outstanding asks and so things are picking up and I am quite happy with the progress so far.

With regard to the city, we try to partner with the city in all projects. Certainly we are a state entity and therefore municipality can not dictate what is specifically built on state land; however they do control issues surrounding the campus such as traffic. Therefore, we have had a good relationship with the city of Boca and will continue to have a good relationship with the city of Boca as we try to work through any concerns they may have as well as any that we may have at the university. I anticipate that we will continue to have a strong relationship with the city on this project and other projects in the future.

Thanks,
Craig

Question from Eric
Mr. Angelos,
What an atmosphere against USF! I can just see in 5-7 years, an annual rivalry game on a neutral field of FAU vs. USF, both in the Big East Conference!

My question concerns the football stadium. Is there any idea what the layout of it will be regarding layout? The drawings and campus maps that I have seen show the stadium running North-South... which, in my opinion, is a grave mistake. With the sun rising and setting East-West, afternoon games are going to have the sun blinding fans sitting in the seats that face west. Like Lockhart, our stadium should run East-West, so the sideline seats face north and south. This way, you also allow a cross-breeze coming in the ocean.

Thanks and GO OWLS!!!

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Eric:
Thank you for the email. It was certainly a great day for FAU with our sellout crowd on Saturday. We hope that will become more common as the years go by. With regard to direction of the stadium, it is a very good suggestion. I believe most stadiums around the country are built with a North and South direction but my understanding that living in the Southern hemisphere and East and West direction is more advantageous. I have been told that the Orange Bowl is an East and West direction and certainly Lockhart Stadium. As we design the stadium we will get the experts opinions on how to build this stadium so that we do this the right way. Again thanks for your interest and support of the Owls.

Thanks,
Craig

Question from Justin
Mr. Angelos,
I asked a question awhile back and I guess I wasn't clear. When I said "student gym" I meant the new wellness center that's supposed to be built. I think the arena is great and FAU should be proud of it. One of the message boards showed a picture of the proposed wellness center and the general consensus was it looked like a jail.

You do a hell of job with little money. I'm sure you get tired of all the complaining emails but I hope you know everyone is appreciative of the work you and staff has done for the university.

thank you.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Justin:
Thanks for the email. Our Director of Campus Sports and Recreation, Eric Hawkes, is leading that project along with Tom Donaudy our Vice President for Facilities. I know that they are getting close to breaking ground on the student recreation center. They are going to do this in phases since money is always an issue. I will pass your comments over to Eric and feel free to contact him. I am not sure what the preliminary drawings look like but I am sure that he would love to have your input on the matter before it actually gets built.

Thanks,
Craig

October 2, 2007

Question from Jared
Hi Craig,
As a proud and die hard FAU fan I am quite confused by the lack of promotion for the football games. Is there anything being done, emails sent to students? ads on campus, even a tv spot if possible? I am proud to be an FAU fan and I would love to show the USF fans next week that we support our Owls and that we won't be outnumbered. Thanks

Response from Craig Angelos
Jared:
Thanks for the email. Advertising and promotions can be an elusive concept because if an individual has not seen or heard about it, people tend to think that it is not going on at all. We have hired an advertising firm this year and continue to have a wide range of promotional opportunities that also fit within our budget. We have anything from billboards up on I-95 and the turnpike to signage on campus, to individuals in the Breezeway on campus trying to promote on a weekly basis. I am going to ask that our Director of Marketing and Promotions, Dexter LaMont follow up on my email to outline some of the things we have been trying to do to promote the football program this year and especially this game this week.

We certainly appreciate your support and look forward to seeing you at the game this Saturday.

Thanks,
Craig

September 25, 2007

Question from Alan
I've heard recently that we are talking about playing UM in 2009 and FSU in the future.

Any word on how those negotiations are going?

I know those schools don't gain much from playing us but for the fans at FAU it's very exciting. Judging by the interest in the FAU/UF game, I'd think FAU/UM and FAU/FSU tickets would sell like hot cakes.

Crossing my fingers! Thanks again Craig!

Go Owls!

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Alan:
Sorry for the delay in my response. We are still talking with the University of Miami and Florida State. We would love to play them but we have to make sure that the game guarantees are up to the levels that we are able to get elsewhere since it is so important to balance our budget.

We will keep you posted,
Thanks,
Craig

Question from Alejandro
Hello Craig! How can get tickets for the FAU vs. UF game in Gainesville? Do I have to be a season ticket holder? Can I just show up at the game on November and get tickets? Keep up the good work! Bye
Alejandro
Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Alejandro:
Sorry for the delay. I am just getting caught up. If you are a student you can approach our ticket office and get a ticket. If not, you need to be a season ticket holder or Owl Club Member to purchase a ticket. We are trying to leverage our Florida tickets to sell our other tickets. It is common practice in intercollegiate athletics but please call our ticket office at 1-866-GO OWLS (866-46-6957)

Best of luck,
Thanks,
Craig

Question from Justin
Mr. Angelos,
Thank you for putting up the pictures of the kids in Indonesia I sent to you. Our global marketing efforts are really starting to pay off.

When the stadium gets final approval in mid September, how long will it take to get the shovels in the ground for the new dorms, retail space and the stadium itself? Will the new dorms be ready for the 2008 school year? The more kids on campus, the better it is for athletics and building a solid foundation.
Best of luck coming up. Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Justin:
Sorry I am a little late in my response. As you can see from last week though the stadium did get approved for 2010. They will start on the dorms and retail earlier than that. Things are looking up at FAU.

Thanks for your support,
Craig
Question from Alejandro
Hello Craig! What is it with the sports channels that never mention the Sun Belt Conference or any teams in the conference? Aren't we a 1A division football team? " the prestigious 1A division "

thanks. SEE YOU SATURDAY !!!
GO OWLS

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Alejandro:
Sorry for the delay in my response. It is true we are one of the 119 IA schools and one of the 11 IA conferences. I suspect the problem with the sports media is that we live in a market place that has Florida, Florida State, Miami, in the heart of the SEC and ACC country and therefore we get marginalized with the coverage. This is a constant problem we try to continue to overcome and certainly winning games like Minnesota certainly help.

Craig

Question from Justin
Mr. Angelos,
I recently saw a picture of the proposed student gym. For eleven million dollars it looks awful. It looks like a jail not a gym. FAU has very few facilities to be proud of and we all hope that will change over the next few years. So why not do this right? Why not have an exterior that people will be proud of, that prospective students on a tour of the school will think is first class, when 30,000 people are walking out of the stadium and it's the first building there going to see? If college is a business then market it to the public correctly. If were trying to be a "traditional" school then lets do so correctly because 18 year old kids don't care about research, they care about activities, sports, entertainment. From the outside this building does not entertain much.

If it takes longer to find the extra money then do so because it's better to get it right the first time. I'm a huge supporter of FAU but this is a borderline embarrassment. I just don't understand why you wouldn't make it esthetically pleasing. It really looks like a jail.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Justin:
Thanks for the email again. We originally started down this path with the arena because the roof had blown off because of the hurricane. Therefore, we were able to bundle together some funds to help repair the roof and then we decided to continue and go further with the projects. The roof repair is about 1/3 of the project but then we decided to get into ways to make it a more updated building. I hope that when it is all done that it looks better than you think at this time. We are doing our best to build first class facilities on campus so hopefully this will fit in the framework of a new track and football stadium.

Thanks for your support,
Craig

Question from Charles
Hi,
Just out of curiosity why is there not a men's track team?

Thank You,
Charles Chatman

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Charles:
Sorry for the delay in my response. When I first got to FAU we had a men's cross country team and we had no track for a track and field team. Now that we have a track & field the question has come up as to whether we add men's indoor and outdoor track. It does become a Title XI issue to add more sports but we could possibly do this on a non-scholarship basis. We are still considering that now that we have a brand new track and field stadium.

Thanks for question,
Craig

Question from Duane
What is FAU going to do to recruit the "Top (speed)" local kids? S. Florida has kids on nearly every college squad. Even Palm Beach Co. has kids all over the SEC, ACC, etc.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Duane:
Thanks for your email. As you may know, 98% (98 of 104) of our athlete are from Florida and most of them are from South Florida. FAU also leads the state with the most athletes from Florida and is fourth nationally for player from their home state. As the game with Minnesota can attest we do have a lot of team speed. However, keep in mind that out of 300 prospects a year that sign Division IA scholarships only about 100 of them stay in the state. The remainder go to other Division I programs around the country. We hope to get more than our share of good athletes down here but keep in mind that we are contending with Florida, Florida State, Miami, South Florida, Central Florida, and FIU and all the other schools around the country for the talent. We would like to keep the local kids home at FAU but as you know many times, kids like to go away to school. I think now that our stadium is approved we will be able to get better athletes than we have ever had.

Stay tuned and we appreciate your support, Craig

Thanks for the Question
Craig

Question from Greg and Dan
Craig,
I'm sure I'm not the only one to suggest this, but please have the student section moved back to the visitor sideline for the next home game at Lockhart. Sitting on that side of the field was so much more fun last year with all of the students and band there. I hope that this is something you consider for all future home games. Thanks! Go OWLS!!!

We are students.
We pay tremendous athletic fees.
We do not want to sit in the end zone at Lockhart.
I couldn't see anything when the team was on the other end of the field.
It's one thing if the stands are full... but come on...
Please help us.
Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Greg and Dan:
I liked your email. We probably will go back to having a student sit on the side after the USF game. However, the USF game is a good example of what we would like to accomplish and that is having people buy those seats for $25 a pop and having more people in the stadium. Nevertheless, we recognize that may not be possible for every game and it is best to try to fill up the stadium. We are considering doing just what you had asked.

Stay tuned and keep coming to the games,
Thanks for all you do,
Craig

Question from Joe
Craig,
Congratulations on getting the stadium approved. I know it has been an uphill battle all the way and you are glad to get the approval part behind you.

If you wanted to have more activities in the stadium, was having it large enough for soccer ever thought of? The field needs to be wider and longer but this could get more use/revenue out of the stadium? This could be for men's and women's soccer, high school and other soccer leagues and tournaments.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Joe:
Thanks for the note. We are considering making the field wide enough for soccer. I have been told that it needs to be 75 yards wide with three feet on each side at the out of bounds. That would make the field approximately 81 yards wide. UCF decided not to make it that wide so that their fans would have a closer experience. We will have to see what we do in the future.

Thanks,
Craig

September 22, 2007

Question from Alex:
Hello Craig ! I have 2 questions.
I've noticed during the past games that the students do not agree on wearing one color for the games. How do we make everybody to wear the same color? I think this creates a stronger identity for the school during the games. Why is it so hard for the students to attend the games? Lockhart Stadium is not a big stadium but still looks empty when we play. The student body at FAU is over 25,000 students. How come we can't even fill the stadium?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Alex:
I wish I had an answer for you as to how to get more students to attend the football games. It is true that Lockhart Stadium is not that far away from campus but it does seem to be a barrier for getting students out to the game. We certainly have a diverse student body so perhaps they are engaged in other activities on Saturday afternoon that preclude them from coming to our game. Nevertheless, we do appreciate all the students that do come to the game. With regard to colors, the Prowlers and other students seem to identify with the color red as their color for football as well as basketball. We will have to work with students on this. Thanks for your question.

Craig

September 21, 2007

Question from Mike
I just want to thank FAU athletics for partnering with Publix. I saw all the cardboard stands at Publix stores from Boca to Boynton and they're impressive.

Will we be seeing this sort of thing anywhere else? Moe's, Denny's, gas stations, hotels in the area?

Thanks!

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Mike:
The displays at Publix are their initiative as part of our corporate partnership with the company. We encourage all of our sponsors to co-brand and promote both themselves and FAU whenever possible. We will use the Publix displays as a specific example for future corporate partners as something they can do to take full advantage of the marketing opportunities available at FAU.

Craig Angelos

September 19, 2007

Question from Mike
Craig,
How can I sign my son up to be on the ball crew for men's basketball games. When I click the "Ball Crew" link it says sign up for soccer, when I download the form it is last year's schedule. Since there are not a lot of home games I'd like to get his name in early. Thanks

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Mike,
Thank you for your interest. As you saw, we are currently filling the ball crew for the soccer teams. Basketball can be done as well. Please just e-mail John Vandevere at vandever@fau.edu or you can call the office at 561-297-3710.

Thanks and we look forward to the 2007-08 basketball season in the new arena.

Question from Keith
Why do you list Dolphin Stadium as being in Miami when the stadium is in Miami Gardens? I don't think the school would like to be listed as being in Miami

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Keith,
I don't know if I have a good answer for you as to why our Dolphin Stadium game is listed as being in Miami. I can only imagine that it goes back to the whole approach of the Miami Dolphins who use to play in the heart of Miami at the Orange Bowl Stadium has moved from many years ago to play at Dolphin Stadium which is actually Miami Gardens. I think people are just comfortable with the generalization that Dolphin Stadium who houses the Miami Dolphins must be in Miami. I also noticed that the Associated Press stories from Dolphin Stadium are listed as Miami as well. We will make a note of that in the future.

Thanks,
Craig

Questions from Alejandro
Hello Mr Angelos!
I saw today the University of Minnesota Football equipment truck parked by my house here in Plantation. Do we have something like that? It would be nice to have a tour bus with the logos of the school; therefore, anytime the teams travel people can say, oh! there goes FAU. It is just an idea
Thanks

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Alejandro:
Most universities who live in close proximity to their conference opponents have a university truck that they transport their equipment on. When I was at Indiana University we had a deal with a moving company who used their painted the University of Indiana logos on their truck and hauled around our equipment to our away games. After the football season they used that same truck for conducting business and moving people from state to state. Because we live down here in South Florida and we have to fly so far to our opponents we put all of our equipment on a plane. This is the same for the University of Miami where I spent eight years. Therefore, we do not have our own truck but we do rent trucks to take our equipment to the airport and put it on the plan and then do the same when we land at the destination sight we have a truck that picks up our equipment that takes it to the stadium and back and forth. Indeed, it is much easier when for the equipment manager when you can put all the equipment on a truck and drive it from destination to destination but because of the distances of our conference as well as non-conference opponents it prohibits us to do so.

