Facilities/Finances take center stage as new AD search begins

[MJMGator]

Just heard that when the "Master plan on facilities " comes out it will be a $387 million dollar sports expansion project that will include a 4 story building with the football locker room,players lounge & Coaches offices in it. This will be big-time!!!! #ChompChomp

How's it gonna be paid for? That will put us close to half a billion in the hole. I don't think the revenue from the SECN will quite cover it.

 

[CU-UF]

Idk that's not too much to service that loan, say they fund raiser half and finance the rest. The revenue stream from the sec which will only increase should be fine

 

[Marianna-FL_Gator]

How's it gonna be paid for? That will put us close to half a billion in the hole. I don't think the revenue from the SECN will quite cover it.

Have no clue about that and to be honest I couldn't care less. The people at UF get paid to figure stuff like this out and I imagine that they have a plan.

 

[MJMGator]

Have no clue about that and to be honest I couldn't care less. The people at UF get paid to figure stuff like this out and I imagine that they have a plan.

Football is all that matters, right? Win at all costs!

 

[BMF]

That's the point. It's broken to near Vandy levels. Exactly why we shouldn't consider anyone associated with the last regime. I don't know it that will or will not happen. I'd be happy to see an interim until we find a homerun hire. No one within the regime should be considered for anything but an interim position. The contract lawyer should have been fired two years ago unless she has proof that she begged Fooley to be smart and he refused.

That being said, it's really not that hard to find someone better than Foley, basically anyone except Vandy's AD (who really isn't an AD at all) fits that bill.

As for raising ticket prices, that's insane. First you fill the seats, then you raise prices. Same goes for boosters, you try to re-recruit the 1/2 that left under Fooley and Chimp, then worry about prices. Volume first.

Well Law, w/ Foley on the "search committee" - you know he doesn't think anything is "broken" - it very well may be one of his underlings. We'll see. I agree w/ going outside also. I'm not sure how the finances work down there (at the UAA), but we're one of the top revenue producing programs in the country. No excuses to fall behind on the facilities arm-race.

 

[Marianna-FL_Gator]

Football is all that matters, right? Win at all costs!

Winning is all that matters!

 

[aka]

Make the Gators great again.

 

[BMF]

Here's what South Carolina is doing (building a $50 million Football Operations Center):

http://www.thestate.com/sports/coll...arolina/other-usc-sports/article84017617.html

Then will come an indoor track, set to be completed by Fall 2017. The fieldhouse, currently housing a 60-yard indoor football field and tennis courts, will be gutted with the structure intact. A banked track will be installed for a budgeted $4.65 million, although the project has not been bid on.

After those, a new football operations building will be constructed in front of the new practice fields behind Gamecock Park. The $50 million building will keep football self-contained at the Williams-Brice area.

“We have Phase I approval,” O’Connell said. “They’re doing the design of the building and they’re also working on the final cost. If we get all the approvals and everything goes as planned, it will be done in August of 2018.”

Once everything is completed, USC will discuss other potential plans. A project discussed is adding suites and club seats to the East stands at Williams-Brice.

“But that’s down the road,” O’Connell said. “We’re never done.”


Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/sports/coll...usc-sports/article84017617.html#storylink=cpy

 

[t-gator]

How's it gonna be paid for? That will put us close to half a billion in the hole. I don't think the revenue from the SECN will quite cover it.

That revenue is gonna be even more when Oklahoma and Virginia join the conference in a few years.

 

[-THE DUDE-]

Here's what South Carolina is doing (building a $50 million Football Operations Center):

http://www.thestate.com/sports/coll...arolina/other-usc-sports/article84017617.html

Then will come an indoor track, set to be completed by Fall 2017. The fieldhouse, currently housing a 60-yard indoor football field and tennis courts, will be gutted with the structure intact. A banked track will be installed for a budgeted $4.65 million, although the project has not been bid on.

After those, a new football operations building will be constructed in front of the new practice fields behind Gamecock Park. The $50 million building will keep football self-contained at the Williams-Brice area.

