I will keep repeating myself in agreement with you. We need 9,000 seats minimum. I want a kegger arena, not a private party arena. A place with enough room that when the team is good, everyone who wants to can go. I know there will be games, or even seasons, where it seems like too much, but think of how less involved the community would be right now if there were 6000 fewer in attendance and tickets were inaccessible for the majority. I also think if we build it too small, it limits our upside in the future with potential albeit unlikely conference realignments.
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I think the seating estimates are missing the upper bowl which seems to be visible in renders, but not in the cross section
I will say, the renders look cool, the volleyball makes a lot more sense with the diagrams of how it can be a multi purpose venue and all that.
But the idea of putting a hotel directly across from Farmer on the corner of Patterson and High St seems incredibly stupid. I guess itās still tentative since the original deal fell through, but hopefully that doesnāt happen.
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Assuming it gets built. I am assuming nothing at this point. About anything.
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I agree, Miami has shown that theyāll come support their teams when they have success. 9,000 seats seems like a good number to appease any demand
2 things stand out:
- Miami needs an indoor arena, Millett needs boo-koo bucks to be in good working order, and it makes fiscal sense to just start over with EVERYTHING NEW.
- The success of Miami athletics combats the demographic cliff and attracts new students.
And our good friend, The Professor is back at it today on Linkedin
So the proposed arena cost estimates are in, and theyāre much worse than we feared. The capital costs under the āpreferredā scenario have skyrocketed to $280M. Fundraising so far? A paltry $450K (thatās right, less than 1/2 a million). That means Miami will have to borrow $280M, which will require debt service payments of $18M per year for 25 years. And none of this includes the cost to run a winning basketball team in an era of paid athletics. This debt will be paid off with student fees redirected from other priorities (imagine what $18M a year could buy). And, heaven forbid enrollments drop ā not uncommon in todayās higher education landscape ā so would that fee revenue. No one has asserted the arena could actually make money, but thereās a chance it could literally bankrupt Miami. If the Trustees are the conservatives they say they are, maybe they should pause before going down this fiscally reckless road.
Miamiās money belongs to all of us: paid by parents and students and alumni, and earned by faculty and staff, so our voices should matter. They arenāt asking, however, so we may need to remind them. President Crawfordās email is crawfogp@miamioh.edu and BoT secretary Ted Pickerillās is pickerto@miamioh.edu.
Heās wrong about the idea that Miamiās money belongs to everyone. Donors get a vote in how their money is used. Even at a small level.
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Not just a vote. Donors can literally restrict donations for specific purposes
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I will once again bring up that Gonzaga only has 6,000 seats and they are in Spokane, a city of 230,000 (slightly larger than Oxford). Iād rather have 6,000 LOUD fans in every game creating a home court advantage even in off years rather than a quiet and cavernous 9,000 seat arena where the tarps have to come out again in a couple years. One way to alleviate this would be to have 2 levels of seating which seems to be the intention based on the artwork?
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Youāre right. Donors get a vote on how their money is used. Right now they have a say on how the $450,000 is used, no less and no more.
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I think itās laughable when people are told how their money they have donated of their own free will should be spent. This is exactly why a friend of mine in another state pulled their family out of their elementary school district. The gym needed a new floor and they were gonna write the check. School said thanks but the way we are set up, your money has to go to the school with the least donations. The said ābut this is our own personal money, not tax dollars.ā Didnāt matter. They left. Not meant to be political btw, I donāt care how anyone here votes, but the idea that my money canāt have parameters on how itās used is out of touch.
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They could do a drive simply for arena donations (legal?) and I would bet it would fill up fast.
Ya think? I ask because all I see here are a bunch of cheap ass mother-effers who canāt even be bothered to donate a few dollars to the Miami Menās Basketball Excellence Fund yet will endless whine about having (insert name of famous/wealthy Miami alumnus) fund a new arena. So itās interesting how some will say donors have an absolute say in how their donations are used all while clamoring for ānice thingsā, but wanting others to step up and pay for them and absolving themselves of any responsibility. Be the change you want to see in the world. Steps off soap box.
Really? I feel like a lot of people have been donating. Some did it long before hoops was good and it was fashionable. If itās legal to donate to fund the arena I think it will start to close the gap. Big money fundraising happens behind the scenes. It takes years to nurture a prospect. Iām talking about micro donations. That can start happening immediately.
What the fuck are you smoking Yellow? Here, meaning MHT.com, itās a small number of the same people donating over and over again.
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Maybe I donāt understand your post. A prof made a comment. I reacted to it. His comment made no sense to me. I simply said people can spend their own money however they like. I also said micro donations simply for the arena might be a start since big money checks take longer.
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Iām going to choose to not even read this or Iāll get too pissed off.
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Does the military contribute anything toward ROTC facility replacement? I would certainly hope so.