Stadium Construction 🚧 Apply the brakes?

Other 49er Sports
1

I’m posting this on a message board because that’s the right place to entertain extreme ideas like this.

We are paying $70,000,000 for a very limited expansion of our football stadium…

Meanwhile, our operating budgets for the AD, including our coaching salaries are underfunded, as is our NIL fund, which we haven’t brought in house yet.

Radical suggestion:

Cancel the stadium expansion, and let’s dump the $70,000,000 into operations, and hire a top flight AD (that will pay for himself by fundraising), as well as coaching staffs for Football and Basketball, while we seed the NIL fund for the revenue sports with enough money to field teams that would actually be competitive at the levels we would like to see.

It’s a short term gamble with potentially a long term payoff.

Thoughts?

Edit - I realize the $70,000,000 isn’t a lump sum. But you redirect the gifts anyway.

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2

Nope. The money given is ear matked expansion. No way does NC legislature allow that and. Imagine Smokey wouldn’t approve either. Plus the expansion will be a revenue driver.

Nk way does the state allow their portion to be used for NIL. If I was a tax payer I’d be furious at that.

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3

That’s a killer but as bad as I wanted the stadium expansion, that $70,000,000 price tag for what we are getting is absurd, and given our funding shortfalls in operations and NIL, hurts that much worse.

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clt says this is a hot take.

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It doesn’t seem like much in terms of seat expansion. But, if we hope to attract bigger money we are going to need that luxury seating.

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6

Yeah the expansion is all about the tower and suites not seats.

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7

I don’t agree with this at all.

But I don’t understand what benefit I’m getting from season tickets or donations anymore.

And the price of season tickets keeps going up while the results do not improve.

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I think I posted the same thing weeks ago. 3k seats for 70 mill? Get the hell outta here….

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It is the suites and the tower, but we were supposed to get all of that and 30k total seats for about the same price.

I get inflation, but damn.

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Hill Might as well just drive to Cherokee and put it all on red.

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Dude, always bet on black!

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I think this suggestion was firmly tongue in cheek. I hope.

Even if the suggestion was possible you don’t do that. You invest in facilities first.

Facilities investments are something that pay off long term. It’s tangible and real.

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This initial expansion will be the most costly by far. Future expansions will be adding seats. Best to do it now while we can. It’s an investment in the future. Putting that money on operations would provide a short term boost, but when the money ran out we would regret it.

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100

There may be another chance. There is no guarantee of future funds.

Adding the new tower and amenities first is smart.

Rather than going for max capacity.

I think all we need is a small upper deck on the other side and frankly we are likely to be done.

I doubt we will ever need more capacity than that.

It will be perfect for when FBS reorganizes and we are in a new division.

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Even bringing this topic up is defeatism.

Who here doesn’t understand the part facilities play in recruiting at this point?

Am i pleased we’re doing just the parts for rich folks? No.

Do i understand why we need a better press tower and suites? Yes.

Do i hate that it took us 5 years just to get to this point. You better damn well believe it!

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Do they? I mean I don’t think they hurt but not sure it matters like it used to with lead recruiter Benjamin leading the way to land services. Not staff, not facilities, not school.

I do agree have to get this thing built.