Future
By 2005, Orlando-area government officials and University of Central Florida officials expressed dissatisfaction with the state of the facility, which led UCF to consider relocating, or spend considerable expense to upgrade the facility. While UCF was the primary leasing tenant for the facility, they received minimal revenue from football games. In addition, the stadium's capacity was seen as too large for UCF, leaving the stadium an appearance of being empty with attendance of as much as 30,000-40,000 people per game. UCF's all-time attendance record was only 51,978 for the 2005 C-USA Championship Game versus Tulsa. The stadium was also located over 10 miles from the university's main campus, with a travel time of up to a half hour due to traffic. UCF officials made the decision to leave the Citrus Bowl and to construct a new on-campus stadium called Bright House Networks Stadium, which opened for the 2007 season.
City of Orlando officials are currently exploring a stadium refurbishment project. In 2004, the Capital One Bowl bid to become a BCS game, but was not chosen, due to the stadium's aging condition. The Citrus Bowl also submitted a bid for the ACC Championship Game, but lost out to Jacksonville. The key reasons for losing the bids are the lack of modern luxury boxes, bench seating, and capacity.
The hopes for the Citrus Bowl became reality when, on September 29, 2006, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer announced an agreement on a $175-million renovation of the Citrus Bowl. It is part of the "Triple Crown for Downtown", a $1.1-billion plan to redo the Orlando Centroplex with a new $480-million arena for the Orlando Magic, a new $375-million performing arts center, and the Citrus Bowl improvements. Conceptual drawings for the possible improvements include enclosed concourses on the east and west sides of the stadium and additions to the north side that will finally complete the lower bowl. The Orlando/Orange County Interlocal Agreement was approved by the Orlando City Council on August 6, 2007.
In 2010 the natural grass surface was replaced with AstroTurf Gameday Grass 3D after the 2009 Champs Sports Bowl and 2010 Capital One Bowl were marred by poor field conditions that led to two football player injuries.
Read more about this topic: Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium
Famous quotes containing the word future:
“I would sum up my fear about the future in one word: boring. And that’s my one fear: that everything has happened; nothing exciting or new or interesting is ever going to happen again ... the future is just going to be a vast, conforming suburb of the soul.”
—J.G. (James Graham)
“My future just passed.”
—George Marion, Jr. (1899–1968)
“It is marvelous indeed to watch on television the rings of Saturn close; and to speculate on what we may yet find at galaxy’s edge. But in the process, we have lost the human element; not to mention the high hope of those quaint days when flight would create “one world.” Instead of one world, we have “star wars,” and a future in which dumb dented human toys will drift mindlessly about the cosmos long after our small planet’s dead.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)