Daily Digs: U. of West Florida Football Stadium, NYC Approves $780M Soccer Stadium, Park Outside Enmarket Arena

The University of West Florida in Pensacola is getting a new football stadium on campus thanks to a $9 million donation.

The $9 million donation from Darrell and Debbie Gooden -- which will help fund the construction of a new football stadium -- is the largest gift from a living donor in the history of UWF.

The new stadium will be named Darrell Gooden Stadium.

The New York City Council on Thursday approved a plan that will bring the city its first professional soccer stadium, along with nearly three new acres of public space, a hotel, retail and more.

The City Planning Commission has already approved the Willets Point redevelopment plan, meaning the favorable vote from the council paved the way for that $780 million, privately financed 25,000 all-electric stadium to host Major League Soccer's New York City Football Club near Citi Field in Queens to be completed by 2027. 

In addition to the stadium, the redevelopment plan — which has been in the works for years — will bring 2,500 affordable housing units, an elementary school, 80,000 square feet of retail space, a hotel, a park and more as part of a 23-acre redevelopment project to transform Willets Point, long a gritty cluster of auto body shops. Council members also said the plan will create 15,000 jobs.

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• In Savannah, Ga., the community will celebrate Saturday the grand opening of a new park outside Enmarket Arena, as well as the unveiling of the longest pedestrian walkway mural in the State of Georgia. Officials with the City of Savannah say that they want to have this public gathering to open the new park because they want people to know the space is always open to them.