upstate game thread

[waterhead]

Honestly as long as UC isn't in a power 5 conference they will have a hard time being taken seriously for football as they can't honestly say we have a chance to play for a national title every year. Putting talent aside for a second, a program like Ole Miss can say we got a chance to play for the national title every year. Their program is a big draw and brings in big donations and can bring in big recruits. Thus they can "compete" for a national title every year. Obviously when talent gets seperated year in and year out they aren't really in contention for the title most years. Now take UC, short of a fluke season like 2009 where they ran the table and almost snuck in to the title game, I don't think any of our fanbase or more importantly donors are delusional enough to think we can compete for the national title. And honestly that drive to be the best, to win the title, is what keeps fans rabid and has donors throwing insane bucks into a program. There's no saying that the next generation of fans won't support this school at a much higher level than we currently have. Success on the field/court will have everything to do with that. I do think football just leads itself to being big time more than basketball. Games are on weekends (at least they should be), tailgating is happening thus it's more of a party and a family/social thing. I think people are more apt to put their money in that than going to 20 basketball games during the winter, half the games are on school/work nights and you don't really do much other than go to the game then go home. O don't know if that answered any of your queries, just my thoughts on the matter.

Thanks for that.

 

[david aka the TYZ]

Here is what I know as far the AD Budget. Cincinnati had to pour in a lot of money into the Varsity Village Project to get into the Big East. Unfortunately, VV is not a revenue generator, so it put the Athletic Department in great debt (still paying it off). The former AD, Mike Thomas, didn't do a good job of facilitating donors to give to the program and scheduled games like WVU & UofL at PBS with the hope it would make money (when UC actually lost money on both). He essentially ran the AD like a MAC program, cutting scholarships to many sports. He also couldn't get the Nippert Renovation project started. Cincinnati's budget was amongst the worst of the AQ Conference schools.

When Tuberville came to UC, several big donors immediately began to give money to help fund the Nippert Stadium renovation. Getting a big name coach resinated with the big donors. Now that Nippert Stadium is going to be renovated, there will be more opportunities for revenue. The school was also able to reinstate funding to Olympic sports.

Ideally, once Nippert is completed, UC would be able to begin reconstruction of the Shoe, however it will be difficult to tap into those donors again...that just put up a ton of money for the football stadium. That is where the issue lies with me. It appears like it will be YEARS until that gets done.

UC did a good job of selling these new premium seats that Nippert will have in advance and requiring three, five and ten year commitments on them. For example the luxury suites generated $18 million in advanced sales (18 suites, 100k per year for ten years). Not really sure what the other seats will generate total, but even the cheapest premium seats were going for a $15,000 commitment for two seats for 3 years. I know they got other financing from some big donors and stuff, but doing this will help pay for the renovation costs now as well as assure there will be butts in those new seats. While that might hurt revenue a little bit for the first years of the new renovations as they won't be getting money for the seats each year since they were pre-sold, I think it was a good marketing decision. There's no saying that the same can't be done to secure financing for a new bball arena. I will say that the midday madness event, while seemingly was kind of lame, brought in a few new donors. I think I heard that from the UCats guy I deal with, but it might have been on here I read that. I'm assuming they got some businesses to buy into the basketball program, either through advertising or ticket sales or who knows. You are completely right about Mike Thomas though, he just dropped the ball when it came to securing donations and generating money. I think it's safe to say the university is on a complete upswing from his days as far as excitement and generating revenue goes. The combo of Whit and Ono have just been great for UC. Adding Tuberville generated a buzz and the city is finally coming around to Mick and the basketball program again.

 

[david aka the TYZ]

Thanks. Here is another question. Why would we put 80M into renovating the Shoe if we can rebuild for say between 100M and 125M? Would the reno be a patch over an ugly hole...or would it really make an ugly hole into something really attractive and functional? Personally I would rather see a re-build for beautification purposes on the outside and in. With everything else the University has done to beautify...it just doesn't make a lot of sense to me to rehab the inside and leave the outside pretty drab.

I guess maybe we would have to leave the facility where it is because there are other things in the building other than the arena? So we would actually have to find a new piece of ground to build?

