http://www.sfchronicle.com/collegesports...ac47b02379

Looks like Aaron Rodgers will be getting a phone call....too bad he'll still be mad about his bad coach getting fired.

Do we still need to ask the question, is college football out of control? $445 million in debt? 50-60 years to pay the debt? Maybe we raise tuition? Mega conferences where teams have to travel 2,000 miles to play a conference game with oil at $96 a barrel. How do we justify nearly half a billion dollars for a stadium renovation at a state school where so many people have lost their jobs, homes?

Watch the progress of the antitrust lawsuit case O'Bannon vs NCAA. If O'Bannon could somehow win (or settle) there would be a massive judgement for former and current players. Players might paid from now on. How does Eastern Michigan, or any MAC school pay players?

As we are finding out in Illinois, there is now longer a bottomless pit of money. California and Illinois have no credit. Cal does not sell out their games. The Illini, Northwestern, Indiana not close to sellouts.

Thank God Cal's stadium is now safe from earthquakes!

It's the Stanford band and lawnmowers CAL should also worry about

(06-20-2013 12:16 PM)Huskie George Wrote:  Do we still need to ask the question, is college football out of control? $445 million in debt? 50-60 years to pay the debt? Maybe we raise tuition? Mega conferences where teams have to travel 2,000 miles to play a conference game with oil at $96 a barrel. How do we justify nearly half a billion dollars for a stadium renovation at a state school where so many people have lost their jobs, homes?

Watch the progress of the antitrust lawsuit case O'Bannon vs NCAA. If O'Bannon could somehow win (or settle) there would be a massive judgement for former and current players. Players might paid from now on. How does Eastern Michigan, or any MAC school pay players?

As we are finding out in Illinois, there is now longer a bottomless pit of money. California and Illinois have no credit. Cal does not sell out their games. The Illini, Northwestern, Indiana not close to sellouts.

Thank God Cal's stadium is now safe from earthquakes!

You no longer need ask the question, college football is out of control and NCAA control of the sport is gone.
You're absolutely correct that the O'Bannon case if not decided in the NCAAs favor is going to force major changes.
Who knows if the stadium is now really safe from earhtquakes, but if they hadn't taken those steps and there was one, the lawsuits filed as a result would certainly have bankrupt the place.
And yet, Bielema and Saban want rule changes because their defenses can't deal with no-huddle offenses. Next would be banning the wishbone, the pistol, or shotgun, if neither Arkansas or Alabama have the defensive personnell to deal with those type of teams. Yes, college football as we previously knew it is out of control and part of the problem is because people like Boise, Fresno, Cincinnati, Northern Illinois, etc., have started to infringe on the money and success of the power conferences.

(06-20-2013 12:16 PM)Huskie George Wrote:  Do we still need to ask the question, is college football out of control? $445 million in debt? 50-60 years to pay the debt? Maybe we raise tuition? Mega conferences where teams have to travel 2,000 miles to play a conference game with oil at $96 a barrel. How do we justify nearly half a billion dollars for a stadium renovation at a state school where so many people have lost their jobs, homes?

Watch the progress of the antitrust lawsuit case O'Bannon vs NCAA. If O'Bannon could somehow win (or settle) there would be a massive judgement for former and current players. Players might paid from now on. How does Eastern Michigan, or any MAC school pay players?

As we are finding out in Illinois, there is now longer a bottomless pit of money. California and Illinois have no credit. Cal does not sell out their games. The Illini, Northwestern, Indiana not close to sellouts.

Thank God Cal's stadium is now safe from earthquakes!

Well, that was THEIR justification(bolded parts). Is it a good justification? Probably not(probably could/should have built a new one that was smaller to meet the demand with making it expandable in size as needed) but what if there was an earthquake during a game and the stadium collapsed and thousands were hurt or killed? How much would the law suits cost?

(06-21-2013 12:21 AM)RobertN Wrote:  Well, that was THEIR justification(bolded parts). Is it a good justification? Probably not(probably could/should have built a new one that was smaller to meet the demand with making it expandable in size as needed) but what if there was an earthquake during a game and the stadium collapsed and thousands were hurt or killed? How much would the law suits cost?

They shrunk it with the renovations. Their average attendance was over 55,000 and their stadium now seats 63,000 (down from about 72,000). Whatever they would have built new probably would have been about the same size.

(06-20-2013 05:29 PM)uiniu57 Wrote:  

(06-20-2013 12:16 PM)Huskie George Wrote:  Do we still need to ask the question, is college football out of control? $445 million in debt? 50-60 years to pay the debt? Maybe we raise tuition? Mega conferences where teams have to travel 2,000 miles to play a conference game with oil at $96 a barrel. How do we justify nearly half a billion dollars for a stadium renovation at a state school where so many people have lost their jobs, homes?

Watch the progress of the antitrust lawsuit case O'Bannon vs NCAA. If O'Bannon could somehow win (or settle) there would be a massive judgement for former and current players. Players might paid from now on. How does Eastern Michigan, or any MAC school pay players?

As we are finding out in Illinois, there is now longer a bottomless pit of money. California and Illinois have no credit. Cal does not sell out their games. The Illini, Northwestern, Indiana not close to sellouts.

Thank God Cal's stadium is now safe from earthquakes!

You no longer need ask the question, college football is out of control and NCAA control of the sport is gone.
You're absolutely correct that the O'Bannon case if not decided in the NCAAs favor is going to force major changes.
Who knows if the stadium is now really safe from earhtquakes, but if they hadn't taken those steps and there was one, the lawsuits filed as a result would certainly have bankrupt the place.
And yet, Bielema and Saban want rule changes because their defenses can't deal with no-huddle offenses. Next would be banning the wishbone, the pistol, or shotgun, if neither Arkansas or Alabama have the defensive personnell to deal with those type of teams. Yes, college football as we previously knew it is out of control and part of the problem is because people like Boise, Fresno, Cincinnati, Northern Illinois, etc., have started to infringe on the money and success of the power conferences.

Look at the excesses, Bama waterfall in the locker room, a 37,000 sq ft weight room. You are right, they need rule changes to make it easier for them to win. If you can't win with what these guys have, then something is wrong

Cal does NOT have a funding problem, but a spending problem.

Was listening to XM Sports Radio and they said that CAL had no choice but to renovate California Memorial Stadium. They said that the original stadium was built in 1923 and was having structural issues already. Since their is a fault zone nearby the stadium had to be designed to survive a major earthquake and that is why it was so expensive. It sounds like Cal had no choice.

Fault Line. Crazy stuff.

(06-22-2013 12:21 PM)BeliefBlazer Wrote:  

Fault Line. Crazy stuff.

So building a new stadium that was not across the fault line would not have been less expensive?..especially considering that the old stadium had to be renovated because its 90 years old to begin with?

I imagine there isn't that much free space in Berkeley.

(06-22-2013 12:50 PM)BeliefBlazer Wrote:  I imagine there isn't that much free space in Berkeley.

Yep, there is nowhere else to put a football stadium anywhere near campus. That entire area is populated and the portion of it that isn't are steep hills that you, obviously, can't build a stadium on. In fact, the stadium they do have is pressed right up against them, which you can see in the pic below. It's a lot like Pasadena and the Rose Bowl in that sense.

Ya there is little space now but when was the fault discovered to be under the stadium?

Too bad about the fault line. It's such a unique venue, you'd hate to see them leave unless they had too....though a fault is a good reason to move shop.