(05-02-2023 07:32 AM)TylerTiger Wrote:  

(05-02-2023 06:43 AM)Marc Mensa Wrote:  

(05-02-2023 12:26 AM)Stammers Wrote:  

(05-01-2023 09:44 PM)Atlanta Wrote:  

(05-01-2023 08:33 PM)Marc Mensa Wrote:  The city is not responsible for the school’s lack of initiative.

True enough. But the city has never supported what is best for the university. Rather the city has always leveraged the university for the special interests of the city & in doing so made it the easy decision for a weak university admin to go along.

I disagree with the special interests angle, but I mostly agree with the statement about the city never supporting the university. Herenton was the worst culprit, but the entire municipal government constantly gave the middle finger to the university. Aside from letting the stadium rot; for at least a couple of years, there was no logo on the field, and at one point part of the trim was painted red. The Pyramid was obviously a fiasco.

The issue I have with blaming the city, is that that should have made it easier for the school to rally the fanbase to build an OCS. There was no way idiots like Raines and RC could make it happen, but Rudd, Brad Martin and Fred Smith could have made it happen before the pandemic.

The recent studies show that the school could maybe raise $150 million for an OCS that would now supposedly cost $400 million. Back in 2018-2019, the same stadium on campus would have cost between $125-200 million.

True. The city/ university relationship is like a dysfunctional marriage. The city needs the university to justify expenditures to allow it to pursue municipal money grabs, like the Pyramid (which the university funded 33%) or this Liberty Bowl renovation, but then builds them to meet the needs of the city. The university could lobby & build on-campus but then would have to divert from other projects & likely ruffle feathers of monied neighborhood & municipal interests who are either vested in status quo or possibly invested in the Liberty park project. Too, there are internal academics who simply do not see the value in athletics. Whatever the reasons, these divergent interests continue to stand in the way of the school taking the necessary steps to invest in itself & prove itself capable of supporting & sustaining a P5 level athletic program. We truly take the approach of “if you build it, we might come… but then we might also do as we’ve always done, and wait another 40 years & hope the city/state might have the political desire to again upgrade the Liberty Bowl”

I think the new prevailing sentiment is building new stadiums is a waste of money as the recent studies have indicated that it does not spur the local economy as people thought it would. I would say that it's a little different in the circumstances of the University of Memphis as new facilities and investment could lead to a bigger conference which would lead to more profit to disconnect the need for the city or state to step in.

Now, I'm not sure the city of Memphis even cares about that sentiment. I think it's just a consistent lack of vision for the future.

The other fact on his bolded part, is that every single stadium/arena at any level, college or pro has a huge number of detractors in every municipality. We have seen this with Oakland (twice), Tampa and San Diego, among others.