So, there's a whole lot of difference between what they're doing and what you want UM to do.
First off, they apparently have the space to do this on campus. UM doesn't. UM would have to buy land somewhere to build, and land isn't cheap in Miami.
Second, it's not just a football stadium. It's a multi-purpose facility that would consolidate all of the athletic needs for the entire university. So it wouldn't be empty for 99% of the year, like a stand-alone football stadium would. It would be used for football, basketball, swimming, intraumurals, etc, and would hold all sorts of other activities (yoga classes, convocations, etc). So it has the buy-in of the entire university community, unlike a stand-alone football stadium.
So let's rule out anything like what NW is doing.
Let's move on to discuss Tulane and Baylor...both of which, again, have land already on campus on which they're building a stadium. Baylor had 93 acres of wide open land on campus, just waiting for something to build on it. I'm not sure you really grasp what a benefit that is for them, and what a detriment it is to UM's chances of building a stadium that we do not have space available on campus. I'd venture that it would cut the costs of a stadium by 1/3rd to 1/2.
Not to mention, Baylor also received nearly half of the funding for the stadium from one donor, BEFORE THEY EVEN STARTED THEIR FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN. Let me know when one UM donor ever gives more than 5-10 million to the athletic department. Maybe then, we can discuss a serious fundraising campaign.
You know the old adage "it takes money to make money'? Well, let's think about the Baylor situation for a minute. Baylor didn't even publicly announce they were fundraising for a new stadium UNTIL they'd already locked up a crap-ton of money. That's the way most campaigns work. Big-time back-room deals for tens of millions of dollars get the ball rolling, and then you announce a formal campaign in order to reel in the small fish, the people who will donate a few hundred dollars here or a few thousand there, to come up with the rest of the cash.
Shalala did the same thing with the two fundraising campaigns for the academic side of things. UM had hundreds of millions in the bag before they ever publicly announced they were conducting a fundraising drive.
If someone steps for with a big gift of 50 mil for athletics, let's say, I'm sure that would get the ball rolling at UM and we could begin a serious stadium campaign. So who do you propose we get to donate the cash?
We're never going to agree but here are my thoughts.
First. We cannot rule out NW because it is a similar sized private school who decided to get an organized effort for the football team. NW has their own stadium but they still decided that this was worth getting the masses together and collecting donations. NW an actual academic powerhouse with 1/100th the football tradition found a $200+ million project worth getting behind. I get it, the project is more than just football but where is our $220 million project.
Second. Land. I don't need anything on campus. I don't expect it on campus. Recently UM held a ton of vacant land by the old zoo. This land was big enough for a stadium with a ton of parking. It was by major roads. The land was there, but we choose to sell the land for the hospital. Not to build the actual hospital but because the thing is bleeding money. This is an example of priorities.
You know where land is expensive? New Orleans. You know what school got behind a project to build a 30,000 stadium? Tulane. Tulane has 1/1000th of the tradition we do plus the expensive land problem.
Just to review we have land (not on campus), we had land and we will always be able to get land to build a stadium. Simply having this asset has never made this project a priority.
Third. Earmarked Donations. I agree. I agree. I agree that it is easy to fund raise when a big donation is earmarked for a certain project. I also agree that it is hard to string together donations to make this project work
if it is not a priority of the school. I agree that we need a big donation to kick things off right. I don't know why this is a random alumni's job to solicit donations but here is one name...
Bruce Berkowitz (both his girls went to UM, he lives in CG)
http://www.miami.edu/index.php/news...aking_held_for_new_student_activities_center/
http://www.valuewalk.com/2013/12/archives-bruce-berkowitz-interview-university-miami/
How about we start with him? Do you want to ring his doorbell or should I? Here is one recent donation he made above.
Listen, I am being real here and not messing around. I think this project is going to take a tremendous amount of work and effort (understatement). I only think this project will happen if the school deems it a priority and gets behind the actual project itself. It may take some "Big-time back-room deals" to get the ball rolling, but I would also like to know that the school is making this a priority as well. I don't believe the school makes this a priority at all.
