It was 2021, and Will Weatherford had just been appointed to the University of South Florida's board of trustees. Curious about a sports issue, Weatherford asked around about creating a football stadium for the 50,000-student, three-campus university.
He was met with nods and agreement about the need. Leaders at USF told Weatherford, former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives and now managing partner of Tampa-based investment firm Weatherford Capital, which he founded and runs with two brothers, that the stadium idea had been bandied about before. But for a variety of reasons, it never got far.