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ESTERO — It's almost time to dig in.

On the desk of Florida Gulf Coast University athletic director Carl McAloose's third-story Alico Arena office rests a colored architect's rendering of the gigantic, two-story clubhouse.

Now when McAloose spins his chair and looks to his left at the first-base line of Swanson Stadium, he can picture it clearly: The green roof atop the functional but eye-catching and massive facility that will house locker rooms for baseball, softball and soccer players and swimmers, indoor batting cages, a giant training room, coaches offices, a large concessions area and public restrooms.

He also envisions the soccer field — right there between Swanson Stadium and the school's Aquatic Center — which must be in place before FGCU begins Division I play in the fall of 2007.

It won't be long until McAloose sees more tangible progress. As soon as engineers give their finals words, the groundbreaking will begin, likely in the next two months. Completion of the clubhouse and soccer field is expected by August 2007. The same goal is set for the clubhouse.

"Right now, it's in the engineers' hands," said McAloose of the soccer facility. "As soon as the engineer gets back to us, probably within a month, and tells us exactly what we can build, how many seats, how big of a surface and all that stuff ... So once we do that, we'll really start pushing this thing."

There still is the need for a big financial shove. McAloose figures the school will need $1.2 million or so just for the soccer basics: field, lights, scoreboard. FGCU has not yet collected funds toward that end. McAloose stressed that a naming right is open.

"The biggest thing we need the first year is a field with lights and a scoreboard," he said. "We can live with not having 1,500-3,000 seats the first year. If somebody steps up within that first year and says, 'Hey, we want to put our naming right on this thing,' we'll go ahead and put it all together."

McAloose will wait for new men's soccer coach Bob Butehorn and women's coach Jim Blankenship to get on board the middle of next month to help with the details, but he has an idea of what he'd like FGCU's facility to look like: University of North Carolina-Greensboro's Soccer Stadium.

"I just love their setup," said McAloose, who took it in as an assistant commissioner for the Big South Conference from 1992-96. "It's a soccer stadium, built for soccer. Most places are built for football. It's set up in a great way where all the fans have a great seat. It's a great environment for the students to play in, sort of a bowl setting."