Report: Miami athletic director Dan Radakovich addresses stadium rumors

Miami has its new head coach in Mario Cristobal, and now it has its new athletic director in Dan Radakovich. The one remaining question, which has been a mainstay in the Miami Hurricanes’ rumor mill, is whether they will seek a new stadium, too.

Miami currently plays in Hard Rock Stadium, which is also home to the Miami Dolphins. But Hurricanes fans have long pondered the question of whether it’s time for the Miami football team to move into its own stadium, perhaps one on campus, that would allow the program to have its own competition grounds.

In an interview with The Athletic, Radakovich, who came to Miami from Clemson, was asked about the potential for building a new stadium. Specifically, reports have surfaced that local billionaire John Ruiz is interested in building a stadium either on-campus or near Miami’s campus. But Radakovich was not ready to give a definitive answer moving on from Miami’s home.

“Hard Rock Stadium is just fabulous. I mean, it’s a wonderful place to play, but it’s a little far from campus,” Radakovich said. “You have something that’s close to campus, that benefits the entire campus community, it’s almost immeasurable. So if that’s something that can happen, we’re going to pursue it to its logical conclusion. I know it’s been tried before. But, certainly, there’s things that we can look at to try to create an opportunity if one exists for that to happen.”

Radakovich, formerly the athletic director at Clemson, accepted the same role at Miami earlier this week. The 63-year-old was making $1.3 million this year at Clemson, and Clemson Sports‘ Matt Connolly reports that his salary is expected to at least double at Miami. The Hurricanes had been courting Radakovich to become their new athletic director for several weeks, but the conversations finally began heating up about a week-and-a-half ago. Miami swept up Cristobal and Radakovich, rebuilding the highest-paid members of its athletic department, in swift fashion.

“(But) I did not sit in an interview with Rudy (Fernandez) and president (Julio) Frenk and everyone and say, ‘That’s exactly what we need to do, and we have to go and get that done,’” Radakovich said about Miami’s potential new stadium to The Athletic. “Because that might not happen for 100 reasons that you guys know better than I do right now. But that pursuit to see if it could happen, and the manner that it could happen, I think is going to be a worthwhile endeavor.”

The Miami Hurricanes have a lease with Hard Rock Stadium that runs through 2032, so even if the program pursues a new stadium, it will have plenty of time to come up with a blueprint and raise money.