I think that's pretty much the reason. The arena would have to be torn down and then built over the same site which would skyrocket costs. And tearing it down would require more than just dynamite and bulldozers. All those builings are connected so it would have to be done carefully and it would be time-consuming and thus expensive. I'm guessing the shell of the building is big enough to do what they think will make it a nice facility. I'm with you though, unless it really makes it nice then don't skimp on the cost just to have the same problem in ten years of an outdated facility. To be honest, though, I don't think it's the arena itself that people hate just the seating in the arena. Revamp the seating to have real, permanent seats that surround the floor rather than four sections of fold-away seating and make better concession/concourse areas and I think that will be just fine. I don't think the building itself is an ugly building and you can always do some facelifting of the exterior to dress it up.

 

[#BearcatNation]

Lance's article took a lot of words right out of my mouth. Turn the lower area into a bowl. Turn those upper deck benches into seats (or at least benches with backs). Another thing that I'm not a fan of is the fact that the rafters hang so low. When you're about halfway up the upper deck, you can't even see the seats across from you on the other side of the arena. You feel like you're above the ceiling, like you're even higher than you really area. Wonder if there's a way they can makes the rafters higher up.

If you could do all that for around $80m, I don't see why not. But you also have to compare that to what US Bank Arena has to offer.

 

[bgregg91]

I want to pick your brain because I'm curious. When you say buy tickets do they charge students for tickets now? When I was a student tickets were free. Guest tickets they charged for but student tickets were free. And I was most of the way through my freshman year before I knew that students got tickets free and how to go about getting seats so I understand what you're saying about info not being made readily available. This was before the internet age though. It was 96-00 and obviously we had and used the internet, but not as communication with the school. I remember going up to the third floor of McMicken to use the computer labs. Now being a UCATS donor I get all kinds of emails from the athletic department. And yeah, I've been a little disappointed with the student turnout the last couple games as well. The day after Thanksgiving I kind of understood as most students could be home and off campus. Do you live on campus or are you a commuter? The reason I ask is that I was a commuter so I feel I didn't really get the full college experience and also that could be why I was out of the loop on what went on around campus.

The tickets are still free if you pick them up at the ticket office. However, if you order them online you have to pay $1.50 per ticket, and then you can just print them out.

I live on campus, no longer in a dorm, but on McMillan.

 

[waterhead]

I think that's pretty much the reason. The arena would have to be torn down and then built over the same site which would skyrocket costs. And tearing it down would require more than just dynamite and bulldozers. All those builings are connected so it would have to be done carefully and it would be time-consuming and thus expensive. I'm guessing the shell of the building is big enough to do what they think will make it a nice facility. I'm with you though, unless it really makes it nice then don't skimp on the cost just to have the same problem in ten years of an outdated facility. To be honest, though, I don't think it's the arena itself that people hate just the seating in the arena. Revamp the seating to have real, permanent seats that surround the floor rather than four sections of fold-away seating and make better concession/concourse areas and I think that will be just fine. I don't think the building itself is an ugly building and you can always do some facelifting of the exterior to dress it up.

Good point about the facelift. I think I agree with renovation then as long as it can last another 20+ years. As long as we can get 12-14K fans in there it should be just fine. Thanks for the info.

 

[waterhead]

Lance's article took a lot of words right out of my mouth. Turn the lower area into a bowl. Turn those upper deck benches into seats (or at least benches with backs). Another thing that I'm not a fan of is the fact that the rafters hang so low. When you're about halfway up the upper deck, you can't even see the seats across from you on the other side of the arena. You feel like you're above the ceiling, like you're even higher than you really area. Wonder if there's a way they can makes the rafters higher up.

If you could do all that for around $80m, I don't see why not. But you also have to compare that to what US Bank Arena has to offer.

I worry a little about US Bank. If the students aren't coming now when it's a block from their dorm...it will be even tougher to get them downtown. We might pick up a few more "other" fans...but the students are the one's that make the most noise and create the best atmosphere.

 

[UCalum08]

Some one was talking about Mizzou's new arena. They are on cbs right now and it is a really nice arena. I sure would love one of those