Lawrence Tech football coming in 2018

"Lawrence Technological University's decision to relaunch a football program after 70 years is part of the Southfield-based school's business strategy to remold itself into a traditional residential college.

Football, the thinking goes, can build a cadre of loyal alumni whose school spirit, fueled by memories of bucolic gridiron Saturdays, may be willing to write checks to their beloved alma mater.

So, the private university announced last week that it will field a football team in 2018 for the first time since the end of World War II, and that it has hired former Culver-Stockton College head coach Jeff Duvendeck as the first head coach of the Blue Devils football team.

His hiring is part of a $1.2 million budget to launch the football program, a cost that will include three full-time assistants and the purchase of equipment and uniforms, said Kevin Finn, LTU's dean of students.

Lawrence Tech will deploy a capital campaign to raise money for an $8 million to $10 million football stadium. Last year, an anonymous donor gave Lawrence Tech $1 million to cover the cost of an 88,000-square-foot synthetic grass field from Dalton, Ga.-based AstroTurf LLC. The field was finished in September, and is lined for football, soccer and lacrosse, and has a sand and rubber in-fill base."

Source:  Bill Shea, Crain's Business, 1/27/2017

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20170127/NEWS/170129855/lawrence-tech-makes-business-case-for-return-to-football