DELAND, Fla. — DeLand city leaders approved a plan Monday night to spend millions of tax dollars on a football stadium for a private college. Stetson University wants to upgrade Spec Martin Stadium so it can start a football team.
DeLand's Spec Martin Stadium, which is a high school only facility, could be home to a college team from Stetson University by 2013, but it would require millions in public money improvements to do it.
"You would have to have a press box that is usable, locker rooms and a sports medicine area that can service this time of student athlete," Athletic Director Jeff Altier said.
Altier said the medical facility alone, required to play college football, would need to be 2,200-square-feet.
Stetson had a team that played in bowl games until 1956. They beat the University of Florida, but lack of interest killed the program. The school sees reviving it as key to increasing enrollment from 2,100 to 3,000 students.
"It's the sense of community bringing more events to town, having more things for residents to do, and upgrading all of Earl Brown Park, not just the stadium," City Commissioner Leigh Matusick said.
At least three city commissioners emphasized the stadium is part of a larger $5.6 million project that would also expand a community center, repair basketball courts, restrooms and trails. Stetson would pay about $73,000 for the next 20 years, which is more than half the cost of the stadium improvements, and city leaders said it could be a economic boost.
"It's going to create a lot of jobs. It's going to create construction jobs, for one, people working at the facility, for another," Matusick said.
Stetson would play with similarly sized schools like Drake and Butler, and add women's lacrosse too. Twice before, in 1934 and 1941, the school needed city help for a stadium and it failed both times.
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