(12-10-2019 11:05 AM)TigerPete Wrote:  I am shocked at the amount of the keeping the LB advocates.

Let's be honest...when you see a Memphis game on TV with the empty seats it looks awful. The stadium is WAY too big and it honestly isn't fair to the 30-40k diehards who go each week that they have to sit in a 30 to 40% empty stadium. The atmosphere suffers dramatically. Going to UCF for championship game last year in their 40k OCS was one of best college football atmospheres we have ever seen.

An OCS would totally transform the university. My wife and I are both alums and have 3 kids between middle school and a senior in HS. Do you know how many times my kids have been on the university campus? NONE! How many times have they been to the LB? Probably 50 times or more. Imagine if all those games they would have been ON CAMPUS. How would those kids/teenagers view the university differently? Are they more likely to want to attend the university because of their love for the school and campus?

It would be trans-formative for the school and city. And create a sense of pride and unity the university has never seen before. It would be OURS. The University has bowed down to the city for way to long. We need to seize the momentum while hot and no better time than now. Do it.

I attended Concordia University in Montreal. We play in a stadium on campus with metal bleachers and a capacity of 4,000. I always walk around campus and you see either construction or signs touting future construction and expansion. I also get to see improvements that have been made since I graduated 30 years ago.

It makes it very easy to have a sense of pride, to have a sense of community, to use the stadium as a meeting and gathering place, and yes, to make a donation.

Having an OCS will lead to huge improvements in every way to the university. I won't go so far to say that building an OCS will be cost neutral because of increased donations, but when you factor everything in, the full cost will be nowhere near the actual construction costs.

How long has the IPF taken from announcement until now?

Is it done yet?

What was the price tag for an IPF?

What would be the price tag for a reasonable OCS?

(12-10-2019 12:23 PM)griffin Wrote:  

(12-10-2019 12:16 PM)tigergreen Wrote:  

(12-10-2019 11:29 AM)pkptigers07 Wrote:  

(12-10-2019 10:42 AM)tigergreen Wrote:  

(12-10-2019 02:44 AM)Stammers Wrote:  That isn't what was said. What was said is that there are laws that prevent the school from having a huge loan. The only entity that could legally give us a big loan like that would be the city, and they would expect anything built to be suitable to host the Liberty Bowl.

Add in the fact that the university currently has TONS of debt on other campus improvements (land bridge, new rec center, Centennial Place, other coming on-campus housing options, additions of a middle school & HS, etc.).

Unless a massive, massive donation comes in directly for it, the money is not going to be there for an OCS, nor will it be for the foreseeable future.

I was as pro-OCS as they came, but I also understand the financial limitations. Other on-campus improvements simply have to happen prior to an OCS.

The amount of debt the university has is surely a factor here. There may be specific restrictions on our BOT that wouldn’t allow a project this size without large state involvement or The conversation Geoff spoke of could have been more related to the university needing a partner the size of the city government in order to float that many bonds in conjunction with the other outstanding and upcoming projects.

The rec center was downsized and became the Center for Health and Wellness with a significant educational aspect with the School of Health Studies because the bonds on the existing rec center area still not fully paid. The IPF was delayed because of the multiple other projects (basketball faculty, land bridge, etc) that couldn’t all be out for bonds at the exact same time.

I do believe Dr Rudd has said that the university will no longer be in the dorm construction business though. I’d expect to see more partnerships like what is going on with the Gather instead.

That's correct, but all of that still costs money. There is a plan to add more apartments or housing of some sort closer to Central as well, so that's going to get tacked onto the already ballooning debt the UofM has.

Rudd is a very forward-thinking person, but that doesn't mean he's all that great when it comes to finances. My personal take on it is once we get that Carnegie R1 status, he's on to the next thing and we're left with a crapton of debt. Hopefully by then more state funding is rolling in for us to put us on a more equal footing with the UT system.

The University of Memphis has a CFO, who is the former President of First Tennessee Bank who reports directly to Dr. Rudd. Brad Martin put him in place. We are well covered on all things financial planning.