Thanks,
Craig

August 31, 2007

Question from Joe
I know answering these questions can be a tedious thing and a lot of complaints come through here as well. I imagine we only see the questions and complaints that are fit to post. I don't even want to think about the ones you can't publish.

Anyway, my point is, this is a great sounding board and it brings the alumni, like me and fans closer to what is going on with FAU athletics. This is a good thing and I'm sure others would want to thank you like am for having the opportunity to ask questions and get information about any of the teams, players, facilities and other sports news. I also have to include complaining too. If we didn't care about FAU sports, we certainly wouldn't complain!!!

Thanks Mr Angelos.

ps get that stadium built FAST!!!!

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Thanks for your email. I thought I saw and replied to all the emails that are posted but perhaps I've been shielded. Nevertheless, I agree with you that it doesn't matter whether people are saying good things or complaining as long as they are interested in our program. The worst thing that could happen would be to be irrelevant in the marketplace. Therefore, I welcome any kind of attention to our program as we grow, build a stadium and be a National power.

Take care,
Craig

August 30, 2007

Question from Greg
Craig,
I read a blog this morning in the Palm Beach Post about the reporter calling the ticket office number (1-866-FAU-OWLS) and not getting anyone on the phone. That is very disturbing to me. With attendance the problem that it has been, and with the level of excitement around the football team at an all time high, I would hope that the Athletic Department would be doing everything they can to ensure that people who want to buy tickets are able to. Not having someone man the phones at the phone number that is listed on all advertising, to me, is poor effort. It is a simple thing, and one that I hope that you will correct. As someone who cares greatly about the University and the athletic programs, I just want to see the teams succeed on and off the field. It is the small things like having a live person answering the phone that makes a huge difference. I hope that you are able to read the blog that I read and will take action. Thanks... and as always, GO OWLS!

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Greg,
Customer service is of the utmost importance to Florida Atlantic Athletics and we are sincerely sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you or any of our present or future fans.

By 8:30 a.m. Wednesday the phones were being answered for all calls. The technical situation was also resolved and we are now processing ticket sales in a normal fashion.

I not only encourage you to call for tickets as a loyal fan of the Owls, but as that you ask friends and family call and purchase tickets as well.

The voice mail situation occurred because we relocated the ticket office to the Tom Oxley Athletic Center at the beginning of the summer where the lines were answered as usual. As of August 1 we doubled the ticket staff and move them once again to make them more accessible to fans. With one line in that area and the need to answer the phone and fulfill orders we left the roll over number with a development officer. While they did not get a person, messages were checked and forwarded to the ticket office. This was a temporary issue that has now been resolved between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. There are multiple lines at that location and should fans get a message take it as a sign tickets are being sold. Please also remember in our attempt to accommodate everyone that individual tickets can be purchased through ticket master. If at anytime you run into a similar problem, call me directly at 561-297-4434.

Thanks for expressing your concern and we will see you and all of our fans at the game on Saturday.

August 23, 2007

Question from Joe
I know I read somewhere a while back that the seating capacity of the arena will be increased to 7500. Can you confirm that? I can't seem to find that information anymore.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Joe:
The seating capacity for the arena last year was approximately 5,000 seats. With the renovation this year which include chair back seating it should go down slightly but it will still be around 4,900-5,000 especially after the suites also got in. I look forward to seeing you at the game.

Craig

Question from Devoted Fan
Hello Craig,
I know you're working out the financial details but...can you please please, please, please, PLEASE have them paint the football stadium our school colors -- blue and red, with gray metal where metal is needed?

It would make the aesthetics of the stadium 10000000x better, it would inspire school pride, it would make the football stadium stick out from the landscape as seen from the I-95/Glades exit, as well as attract great players. When people visit, the design and color is the first thing people see.

And, as you're walking in, there should be the giant Owl Head logo over the entrance.

It would look really, really, REALLY nice.

People all over the state would envy our stadium.

Thanks again!

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Thanks for your email. I am hoping that we can get this stadium approved this fall and get building right away. Once we have the approval we are going to make it a first class stadium and it will look wonderful that you will be proud of. Thanks for the input.

Craig

July 30, 2007

Question from Jeff
Mr. Angelos,
It is disheartening news to read that FAU probably will be playing home games at Lockhart and not on campus. Equally as sad, we don't have a home for 2008. I don't think anyone's surprised, to be perfectly honest. As an Alum, I really concerned about the kind of reflection this is presenting of our school to the community. So if the developers don't pay for temporary on-campus stadium where will we play?

I feel like we are the New Orleans Saints minus a good reason to not have a home.

Thanks

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Jeff:
It is true that we will be playing our games at Lockhart Stadium this coming year. As you know we pay approximately $27,500 per game to play at Lockhart Stadium. To construct an on campus temporary facility it would cost around $800,000 per year. Considering we are only playing four games this year at our home sight and one at Dolphin Stadium, playing on campus would equate out to $200,000 per game. Although it would be fantastic to play football on campus we just felt that we did not have the money to put into an on campus facility this year with Lockhart available. However, it may be something that we have to do for the 2008 and 2009 season until our stadium is hopefully completed by the 2010 season.

I know it sounds a little disheartening especially to alumni, but keep in mind how quickly this program has grown. The University of Florida has been playing football for 101 seasons this year. We are starting our 6th season. As you know our institution is only 40 years old. Most every institution that we play has been playing football a whole lot longer than we have and their institutions are a whole lot older also than we are. Therefore, I know it is hard to be patient but I truly believe that in the next ten years we will have the finest facilities of anyone in the country and have as fine of a football program as anyone in the country also.

Stay tuned and we appreciate your support,
Craig

Question from Alejandro
Hi !! is it true that the Sun Belt conference might be removed from division 1A ? If this is true; where does the football team go?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Alejandro:
Thank you for the email. It is entirely not true that the Sun Belt Conference could be removed from Division I A status. As you know, currently there are 11 1A Conferences consisting of 119 teams. The NCAA requirements have defined the parameters for maintaining a 1A program in a 1A Conference. Our conference is growing to nine teams with the addition of Western Kentucky and is really starting to thrive. I truly believe that in the sport of football the Sun Belt Conference will be right among the middle of the 11 conferences giving all the talent and resources that we have down here in the Southeast portion of the United States. FAU as well as the Sun Belt Conference have a very bright future considering that we are building new facilities, new stadiums, and the quality of our play will do nothing but increase and improve.

Thanks,
Craig

Question from Eric
Why can't we play our home football games at the new on-campus track and field complex?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Dear Eric:
Thank you for the email. The difficulty with playing our football games at a new on campus track & field complex is that we would have to build a temporary stadium that would include anything from grandstands to scoreboards to bathrooms and concessions, locker rooms etc. We have met extensively to price out the cost of building a temporary on campus stadium and with all the rental equipment it would cost approximately $800,000. Considering that we would only play four home games and one at Dolphin Stadium that would be an average cost of $200,000 per game. Currently we can rent Lockhart for $27,500 per game. Even though we all think that it would be great to play football on campus in any way shape or form we just didn't feel that we had $800,000 to sink into an on campus stadium this year. Now if Lockhart is not available for the 2008 season then we will have to find a way to play on campus which would mean finding $800,000 to construct a temporary stadium until our new stadium would be complete hopefully for the 2010 season.

Thanks for your interest and we look forward to seeing you at the games, Craig

Question from Stargell
Dear Mr Angelos,
I am a concerned fan and student at Florida Atlantic University. We have been waiting for the completion of the innovation village for some time now. Quite frankly, it seems that it probably won't happen. How do you go from building a dome, to an open air stadium, to playing at the track, to Lockhart Stadium? That's regression. FAU's school spirit is really starting to come around, I believe along with many others that the time is now to encourage it as much as possible. I also believe that for this to happen we need a facility that the athletes and fans can call home. Whatever you need, whether for fans to picket and parade the Board of trustees to move the meeting forward or for us to fundraise, will do it. We are committed to seeing this project through.

Thank you for time. Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Stargell:
Thank you very much for your email. I appreciate your support of the stadium. I know the Trustees have tentatively approved an open air stadium and it is my hope that it will be formally approved on the September 17, 2007 Board of Trustees meeting. It is our hope that we will be in a new stadium by 2010. I know that this has been a long road but I do believe that this stadium will be a reality and all the hard work and consternation will be well worth it.

Thanks for your support and we look forward to seeing you out at Lockhart Stadium.
Craig

July 20, 2007

Question from Greg
Craig,
I drove past the arena the other day and it looks like they are making good progress over there. Any chance we'll get new photos on the site of the construction? Also, we've seen what the exterior will look like, any drawings of what lobby and seating bowl will look like?

Thanks! GO OWLS!

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Greg:
Thank you very much for your email. We are very excited about our $10 million renovation of the arena. We do have artists renderings of what the completed arena is suppose to look like as well as construction photos. You can find that on our website at www.fausports.com.

Thanks for your support and I look forward to seeing you at the games this fall,

Craig

Question from Craig
Craig,
I'd just like to get the latest on the football stadium. In your opinion, has the BOT completely shelved the idea of a dome? Will we have a temporary stadium on campus in 2008? Thanks and keep up the good work.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Mike:
Thanks for the email. The latest on the football stadium is that the Board of Trustees will most likely officially vote on the stadium at their meeting on September 17, 2007. Naturally, there could be delays even at this point but I think it is safe to say that we are going to have a stadium on campus hopefully as early as 2010. At the November 2006 meeting the Trustees seemed to make the decision that they were going to endorse a 30,000 seat open air stadium. That is were we are headed at this point. With regard to 2008 we are still monitoring the situation with Lockhart Stadium and we will see whether the stadium developer would be willing to fund a temporary stadium for 2008 and 2009 until we can officially move into our stadium in 2010. Plus, we are still undecided about where we will be playing in 2008.

Thanks for your patience and support,
Craig

Question from Eric
Craig,
Your doing a great job and remember that. But two quick things. 1) The swimming team is the best sport next to softball and has been for the past 10 years.(more all-americans, more ncaa champions). I understand that they don't necessarily bring in the money, but neither does a low attendance football game that rents pre-game festivities. I much as I desire for FAU football team and b-ball team to grow....please....don't forget the team that currently bring praise to FAU. 2)Just a suggestion. As a former athlete I think to increase a fan support in Boca Raton the student-athetes should perform community service.For example have our athletic teams bag groceries at Publix. You can even collect donations outside(rich people shop too.)

Thanks for your hard work.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Eric:
Thank you very much for your email. With regard to your first question, I totally understand the need to support all of our sports. We have 18 sports and they all do a great job. The difficulty in managing a college athletic program is that you need to develop revenues to support the teams. Currently at our institution none of our teams are generating more revenue than they are spending in expense. This is generally true at most institutions with the exception of the football and men's basketball teams. Generally football and men's basketball teams can generate more revenue that can be used to off set the expense for all other sports. It is difficult to balance it all but hopefully it is working well.

With regard to your second question, we do have our student athletes perform community service in the form of going to elementary schools, working with under privileged children and other types of things like that. I will pass this suggestion on to the individual who helps place our student athletes with community service during their available time. Again, we are glad that you are a former athlete and we hope that you continue to be proud of your FAU Owls.

Thanks for your support and contribution,
Craig

July 16, 2007

Question from Ian
Mr. Angelos,
I recently saw that FAU will be playing the University of Kansas next year in basketball. My wife went to KU and we are both huge FAU and KU basketball fans. Will there be any chance KU will be allocating any tickets for FAU students to go the game. I went to the FAU-KU football game and it was great. Thanks for your time.

Regards,
Ian

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Ian:
Sorry for the delay in my response. We are going to play at the University of Kansas next year. I will have to check the contract but generally they only allocate a visiting basketball team about 60 tickets which is usually taken up by players, and coaches as complimentary tickets to them. We will check to see if they can allocate more tickets but generally they do not since they are all complimentary to the visiting team and then they sell the remainder of the arena for a profit. Nevertheless, feel free to check back with Shelley Binegar as we get closer to this game.

Good luck,
Craig

July 9, 2007

Question from Alejandro
Hello Craig ! Keep up the good work. You have done so much for the school and I do not know how to thank you. Where can I get a 2007 football season poster?

Thanks

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Alejandro:
Thank you for the kind words, we will keep doing our best. With regard to the poster, I will have Dexter LaMont contact you when they arrive from the printers.

Go Owls,
Craig

July 5, 2007

Question from prowler:
What happened at the May BOT meeting...?
I heard the Innovation Village wasn't approved/voted on?
A lot of us are really, really worried that the 'Village won't be up by 2008 and the stadium won't be ready by 2010.
Is there anything we can do? Do you need feedback from students?
Will construction begin in August?
I feel bad about asking because I know it's a complicated project and you do great work.
But school spirit is really starting to take off and we really need this.
Thank you.

Question from J.T. Much confusion after the last BOT meeting. Many of us thought that the May meeting was going to finalize the stadium/innovative village plans. Come to find out the BOT agenda had this as an "update". No vote. According to what we've been hearing, there isn't any real plan to get this started. What happened in the six months since the November meeting? Where does this whole thing stand right now? Fill us in on what is going on. What needs to be done yet?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Sorry for the delay. As you know we did not vote on the stadium proposal at the May Board of Trustee meeting. It is now scheduled to be voted on at the September 17th Board of Trustees meeting. Things are picking up now with all parties involved and we hope that we will be able to play in that stadium by 2010. Thanks for your support and stay tuned.

Craig

Question from Joe
First of all it is REALLY difficult to put a question and comment in a 1" x 2 1/4" text box.

I am an alumnus of FAU, class of 1980. I have asked several questions on here. Most have been answered. Some haven't. I don't even remember what all but one was. The last one I asked concerned the schedule of the Innovation Village and stadium. Everyone thought the May meeting was supposed to wrap it up.

