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Go vote

Sounds like the City Council is still a hold-up. Time for Woodfin to show some leadership and get this across the finish-line.

This is a legit question?

The voting is real lopsided for the good side, 85% to 15%.

(01-30-2018 11:21 PM)Bham Blazer Wrote:  The voting is real lopsided for the good side, 85% to 15%.

I think the vote would be a little different if one of the options was:
#DontSpendItAtAll

(01-31-2018 09:42 AM)demiveeman Wrote:  

(01-30-2018 11:21 PM)Bham Blazer Wrote:  The voting is real lopsided for the good side, 85% to 15%.

I think the vote would be a little different if one of the options was:
#DontSpendItAtAll

Yeah, the 15% would be divided between two selections.

It is important that we remember that there are at least three sets of priorities at work here.
BJCC - Renovation to existing Civic Center plus adding a new open air stadium. Legion Field is not their problem.
City - If we invest in the new stadium, will we still have to maintain Legion Field for other functions? Does the former choice eliminate any possible MPF for conventions?
UAB - We just want a new venue for UAB football at minimal cash outlay and not named Legion Field.

(01-31-2018 01:23 PM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  City - If we invest in the new stadium, will we still have to maintain Legion Field for other functions? Does the former choice eliminate any possible MPF for conventions?

The MPF has been eliminated already. She left the bar with someone else. We can go home with ponytail chick or go home alone. Going home alone is not an option.

There is an option for UAB to invest without crossing lines that should not be crossed:

UAB purchases McClendon Park (the formal name of LegionLand). Donor money can be used for some or all of the McClendon purchase. Birmingham earmarks the purchase price for the new open-air facility.

UAB therefore has no ownership stake in the new facility (which would be problematic) and has not given money for a facility in which is has no ownership stake (likewise problematic).

UAB can then use McClendon Park's lots as remote parking, and can at its leisure rebuild Legion Field as the 40,000-seat brick-fronted bowl it was always meant to be.

I can't see UAB agreeing to purchase Legion Field unless the city has agreed to seriously transform Graymont and surrounding property first. Even then, it's a huge stretch to see the value in it.

(01-31-2018 02:22 PM)58-56 Wrote:  

(01-31-2018 01:23 PM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  City - If we invest in the new stadium, will we still have to maintain Legion Field for other functions? Does the former choice eliminate any possible MPF for conventions?

The MPF has been eliminated already. She left the bar with someone else. We can go home with ponytail chick or go home alone. Going home alone is not an option.

There is an option for UAB to invest without crossing lines that should not be crossed:

UAB purchases McClendon Park (the formal name of LegionLand). Donor money can be used for some or all of the McClendon purchase. Birmingham earmarks the purchase price for the new open-air facility.

UAB therefore has no ownership stake in the new facility (which would be problematic) and has not given money for a facility in which is has no ownership stake (likewise problematic).

UAB can then use McClendon Park's lots as remote parking, and can at its leisure rebuild Legion Field as the 40,000-seat brick-fronted bowl it was always meant to be.

Until something else is actually built on that dedicated site, can the city bring itself to totally give up on building some form of the MPF? The idea has more than a two decade life now and may be hard to let go.

When an alternative stadium is built by the BJCC, the city might agree to work out some mutually beneficial deal with UAB for the park land on which Legion Field sits. I have suggested it be used to develop a "UAB West Campus" (after demolition of that stadium) which could do for that area what the present UAB has done for the southside over the past half century. It would also about double the present area of undergrad UAB while providing virtually flat land for less expensive building. Since UAB now has it own transportation system, commuting between the close campuses may not be a huge problem.

Keeping Legion Field as a football stadium could invite legal action if any of those 1600 Stadium Certificate owners want to pursue their perpetual contract rights for that venue keeping UAB in court for many years.

(01-31-2018 03:49 PM)UABslant Wrote:  I can't see UAB agreeing to purchase Legion Field unless the city has agreed to seriously transform Graymont and surrounding property first. Even then, it's a huge stretch to see the value in it.

The limited value of the Graymont property is a key to the deal. The city gives up little of value and has a means by which it can accept a donation without the usual strings attached. The city is close to having a useful piece of infrastructure, UAB has a place to play football and a small tract of land that might have future value (the vast tracts of land left the building hours ago). Everyone wins.

(01-31-2018 03:58 PM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  Since UAB now has Keeping Legion Field as a football stadium could invite legal action if any of those 1600 Stadium Certificate owners want to pursue their perpetual contract rights for that venue keeping UAB in court for many years.

I read that John Rogers is opposed to a new stadium and would prefer that monies otherwise earmarked for financing of a stadium be used to subsidize some sort of help for local water company customers. What's up with that?

(01-31-2018 05:42 PM)TheGORILLA Wrote:  I read that John Rogers is opposed to a new stadium and would prefer that monies otherwise earmarked for financing of a stadium be used to subsidize some sort of help for local water company customers. What's up with that?

He was all for a stadium when he was in line to get kickbacks from it, and has been threatening to obstruct it ever since he lost his piece of the pie.

(01-31-2018 05:42 PM)TheGORILLA Wrote:  I read that John Rogers is opposed to a new stadium and would prefer that monies otherwise earmarked for financing of a stadium be used to subsidize some sort of help for local water company customers. What's up with that?

yes, lodging and rental car taxes should be spent on the water works board

Alabama government finance is screwed up, but that would take it to a whole other level