“We have Phase I approval,” O’Connell said. “They’re doing the design of the building and they’re also working on the final cost. If we get all the approvals and everything goes as planned, it will be done in August of 2018.”

Once everything is completed, USC will discuss other potential plans. A project discussed is adding suites and club seats to the East stands at Williams-Brice.

“But that’s down the road,” O’Connell said. “We’re never done.”


Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/sports/coll...usc-sports/article84017617.html#storylink=cpy

And then they are going to wow all of their donors and recruits with duncechamp football for the next 4-5 years...what ****ing morons

 

[BMF]

And then they are going to wow all of their donors and recruits with duncechamp football for the next 4-5 years...what ****ing morons

That's not really the point. The point is: they are investing....like any SEC school that wants to compete...in their facilities. Note the quote at the end, "We're never done." Foley was done years ago....then woke up and it was 2012 or so and our facilities were State-of-the-Art for 1992.

 

[cover2]

An interesting read, indeed. I may be reaching in my breakdown of the article, but it seems like there may be a hint that the long celebrated "deep pockets" of the boosters and accordingly, those of the UAA, might not be quite as deep as you'd think, For some who have long thought that whenever there was a need, whether it be facilities, a new coaching hire, or whatever else, there needed to be big $$$ readily available and somebody (Bull Gators) simply struck a check and made it happen. Who'd have thought that nowadays and moving forward we'd have to stoop to loans and bond referendums?! The truth, most likely, is that cash flow from contributors, like the assumed attitude of where our facilities rank, was probably 10-15 years behind the current times. If so, and whether or not that falls on the shoulders of Jeremy Foley, some of all of the recent past presidents, or the Gator Nation itself, the financial end of things will have to be a great if not the greatest priority when the hire of a new AD is made if we are not only to catch up where athletic facilities are concerned, but to maintain the current conference and national status quo.

Time was the AD's most important job was to replace coaches that were either fired or left for greener fields. Now it might well be as that of a fundraiser. Funny thing about facilities is that at its most basic level, a good coach and staff could take his/her athletes and develop and/or teach them how to be successful players, whether it was in a multi-million dollar facility or in an old warehouse. For example, you can get virtually the same amount of strength and conditioning work done with enough weights and related equipment set up under the stands as you can in a stand alone state of the art building. And there was a time that the coaches and players took a certain amount of pride in becoming better than the competition while laboring under the most Spartan of conditions. Those days, however, are no more and it takes a lot of bells and whistles to get the players you can win with into your school. Thus, whoever the new AD is has to not only understand this but buy in 100% and find a way to keep the grease coming in to make it happen. He (or she ) has to understand the basic dynamics of fundraising, whether you are trying to raise several million dollars or selling Girl Scout cookies: develop a list of benefactors that you can count on and tap them as much as you can, but always look to increase that number, make them all feel like the program can't operate without them and let them know there contributions are appreciated (this should include your Bulls and season ticket holders alike, though the bulls should obviously get a little more attention). I'm not so sure that the little people on this continuum weren't made to feel quite a bit disenfranchised of late and if ticket prices and booster fees are to rise (which I think most know will be a given), some work will need to be done to not only keep this group but to grow it as well. The students seem to need some attention in this area also.

 

[GatorBart]

I nominate Cover2 for our next AD. Anybody second that?

 

[CU-UF]

An interesting read, indeed. I may be reaching in my breakdown of the article, but it seems like there may be a hint that the long celebrated "deep pockets" of the boosters and accordingly, those of the UAA, might not be quite as deep as you'd think, For some who have long thought that whenever there was a need, whether it be facilities, a new coaching hire, or whatever else, there needed to be big $$$ readily available and somebody (Bull Gators) simply struck a check and made it happen. Who'd have thought that nowadays and moving forward we'd have to stoop to loans and bond referendums?! The truth, most likely, is that cash flow from contributors, like the assumed attitude of where our facilities rank, was probably 10-15 years behind the current times. If so, and whether or not that falls on the shoulders of Jeremy Foley, some of all of the recent past presidents, or the Gator Nation itself, the financial end of things will have to be a great if not the greatest priority when the hire of a new AD is made if we are not only to catch up where athletic facilities are concerned, but to maintain the current conference and national status quo.

