FIU gets new athletic director

By: Sergio Bonilla / Sports Editor
In a surprise move, University officials announced the appointment of a new athletic director just four days before the anticipated football match between FIU and the University of Miami.

Pete Garcia, UM’s senior associate athletic director for external operations, was introduced as the new director at a press conference Oct. 10 and will officially take over the position Oct. 16.

“Pete is a truly extraordinary man, who has served [UM] extremely well,” said University President Modesto A. Maidique at the press conference. “He is an expert in recruiting [and] is going to lead the University into a new era in athletics.”

Former Athletic Director Rick Mello, who received a five-year contract extension in May, will become associate vice president and executive director of the FIU Athletics Finance Corporation. He will oversee the $34 million expansion of the football stadium at University Park along with the adjacent $24 million student support complex.

“[University officials] feel like the program can be taken to the next level with Pete as athletic director and me in charge of the stadium,” Mello said in an interview with The Beacon.

According to a University-wide email from Marcos Perez, vice president of external relations, the corporation was recently “approved and designated by the Board of Trustees as a Direct Support Organization for the University to undertake the financing and construction of the expansion of the FIU football stadium” and new student support complex.

Mello said his salary would remain the same. However, the money for his salary will come from the corporation instead of the athletic department.

Still, Mello also said that the announcement took him by surprise. He did not know that changes were in the works and was notified of the reappointment Oct. 8, just a few days before the official announcement.

“I’m surprised and disappointed, but I’m going to put forth all my effort into building the stadium,” he said.

Maidique praised Mello in the press conference for what he has done for the athletics department during his six-year tenure, including doubling the athletics budget, establishing the FIU football program and its quick progression to Division I-A.

He has also secured football matches against top teams like the University of Florida in 2009 and Penn State in 2007.

He was also a main player in getting FIU to play its first football series against UM, the first game which will take place Oct. 14. The next game will be in 2007.

The stadium and the student services complex are expected to be completed by 2010. Considering that he will have one year left on his contract after this presumed deadline, Mello said he does not know what he will be doing after that.

“We’ll worry about that when the time comes,” he said.

He also said if another athletic director’s position were offered to him by another university, “It would have to be a damn good offer” for him to leave FIU.

“I put my heart and soul into this program, and I really want to see this project finish,” Mello said.

Garcia, who has a degree in business administration from UM, said he was honored to even be considered for the position and wants to improve the athletics program.

“One of the things that I would like to do in my career is establish an elite sports program at [FIU] that [the South Florida community] can rally behind and be proud of,” Garcia said. “We gotta get back our own. And what I mean by that is we have close to 40,000 students here. We have over 100,000 alumni in South Florida [and] those are the ones we gotta get to support our program in every way.”

At UM, Garcia was in charge of ticket sales, media relations, marketing and the management of all major contract negotiations with corporations such as Nike, Gatorade and Coca-Cola.

Garcia would not say for what team he would be rooting for in the FIU/UM football game.

“This Saturday, I don’t know if I’m going to the game,” Garcia said in Spanish after the press conference. “I’ll probably be staying home.”

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