There are quite a few impatient alumni, students and student athletes waiting for some information. I don't know what to do as an alumnus to show my dissatisfaction other than holding back my donation this year and forward.

The latest gossip is football recruits are considering leaving because promises have not been kept.

If writing a letter to the board or doing something will help the matter, let people know.

What is holding things up now and why weren't things finalized in May's meeting?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Joe:
Thanks for your email. We were hoping that the May Board of Trustee meeting would bring a final approval. The project had to be extended but it the date for opening the on campus stadium remains on track for right now. It has been a frustrating process at times. There are a lot of moving parts in this project but it will happen one way or another. Also, the student athletes and prospects are still excited about the future here. No one is leaving the program or deciding to go elsewhere because of the stadium at this point. We have come a long way but have a long way to go. We need the support of all the donors and boosters that we can get as we try to get a foothold in this tough market and crate something special here. We will get there. Best Wishes
Craig

Question from Mark
Mr. Angelos,
Great job so far. Can you give an update on the stadium? In April you stated: "We are making a lot of headway on finalizing the plans for Innovation Village. The goal is to present the final plan to the board for formal approvals at the May Trustee meeting. I am hoping that goes over well and occurs. Once that is done, then the project will begin in full force." At the May meeting, the final plan did not seem to happen. Where do we stand? Thank you.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Mark:
Sorry for the delay. With regard to your question the stadium did not get voted upon at the May meeting and is now pushed back to September 17th, the next Board of Trustee meeting. It is our hope that at that time the final approval will be in place and hopefully the stadium will be ready to go for the 2010 season. Stay tuned and thanks for your support.

Craig

Question from Alejandro
Is the school charging athletics fee in the tuition? I know that most schools do it. This would be another way to raise money for the football stadium. I know UM charges like $ 50.00. I believe FAU could charge at least $25 to $30 per student. I don't know, it is just an idea

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Alejandro:
I am sorry for the delay in my response. To answer your question FAU does charge an athletic fee of $13.70 per credit hour for all students attending FAU. We are limited by state statute as to how much we can charge for student fees but ours is up there pretty high. I do not anticipate an opportunity for another student fee in the near future. However, if the students wanted to get behind a project and push an increase for the stadium on their own that would be another matter.

Thanks for your question,
Craig

Question from Mike
Craig,
It's disappointing reading the Sun-Sentinel and seeing $55M being spent to expand FIU's stadium. The paper has also been posting construction photos of the new UCF stadium. As an alum and season ticket holder I'm wondering if the Board of Trustees ever reads the newspaper? What can we do as individuals to get moving on our own stadium? Thanks.

Mike

Response from Athletic Director Craig Angelos
Mike:
Sorry for the delay in response to your email. I have seen all the positive press UCF and FIU have been getting regarding their stadium. My sincere belief is that our stadium will be better than either of those and we will get our deserved attention at that time. This process is moving pretty good now so that we should have some definite plans by this fall and we still plan on opening by 2010. Stay tuned, and thanks for your support.

Craig

July 3, 2007

Craig,
Just wondering when we are done playing FIU at Dolphin Stadium for our home games against them? I know that playing that game there was part of the deal to break our lease, but when does that agreement run out?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Greg:
Thank you for the email. Our contract with Dolphin Stadium includes all home game vs. FIU through the 2012 season. Therefore, starting in 2013 we will play all of our home games against FIU at our home stadium on our FAU campus. I can't wait!!!

Best wishes,
Craig

June 25, 2007

Question from Tom
I am like many others looking forward to a stadium on campus. Us older graduates waited a long time for a football team to support and rally around. Are there plans for fund-raising drives to help the stadium along? A second question: Am I correct in saying that with an on-campus stadium, even a temporary one, funds can flow into the Athletic Department instead of out to rent other stadiums?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Tom:
Thank you for the email. With regard to plans for fundraising for the stadium, we have recently received permission to start raising money to get this stadium off the ground. We have been approaching donors for naming rights as well as naming four pillars around the stadium and a clock tower. This inventory and our fundraising effort will continue to expand as the stadium gets formally approved. The momentum is about to pick up.

With regard to revenues flowing through the athletic department once we get on campus, that will be true to the extent that we will increase ticket sales, keep all of our parking and concession revenues and avoid paying any kind of rental costs for the stadium. With regard to money generated through naming rights, premium seating, and signage, most likely that will go towards funding a stadium.

Nevertheless, I believe once the stadium is formally approved and subsequently built that will signal a real tipping point for this athletic department.

Thanks for your support,
Craig

June 7, 2007

Question from Alejandro
Hi !! Is it true that the Sun Belt Conference might be removed from division 1A? If this is true; where does the football team go?

Response from Craig
Alejandro:
Thank you for your email. It is not true that the Sun Belt Conference might be removed from Division I-A. As you know, there are currently 11, 1-A conferences and we are ranked right around 10th or 11th in strength however we are progressing very quickly. There has not been any discussion that I have ever heard about the Sun Belt not being a 1-A conference. The NCAA rules require all Division I-A schools to adhere to certain requirements. For those schools that can adhere to those requirements, they stay as I-A. Therefore, don't worry we have a bright future in I-A.

Thanks for your support,
Craig

Question from Justin
Why can every other D1 school afford facilities except ours? What takes so long? I graduated in 02' and what has been done in five years? A track.

UCF, FIU all shovels in the ground and the only thing were doing is revamping a dilapidated arena. It's embarrassing. Every six months the board of trustees just puts it off. Why can't we just have answer yesterday not in November, May, August, November, May, August, etc...

Something needs to be done in August. Once and for all.

We have nothing to be proud about at all. It's taken ten years for the board of trustees to decide we need a stadium. I don't like pointing the finger Mr. Angelos because I feel you've done a great job as an AD but whose fault is this? Not coach Cooney, not Schnelly, not Rex.

This is South Florida, people don't go anywhere until it's built, and to have this much fan support for a program that plays in our facilities is a feat in its own. The Marlins won the WORLD SERIES and average 15,000 fans in the regular season.

Response from Craig Angelos
Justin:
Thank you very much for the email. I do agree with your general frustration on the inability to move faster with regard to building a stadium on campus.

As you know, we are entering our sixth year of football, I have been trying to move with this KUD project on the stadium since January of 2005. It was moving pretty briskly but then hit a brick wall about 12 months ago and it has taken time to overcome those hurdles. We have had some success with our facilities improvements in my four years with the building of the new track and field stadium and also the renovating of our basketball arena for $10 million. I agree that the football stadium has to be the focus of the university if we expect our program to grow.

I am confident that we are moving in the right direction. We have some great coaches, we have raised a lot of money to be able to balance a budget for the second time in a row but there are indeed challenges with programs of this size that have very young athletic programs with limited interest from the student body and community and set down here in the Florida marketplace. I have to keep reminding myself that the University of Florida has been playing football for over 100 years and a lot of these challenges that they faced were back in the early 1900's rather than in the early 2000's. Nevertheless, I think we are progressing well and have a real shot to be successful but I believe wholeheartedly that we need to get this stadium built and then I think the momentum really will pick up.

I really appreciate your support and share your frustration but I know that we will eventually get this done.

Take care,
Craig

April 30, 2007

Question from Krissy
Hello Mr. Angelos!
I am trying to find out where I can audition to sing the National Anthem for the FAU athletic events! I have just moved to south Florida by way of Boston, where I was singing the anthem for semi pro hockey and college basketball games. Thank you in advance and I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Krissy White

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Krissy:
Thank you very much for your email. Our Assistant Athletic Director for marketing and promotions usually arranges for performers to sing the National Anthem. I will pass your name over to Dexter LaMont and perhaps you can get in touch with him.

Thanks,
Craig

Question from Alejandro
Hi Craig! Keep up the good work. Something that I have noticed with the athletics program is the lack of consistency on brand identity. We have over five campuses in Florida but there are no signs of the athletics program at FAU. We need to keep a consistency with logos and colors for any sport at FAU. This way, we could get more recognition locally and maybe nationally. I know this takes time, but it is a good idea. The school in Boca can mark its territory by hanging banners from the light-posts in surrounding areas. This can work for the other campuses. Most schools do it, so people know they are entering FAU's zone, so to speak. I have a lot of ideas, but it's hard to write them all here. Thank you for all that you do to make a better FAU.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Alejandro:
Thank you very much for the email. It is very good to get feedback from the students on campus. As you know we did go through an extensive re-branding effort a few years ago and redefined all of our marks. Since I am on the Boca campus I can only track on what we've done with regard to the athletic mark as it relates to the Boca campus as that is where the sports are housed. Nevertheless, I will forward your email to our Assistant Vice President Aileen Izquierdo, as well as Randy Goin and Dexter LaMont who work closely with her on the University's branding effort. The idea of putting banners on other campuses would be a good way to unite the campuses together. I will pass this information over to them and feel free to share any further ideas with them regarding this idea.

Thank you very much for your time,
Craig

April 30, 2007

Question from Greg
I was unable to attend the spring game. I was just wondering how everything went as far as playing at the track facility? Do you think playing there is a real possibility for this season? It would be great to finally play a true home game!

Thanks!

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Greg,
Thanks for the email. I am glad that you enjoyed the spring game. It really was a good atmosphere for our game. We are working hard to try to put a temporary stadium up there this fall. I think the prospects do not look good since the developers of Innovation Village were the ones that were going to pay for the costs of the stadium. Because the project is not yet formally approved it does not look like the funding is going to be available to do it for this year. However, I really think there is a strong possibility that after the project gets approved this spring that next year when the revenues are flowing that it will certainly be a distinct possibility for the 2008 season.

Thanks,
Craig

April 16, 2007

Question from Bill
With regard to the new Wellness Center that's being... if it starts construction in October this year, when do we expect it be open? Spring 2008?

I've heard there will be a Phase I and a Phase II. If Phase I is done in Spring 2008, when would Phase II be completed? Or is it going to be built altogether now?

And lastly, the jogging track that will be built there -- will it be suspended/on the 2nd floor looking down onto the basketball court or will it be on the same floor?

Response from Director of Campus Recreation Eric Hawkes
Bill,
Craig forwarded your inquiry about the new Recreation & Fitness Center as I am responsible all recreation facilities and programs on campus.

The Rec Center is expected to break ground in October or November 2007. The construction timeline is approximately 11 months so we expect to open the facility early fall 2008.

The facility will be built in phases. The cost of phase one is approximately $11 million which will provide us with roughly 38,000 sq. ft. The complete facility is expected to be 140,000 sq. ft. Currently, there are no funds available or identified for phase two. It will most likely be constructed through fundraising efforts.

Due to the increased rise of construction costs over the past several years, the facility has undergone some changes in order to meet our budget. One of the changes was the elimination of the running track in phase one. We have not identified if and/or how an indoor running track will be incorporated into phase two at this time. However, it is still an element we hope to add to the facility at a later time.

Below is a brief description of the facility...

Recreation & Fitness Center Project

The NEW Recreation & Fitness Center is an $11 million, 38,000 sq. ft. recreation facility that will include the following: o 6,500 sq. ft. Fitness Center (40+ pieces of cardio equipment, two circuit training units and free weight area)
o two multipurpose rooms designed for yoga, pilates, aerobics, spinning and more
o two Indoor basketball courts
o Volleyball courts
o Badminton courts
o Social corridor with group seating, activity viewing and more
o Men's & Women's health club style locker rooms

Facility will be located at the Northeast entrance of the Breezeway along the new Lee Street

Please let me know if you have any additional questions about the project or any other recreation-related questions.

Best regards...Eric

April 11, 2007

Question from Justin
Any head way on the dorms, retail space, etc.... May isn't that far away.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Justin,
We are making a lot of headway on finalizing the plans for Innovation Village. The goal is to present the final plan to the board for formal approvals at the May Trustee meeting. I am hoping that goes over well and occurs. Once that is done, then the project will begin in full force. Stay tuned.

Craig

Questions from Adam
Hello Craig!
I loved the "Bury the Burrow" idea. Themed events always seem to draw bigger crowds and I hope it continues.

I just have a couple of new questions/ideas:

1) Is it possible to get large red streetlight banners that say, "FAU Athletics" (with the owl head logo in the middle) for the parking lots by the Burrow?

2) Will you be able to post the drawings of the Burrow renovation on the website soon?

3) Any chance we'll be seeing the Owl Head logo as a screen that you can put in your car's rear window, like UF has?

4) Will FAU be purchasing searchlights for either the Burrow or the new stadium to announce game nights to the city?

5) For next year's first basketball game, could Athletics work with SGA and Program Board to section off a part of the parking lot by the Burrow and set up barbecue grills, carnival games, a DJ, etc -- basically turning it into a pre-game party zone to rile up people before the game (say between 5-7 pm)?

6) Could we build a billboard on Glades between the two entrances of FAU that shows a horizontal collage of various FAU athletes sandwiched between text that reads "FAU" and "Sun Belt Conference Champions"?

I know that the department only has so much money for everything but I believe these projects, when we're able to fund them, will push FAU over the top and excite not only the fans but the people of Boca Raton, who will be proud that FAU is in THEIR city.

Thanks again for your time

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Adam,
With regard to your questions let me see if I can answer them in order:

We had worked with the University communications office to try to get the streetlight banners up. There was much discussion as to what the proper look should be. I am happy that we have something up now. Perhaps we can refine that as we go forward and I will certainly pass on your comments to our marketing staff.

There should be a few artists rendering of some of the improvements that are being done on the arena on our website right now. And, we will update the progress with photos approximately every two weeks.

I like your idea for the Owls' head logo as a screen that we can put in the rear window. I will pass that on to Dexter LaMont who is our marketing and licensing administrator and see if we can get our vendors to produce one.

I have not thought about the search lights but that is something we can certainly consider depending on costs.

With the renovation of the Burrow we do want to look at our parking situation. If there is enough support from SGA and the program board than we certainly can have an area for pre-game parties and tailgates.

