Gator Fund-raising Power
National championships certainly don’t hurt fund-raising opportunities.
The University of Florida, which won this year’s NCAA football national championship (and back-to-back basketball titles), announced this week it has secured a $7 million pledge from James W. “Bill” Heavener, whose name will grace the new football office complex at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Heavener is a member of the Gator Boosters board of directors and a Bull Gator, an elite level of athletics donor, and serves as co-chairman/CEO of Full Sail Real World Education, an entertainment media college in Winter Park.
The renovation project, scheduled to be completed before the 2008 season, will include a 6,815-square foot expansion of the football office area to 12,436 square feet, a new "front door" structure that rises three stories on the southwest corner of the stadium and a new Gator Room for meetings and recruiting functions, according to a UF release.
CRAIG DAVIS In more than 33 years at the Sun Sentinel, Craig Davis has written about a wide variety of sports topics from baseball to yachting, fishing to triathlons, and also worked as a copy editor and page designer. Recently he reported on local sports, including running, swimming, cycling, equestrian and beach volleyball. He enjoys sports as a participant as well as a spectator, is active in the South Florida running scene plays in the curling club at Saveology Iceplex. This blog offers a glimpse at the business side of sports in the interest of enhancing enjoyment of the games and sporting options as a spectator as well as a participant.