Charles Burkett is no longer there - there is a new CFO who is very smart and experienced, but he is told what to do and what to make happen by Rudd/BOT.

All the financial gurus in the world can't make someone rein it in if they don't want to. Rudd's angle is to cut costs elsewhere to get the stuff done - in a perfect world that's a great idea, but you can't force blood from a turnip, either.

(12-10-2019 12:39 PM)salukiblue Wrote:  How long has the IPF taken from announcement until now?

Is it done yet?

What was the price tag for an IPF?

What would be the price tag for a reasonable OCS?

Oh lordy, a well done 40K stadium would be way north of $100 million. We struggled to get the IPF built. Your point is well taken.

(12-10-2019 12:44 PM)tigerlands Wrote:  

(12-10-2019 12:39 PM)salukiblue Wrote:  How long has the IPF taken from announcement until now?

Is it done yet?

What was the price tag for an IPF?

What would be the price tag for a reasonable OCS?

Oh lordy, a well done 40K stadium would be way north of $100 million. We struggled to get the IPF built. Your point is well taken.

It would be in the 200 range now. It would require a large booster, field naming rights, Jumbotron ads, ribbon adds etc. it can be done but a large booster would have to fund at least 25% of it

Currently our university must have 90% of funds in hand for any capital project before it is authorized by the state - hence the IPF delay - if the project is not a line item in the state budget specifically funded by the legislature. UTK seems to be the only state university to routinely get that sort of funding. Even with private funding, the university must have 90% of the project total in hand before construction is authorized by the state.

(12-10-2019 12:39 PM)salukiblue Wrote:  How long has the IPF taken from announcement until now?

Is it done yet?

What was the price tag for an IPF?

What would be the price tag for a reasonable OCS?

It's coming and it will cost $40 million.

Winnipeg has a beautiful 33,500 capacity stadium built in 2013 at a cost of around $155 million USD. It can be expanded to 40,000 for special events.

There are a few factors that come into play. We would need 40,000 permanent seats, but also a Canadian football field (and stadium) dimensions are bigger than US football fields, so that would lower costs per capita. Baylor built their 45,000 seat stadium for $266 million. I would think that we would need $175-200 million for 40,000 - 42,000 seats.

I would guess that you would need around $200 million USD. What I do love about Winnipeg's stadium is how it is scalable for big events. If we build ours along the same model with 42,000 seats, scalable to 52,000 for big events; that should work perfectly well for both Memphis football and the Liberty Bowl.

IG Field Wikipedia

IG Field Photos

(12-10-2019 12:52 PM)TubbyBall Wrote:  

(12-10-2019 12:44 PM)tigerlands Wrote:  

(12-10-2019 12:39 PM)salukiblue Wrote:  How long has the IPF taken from announcement until now?

Is it done yet?

What was the price tag for an IPF?

What would be the price tag for a reasonable OCS?

Oh lordy, a well done 40K stadium would be way north of $100 million. We struggled to get the IPF built. Your point is well taken.

It would be in the 200 range now. It would require a large booster, field naming rights, Jumbotron ads, ribbon adds etc. it can be done but a large booster would have to fund at least 25% of it

I read somewhere that the new Houston stadium cost around $120 million. Its nice, not as nice as Baylor though. But that's the difference that P5 money can make.

(12-10-2019 01:18 PM)tigerlands Wrote:  

(12-10-2019 12:52 PM)TubbyBall Wrote:  

(12-10-2019 12:44 PM)tigerlands Wrote:  

(12-10-2019 12:39 PM)salukiblue Wrote:  How long has the IPF taken from announcement until now?

Is it done yet?

What was the price tag for an IPF?

What would be the price tag for a reasonable OCS?

Oh lordy, a well done 40K stadium would be way north of $100 million. We struggled to get the IPF built. Your point is well taken.