I like the idea about the billboard at the two FAU entrances. I know the city of Boca Raton precludes billboards but perhaps since it is on State owned property and we would set it back a little bit on our campus we could possibly come up with something that would be permissible with the city. The next question would be the cost. I am going to look into this matter with our universities communications office to see what their thoughts are.

Adam, I really like your ideas. If you live around locally and/or a student on campus we would love to get you involved with our marketing staff to help with creative ideas like these. Please let us know. Dexter LaMont is the contact person and we would love to have you involved.

Craig

Question from Justin
In regards to the basketball stadium, will there be seating behind bothbaskets? On TV it makes a huge difference.

If funding is found for the baseball stadium would work begin after this season or next?

LOCK REX UP!!!!!! Don't let him get away!!!!!!

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angleos
With regard to seating in the new arena, we will have chair back seating behind both baskets so it will be enclosed in a bowl. In fact, we will have chair back seating throughout the whole arena with exception of the east side bleachers which will be for the student section hopefully to stand up and make a lot of noise throughout the games.

We are still looking for private funding to renovate our baseball stadium between $8-15 million. We have worked on a variety of ideas including last year trying to get a spring training site that we could also share with a major league team but that did not work out. We hope to have a solution soon.

Finally, with regard to Rex we hope that he is interested in building our program but as we found out with Matt, money does talk loudly and a lot of schools have more than we do. That is a tough dilemma to be up against. Nevertheless, hopefully Rex will be here for a while.

Thanks for your support,
Craig

Question from Billy, Matt and Tom
Why isn't the scoreboard working properly on the baseball field? Not a good reflection on the quality of the program!

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Billy, Matt and Tom,
Thanks for the email. It is a good question about the dilapidated scoreboard. We have had a number of people out to try to fix it and apparently we haven't quite figured it out. Nevertheless, we are going to get a new scoreboard for next year. Not to mention, hopefully a new stadium in the near future. Stay tuned.

Craig

Question from Greg
Hello Craig,
I have been hearing rumors that a football stadium will be created around the track for the 2008 season. I think this is a great idea! We all know that we must get the football games on campus and with Lockhart being torn down soon, we don't have many good options. A temporary stadium around the new track seems like a good compromise until a permanent home is built. My question is, how seriously is this being looked at and given the limited space around the track, could there be enough seating placed around it to meet NCAA requirements? I hope it is something that can happen, because I really believe that once we get the games in Boca, this program will take off, at least in terms of student and community support.

Thanks and GO OWLS!

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Greg
The temporary football stadium is being considered even for the 2007 year. We have talked extensively with the developers of our permanent stadium about helping us finance the temporary stadium around the track. It is true that there is limited space on the east side. However we had bleacher companies come out and they said that they could put 15,000-18,000 seats around the track without infringing on the track itself. It would be a tight fit in some of the areas but certainly has a lot of room on the west side. In addition to the bleachers though, we have to import a lot of items such as a temporary press boxes, scoreboards, bathrooms, concessions, etc. It is a pretty comprehensive list although there are companies that do this on a regular basis such as those at professional tennis venues like the Key Biscayne or professional golf tournaments. It is possible to do but we are just figuring out how much it would cost and if we can lump these costs onto the total construction costs of the stadium. Nevertheless, I totally agree that it would be best for the support of students and the community to get on campus as soon as possible.

Thanks for the support,
Craig

April 10, 2007

Question from Eric
I remember roughly two years ago, every Thursday afternoon Sun Sports Television had the "Howard Schnellenberger Show" during football season. It was a great insight segment into FAU football. It was hosted by Dave Lamont, I believe. What happened to this concept? Is this show not on anymore? Would it be likely to return to Sun Sports in the future?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos

Eric,
Thank you for your email. It is true that we have had a coach's television show in past years. This opportunity was created for us because we had a corporation who was underwriting the expense of producing the 30 minute coach's show. I believe it costs somewhere between $3,000-4,000 per show to produce and air a coach's show. If you do one show a week a 12 week season would cost you roughly $36,000. If you can sell the advertising time to make up for that than it can pay for itself but unfortunately the market has not been there to allow us to sell the advertising time and allow us to break even on this proposition. The President of the corporation has moved onto another company and therefore we do not have the underwriting support anymore. As we gain more revenues and have more discretionary income I would like to continue to have a coach's show in football and basketball but until we can fund it and/or break even on selling advertising time we have to elect to put our money into other programs sustaining needs. Thanks for your question.

Craig

Question from Greg
It is almost April, so I was wondering if we could get an update on the status of a temporary football stadium being built around the track? I would assume that construction would have to begin shortly to get something ready in time for the opener against MTSU on Sept. 1. Any news? If playing on campus will be a reality this year? Thanks! Keep up the good work.

Response from Craig
Greg, Thanks for your email. With regard to a temporary stadium, all the elements of what we need have been identified and given to the individuals at KUD who are orchestrating this opportunity. Keep in mind that a temporary stadium can go up fairly quickly. It is just like the temporary facilities that go up at a tennis match or golf tournament. However, it is true that it will take some time to get the infrastructure in place such as wiring for the scoreboard and the like. At this point we are just working with them to see how all this is going to be paid for. Originally it was going to be part of the larger Innovative Village that we have to ensure that will happen because it does not make financial sense for the athletic department or the university to shell out that huge sum of money every year for four games. I anticipate that we will know conceptually whether we can pull this of in the next few weeks. I am hopeful that it will happen to the point were we are going to play our football spring game at the track on April 21 and I invite you to come out to watch.

Thanks,
Craig

Question from Justin
May is a month away, what's going with the stadium and new dorms?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Justin, These past few months there has been intense review of the Innovation Village Concept and hopefully it will be presented to the Board of Trustees in a May meeting for a formal approval of Innovation Village. If it does get approved they will begin immediately to start building dorms and retail to get the revenues flowing in those areas and then turn their attention to designing and building a football stadium that hopefully will be done for the 2010 season or possibly earlier. You may have heard that we are also exploring a temporary stadium to play four home games on campus until the new stadium is completed. There should be a lot more discussion as we get closer to the May, Board of Trustees meeting. Thanks for your interest and continued support of FAU athletics.

Craig

Question from Michael
Hello Craig,
Just wanted to say first and foremost that you're doing a great job!

I have a couple of quick questions:

If the BOT meets in May and approves the Innovation Village as presented, what sort of construction timeline are we looking at? Would the housing/retail be ready for the fall semester of 2008?

A LOT of students at FAU wish that Boca was more of a "college town" where you'd see support for athletics in the form of banners and posters in local stores and employees wearing the shirts -- as a previous poster had mentioned -- but Boca seems resistant to the idea. Is that the case? If so, could we make the Innovation Village area a "mini-college town" in that respect, since it too will be a series of stores and restaurants? Could we do that? I think it would be great for school spirit.

What is the status on the temporary stadium? I know it would be costly but I also know that President Brogan is behind the idea. If we build the temporary stadium on campus, could we, the fans, tailgate in the Burrow parking lot? Could we set up barbecue grills and lawn chairs or would that be against some sort of policy?

And finally, how soon will we "move up" out of the Sun Belt into something like the Big East or SEC? If we were the #1 football team in the Sun Belt in 2007, would that change anything?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Michael, Thanks for your email. If the BOT meets in May and approves Innovation Village then the dorms and retail will begin first. The intent is to get the revenue streams flowing from those items first. Then the design and building of that stadium can go forward with a completion date at the latest August of 2010 but it is possible that once the details are ironed out that it could be completed earlier than that, which is our hope.

With regard to making Boca, a college town we have a marketing staff that does try to take posters and banners and what not out to local establishments but it appears that Boca is more cosmopolitan than a college town and therefore it can be difficult to get people to support the local hometown team. It is true that Innovation Village will have a lot of retail and will be right here on campus and it is our hope that, at least on our own campus, we can have that small college town feel to support our university and its sports programs.

With regard to the temporary stadium we are working closely with representatives from KUD to figure out how it would be financed. It is our hope that it will be part of the Innovation Village concept and can be paid over a period of time. If we get it up and going for this year, which is our hope that we will be able to have our own tailgate lots and our own setups and make it truly fan friendly without restrictions other than abiding by any legal and ethical obligations.

Finally, you asked for a time table for moving out of the Sun Belt Conference. Certainly it is true that other conferences derive more income from bowls and basketball money that pays out a higher distribution to its conference members. However, we are very happy that we were fortunate enough to get into the Sun Belt Conference and look to the point were we can get much better and dominate the Sun Belt Conference. Until that time we have a lot of work to do on getting first class facilities and winning conference championships.

Again, thank you very much for your support of our program.

Craig

Question from Sarah
I was reading Lisa Bardill say in the University Press that after the financing for the Wellness Center is complete, SG will have to work with Student Affairs to develop a plan for a new athletic complex...?

Can you elaborate on what this new athletic complex would include...?

Thanks.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Sarah, Thank you for the email. With regard to Lisa Bardill's quote in the University Press about a new athletic complex, I am not sure what she is referring to other than I can only surmise that she is talking about new athletic facilities for the student body in general. As you know, student athletic facilities are in short supply and have not been planned for in the past. As a result the students have inherited an old gymnasium that is used by athletic teams as well as a weight room and an old dilapidated field inside a dilapidated track. In the last few years the students now have a brand new track to run on and field turf field to play intramurals and club sports. Also we have arranged for a second field to be use over at the Henderson School that is provided by the Beach and Parks District. Eric Hawkes, Director of Campus Sports and Recreation has fixed up the weight rooms to be quite good and now the gymnasium is being renovated but is still going to be crowded. A few years ago we worked together with student government to gather money together to build a student recreation center. That is going to begin this Fall in the first phase. However, there are two other phases that are going to be necessary to make a complete athletic recreation center for the students. Eric is doing a great job to try to increase the opportunities for the students especially since we will have more and more students living on campus and they will need access to these types of facilities. Hope this helps.

Craig

March 23, 2007

Question from John
If FAU adds a Convocation Center next to the football stadium and uses this center to host basketball games, what will become of the Burrow?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Dear John: If and when we get a new convocation center the "Burrow" would continue to remain in play by hosting our volleyball team because it is a great setting for volleyball. Additionally, the students would continue to use it as an extra facility even though the wellness center will be built at that time. It would also serve as a practice gym for our men's and women's basketball program. Keep in mind that if we did get a convocation center, it would be necessary to rent it out on a regular basis similar to what they do at the University of Miami. Therefore it would not be sitting idle daily so that men's and women's basketball could practice in it. Rather they would be practicing in the "Burrow" also. Plus, the only difference a convocation center would provide to us on a daily basis would be a place to play our games but all the other activities such as practices would still be conducted in the Burrow.

Thanks,
Craig

March 14, 2007

Question from Phil
I have heard from people that the basketball arena is undergoing renovations this off-season. I think it's great and I am all for upgrading "The Burrow" but, at the expense of sounding ungrateful (which I surely am not - I support ALL FAU sports programs), I am just wondering why the arena would be picked first over the baseball stadium. The baseball team has undoubtedly seen more success over the years at FAU (8 NCAA regionals, 1 super regional, etc etc). The baseball stadium is in desperate need of an upgrade - especially if FAU ever plans on hosting a regional so we can get past the Miami curse! Anyways, just wondering. Keep up the good work and GO OWLS!!!

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Phil: Thank you for the email. That is a very good question. The reason that we are putting $10 million towards the arena is that much of the money has been earmarked for renovation due to the damage from the hurricane and also the fact that the arena is utilized by students, staff and athletics and has never been upgraded. Therefore we are able to tap into money that is available because if is utilized by student and athletics alike. The baseball stadium is only used for athletics and therefore we can not use any of that type of money for athletic only projects. That is basically how we got to this point. I am still working on getting $15 million to renovate the baseball stadium and I think we will get there soon.

Thanks!

February 22, 2007

Question from Taylor
May an FAU student who attends classes at the St Lucie West campus be a member of the cross country and track team? If so, would I be required to participate in a particular amount of practice at the Boca site? I am contemplating FAU as a college choice. Thank you for your reply.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Taylor,
Taylor it is permissible for a full-time student at Florida Atlantic University to compete on the cross country and track team. Since you would be a full-time student at the St. Lucie West campus you would be permitted to try out and compete on the cross country and track team. Certainly when you compete at the intercollegiate level you are required to come to practices and competitions and therefore with the team competing on the Boca Raton campus and can be difficult. I am going to forward this email to our track coach, Alex Smolka. I suggest that you contact him to discuss your situation further to see if it would work out for both the track team as well as for you personally. Good luck in your pursuits.

Craig

February 20, 2007

Question from Joe
There has been talk about putting bleachers/seating around the new track.

I have a couple of questions. There is worry that foot traffic from spectators and football cleats will damage the surface of the new track. Are there any plans to ensure this doesn't happen. We are fairly certain the bleachers will not be put on the track to bring them closer to the field as was done by FIU.

Would one of the soccer fields be a better choice or possibly dedicating a new parcel of ground to be used for the temp football stadium? Or maybe one of the football practice fields.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos

Joe, Thank you for your email. The best place for a temporary stadium would be on the new track and field surface. The field turf that is down there costs about $600,000 and there is no other playable surface that we could build a stadium around that has proper access. Certainly we will protect the track through using rubber mats on exit points. Also, the bleachers would never be placed on the track they would always be on the outside of the track so that the track would be in full use as well as the field surface would be in full use throughout the week. Keep in mind that there are only four games in which we would play at the temporary stadium a year if it does come about. Thanks for your question.

Take care,
Craig

February 13, 2007
Question from Justin
For the USF game next year, I thought of marketing idea since were both on opposite coast of Florida "Atlantic vs. Gulf" game, "Battle of the Seas".

Just an idea, and don't worry about copyrights, no charge this time, I just want a t-shirt.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Justin, Thank you very much for the email. I like the marketing idea for the USF game. I will talk to our marketing people to see where we are with our plan. Were you able to come to the FIU game, on Saturday? The marketing department put together a campaign called "Burry the Burrow in Red", in which everyone wore red shirts and they handed out red T-Shirts. That seemed to get a lot of attraction. I do think it is important to theme the games so that we can have a rallying point to market it. I appreciate your ideas.

