UCF gears up for football opener with Gateway, Roth Tower projects ongoing

Len Moser knows a thing or two about sports venues.

As the vice president of sports for Barton Malow Builders, Moser has been a part of construction projects at places such as Daytona International Speedway, Camping World Stadium and most recently EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville.

Lately, Moser can be found at UCF as part of the crew working on the expansion of the Roth Tower at Acrisure Bounce House Stadium and the new Hagle Gateway.

With the Knights set to open the football season by hosting Jacksonville State on Thursday, construction crews have been working to get the Gateway ready for fans while finishing up the concrete and steel foundation for the tower project.

“What I always say is you can get a month’s worth of work done in a week and a week’s worth of work done in a day when we’re under the gun like this,” said Moser. “It’s just a fun and exciting time to see everybody come together.”

While it’s been nearly eight months since construction crews broke ground, both projects have been in the works for almost two years.

The Roth Tower project expands the tower structure by approximately 58,000 square feet, with approximately 15,650 square feet dedicated to club space. This includes 42% more club seating, loge suites with seating, 28 luxury suites and 34 new outdoor sky suites.

The expanded premium seating options will help the school generate $2.4 million in new annual revenue.

Orange County commissioners approved $90 million of tourist development tax funds for the football stadium project in October 2023. While the project is funded through the TDT funds, UCF plans to use a $70 million bank loan and $30 million in bonds for short-term financing.

The new Roth Tower is set to open in the fall of 2026, and construction will continue throughout this upcoming football season.

“We planned it out very well in advance to make sure we had some of the main structure erected first, and then we get the cranes out of the way and open that up for fans and make it safe and make it accessible,” Moser said. “Then we’ll come in between games.”

“We’ve got a plan in place to set up for game day,” said Marcus Attles, UCF’s senior executive associate athletics director of capital projects, events and operations. “It’ll be a construction site through the week, and then it will go back to our game day. We’re excited to host seven really exciting football games here at the Bounce House.”

UCF has said all the gates and concourses throughout the stadium will be open as usual.

One noticeable change is the Knight Walk, which moves over to the North walkway adjacent to the North Lawn of the IOA Place and directly in line with Gates 4-5.

The grass area where the school typically hosts concerts will be cut in half and will be shifted to accommodate the construction equipment.

“Construction-wise, we’ll wrap up Monday with the first game being on a Thursday,” said Zach Beiler, Barton Malow project manager. “It gives us as much runway as we can for that first game. By Tuesday, we’ll be moving fences and cleaning up, and by Wednesday we’ll be pretty much setting up the final touches.”

Once the game is over, construction will resume on Monday before winding things down on Thursday for Game 2 against North Carolina A&T on Saturday, Sept. 6.

After the completion of this season, crews will begin gutting the existing Roth Tower structure to complete it before next fall.

“It’ll basically be stripped down to just the basic structure,” said Moser. “Everything will come out and you’ll have that main skeleton and we’ll attach to that. On the back side, we’ll increase the volume of it as well.”

Meanwhile, crews have been putting the finishing touches on part of the Hagle Gateway project, finishing the walkway from Kenneth Dixon Way to the stadium.

Please find me on X, Bluesky or Instagram @osmattmurschel. Email: moc.lenitnesodnalro@lehcsrumm. Sign up for the Sentinel’s Knights Weekly newsletter for a roundup of all our UCF coverage.