With this email, I am giving up my source for all the information I shared about the arena earlier this year. He is fine with that and asked me to share his views on Hawk Talk. He understands that the audience here is most hard core Miami sports fans and that many of you might disagree with his opinion. However, if he can’t convince you, it is unlikely that the university will back down.
I am a big Miami sports fan but am
an even bigger fan of Miami’s academics and students. As an adjunct professor, I see the pressure from the university to cut academic programs. This university was founded on teaching classics and it is a bit ironic that Miami has cut classics from its curriculum. It’s not just classics though. It’s affecting most departments and as a result students are getting the short end of the stick in many ways.
Don’t get me wrong. I would love a new arena. However in this economic environment, I don’t think a new state-of-the-art arena is a good look for the university.
I think the idea is it’s a long term strategy, as this will lead (hopefully) to higher enrollment and better attendance both generating more revenue for the school, also elevating the status of the university nationwide. Also the funds donated for the arena likely cannot just be used for something else as if a donor restricts funds for a specific purpose the nonprofit has to use the funds for that purpose (thanks ACC 568), so Miami either uses the money or loses it
This post was not unlike watching The Curse of Oak Island. Oh, I took the bait like I do every Wednesday night. But then I read the full post. Just wow.
You win. Greatest catfish move ever. Seriously. You win. What a source!
That’s true as a first-order consideration but elides two more nuanced questions. The first, as Dr Prytherch notes is whether the fundraising required for future debt service on the pile Miami still will have to borrow might crowd out giving to the academic side of the house. That’s a non-trivial issue given Miami’s overall budget environment and resource constraints.
The second, which I’ll raise, is whether it was a given that the whale donor would donate only to athletics. My other schools steer their biggest donors back toward the academic side, or at least convince them to split their gifts between athletics and academics. We’re not inside enough to know how much effort went into that, but I hope our development team works from a similar framework for the long-term health of the university.
You’re the guy who insulted me. You told me to get my head out of the sand (which I loved btw as it was like being insulted by one of The Hardy Boys) when I said there was no way in hell they were going to tear down Patterson Place to build the arena there. I knew you and your bike ride cabal was bluster then but the feeble magician just revealed his talent in his latest trick.
Show me where I said pull your head of of the sand? First of all, I never said anything about “Patterson Place.” That was not on the table. It was Lewis Place, and you responded by calling me a catfisher because it was so unbelieveable. But then I provided the map that showed Miami was indeed considering Lewis Place.
You’re just a internet tough guy who is apparently making up for something lacking elsewhere.
I’m not tough. How dare you. I’m fat. Very, very, very very fat. And it’s my job to sit on things that are specious. Thus, I sat on you.
Now, take your medicine for spreading pointless gossip that was proven to be pointless by well, you!
Also, that “map” was something I gave you years ago when we were friends. A map to the Havinghurst Treasure. And you know this, Hippy. You know this. Yet you treat me so poorly.
In the words of Nancy Carrigan, “Why? Whyyyyyyyyyy?”
However, I seriously doubt the donor is deciding between funding a new arena or funding teacher raises or some of the cut majors
Losing Cook field would stink for the intramurals and I wish they could build the new arena and hotel were they want to put the intramurals but I dont think they can
Seems like there is so many against the plan that I am not sure what the path forward is. One thing is for sure is nobody will be happy with whatever the final decision is
I can’t take anyone seriously that begins their argument with Cook Field being central to campus life unless its vastly changed in 20 years (many things have but I doubt Cook has beyond making half of it fake grass).
I worked for Miami Rec Intramurals for 3 years. I was out on Cook Field 3-4 nights a week during Fall and Spring. I would venture I spent more time on Cook than 99% of Miami student body: it was not central to student life at Miami (other than physical location). Even as green space, students did not use it to lounge around, they did that closer to their dorms. The handwringing over Cook is ridiculous. The vast, vast, vast majority who use Cook were intramural users, and those are not the ones I hear complaining. I would guess most the people now saying Cook is central to Miami’s campus have only interacted with Cook by cutting across it occasionally and maybe attending a club/event fair freshman year (if they still do that).
I get liking greenspace for the sake of greenspace, but they turfed over half of Cook years ago.
At least most of the rest op-ed is honest after the initial false virtue: this is truly about whether Miami should invest in sports or not, but even that isn’t the whole picture. As Bake has pointed out, Millet as a facility is untenable to continue. A new venue needs to be built: not just for sports, but for all the other uses that a top flight university requires to have an arena (large speakers, career fairs, events, and yes, athletics).
What’s the alternative? Miami should stop hosting large speakers? Miami should cancel career fairs? Graduation ceremonies should be split up so they can fit in Hall Auditorium (good luck!)? A whole lot of words without a single viable alternative offered.
Bingo! Maybe older alumni had a different experience or are listening too much to the current students complaints, but anyone who has ever walked by cook field 99% of the year recently would notice it empty. Go to any quad around campus on a sunny day and you will see way more people lying on picnic blankets there than you will ever see at cook field. Most of the complaints from current students I’ve seen about cook aren’t even about the lack of recreational space, it’s about how construction/an arena will ruin the view/quietness of the area
That’s where the development office comes in. With donors like that, you try to steer toward a “one for you, one for the university” approach so the donor can get a pet project and also support other institutional priorities. At Duke, David Rubenstein got his rare books room at the library (a passion of his but a niche resource) but also funded a new student arts facility to bring Duke’s offerings in performing arts, music, and student radio up to speed after fifty years of underinvestment. That’s the sort of trade off I’m thinking about.
Just with any decision, it appears that there is massive dissent because we are getting feedback from a loud minority. There is a huge number of people like myself who are quietly supporting this project and this specific site. This new arena district has strong support throughout the group of core supporters of both athletics and the university as a whole. As one former Miami board member recently said - this is a long time coming and will be a wonderful addition to campus.