Thanks,
Craig

January 22, 2007

Question from Jim
Is there any possibilities that a team like Miami will come and play down here again maybe next year?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Jim, Thanks for the email, sorry for the delay. We have tried to schedule a football game with the University of Miami for quite sometime but they have not been interested in doing so. As you know we are playing the University of Florida on the road and the University of South Florida at home for in 2007 and we hope to be able to play more Florida schools.

Craig

Question from Birdsofafeather
Craig,
Just wondering what the progress was on the baseball team's efforts to build their new park?

Thanks!

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Birdsofafeather,
I am sorry for the delay in response to your email. Nonetheless, we are looking for a solution as to how to fund a baseball stadium. It is going to take between $10 and $15 million to renovate our current stadium. We have a few leads but have not yet nailed anything down. That is my hope for this upcoming semester.

Thanks,
Craig

Question from Rick
Dear Mr. Angelos,
Just a quick question, if can please address it. Exactly what is the chief function of the Board of Trustees regarding the "approval" of the stadium?

Initially, I was under the impression they oversaw state funding, and land allocation in respects to the University Mission.

I was also under the impression that the stadium is being privately funded, and that the land was actually allocated a few years ago, as indicated in the University's master plan - located on the official presentation.

Given this, what "oversight" are they providing at this juncture since no state monies are being used for the stadium and the land is allocated? It would seem that since the project was going to be privately funded, and the land is approved, that it would be up the administration to conclude what is built. Am I correct or off base on this?

Isn't their "function" now complete?

Thank you,

Rick

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Rick:
I am sorry for the delay in responding to your email. The role of the Board of Trustees is to approve the stadium projects as is presented to them by the staff of the University. They are the governing body for all major initiatives that transpire on this campus. The President of the University actually reports to the Board of Trustees. Therefore, they approve all major initiatives within the University regardless if they include state money or not. Their stewardship is to govern the University in all aspects. They form various subcommittees to work with various university entities but do have the final say about the direction of the university. Hope this helps. Thanks for your interest in athletics.

Take care,
Craig

Question from Mitch
Craig,
What is your policy for keeping former student athletes involved with the university? It seems once the player is done with the sports, the university barely can recognize their achievements or funding (notably in football and basketball efforts. I think FAU should really consider bringing back student athletes to honor their "time served." At worst, you deliver a positive message to former and current athletes and their contributions to the University. At best, maybe they will donate to the school. The lack of outreach really needs to be addressed. Thank you and best of luck.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Mitch:
Thank you for the email. I agree that it is very important to try to keep our athletes involved at the university. Even though our athletic department is relatively young without a long history, we recently formulated, last year, a Varsity "O" Club which is designed to reach out to our former student athletes in the form of their own club. We have mailings to them on a regular basis and in fact we did try to schedule a golf tournament around our recent Hall of Fame induction this past fall, our inaugural class, but there was not a big response. We have reached out to our former student athletes but have not seen a lot of interest from the student athletes to be back involved at their alma matter. We will continue our efforts and hopefully grow the Varsity "O" program and make our former student athletes proud to associate with the university. Thanks for your interest in our program.

Thanks,
Craig

Question from Mike
Any news on the stadium? When will the dorms start being built? Will Greek housing be included? Any info you can give us?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Mike:
I appreciate your email and I am sorry for the delay in response. Nevertheless, I wanted to let you know that at this time we are in the process of having the Board of Trustee consultants meet with the development team to try to formulate the final details so that the Board of Trustees will allow contracts to be signed hopefully by May. At that point they will start building the dorm space first and then the retail space and then parking spaces. Once the revenue starts flowing from those areas, they will start building a stadium. The exact timing for Greek housing has not been disclosed but will probably be part of the dorm project rather than a stand alone housing complex. We should have all this finalized by May. Thanks for your interest in our program and we will keep you updated.

Thanks,
Craig

January 16, 2007

Question from Eric
Mr. Angelos,
Writing to you is becoming a weekly routine for me. I did catch your quote in the Palm Beach Post and Sun-Sentinel about a Convocation Center being "far down on our radar," and The Burrow being the home for basketball and volleyball for the foreseeable future. I just think about the Board foolishly rejecting the dome idea and am instantly saddened. However, of course, I'm pleased with your persistence in pushing for a football stadium - with an emphasis on time being of the essence!

Two quick questions for you at this time:

1) This season, basketball only has one home game televised (CSS will televise the FIU game in February). What exactly is the reason there isn't a bigger push to get games on television? I understand the argument about getting more people to games and not having the TV as an option to stay home. However, games being shown at local bars and restaurants would give basketball an unbelievable visibility factor.

2) I understand The Burrow is undergoing some major cosmetic surgery this summer. Are there artist renderings that the public could see? Could any of those be posted on FAUSports.com? I, for one, would love to see and have explained what exactly is happening to The Burrow this summer!

Thanks a lot for your time! Go Owls! BUILD THAT STADIUM!

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Eric:
I am very sorry for the delay but I did want to respond to your email. With regard to getting basketball games on television the conference package is not very strong and therefore we only have one game. We could produce our own games for approximately $18,000 per game similar for what we do to produce football games. However it just comes down to costs. Therefore that is why we don't produce our own games. Hopefully as the conference gets stronger we can get a better conference package.

With regard to your question about renovation to the burrow, we do have drawing and as soon as the projects gets formally approved which should be any day now we will put them on the website.

Thanks for your continued interest in FAU athletics.

Best wishes,
Craig

Question from Adam
Hello Craig,

Wow, this question box is way too small.

Anyway, I read with great enthusiasm about the new football stadium and I am very excited about the future of FAU football. Since I'm graduating next year, I hope that we'll expand the ESPN coverage of FAU football games so I can keep up with the team even if I'm somewhere other than Florida.

I just wanted your opinion on a couple of things:

1) I noticed last semester that the FAU football players wore their jerseys the day before the games. I thought this was a fantastic tradition (was it a new tradition?) and I was wondering if it would continue for the 2007+ seasons?

2) I was in Gainesville recently to visit an FAU alum and current UF grad student. It was my first time being in Gainesville and I quickly learned what they meant about Gainesville as a "college town": everywhere you go, even at places like Boston Market, there are banners and pennants for GATOR football. I was wondering what FAU can do to make this happen in Boca -- we don't even really see it across the street at the University Commons and FAU built/owns that!

3) On that note, I discovered that we're playing against UF next year. I think this is absolutely fantastic, but everyone I tell it to says it's going to be "a slaughter." I'm a little offended, though I do respect their opinion, but... knowing what we know about the talent at UF, are there being any special measures being taken before that game, i.e. more practice time before that week?

4) Are we looking at playing UCF/FSU/UM anytime soon (2008, perhaps)? Has there been any discussion about that?

5) I thought a great way to market FAU football on campus would be to make cardboard replicas of each player and attach a calendar of upcoming games to the body. The player can sign it and then we'll put one in HPT, one in the UC, etc

Thank you for your time!

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Adam: I appreciate your email. With regard to some of your questions I will answer them in the way you posed them.

First, it is true the players have worn their jerseys the day before the game to try to publicize the football game on campus to their fellow students. This has been going on for a number of years and it will definitely continue.

With regard to number two, we have a similar program in our marketing and promotions area that is called Owl Business Partners. We do go around to the different stores and see if they want to be involved with FAU athletics whether it is putting up posters or buying tickets or things of that nature. I am going to look into why they are not at the University Commons. Nevertheless, it is dependant on the vendor as to whether they want to help us out or not.

With regard to number three, there is not going to be measures taken for the UF game than we do all other games. Specifically, last year for example we played equally talented teams in Clemson, University of South Carolina, Kansas State and Oklahoma State. This year we will play UF but also Minnesota, South Florida, Oklahoma State, Kentucky. We are all I-A teams, some are better than others, but we will prepare the same for each week. I think the question will be whether we have the size to match up well with UF. Clearly they are the premier program in the country. We are on the lower end of I-A, rising quickly though. I am not optimistic about the outcome of that game with regard to the score.

With regard to playing other Florida teams, UCF, FSU and Miami have all been approached about playing but have elected not to play us right now for whatever reason. We do play FIU, USF, and we will play UF this year.

I like the idea of getting a cardboard replica of each player and attaching it to a calendar of upcoming games. We have tried a cardboard replica of Howard Schnellenberger and put it in various stores but it does cost a lot of money to do that so it does come down to what kind of marketing budget we can afford.

I like your ideas and if you are interested in volunteering and helping out in the athletic department at anytime, please let me know.

Thanks for the email,,br> Craig Angelos

November 29, 2006

Question from Rich
As an alum and current grad student, I'd just like to say how happy I am with the growth of our football team. So many of us lose sight of the successes of our program by trying to compare FAU with schools who have been playing for 25, 50, or 100+ years.

I continue to look forward to enhancements in the team web site as well as improvements in merchandising and marketing of team spirit items. Can you share any insights on either of these areas?

Also, what does the 2007 non-conference schedule look like so far?

Keep up the good work and I'll do my part by continuing to be a season ticket holder and Owl Club supporter.

Go Owls!!

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Rich,
Thank you very much for the email. With regard to our 2007 non-conference schedule we will be playing at Kentucky, at Oklahoma State, and at the University of Florida. We will be playing the University of Minnesota at home and also the University of South Florida at home. We will also have seven Sun Belt Conference games, four away and three at home.

As far as our team website improvements as well as our merchandising and marketing of team sport items I am going to forward your email to Dexter LaMont who handles both of those areas. He is the Assistant AD for Marketing and can answer any of the questions that you have regarding those two areas.

We appreciate your support of the program and look forward to good times ahead for the Owls.

Thanks again,
Craig Angelos

Question from Eric
Mr. Angelos,
I've written to you before about happenings in the Athletics Department and I really marvel at your commitment to respond to every single letter that is sent to you. When speaking to friends and family friends about college athletics, I never can seem to talk enough about you and the unbelievable job you continue to do here at FAU. I sat at my computer and watched the entire webcast of the Board of Trustees meeting on November 7. I'm happy an on-campus stadium was approved, but I must admit I was a tad disappointed when the dome idea was rejected. What exactly is the current status? Is a 30,000-seat football stadium and 10,000-seat basketball arena a reality now and simply a matter of time? Or is the plan for a football stadium to be constructed with the possibility of a roof in the future? I have heard differing answers on that, so it would be greatly appreciated if you could clear that up not just for me, but for every Owl fan. I truly believe in my heart that ANY THING on-campus would drastically increase attendance from the 9,000 ballpark (this season) easily into the 20-25,000 range immediately!

Also, just quickly to mention, how can average students such as myself help out the athletics department? I work for the basketball team with recording, video, graphics, etc. I would love to somehow branch out and work with the athletics department and volunteer my time to my school and be a part of this special thing happening here. Do you have any suggestions?

Thank you for your time.

Eric
FAU 31, FIU 0

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Eric,
Thank you very much for your comments. With regard to our football stadium, it appears that the Trustees have agreed in concept to building a 30,000 seat open air football stadium that should be completed by the 2010 season. Sometime in the future the possibility will exist to also build a 10,000 seat basketball arena but that will be down the road quite a bit. The concept of possibly getting a roof over the 30,000 seat dome stadium that was presented but never done before and I highly doubt that it will ever be done here on our campus. Therefore, right now a 30,000 seat open air stadium will be reviewed for the next six months by the experts associated with the Board of Trustees who will counsel them as to how to proceed. Nevertheless, the university is definitely committed to building a football stadium to support its football program.

As far as the being involved in the athletic department there are many opportunities many of them are on a volunteer basis. I would suggest attracting as many students as you can to our athletic contests. Secondly, I would contact Melissa Dawson within our department who heads up volunteer and internship opportunities. Her number is 561-297-2683 or by email at mdawson@fau.edu. She could direct you to where there might be opportunities to work within the department.

Sincerely,
Craig Angelos

November 28, 2006

Question from Troy,
Dear Mr.Angelos,
First of all, I must say you have done an extraordinary job at FAU. Your visions are greatly appreciated and once everything is completed you will be remembered honorably. Well my question is when will we have Nike replica FAU jerseys to wear at games for football and basketball? Our Owl logo and jersey looks great. It would be cool to sport them around campus and at games to show a lot of school spirit. My other question is when our dome is finally done will there be a statue or commemorative remembrance done for Coach Schnellenberger? Thanks for answering my question, and thanks again for your great efforts to make FAU a great sports program.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Troy,
Sorry for the delay in response to your email. Nevertheless, I appreciate the questions. With regard to the Nike replica FAU jerseys we are entering a new agreement with an apparel company in the next few months. It may be Nike or it may be Adidas. Regardless, we do need to incorporate replica jerseys into our selection of apparel. We have also enlisted a new on-line store and are on schedule to provide basketball and football replica jerseys.

Second of all, by now you know that the university at least right now has approved in concept the building of an open air stadium. There is still a long way to go before that gets completed and we will have to see how that progresses and at that time what would be an appropriate recognition of coach Schnellenberger. As of right now, we haven't thought through the idea. Thanks for your support.

Craig

November 21, 2006

Question from Jack
Can I be a liaison between our south Florida high school football teams and FAU football? I would like to be a walking, talking public information machine so we can create a local following. I feel that with my knowledge of high school football in our area and all of the coaches and sportswriters that this would be advantageous for FAU and our up and coming athletes. I am also involved the AYFL (American youth football league) as a rep, coach and liaison for the area high schools. I know we need this for FAU and this will create a buzz and put kids and their parents in the seats. Have you thought of this and if so if it is not me doing this than let's try and get someone to be our youth voice.