I believe this is going to become standard operating procedure for all athletic programs. When we are starting to hit $1 billion dollar TV contracts, and $500 million facilities investments, multi-million dollar contracts for ASSISTANTS, million dollar contracts for coaches in second level sports, you are talking about a handful of people in the country that come close to having the commensurate level of discretionary money much less desire to give to keep a program in the black. Heck even pro sports owners don't wholly own their teams. Taking the macro view of things, its the pro-ification of big time college sports. Fans, bull gators or otherwise will be marginalized. Obviously big boosters will always have some role, but still diminished from the old days. No one booster or handful of boosters will write the checks. The only way big time athletic programs will keep up in the arms race is to issue bonds and loans against the guaranteed TV revenue streams.

 

[BMF]

I believe this is going to become standard operating procedure for all athletic programs. When we are starting to hit $1 billion dollar TV contracts, and $500 million facilities investments, multi-million dollar contracts for ASSISTANTS, million dollar contracts for coaches in second level sports, you are talking about a handful of people in the country that come close to having the commensurate level of discretionary money much less desire to give to keep a program in the black. Heck even pro sports owners don't wholly own their teams. Taking the macro view of things, its the pro-ification of big time college sports. Fans, bull gators or otherwise will be marginalized. Obviously big boosters will always have some role, but still diminished from the old days. No one booster or handful of boosters will write the checks. The only way big time athletic programs will keep up in the arms race is to issue bonds and loans against the guaranteed TV revenue streams.

And there are people who still insist that players be paid. What a joke. Most small programs would shut down...or drop to lower divisions. D1 would be about 40 schools for football.

 

[Alagator]

These upgrades are long overdue and I am glad they're working on getting them done.

Having said that, I predict that many of the ones on this board who have been screaming the loudest about our need to keep up with the Jones's, will now be b!itching about the soon to be even higher cost of attendance of games.

Are we not the most fickle, dysfunctional bunch you've ever seen??? And I wouldn't have it any other way...

 

[BMF]

These upgrades are long overdue and I am glad they're working on getting them done.

Having said that, I predict that many of the ones on this board who have been screaming the loudest about our need to keep up with the Jones's, will now be b!itching about the soon to be even higher cost of attendance of games.

Are we not the most fickle, dysfunctional bunch you've ever seen??? And I wouldn't have it any other way...

Until we start filling the seats in the stadium they'd be nuts to raise ticket prices. The new AD will likely launch a major fund raising campaign and that's where the bulk of the money will come from.

 

[CU-UF]

And there are people who still insist that players be paid. What a joke. Most small programs would shut down...or drop to lower divisions. D1 would be about 40 schools for football.

My personal prediction, that is exactly what is going to happen, whether we end up with 4 major conferences with 12-16 teams in each or just one "NFL-light". Unless the trajectory changes....

 

[-THE DUDE-]

That's not really the point. The point is: they are investing....like any SEC school that wants to compete...in their facilities. Note the quote at the end, "We're never done." Foley was done years ago....then woke up and it was 2012 or so and our facilities were State-of-the-Art for 1992.

Oh i understand the point...just felt like not missing a chance to slam that bastard. Yes, Foley let our facilities fall woefully behind and we're in perpetual catchup mode. Really wish we would have had a plan in place a few years ago to not catch up but set the standard for facilities in the SEC. Once we catch up we'll be behind again if we don't go over the top.

 

[BMF]

Oh i understand the point...just felt like not missing a chance to slam that bastard. Yes, Foley let our facilities fall woefully behind and we're in perpetual catchup mode. Really wish we would have had a plan in place a few years ago to not catch up but set the standard for facilities in the SEC. Once we catch up we'll be behind again if we don't go over the top.

LOL!! I agree. I hate that m*therf*c$&%!!