Pitbull Stadium

FIU Community Stadium

FIU Community Stadium was the first dedicated sports facility at the school, replacing Tamiami Field. Construction officially began on July 24, 1994, and the facility opened on September 24, 1995, as a 7,500-seat football and track stadium. It was built as a joint venture between FIU, Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Miami-Dade Parks, and the Miami-Dade County Youth Fair.^[1] In anticipation of the inaugural FIU Golden Panthers football^{[Note 1]} season in fall 2002, the university placed movable bleachers around the stadium's all-weather running track in 2001, which increased the stadium's capacity to 17,000 seats.

Renovation

In 2007, the university announced a major expansion and redesign for FIU Stadium. The redesign of FIU Stadium would increase the stadium's capacity to 45,000 fans, to be built in phases. For the first phase of the expansion, the school demolished a large portion of the original 1995 stadium. The west, south and east sides of FIU Stadium were taken down and construction began on the new, permanent stadium. The expansion was completed in September 2008 for the 2008 football season. Phase one increased the stadium's capacity from 17,000 fans to 18,000, including 1,500 club seats.^[7] During construction, the 2007 FIU Golden Panthers football team played its home games in the Miami Orange Bowl.

The new facility opened for the first home game of the 2008 football season against the South Florida Bulls on September 20. The Golden Panthers lost 17–9 in front of a crowd of 16,717.^[8] The team won its first game in the new stadium on October 11, 2008, against Sun Belt Conference rival the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders, 31–21. The team finished its first season in the new stadium 5-7. In 2009, the university began the second phase of the stadium expansion, which included the construction of a new football field house. Renovations were completed in 2012 and the capacity increased to 20,000 seats.

In 2017, the university agreed to a five-year deal to rename the stadium after Riccardo Silva, part owner of Miami FC.^[9] Before the deal, Silva had donated $3.76 million for various improvements to the stadium including a new playing surface and Jumbotron video scoreboard.^[9][10]

Attendance

On October 1, 2011, FIU Stadium drew its largest attendance in school history. A crowd of 22,268 came to watch the Panthers play the Duke Blue Devils football team for the team's 2011 homecoming game. During the game, the Goodyear Blimp made its first appearance at FIU Stadium. The Miami Tower in Downtown Miami was also lit in blue and gold from September 26 to October 1, 2011, in honor of the game.^[11]

On April 19, Miami FC set a club record for attendance at the stadium. The match against Major League Soccer team Inter Miami CF in the Third Round of the 2022 U.S. Open Cup drew 11,158 fans.^[12]

Renaming

On April 3, 2017, FIU Stadium was renamed Riccardo Silva Stadium.^[9][13][10] The decision to rename the stadium was in recognition of the support given by Italian businessman Riccardo Silva to the FIU Department of Intercollegiate Athletics since 2015.

The newly renamed stadium home opener featured a performance by Grammy-nominated Latin star Maluma.^[14][15] Maluma returned to the stadium in April 2018 to record the video for the Spanish-language version of Jason Derulo's World Cup 2018 anthem for Coca-Cola.^[16][17]

On August 6, 2024, it was reported that American rapper and singer Pitbull would be purchasing the naming rights to FIU Stadium, paying $1.2 million annually to rename the stadium to Pitbull Stadium.^[18]