Sincerely,
Jack

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Jack,
Sorry for the delay in my response to your email. I certainly like the concept of having you out in the community talking about FAU football. We have to be careful with NCAA rules because the only people that can actively recruit student athletes to come to FAU are the 12 coaches on the football staff. However, it is possible for other people such as you or people in the community to be a talking public information machine trying to create a local following among the people that you come in contact with the youth leagues or high school. I would love to have as many ambassadors as we can trying to create a buzz in the community that will cause people to convert awareness into action of buying a ticket, coming to a game, or by making a donation to the football program. So as long as we work within the NCAA rules we can have as many people as we can working in the communities to create an interest in FAU football. If this is something that you want to actively do please give me a call and I will put you in contact with the right people in our department to make sure that we are all working off of the same page. Thanks for your support.

Craig

Question from Concerned Fan
Mr. Angelos,
First of all, thank you for being so available for questions from the public who largely have FAU's interest at heart. My question is based off an observation I've made while attending football games. I think we all, athletic staff included, are looking for some answers on this football stadium. It's been my observation that people are not showing in large numbers because they feel football is a flash in the pan, that we'll never be able to be a real football school. I'm not saying this is the only reason people don't show up and I do realize we do get decent crowds near 10,000 per game but I get the feeling people are frustrated there is no commitment from the city of Boca Raton, board of trustees or whomever or whatever that continues to leave our football stadium in limbo. My question is what can we, Alumni, student body or friends of FAU do to help?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Concerned Fan,
Thanks for your question and I apologize for the delay in response. By now you have probably seen that the Trustees have approved in concept to build an open air stadium on our campus. So we are now trying to solidify the numbers that would allow us to build dorm space, retail space, and parking space and take those excess revenues to help fund a football stadium. We certainly could use the help of alumni, student body and friends to help convert awareness of our program into action. By that I mean the action of buying a ticket, attending a game or making a donation to our program. We are only in our sixth year of existence and yet schools like the University of Florida have been playing for 100 years and have quite the following. As with any start up company generation of money is the hardest thing but one of the most necessary elements when trying to build a stadium or any other project. Therefore creating an awareness and converting that awareness into action is the most important thing that those alumni, student body and friends of FAU can do to help the football program. The ability to generate money to fund projects is the key to making sure that they happen and that is what I have anxiously been trying to do since my arrival at FAU. We are getting closer and I hope that we will be successful in this area. Thanks for your help and I look forward to seeing you at the next game.

Craig

Question from Justin
After the next board of trade meeting will there be a final answer on what's going to happen with the on campus stadium? Also, where is the new campus rec/gym going to be?

CAMPUS!!!! CAMPUS!!!! CAMPUS!!! BUILD SOMETHING ON CAMPUS!!! I USE TO THINK OUR ATTENDANCE WAS BAD BUT 10K ON A WEDNESDAY 20 MILES AWAY IN TRAFFIC AND TICKETS FOR HAVING A GOOD TIME MAKES THE BIG HOUSE LOOK LIKE A LIBRARY!!!!!

CAMPUS!!!! BUILD FOR THE 08' SEASON. BROGAN'S BACKYARD WOULD BE BETTER THAN ANOTHER YEAR AT LOCKHART!!!!!

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Justin,
Justin, I am very sorry for the delay in responding to your email. By now you have probably read that the Trustees have approved the concept of building a 30,000 seat open air stadium. It is hoped that the public/private partnership that I came forward with will generate enough money from dorm space, parking space, retail space to generate the money to pay the debt service on a stadium that will go just on the northern part of our campus. Also, the new student recreation center will go on the northern part of campus just at the end of the breezeway on the east side of the breezeway while the new alumni center will be built at the end of the breezeway on the west side. A lot of things are happening on campus so it is a good time to be here. Thanks for your support.

Justin,
Thanks for your second email, and again I am sorry for the delay. We are definitely trying to get a stadium on campus and should have one here by at least 2010. As you can see though that leaves about three years of having to play at Lockhart for two years and then try to find a place to play during the 2009 season. That will pose a challenge but we are excited to at least be moving in the right direction with a stadium on campus. Thanks for your support and I look forward to seeing you out at the game at Dolphin Stadium.

Thanks,
Craig

Question from Greg
I read this morning that the FAU board of trustees has given the go ahead on the open air stadium to be built on the Boca Raton campus. While it is not the dome we were all hoping for, this is still great news. Only once we have a stadium in Boca will we finally see the true potential of this program. My question is what is the timeline for completion of this project? I read that the university hopes to have the stadium built by 2010. Would this not leave a two year gap during which there is no place for the team to play should Lockhart be torn down? Thanks and keep up the good work.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angleos
Greg,
Thanks for the email. I appreciate your encouragement in your email. It is true that the timeline for the open air stadium would be approximately 2010. There are a number of things that have to be done to make sure that happens such as starting to build dorms, retail, parking so that those revenue streams can flow into a bucket that we can then draw from to pay the debt service on the open air stadium. With regard to the interim two years we would have to put temporary bleachers up around our new track stadium or play at Dolphin Stadium. We think we can play at Lockhart Stadium through the 2008 year so that gives us a little time to work with but you are right the options for the interim years are not great right now. We will have to see what happens.

Thanks for your support,
Craig

November 8, 2006

Question by Justin

2010 is embarrassing to the entire athletic department. You could put 20k in bleachers around a field in six months. I'm so disgusted by this entire process. We are going to be a lowly Sun Belt team for the next eight years. Sweet.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos

Justin,

Thank you for the note. I totally understand your sentiment. I have been working on this process for three years and I know that we still have a long way to go and we do have a few other ideas that we are kicking around that may or may not affect the decision made yesterday. Regardless, we are just happy to be moving forward. We will see what happens in the future.

Thanks,
Craig

November 8, 2006

Question from Joe

Craig,

I am hearing conflicting stories concerning the results of the BOT meeting which took place 11/07/06 concerning the innovation village. Could you please go over what decisions that were made? I was at work at the time of the BOT webcast.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos

Joe,

Thanks for the email. Yesterday, the Board the Trustees made a decision to approve a concept of building a reasonable amount of dorm space, retail space, and parking, along with an open air 30,000 seat football stadium. With regard to the stadium, the Trustees wanted to start small with the opportunity to grow it later on as the football team progressed. There was a thought that in time a roof could be built over the top and enclosed so that we could also play basketball there or leave it as an open air stadium and build a 10,000 seat basketball arena next door. The time frame for completing a 30,000 seat open air stadium is at the minimum 2010. We are now going to work with the Board of Trustees experts to try to come up with a plan in the next six months. We will see how this works and if any other opportunities arise in the future.

Thanks,
Craig

November 7, 2006

Question from Eric

Mr. Angelos,

During my three years at FAU I have seen tremendous growth and I believe you deserve a great deal of the credit. I also believe FAU is the ideal situation for something really special to happen. Miami and Florida are the closest powerhouses in the State of Florida, and with the size of the state, Boca Raton is a great location and opportunity to feed the southeast coast of Florida a fourth power in college athletics for the state. However, to get there I believe two additions to the FAU campus are absolutely vital. Therefore, my question is two-fold. I'd love to hear your comments/answers regarding the status of these initiatives. A) The plans for an on-campus football stadium. A dome would be unbelievably beneficial to FAU and South Florida (can you say the "Future Site of the FedEx Orange Bowl?") however, I do not believe it is the ONLY acceptable option. Anything on campus that can house a football team would catapult us into big-time sports. B) An on-campus, state-of-the-art fitness center for students, faculty, administration and student-athletes. I believe this, too often, goes under the radar as unappreciated in its benefits that it can give a university. Creating a more desirable "home" atmosphere on the Boca campus, a fitness center continues to grow FAU and the transformation from a commuter college to a traditional university. Thoughts? Any update on plans for these? Thank you very much for your time. The Fighting Owls are the on the prowl... GO FAU!

P.S. I work with the basketball team and I would like to commend you on an EXCELLENT hire in Coach Rex Walters. He is truly a special coach. I see great things happening in that sport, as well as football, in the very near future!

Response from Craig Angelos

Eric,

Thank you very much for the email. I do believe that we are working in the right direction and if we can get some first class facilities I think that it would help put us over the top.

With regard to stadium, today the Trustees are going to review two options as part of the Innovation Village concept that I brought to the table. Specifically, the university would build dorm space, retail space and parking spaces and with those excess revenues build either an open air football stadium or a dome stadium. The costs continue to escalate so we might be limited as to how much we can afford. However, I too agree with you that the most important thing is to get some type of on campus football stadium. With regard to your second question, I have worked with campus officials when I first got here to create a plan for a student recreation center. I put that on our master plan in the beginning and worked with various students and other administrators on campus and it is now in the planning phase and will begin construction here in the next year for the first phase of the student recreational facility. The whole facility will cost about $35 million when finally completed and I am working on funding for that project also.

I think in the next six months we will have some real clarity on how fast we can get some of these projects up and going. Wonderful facilities are going to be key for attracting and retaining students as well as student athletes.

Thanks for your support of the athletic program and we look forward to you joining us in our future success.

Thanks,
Craig

October 31, 2006

Question from Justin

Mr. Angleos,
I went to Madison Square Garden for the Lafyette game. Bob Garcia was hosting it. Apparently, he works at the garden. I thought you might want his email for any future scheduling. Maybe get the Marist game moved there? Just figured it was worth a shot. Good luck and build something soon!!!!

Justin

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos,
Thank you very much for your email regarding the idea about moving the game to Madison Square Garden. When I was at the University of Miami for many years we would play in the Garden quite a bit and it is the best place in the country to play basketball. I guess the question would be what kind of attendance we could get with an FAU / Marist game and whether a big venue like that would be the best place to play at. Nevertheless, we will look into it. Thanks for your interest and support.

Sincerely,
Craig Angelos

Question from Rick
Dear Craig,
You may or may not be able to address this question. I attended the game against ULL. There was a nice crowd on hand. I also taped the game to view particular plays later. I noticed that all of the camera angles were from the home side - where all of the fans were sitting for the most part. The only angles that were on were of the south side of the field and the end zones - which were empty. I was curious as to what logistical constraints, if any, keeps the main camera(s) from functioning from the visitors side - thus capturing a much better and more "true" view of attendance?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Thank you for the email. From my understanding most all of the cameras are situated on the home side press box or in the end zones. They do have a few hand held cameras that were down on the field and they are free to roam from sideline to sideline. Other than those handheld cameras they tend to utilize the press box facilities for the majority of their cameras.

As you know, those type of mid-week games or Sunday night games seem to expose the lack of crowd with those cameras were they are shooting the visiting side most of the time. Unfortunately that hand held camera did not get around to the visiting side to film the home side very often. Nevertheless, it was great to be on National television and we hope our program continues to grow in quality and stature. Thanks for your support.

Craig Angelos

Question from Cole
Mr. Angelos,
I have just read a response you made to another alumni, that was posted on the board. I would just like to let you know, that many of us think you are doing an EXCELLENT job and consider ourselves very fortunate to have someone like you as our AD. Keep up the good work!!!

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
I am sorry for the delay in responding to your email. Nevertheless, I do respond to all emails, especially positive ones such as yours. I appreciate your interest in the program and support and hope that we can continue to do great things here. Most notably get a stadium in the near future. Again, thanks for your support.

Craig

4. rpks08@yahoo.com

Robert: Thank you very much for your email. You have a very good idea as far as changing the color and nickname. I will say that when I first got here in the summer of 2003 that the school was using the nickname of the "owls" as well as the Blue Wave and were utilizing different colors. I contacted the President about going through a branding campaign for athletics as well as the whole University. He agreed to it and I chaired the University wide committee. We brought in experts and they did many focus groups etcetera and came back with many ideas for a nickname as well as colors. After we all consulted together the decision was made to stay as the Owls and have blue with red be the trim color. As you know with these types of things it is very subjective and at the end of the day we all have different opinions, but the decision was made and that is where we are right now. I foresee keeping this for the near future since we just recently completed the branding campaign.

Nevertheless, thanks for your interest and we hope to be as Kansas State in the near future.

Best of luck,

Craig

September 29, 2006

Question from Cole
Craig,
Just curious..Why do we have FAU on the football helmets instead of the Owl logo?

p.s. Talons might be a nice touch also for good plays, kinda like Ohio State.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Since the inception of football, the FAU logo has been on the helmet and that is what it is currently used. While I wasn't at FAU at the time, I'm told by those who designed the helmet that it was and is the best way to identify our team since most were not accustomed to Florida Atlantic and the Owls. Overtime, the look of the helmet may be readdressed.

September 27, 2006

Question from Roger:
Many rabid fans are wondering the status of the dome or other on campus stadium. Thanks, Roger

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Thanks for the question we are meeting with the Trustees in late October to discuss the status of the Dome Stadium project. Over the last three years, we have evolved to the concept of the Innovation Village that would have dorm space, retail space, hotel space, and a dome stadium. The unique public/private partnership can work at FAU. We will have a better idea of the Trustees' position after the meeting and then we will see where we go from there.

Stay with us,
Craig

September 22, 2006

Question from Confused

An article I read in the paper today quoted you as saying you doubt any stadium on campus would be ready by 2009 (paraphrased). I copied and pasted an earlier response from you on a previous question on this forum.

Also with this model, we hope to have this in place by 2009" (speaking of the dome) We are only going to be a month off from the meeting that was supposed to be in Sept to get this approved? Why the change in completion time?

Response from Athletic Director Craig Angelos

Confused,
Through my research, I have been told that it takes approximately 27 months to build a dome stadium. Therefore the key on any completion time is directly dependant upon the approval and financing. Over a few years the stadium project has evolved into the concept that we are now reviewing which is called the innovation village concept. This project would include getting dorm space, retail space, parking space and possibly a conference center and hotel as well as a dome stadium. This project is going to be reviewed more in detail at the Trustee meeting on November 7. However, the Trustees are also going to want us to review two other concepts including an open air football stadium and also a open air football stadium with a basketball arena as two separate facilities. They will certainly require more review of the concept before making a decision as to what project to proceed with. I do believe that the Trustees and the President are committed to bringing football to our campus as soon as possible. With the demolition of Lockhart Stadium being rumored, we have to have other solutions available.

