{"id":74386,"date":"2026-07-23T14:10:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T18:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=74386"},"modified":"2026-07-23T14:10:29","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T18:10:29","slug":"florida-polys-athletics-program-secures-use-of-auburndale-sports-facilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/07\/23\/florida-polys-athletics-program-secures-use-of-auburndale-sports-facilities\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Poly’s Athletics Program Secures Use of Auburndale Sports Facilities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Florida Polytechnic University and the City of Auburndale signed a three-year athletic facilities agreement, establishing a solid home base for Florida Poly\u2019s brand-new intercollegiate sports program.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As Florida Poly launches varsity athletics this fall in the NAIA’s Sun Conference, the partnership gives the Phoenix immediate access to established regional facilities.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udccd Facilities Breakdown<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The agreement covers three major Auburndale locations to host Florida Poly’s eight varsity sports:<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Location<\/strong><\/td>Purpose \/ Sports Hosted<\/strong><\/td>Notes<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/thead>
Lake Myrtle Sports Complex<\/strong><\/td>Baseball, Men\u2019s & Women\u2019s Soccer, Cross Country<\/td>\u2022 Primary home for matches and practices
\u2022 Men’s soccer hosts the university’s inaugural home match here on August 13<\/strong> vs. Thomas University
\u2022 Includes dedicated soccer stadium locker rooms and pregame field access<\/td><\/tr>
Auburndale Community Center<\/strong><\/td>Men\u2019s & Women\u2019s Basketball<\/td>\u2022 Dedicated practice facility
\u2022 (Home games will be hosted at Polk State College in Winter Haven)<\/em><\/td><\/tr>
Auburndale Softball Complex<\/strong><\/td>Women\u2019s Softball<\/td>\u2022 Dedicated practice facility
\u2022 (Home games will also be hosted at Polk State College)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\ud83e\udd1d Key Terms & Highlights<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  • Duration & Fees:<\/strong> Approved by the Auburndale City Commission, the agreement spans 3 years<\/strong> (with an option for a 2-year extension). Florida Poly will pay an annual fee of $50,000<\/strong> for scheduled usage, storage, and priority access.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Priority Access:<\/strong> Student-athletes receive priority scheduling, pregame field access, dedicated locker room space at Lake Myrtle, and equipment storage.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Convenient Proximity:<\/strong> All three venues sit between 10 to 20 minutes from Florida Poly\u2019s Lakeland campus.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Student Impact:<\/strong> The move to NAIA competition is expected to bring around 150 student-athletes<\/strong> to campus annually, bolstering student life and regional community engagement.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
    \n

    “Having access to quality facilities and dedicated locker room space gives our players a true home environment from day one.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u2014 Derek Lower<\/strong>, Florida Poly Athletic Director<\/sup><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Florida Polytechnic University and the City of Auburndale signed a three-year athletic facilities agreement, establishing a solid home base for Florida Poly\u2019s brand-new intercollegiate sports program. As Florida Poly launches… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDdcL3VubmFtZWQtMS53ZWJwP2ZpdD0xMDI0JTJDNTY2JnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiRmxvcmlkYSBQb2x5JiM4MjE3O3MgQXRobGV0aWNzIFByb2dyYW0gU2VjdXJlcyBVc2Ugb2YgQXVidXJuZGFsZSBTcG9ydHMgRmFjaWxpdGllcyIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.rI3otnqtvLT2_myucNXhB8zht846-k7D4QLO7H3JypwMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDdcL3VubmFtZWQtMS53ZWJwP2ZpdD0xMDI0JTJDNTY2JnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiRmxvcmlkYSBQb2x5J3MgQXRobGV0aWNzIFByb2dyYW0gU2VjdXJlcyBVc2Ugb2YgQXVidXJuZGFsZSBTcG9ydHMgRmFjaWxpdGllcyIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.f97cgisqYEi5NTaufzgYo1ag_ZUe1Bccr5loaoxcG9UMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[30],"tags":[15142],"class_list":["post-74386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-florida-polys-athletics-program-secures-use-of-auburndale-sports-facilities"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74386"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74388,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74386\/revisions\/74388"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}