(08-28-2019 08:18 AM)Ken Barna Wrote:  Dear Friends,
I was lucky to attend the dedication, ribbon cutting, and opening of the new facility last evening. All I can say is WOW! It was very impressive. What was a nice touch, was the women's soccer team and the seniors on the football team were in every section to talk to you about that part of the building, or their team, or themselves.
The weight room is in the Northeast corner of the building with the garage looking doors. The size alone was incredible. The second floor is where the offices are located, plus a locker room with showers, for the coaches. Also located there is what was referred to as the recruiting lounge, which is a room with couches, Eastern memorabilia, photos on the wall of past teams and players, and a refreshment area.
The front of the building is actually on what you would call the backside facing the baseball stadium and the soccer fields. That is the location of an atrium
which has a twelve foot high trophy representing the fact that Eastern has won more sports championships than any other school in the MAC. Outside, in front of the entrance is where the bricks are located, and placed in the form of a block "E".
Lastly, the whole structure was built in just under a year, and received no money from the general fund. That alone is quite the accomplishment.

This building, alone, does so much for EMU athletics.

One thing we tend to neglect or forget is that the FB coaching staff moves from the Convo to the new building.

That frees up space in the Convo.

Then coaches from Bowen can move to the Convo freeing up space at Bowen.

Likewise, FB S&C moves to the new building freeing up space at the Convo.

The increased S&C space and office space are a big +.

I'm anxious to see photos from a flyover over at least the press box or stands showing both the Convo and the new building to see how much in harmony they are.

Ask and ye shall receive - Photo gallery and video fly-over from last night on EMUEagles.com: https://www.emueaglesphoto.com/p783242404

Thanks.

My question and it is still months away:

Can foul balls hit the back side of the jumbo-tron?

Dear steve,
I would say rare, but maybe possible. I would have to take a look at it to be sure. How's that for being definitive?

(08-28-2019 08:18 AM)Ken Barna Wrote:  Dear Friends,
I was lucky to attend the dedication, ribbon cutting, and opening of the new facility last evening. All I can say is WOW! It was very impressive. What was a nice touch, was the women's soccer team and the seniors on the football team were in every section to talk to you about that part of the building, or their team, or themselves.
The weight room is in the Northeast corner of the building with the garage looking doors. The size alone was incredible. The second floor is where the offices are located, plus a locker room with showers, for the coaches. Also located there is what was referred to as the recruiting lounge, which is a room with couches, Eastern memorabilia, photos on the wall of past teams and players, and a refreshment area.
The front of the building is actually on what you would call the backside facing the baseball stadium and the soccer fields. That is the location of an atrium
which has a twelve foot high trophy representing the fact that Eastern has won more sports championships than any other school in the MAC. Outside, in front of the entrance is where the bricks are located, and placed in the form of a block "E".
Lastly, the whole structure was built in just under a year, and received no money from the general fund. That alone is quite the accomplishment.

We have two bricks can't wait to photo them the first home game and see that scoreboard.

Here the scoreboard at a HS game last night. It will take some time getting used to the numbers at the bottom. Unfortunately, the video screen was not used (the first game ad was on it all night) and the sound system was not used. Only the sound from speakers on the press box could be heard, and it was barely audible. EMU should have used this as an opportunity to show off the new stuff in front of about 3000 potential ticket buyers.

Mismanagement 101

https://www.michiganradio.org/post/easte...ion-pay-it

(08-31-2019 09:07 AM)ljmhurons Wrote:  Mismanagement 101

https://www.michiganradio.org/post/easte...ion-pay-it

This is a well understood fact that when Stone withdrew his financial support that there was a big hole to fill.

That said, public and personal finance 101 indicates, that most big things are not paid for cash on the barrel.

I assume most here know what a 30-year mortgage is.

The funding for this project is through a bond issue, kind of like a mortgage, where EMU got the money upfront and has to make payments over time.

Those who bought their houses with a mortgage understand this.

No different than say Little Caesars Arena where both the public and private dollars were borrowed.

Boys and girls get out your mortgage calculators and pretend you are buying a very, very expenses house and need say a 20-year mortgage for say 6M. Assume 4% interest rate and it would be say 400 - 450K per year.

One way to finance these dollars is to say give up a home game vs. a power 5 school and try to earn between 1.0 and 1.5M (or even more - Kent is getting 1.9M for playing at Auburn this year) with a good road game guarantee.

I might add that the facility was much needed. The old scoreboard was fitting for a high school.

Who would want to put up a new scoreboard in front of the old football building (actually I was told that it couldn't have been put on top of the old FB building).

This was the time to go big.

Well, the AD fund raising had better move forward with more fund raising. I believe the stadium on the visitor side needs some serious concrete repair work. I heard a figure of about $8 million. Do not know if that is correct.

Dear Friends,
I'm so tired of any news source talking about Eastern using general funds for athletics. Western does it, Central does it, and probably every other state supported school in the State besides Michigan State and U-M, does it.

(08-31-2019 02:36 PM)Ken Barna Wrote:  Dear Friends,
I'm so tired of any news source talking about Eastern using general funds for athletics. Western does it, Central does it, and probably every other state supported school in the State besides Michigan State and U-M, does it.

Therein lies the problem. U of M and MSU are the bench mark for everybody. Everyone considers them to be normal. The reality is that they're at the upper end of the economic scale.

It really weird to me that Stone went from 6million to ZERO. Like, do you want to help or not?

(08-31-2019 04:01 PM)TheWoodenNickle Wrote:  

(08-31-2019 02:36 PM)Ken Barna Wrote:  Dear Friends,
I'm so tired of any news source talking about Eastern using general funds for athletics. Western does it, Central does it, and probably every other state supported school in the State besides Michigan State and U-M, does it.

Therein lies the problem. U of M and MSU are the bench mark for everybody. Everyone considers them to be normal. The reality is that they're at the upper end of the economic scale.

In fact LESS THAN THIRTY Division 1 athletic programs are self sustaining, singling out EMU's appropriation of general funds is thus ridiculous. I, like Ken, attended the opening ceremony of the new building and I was however distressed when Regent Webb stated that the project was totally donor financed. The claim was false, never should have been made, and invites investigation and criticism. This project was long overdue, it will benefit the University and does not need a University leader deceiving the public about it.