Therefore, to answer your question, the completion of the dome stadium or any other kind of stadium will be dependant upon the approval and financing process. Additionally, if the innovation village is approved the question will be at what phase will the stadium fall within the building process. Actually, the sooner this project is approved the quicker that the construction can begin. However, because of the magnitude of this concept I just can't anticipate that there is going to be a lot of review required by the Board of Trustees and therefore I am doubtful whether it would be ready to go by 2009 because the process continues to linger. We will continue to work hard and monitor the situation and move it along as quickly as possible.

Craig Angelos

August 13, 2006

Question From Concerned

So you are not doing the "Ask the A.D. anymore? Rumors have it the morale is rock bottom and you are looking to go else where. Is that the reason for the poor performance of the football team? That kind of stuff comes across in your attitude and can affect the players. They pick up on it and it affects their mood. Of course it shows up in their performance on the field.

The alumni through coordination on the FAU message board is trying to rally together to get this dome approved. We think it will be a catalyst.

Most of/or all of us wish we knew more about what's going on. Occasionally on the board, we'll get someone on there that claims to have information and talks about how bad things are with the staff. We don't know how accurate it is, if at all. But when things go like they did 9/9/06 in Kansas, you wonder.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos

Dear Concerned, I certainly enjoyed your email. I still am doing the "Ask the AD" segment but have not had ones like yours before. From my vantage point, the department has never been in better shape. By that, I mean we balanced the budget for the first time in history. We raised more unrestricted money than we ever had. We far exceeded our goals in ticket sales. We doubled our basketball attendance and we had five conference championships, one of just eight universities to have five or more, we finished 79 out of 321 Division I schools nationally and were fourth in the state behind Florida, Florida State, and Miami. From a department standpoint, we had a great year.

With regard to football, it is true that our team has struggled on the field. I did appreciate the credit you have given me for the performance of our football team but it is severely misplaced. By that I mean that the players barely know my name and certainly have little knowledge of whether I am doing a good job or not, whether we are balancing the budget, raising money etc. The football program costs about $3.9 million a year. They are fully funded. They have full scholarships, good facilities, good coaches, good tutors, they fly first rate on a charter plane, they stay in first rate hotels. From their vantage point, they are treated well. We do need an on-campus stadium and I have been working feverishly on this since I got here. There coaching staff coaches them well. So the performance on the field could be attributed to many things such as difficult competition, young team, second year in I-A and probably other things but quite a stretch to attribute it to whether the AD interviewed for another job.

With all that being said, I am a very hands-on AD and I meet regularly both together and individually with coaches and staff members. We have team building activities. I bring outside consultants to work with our staff. I think they enjoy working here at FAU, but to be sure, these are tough jobs because of the limited resources including lower salaries than at other higher funded programs. I know I will never please everybody but I believe that everyone sees this department moving in the right direction and the "proof is in the pudding". And of course, yes I enjoy being here. We have done wonderful things here and we can do even more wonderful things as we get these facilities built here.

Currently we are scheduled to meet with the Board of Trustees at their retreat on September 26 & 27 for a workshop to inform them of everything we have done up to this point and discuss the future. I expect some decisions this academic year. Thanks for your email.

Craig

July 17, 2006

Question from OwlsFan27
Mr. Angelos,

I have read that the arena is undergoing a renovation that would include new seating (i.e. chair backs). Is this the case?

The article I read this in was about the ABA team that will be using the arena. What are the benefits to the university when another team using the facility?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
It is true that we will have new chair back seating on the lower level on three sides of the court which will include the home sideline and the end zones. The other side will be our student seating. With regard to the ABA team, we talked extensively about it and decided to rent the facility to them this year to try it out. The tangible benefit is we receive the rental fee which was pretty good with little time with the gym being offline for set up. Meaning our basketball teams can practice in the afternoon and then the ABA team can use it at night. There may be some intangible benefits but we will see. Thanks for the question.
Best Wishes,
Craig

Question from Joe
Craig,

This really won't need a response or to publish this on the web site. Has anyone thought of using the Lockhart facility on the FAU campus? Get it donated, take it apart and re-assemble as much of it as needed on the campus, sandblast it and paint it. I don't know the logistics of all this. If the stadium is going to be bulldozed (I assume) why not have it donated to the university. If land is available, after the dome (we hope) is built. Men and women's soccer will have a really good facility of their own.

Response from Craig Angelos
Joe:

Let me just respond by saying that is a very good idea. It is true that most likely it will be torn down maybe as soon as 2008 if the Orioles get the whole thing for their spring training site. I have not talked with anyone about that and therefore, do not know whether it could be done or not. I am going to check in to that. Thanks for your suggestion.

Best Wishes
Craig

Question from John:
Will the ships in the harbor rise with the tides this year?

Response from Craig Angelos
The tide has been rising now for a while. Hard to say how high a tide and rise annually but we are going to see. If we can get our new done stadium approved and eventually built, we are going to need to find a much bigger harbor because our current one will not contain us.

Best Wishes
Craig

July 13, 2006

Question from Greg
Craig,

As a recent graduate, I follow FAU athletics closely. I think with the coaches and resources we have, we are an upgrade in facilities away from having one of the finest athletic programs in the country. I recently read that the stadium project suffered a set back with the university's board. Can you give an update on where that stands? I know that you are committed to the dome, but are there contingency plans in place if it cannot be completed by 2009 or 2010? Besides the obvious reasons that we need an on campus stadium, I do not think that Lockhart has many years left given that the Orioles will soon be renovating Ft. Lauderdale Stadium. I can't imagine that Lockhart would be in their plans for the site.

Also, I have a quick question regarding the upcoming football season. Will the road games be televised again? It was great to be able to watch the road games on local TV last season. Thank You and Go Owls!

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Greg:
Thanks for your email. It is true that if we can develop first class facilities we should have as good of any athletic program as anywhere in the country. I have been working on the dome stadium project that would be recommended as a university village. It would increase the dorm space, retail space, parking space. It would also have a conference center hotel that would all be built together with the dome stadium which would support each other. The paper reported that there was a set back but really what we were after is just being able to spend more time with the trustees and now present the idea to them. At the meeting the Board had so many questions and concerns and needed time to digest it all. I am now in the process of developing more information for them and going out to visit each one of them in anticipation of having a workshop on this concept some time in September. We will now start working through it with the trustees and if it works out they will approve the project and we can get it going.

Regardless of the outcome of the dome stadium, we do have to be concerned with the development of the Orioles project at Lockhart. If they get their project done Lockhart could be offline as soon as football season of 2008. Our backup plan would probably be to put up a temporary stadium up on our campus until a permanent structure was built. That is what we are thinking right now. Nevertheless, I am optimistic of our future stadium plans.

With regard to our football schedule, we will have a least three on television right now which will be Clemson, Louisiana-Lafayette, and FIU. We are working on putting four more games on television but the corporation that underwrote our games in the past has had a change in management and is no longer going to do that. Therefore, I have to see if I can come up with approximately $100,000 to underwrite the remainder of our games. We should know that in the near future. We appreciate your support.

Take care,
Craig

June 14, 2006

Question from Miguel
Mr. Angelos, I am a local high school assistant football coach and I was wondering why FAU is the only university in Florida that has a football program that does not hold a coaching clinic in the spring? The other universities in the state do a great job of helping the high school coaches in Florida become better coaches and they respect the high school coaches in the state as well. When will FAU begin to do the same?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Thank you for your email. You bring up a very good question. I have spoken with the football coaching staff regarding your question. It is my understanding that unlike most universities all of our practices both fall and spring are open to the public and to coaches. In the spring a letter is sent to each high school coach inviting them to practice and spring games. Coaches are permitted to join film review and be on the sidelines during the spring game. FAU also holds a team camp where the FAU coaches work individually with the players and coaches. FAU has held high school coaching clinics, however, many of the state spring games are held at the same time and the clinics run in conjunction with those games, therefore coaches elect to go to another clinic. Under the current system, the FAU coaches believe they are making more dates available which may or may not fit better into the high school schedule. If you want to schedule a time please feel free to contact either Assistant Head Coach Kurt VanValkenburgh at kvanvalk@fau.edu or Defensive Coordinator Kirk Hoza at khoza@fau.edu.

Question from David
Why not build a stadium with retractable roof it?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Thank you for your email. The problem with doing any type of dome stadium especially one with a retractable roof is the escalating costs. To do a dome stadium with retractable roof it would cost in the $400 million range. Also, these stadiums such as the one in Arizona and Seattle are mega stadiums with a lot of room underneath the roof. When we looked at the whether to build a basketball arena and a separate football field or build a multiuse dome facility, it was less expensive to build a very scaled down dome facility such as the Syracuse Carrier Dome. Keep in mind that footprint is much smaller than the mega dome stadiums. As an example, look at UCF. They are building a 10,000 seat basketball arena for $60,000-$80,000 million and are building a scaled down football stadium for $60,000 million. They will have two very plain facilities but it will still cost more than doing one scaled down dome stadium such as what we are trying to accomplish. Thanks for your question.

Question from "Bigga Don" da "Trigga Don"
I have been going to FAU since August of 2003, and I have watched the Football team grow very fast and become DIA. Basically, my question is: How big do you do you think the football team will get, will be as big as UM or FSU or what is your goal for the FAU Owls?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Thank you for your email. I believe we have all the elements in place to be as good as the University of Miami and FSU in the next 10-15 years. The reason I say that is because we have a tremendous talent base for prospects down here. We have a great wealth base in Palm Beach Country. And, we have a great population base to support the program. When FAU football becomes successful, we have great weather for an afternoon at the game. We are located next to the beach and we have room to build facilities. If we can build a first class football facility such as our dome stadium then we will be able to attract top athletes and have a top program. This will eventually allow us to become as successful as UM or FSU. Our athletic program is the same size as FSU and Miami's with 18 sports and 450 athletes. The biggest difference between our program and the others is of course the money, monies which they receive from their conference payout and the history (booster bases and alumni). The schools you mentioned have been playing football for generations and so it takes time to build a product. I don't think it is going to take us generations to get to their level but it will take first class facilities and a number of years. However, I do believe that in 10-15 years we will have as good of a football program as they do.

Question from Tom
As an alum living in Boca, I follow FAU rather closely. I am wondering if an outdoor football stadium is being considered also. I would guess we could build a beautiful facility that we could expand as needed, and include press boxes and lounges that face the ocean - FAU might be the only one in College football on the East coast that would have a view of the ocean.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Tom: Thanks for your email. You bring up a very good point about a huge stadium that could possibly overlook the ocean which is about 31/2 miles away from campus. We have looked at the feasibility of building a separate basketball arena and a football stadium with an opportunity to grow the stadium over time. As we calculated the costs, it would cost more than a dome stadium and it would take a lot longer to do so. A good example is UCF who is building a 10,000 seat basketball arena for approximately $60,000-$80,000 million. They are also building a scaled down football stadium for about $60,000 million. The total of their projects will exceed the cost of a multi-use dome facility that would be very unique in South Florida given our pension for avoiding the heat and rain. Also with this model, we hope to have this in place by 2009. Another concern is building a first class football stadium that is only used approximately 6-9 times per year. For example the University of Connecticut is the most recent football stadium built by the city. It cost roughly $80,000 and yet the first year it only had nine events. In today's economy, I would rather have a multi-use facility that we can possibly rent. It would also be a first class facility for this entire region. That is why we are trying to accomplish this particular project right now. Thanks for your support.

June 1 Question from Rubin
...I'm glad academics has nothing to do with athletics.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Thank you for your comments. From the sound of your email it, it looks like you have a lot of time on your hands to follow FAU sports even down to looking at my picture on the web site. I would rather have criticism than indifference. Thanks for taking you time to share your comments with me.

Best wishes,
Craig
Question from John
Craig, you mentioned students being able to support the domed stadium's construction by "showing the President and the Board of Trustee member's student support and strong desire for this project to succeed. The more the Board of Trustees hears from students about student desires for this stadium the more inclined they are to be supportive of it". To be honest, I believe the majority of the school is psyched about the dome stadium for many reasons: It would put FAU on the map in many ways. But how can we, as students, express to the Board of Trustees and the President our interest in the domed stadium? Can we bombard them with personal e-mails? Got their cell phone? Just curious...what can we do? Thanks for a great job Craig - lead the way!

John,
Thank you for your email. As you know developing the huge project of getting dorm space, retail space, parking, hotel and convention center, and the dome stadium do take a lot of time and planning. The President and the Board of Trustees need to do their due diligence on this or any other project. If you want to help, I would just suggest that you share through email your support of the project and what it could do for you and the student body in general. I think they would be interested in hearing from their constituents namely the student body when reviewing the prospect of this project as well as other projects that would benefit the institution.

Best wishes,
Craig

Question from Justin
I know it's a wile away but the men's basketball team is playing at Marist this coming year, around the holidays. Any chance it will be at the world's most famous arena, Madison Square Garden? That would be pretty cool. I mention this because a buddy of mine went to Marist and he said it would probably be at the Garden.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Justin: I appreciate your email and your interest in our men's basketball program as it relates to the Marist game. To be honest, I do not know if we will be playing them in Madison Square Garden but I do not think that will be the case. I will forward this over to our assistant basketball coach, Jeff Guin who could respond back to you as to where we will be playing the Marist game. He would probably be in a better position to answer that for both of us.

Best wishes,
Craig

Question from Mark and from Joe T.
Are you still pursing a 12th game for the upcoming football season? If yes, can you discuss the potential candidates?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Mark and Joe T., Thank you for your emails. We are still pursuing a 12th game. Our plan all along was to play a I-AA opponent. We had originally planned to play FAMU because they owed us a return game as part of a contract. They could only squeeze us in if the NCAA passed legislation that would approve a 12 game schedule for all I-AA opponents. From all the people that we talked with, the 12th game was definitely approved at the I-AA level. It passed through all the committees but when it got to the Presidential level they tabled the legislation. Therefore after relying for many months that this game would constitute our 12th game, we have been forced to find other opponents at this late date. We have talked with opponents such as the University of Maine and Southern Utah University and are trying to find another opponent that will come to Boca Raton on the dates that we can accommodate them. Hopefully we should have something soon. Thanks for your interest and we hope to see you at the games.