It would be in the 200 range now. It would require a large booster, field naming rights, Jumbotron ads, ribbon adds etc. it can be done but a large booster would have to fund at least 25% of it

I read somewhere that the new Houston stadium cost around $120 million. Its nice, not as nice as Baylor though. But that's the difference that P5 money can make.

$128 million and it is a nice structure, but it has no chairback seating and the exterior is nice but sparse. You can see that that is difference between $128 and $200 million.

I'm a big fan of a OCS but our problems are not so much our stadium as it it the BCS bias. No stadium will change that.

Keep driving toward an OCS, at some point, LBMS must be replaced but very serviceable for now. In the meantime, use tarps to right-size the stadium to 40K or whatever makes sense. Easy.

(12-09-2019 10:40 PM)72Tiger Wrote:  

(12-09-2019 10:27 PM)JetFixer Wrote:  Just out of curiosity what is them smallest p5 stadium and how many does it hold? Too small of a stadium would hurt our chances at ever making it to a better conference. I think more chairbacks in the LB would make it perfect sized.

Wake Forest is smallest. Seats about 30k IIRC.

Thank you!

The IPF was first getting funding in April 2017. It will be completed sometime in June 2020.

Over three years to fund and build a $40mm project.

I would vote to just demolish one end of the LB to make it a horseshoe.

Put a party deck with cabanas there. Maybe a pool for the august-oct games.

43k

Problem solved.

I don't think the university has commissioned formal studies to gauge how many fans would donate more or how much more they would pay for tickets toward an OCS, but along the way there have been many tests.

- General attendance figures for the season
- Revenue per ticket
- SMU attendance
- Regular season finale attendance versus Cincinnati
- AAC Championship game attendance
- Donations for IPF
- Amount of allotted tickets sold for the Cotton Bowl

Make no mistake, the people with money and the admin pay attention to all of these. For the Cotton Bowl, the school is asking fans to spend more for tickets through the university, that can be had through secondary markets for 1/4 to 1/2 the price, or even less as game day approaches. If we manage to come close, that will definitely show a short term commitment. That is why it is crucial for everyone to buy 2 nosebleed tickets and consider the $200 as a donation. This money will go directly to the school.

So far, out of all the little tests listed, the only one that wasn't a fail was the SMU game, and that was still a partial fail, since we only sold out when 10,000 cheap tickets flooded the market. This isn't a knock against us as fans compared to the rest of the G5; but it clearly shows that the top 1% is going to have to fund fully at least 80% of an OCS. If we are going to hit the big time with an OCS it won't be because the average fan is going to step up to the plate to do more.

Again, there is no shame in that, but it is part of the reality. The city I live in, Montreal, is the similar in many respects.

(12-09-2019 11:56 PM)Claw Wrote:  You guys need to take a good look at the modern revenue-generating stadiums.

They have a strip of digital signage all the way around the stadium like the FedEx Forum.

They have modern suites at mid-level of the stadium instead of difficult to access sky boxes with distant views.

The concourses have live TV feeds and audio throughout.

The have programmable stadium lighting now that allows for flashing, colors, and on-off switching.

The concession and retail areas are modern, permanent, and often franchised. There is more footage for food prep and storage areas in the individual bays.

Sure, the Liberty Bowl is a comfortable place with nice site lines, but the revenue generating tools of the modern stadium are not there. It is only going to get worse. At some point you have to cut bait.

Bingo....rotating signage and premium options bring in tons of money.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

(12-10-2019 01:54 PM)tnzazz Wrote:  

(12-09-2019 11:56 PM)Claw Wrote:  You guys need to take a good look at the modern revenue-generating stadiums.

They have a strip of digital signage all the way around the stadium like the FedEx Forum.

They have modern suites at mid-level of the stadium instead of difficult to access sky boxes with distant views.

The concourses have live TV feeds and audio throughout.

The have programmable stadium lighting now that allows for flashing, colors, and on-off switching.

The concession and retail areas are modern, permanent, and often franchised. There is more footage for food prep and storage areas in the individual bays.

