Here’s the latest on the USF Bulls’ on-campus football stadium

Negotiations for USF’s proposed on-campus football stadium remain ongoing, a week after the Bulls’ target date to award the project to a firm.

Three companies — Hunt Construction Group, Barton Malow Builders and M.A. Mortenson Company — submitted proposals before the July 22 deadline. The Tampa Bay Times asked for those documents through a public-record request because proposals and bids are typically available 30 days after they are opened or when a decision is made. In this case, the submissions are not yet public, according to USF, because the Bulls have not yet received final replies in the negotiations.

The ongoing discussions are not a surprise. Though USF originally listed Aug. 19 as the “intent to award” date, that part of the timeline has always been fluid.

Any decision must be finalized by the school’s board of trustees, which is expected to discuss the topic at its regularly scheduled Sept. 6 meeting in St. Petersburg.

The negotiations are the latest phase of the school’s years-long stadium saga. In 2014, the Bulls announced they were going to start a formal study to determine how much a stadium would cost and where it would go. This spring, USF recommended a site just north of the team’s practice fields.

USF administrators have said they would like to open the stadium in 2026. They have not yet provided a budget for the building or detailed how it will be paid for. That’s one reason why they’re requesting proposals through invitations to negotiate — so they could get a better read on potential costs of a 35,000-seat stadium.

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