Best wishes,
Craig

Question from Joe T.:
I saw the Q&A concerning FAU sports and one was what can the students do to help with support of the proposed dome/stadium. Now, what can alumni far away and close by do to help land this thing?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos:
5. Joe: Thank you very much for your email. As you know, we have approximately 80,000 alumni in South Florida and a number of alumni outside of Florida. I would encourage alumni to voice their support of the program to the President and the Board of Trustees if they feel so inclined. However, the number one way in which alumni can support the project is through buying tickets or making a donation to the project. I have discovered in my three years at FAU that there is a lot of discussion about FAU's athletic program and project but we need to convert that rhetoric to action in the form of buying tickets, making a donation, or coming out to a ball game. That is clearly the most beneficial thing that the alumni can do in supporting the program and these projects. Thank you again for your interest.

Best wishes,
Craig

Question from Tom
The new track is awesome. Is there a chance for a men's track & field team? If so, when would it start?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Tom, Thank you for your email. We are very excited about our track project and look forward to its completion next spring. As of right now, we do not have intentions of adding a men's track and field program. The reason being is due to the factors of cost as well as maintaining a delicate balance of Title IX which means having the same amount of participation opportunities in male sports as well as female sports. Because we have so many more male participant opportunities due in part to a large number of football players it is very difficult to add another men's team and maintain that Title IX balance. Therefore, we do not have plans to do so. Thanks for your question.

Best of luck,
Craig

Question from Mike
The men's basketball team is shaping up pretty good for next year. Is there any word on some bigger teams coming to Boca? What about a holiday tourney? I hear a trip to NYC is in place? Give us something to nibble on...Dome update?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Mike, Thank you for the email. Our men's basketball schedule is nearing completion. We will have games on the road at North Carolina, and at Oklahoma State, and Marist in New York City. This year we will not have bigger teams coming to Boca Raton other than the Sun Belt competition which will be new for us. We hope to be able to start up an exempt tournament next year that would host bigger teams. This would assist us in our quality of schedule and our quality of home games. We are also moving along on the dome project. We are anticipating making a presentation to the Board of Trustees on June 14th that would allow us to build dorm space, retail space, parking space, and a hotel and conference center and utilize those revenues to find a cultural events center that would allow us to play football and basketball in there. It is a great concept and I think we have a very good shot of getting this approved and moving forward. I think the next few months will be critical as this project gets moved in front of the Board of Trustees for their approval. We are creating a tipping point in our athletic department. If we can get this project approved we will be well on our way to becoming a first rate athletic department and will be able to attract many of the more high profile schools.

Best Wishes,
Craig

Question from Pete
Is there news on the spring training facility with the Indians? That would be pretty cool.

What's your opinion on Doherty now? Was it just a big lie about the "been to the top of the mountain?" I really thought we wanted to build something here. I was shocked he left for the Conference USA.

I know we were not able to pay a coach 600K but, did he ask you to match it before he left?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Pete,
Thank you for email. With regard to the spring training facility, we are just waiting to get the drawings on potential sites. After that we will see if we can set up the necessary financing to make a deal work. This would certainly have to be contingent upon the City of Boca and possibly the Beach and Parks District participating in this transaction. We had told the Indians that we would try to have the proposal to them sometime in June which would allow the Indians time to prepare an application with that municipality in October.

With regard to Matt, I still think Matt is a tremendous individual and I would hire him all over again even if it was just for one year. In that one year, we doubled attendance, tripled ticket sales revenue, and raised the profile of our basketball program dramatically. It was worth it even if it was for just one year. When he left, I did indicate that we would be willing to offer some more money but certainly he knew there was a big disparity between what he was going to get paid at SMU versus what he was getting paid at FAU and knew that it was not feasible. I believe he is sincere and is a very good person and I am glad that we had him for one year. Thanks for your question and good luck to you.

Craig

Question from Myles Felker
The new track is going to be great, when can we see some other facilities being put up?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos

Myles,
Thank you for your email. It is true that the track and field stadium is getting under way right now and should be done in six months. Also, in the last two years we have put in $500,000 to $600,000 into the arena and more improvements are being added this summer. We will be making the decision sometime this summer on whether we will be able to build the innovation village which includes additional dorm and retail space, those revenues going toward paying for a dome stadium. Certainly that would be our crown jewel and we would love to see that happen. If we can't get the dome stadium we will certainly put up a smaller football stadium. Other than that we need to rebuild our baseball stadium. Once we have done the baseball and dome stadium we should be in very good shape locally as well as nationally. If we can get first class facilities, we have all the other elements to be successful at FAU and be as good as anyone in the country. I hope it can happen.

Take care,
Craig

Question from FAU Why a track facility when this team stinks the whole NCAA track world? The worst thing is it won't matter at all if there is a track on campus! They are not good and next year in the Sun Belt will be worse!

I am a student-athlete here at FAU and I believe the money should go to the teams that are performing well and this is not one of them.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
FAU,
Thanks for the email. A new track stadium has been in the works for a long time simply because we do not have a functioning track and field stadium on our campus. The women's track and field team is doing very well and getting better every year. It is the only sport we have in which we have no facilities to practice or compete on our campus. The track stadium will also be used by the students because the infield will be surfaced with Fieldturf allowing the students to use it for campus sports and recreation programs since they don't have a functioning field to play soccer or other campus recreation activities. We will also use it to host a lot of local and regional events. With this new facility our track and field program will have a place to practice and compete and will continue to develop into being a fine track program but also the students will have a place they can utilize.

We also have plans to eventually build our on campus football stadium and to renovate the baseball stadium. We have already put about $500,000 into refurbishing the arena and are putting more money into improving that also. Our swimming pool and softball facilities are very good. As you can see, we do want to bolster our facilities. If we have good facilities, we believe we can be as good as anyone in the country. Please be assured that this is a long term process and that it is like playing a chess game whereby we are trying to make the right moves at the right time under the right circumstances to hopefully have a positive effect on all of our student athletes.

Craig

Question from FAU OWL,
I am a student at FAU and most of my friends and students know that FAU is just not good in any sport. Why continue "bragging" about terrible performances of FAU teams? They are light years away from becoming plain good.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos

FAU OWL,
Thanks for your email. I am glad to know that you care about the athletics program enough to make a comment about it. While it is true that we have not won a national team championship in our athletic program, nevertheless we are growing very quickly and are working towards having first rate athletic teams. As you know we have only had football for five years and we have only been playing basketball since 1988. When you compare a very young athletic program to schools such as Florida which has been playing football for over 100 years, certainly they are much more developed because they have had generations and generations to continue to refine their programs. We are a young program that is growing quickly and making great strides along the way. Compare us to our level of competition and we are doing fairly well considering we have won five Conference Championships and seven trips to the NCAA Tournament this year. That is certainly a single-season record here and a record at most places around the country. So, even though we haven't won a national team championship, we are playing well and we will continue to grow and become a first rate athletic department in the future. I invite you to come out and support us.

Thanks,
Craig

Question from Kevin
Mr Angelos, I would like to start by saying that I have been quite impressed with your work since you have taken over the FAU AD post (and I enjoyed my brief stint as an athlete under your reign). Your vision for our program excites me and I know that you have labored through some tough issues in the process. What I can't quite understand, however, is how Doherty was able to slip away from a program that can, should, and will be better than the situation he is currently inheriting? How was he able to get out of his contract? What are the ramifications for the program? Are all of our recruits likely to keep their commitments? How long has the athletic department been aware of this situation? Has there been a search for a new coach? There's a ton of questions one could ask but I think I'll cap it here. Best of luck Mr. Angelos.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
Kevin,
I am sorry for the delay in responding to your email. As you know by now we have a new head men's basketball coach, Rex Walters. I promoted him up from an associate head coach under Matt Doherty. With regard to Matt, we structured his contract such that if he did decide to leave after the first year he would owe the athletic department money, therefore as with any contract he decided to exercise the option that was available to him and therefore he had the ability to go to SMU and get paid three times as much but does have to remit money back to FAU as part of the contract. Matt and I talked a lot about the situation and he felt that this was a better situation that was going to pay him three times as much as we were paying and therefore felt it was necessary for him to make the move. At first the recruits and returning players were unsure of what they were going to do but since Rex Walters will continue to lead the program that he helped to start everything is falling into place and recruits and student athletes are staying at FAU. I would have liked him to stay here longer and possibly take a job at a high profile conference but he had to do what was best for him and I respect that. I am sure that Rex Walters will carry on the fine tradition that has been started albeit just for one year. I appreciate your support.

Thanks,
Craig

Question from Joe Turek '80,
As of 4/22/06 2:30 p.m. CDT rumor has it Doherty is gone. We had a taste of what it might be like to be in the lime light. Find someone good. If its Walters, then do it.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos

Joe,
Sorry for the delay in responding to your email. As you know by now we have promoted Rex Walters to take over for Matt Doherty. It is unfortunate that Matt left after one year but he elected to exercise a clause in his contract that allowed him to do so but also it required him to remit back money to the institution. Therefore financially we came out just fine but we will miss his presence and the status that he brought to the program. The next coach's salary has the buyout clauses that Matt did and we are hoping that this does not become an annual thing to hire a new coach. I appreciate your support of the program.

Thanks,
Craig

Question from Ched Chase
With the new APR, we are starting to see penalties handed down and we're starting to see universities tightening up their acceptance standards for all students, including athletes. I'm curious to hear your thoughts on how this changes recruiting in your opinion. For instance, some schools have higher standards therefore unable to get some kids in while FAU might. Thanks for your thoughts.

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
With the new APR standards, coaches are not just going to be judged by the objective standard of winning and losing contests but also their APR numbers will also be viewed as an objective standard to measure success. Because of this new standard, we have had many discussions with our coaches and President as to how to focus on tightening up our procedures to ensure that we get good results. FAU has also tightened up its acceptance standards considerably which has no relationship to the APR but rather just their intent to upgrade the quality of students that are coming into the University. Every institution has separate acceptance standards but once student athletes get into any school they all have to adhere to the same NCAA eligibility standards and the same standard will apply as it relates to the APR. We will continue to work to improve our APR rates but there are some issues that are within our control and others that we can only influence. For example each student athlete receives two points per semester, one for retention and the second for eligibility. At the end of the academic year we would like each student to be four for four. However, we may lose a point because the student elects to transfer or leaves early to go into the professional ranks which is especially common in baseball, or somehow leaving school on their own accord for personal reasons. In those situations our APR will be dramatically hurt but it won't be something that we can necessarily control. We have tried to concentrate on why people will lose points for eligibility and academic reasons. With those individuals we have to look very seriously on whether we let student athletes into school that were not prepared properly or whether we didn't work closely enough with them and or the student athlete worked diligently in order to have academic success once they were in the school.

Nevertheless, this APR standard is something that we all have to pay close attention and find ways to get positive results. Again thanks for your interest.

Best wishes,
Craig Angelos

Question from Ron Zamora
I am a big fan and supporter of my university and the Florida Marlins. How realistic is the possibility of building the new domed stadium and sharing it with the Florida Marlins?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
I met, once, with the Florida Marlins executives and have shown them what we were trying to do with our proposed dome stadium. We have also invited them to consider whether a shared usage of a dome stadium would be feasible for the Marlins. The indication is that the Florida Marlins would really like to have their own stadium that would be a baseball only stadium. We talked a little bit more about how we could reconfigure the dome stadium for baseball for the spring and summer as a possibility but that was as far as the discussions went. It would be a long shot to ever hook up with the Marlins although personally I would love to see that happen. I think it would be great for the community and great for the University. Thanks for the interest in our program.

Best wishes,
Craig Angelos

Question from John Hernandez
Is the idea of having an on campus dome stadium on its way? If so, when?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
The dome stadium project is moving along. We have selected the development group that we wish to use. It is the same group that worked with UCF. Currently, we are in an exclusive negotiation period whereby they are crunching all the numbers so they can give us the full picture of what it would look like and how it would be financed. This process should be completed by May or June. As soon as we get that plan we will then review the feasibility of it and present it to the Board of Trustees. Hopefully at that time, we will start the construction of the dorm space and retail space and then start the construction of the dome stadium which hopefully would be completed by the fall of 2009. I am very hopeful this project will come together and that the next two months will be very pivotal for us. Thanks for your interest.

Best wishes,
Craig Angelos

Question from Alejandro Lalinde
How can the students help with the construction of the new football stadium and when does construction start?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
I appreciate your email and apologize for the delay in my response. As you know, we have selected a development group and we are working to formulate a solid plan to present to the Board of Trustees. This plan would allow us to build dorm space, retail space and utilize those revenues to build the dome stadium. We are hopeful that the development group will present us with the final details by May or June. We will then evaluate our position and see if we can go forward. If all goes well, the construction of the dome stadium would start in the summer of 2007 and would be complete in the fall of 2009. Students can help by showing the President and the Board of Trustee members their support and strong desire for this project succeed. The Board of Trustees will have the final call. The more they hear from students about student desires for this stadium the more inclined they are to be supportive of it. I think this is the best way to help out at this point. Thanks for your interest.

Best wishes,
Craig Angelos

Question from Justin
When are we going to have an on campus stadium? I know your working on it but the longer it draws out the tougher its going to be to stay competitive. Can you make a statement say we will have something by 2008?

Response from Athletics Director Craig Angelos
The dome stadium project is moving along. We have selected the development group that we wish to use, which is the same group that has done the project at UCF. Currently, we are in an exclusive negotiation period whereby they are crunching all the numbers which will allow them to give us the full picture of what it would look like and how it would be financed. This should be completed by late May or early June. As soon as we get that plan, we will then review the feasibility of it and present it to the Board of Trustees. Hopefully at that time we will start the construction of dorm space and retail space and then start the construction of the dome stadium which we hope to have completed by the fall of 2009. I am very hopeful this project will come together and the next two months will be very pivotal for us. Thanks for your interest.

Best wishes,
Craig