Sure, the Liberty Bowl is a comfortable place with nice site lines, but the revenue generating tools of the modern stadium are not there. It is only going to get worse. At some point you have to cut bait.

Bingo....rotating signage and premium options bring in tons of money.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If this wasn't true, the Grizzlies and Tigers would still be playing at the Pyramid.

(12-10-2019 12:16 PM)tigergreen Wrote:  

(12-10-2019 11:29 AM)pkptigers07 Wrote:  

(12-10-2019 10:42 AM)tigergreen Wrote:  

(12-10-2019 02:44 AM)Stammers Wrote:  

(12-09-2019 08:46 PM)Claw Wrote:  One piece of the radio analysis I think is wrong.

He states that the university has to have funding from the city to build an OCS. That's not true. The university will have to funding from somewhere, but it does NOT have to come from the city. It could come from the state or Santa Claus. To think the city is the only source of revenue is myopic at best and ignorant at worst.

That isn't what was said. What was said is that there are laws that prevent the school from having a huge loan. The only entity that could legally give us a big loan like that would be the city, and they would expect anything built to be suitable to host the Liberty Bowl.

Add in the fact that the university currently has TONS of debt on other campus improvements (land bridge, new rec center, Centennial Place, other coming on-campus housing options, additions of a middle school & HS, etc.).

Unless a massive, massive donation comes in directly for it, the money is not going to be there for an OCS, nor will it be for the foreseeable future.

I was as pro-OCS as they came, but I also understand the financial limitations. Other on-campus improvements simply have to happen prior to an OCS.

The amount of debt the university has is surely a factor here. There may be specific restrictions on our BOT that wouldn’t allow a project this size without large state involvement or The conversation Geoff spoke of could have been more related to the university needing a partner the size of the city government in order to float that many bonds in conjunction with the other outstanding and upcoming projects.

The rec center was downsized and became the Center for Health and Wellness with a significant educational aspect with the School of Health Studies because the bonds on the existing rec center area still not fully paid. The IPF was delayed because of the multiple other projects (basketball faculty, land bridge, etc) that couldn’t all be out for bonds at the exact same time.

I do believe Dr Rudd has said that the university will no longer be in the dorm construction business though. I’d expect to see more partnerships like what is going on with the Gather instead.

That's correct, but all of that still costs money. There is a plan to add more apartments or housing of some sort closer to Central as well, so that's going to get tacked onto the already ballooning debt the UofM has.

Rudd is a very forward-thinking person, but that doesn't mean he's all that great when it comes to finances. My personal take on it is once we get that Carnegie R1 status, he's on to the next thing and we're left with a crapton of debt. Hopefully by then more state funding is rolling in for us to put us on a more equal footing with the UT system.

I don’t believe there is any debt associated with the Gather acquisition. It was a long term building lease after the land is purchased that involves Memphis managing the property for 20 years and then the building being seeded to the UofM at the end of the lease.

The project near central was part of a land swap in which the UofM provided land on the west side of Deloach in exchange for land on Brister between Midland and Mynders. Apartments will be privately built and operated but will revert to UofM ownership at the end of a 20-30 year lease.

(12-10-2019 04:29 AM)Wayward Memphian Wrote:  The City should invest in nothing unless it is downtown near Beale or as part of a Pinch plan. If it is an OCS It is on the U of M and good luck with that with the surrounding neighborhood. If the U of M can pull it off great..

If it is downtown, it needs to be around 52k, loaded with value added seating with a seamless way to block off upper seating for a cozy 45k for Tiger games. A retractable fabric covering like Vancouver would be well advised.

No one cares about your opinion. You aren't a Memphian. Stop posting here.

(12-10-2019 01:47 PM)salukiblue Wrote:  I would vote to just demolish one end of the LB to make it a horseshoe.

Put a party deck with cabanas there. Maybe a pool for the august-oct games.

43k

Problem solved.

Interesting. There are lots of ideas that could work.