Univ. of North Carolina-Charlotte officials are pursuing a naming-rights deal of $5M over 10-12 years for a stadium to be built for the school's new football program. The field itself and a fieldhouse in the south end zone are also being marketed for naming deals that will most likely be sold to philanthropic donors, said UNCC AD Judy Rose. The university is working on those deals in-house. "I'm not at liberty to say but we are very close to closing in on naming the field," Rose said. "We have a proposal out for the stadium right now. There will also be some smaller things in the fieldhouse to sell." The school held a ceremonial groundbreaking Thursday to kick off construction of a 15,000-seat stadium that can be expanded to 40,000 seats in the future. The $45M overall project cost includes $33M to build the stadium and $4.5M to relocate intramural fields at the site of the new facility. The stadium, developed by local firm Jenkins Peer Architects and DLR Group, a national sports designer, will have 1,900 premium seats with chairbacks between the 30-yard lines on the west side, tied to the school's Forty-Niner Seat License program. Those premium-seat holders get access to a 6,950-square-foot open-air hospitality deck on the roof of the fieldhouse in the south end zone. The only suite is a 32-seat skybox inside the press box reserved for university use. The master plan for expanding the stadium would convert the 10,754-square-foot press box structure to all suites and build a new press box as part of a new upper level. UNCC football's first home game is set for Aug. 31, 2013, at its new stadium. The school will start playing at the Football Championship Subdivision level with a goal of eventually moving up to Football Bowl Subdivision status.
