Iconic College Football Stadium to Receive Major Renovation originally appeared on Athlon Sports.

Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, or “The Swamp,” as it is known to the college football world, is one of the most feared venues in the sport. With its near-89,000-seat capacity and raucous crowd, Gainesville is always a tough place for visiting teams to play.

Built in 1930, the home of the Florida Gators will undergo renovations to improve its fan experience and more over the next few years. This week, UF athletic director Scott Stricklin spoke on the Gator Nation Football Podcast, about the upcoming renovation and ways to combat seat loss, which he said is an inevitable part of the project.

“We have like six or seven goals for the renovation of The Swamp, which is 95 years old this year, the original part of that,” Stricklin said. “We’re re-investing in something that I think every Gator fan really holds dear. One of our stated goals is to minimize the impact of seat count loss.”

The planning of this construction project was first introduced in December 2023 when the University Athletic Association hired Crawford Architects to begin the development of renovation, construction and phasing options. 

Stricklin said the construction company and the UAA are in the design and development phase of the project right now, which is the second of three parts of the design.

“We’ll wrap this up sometime in the fall,” he said. “At that point, we’ll have a really good sense on budget. We’ll have a really good sense on what we’ll actually do. And once we come up with a financing plan we’ll be ready to start sharing that with Gator Nation.”

While the ninth-year athletic director has promised to keep the same energy in The Swamp, some fans have voiced their displeasure with the decline of seating capacity. However, Stricklin has assured the losses will be limited and definitely worth the outcome.

“[The renovation] is the most ambitious project in the history of college athletics,” he said.

No matter the number of seats that are removed during the renovation, there is no doubt the deafening sound of Gator fans will never fade.

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This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 26, 2025, where it first appeared.