“Don’t touch the green space”
“Student attendance is awful”
We are missing the obvious solution here which is to play basketball inside the Armstrong food court during lunchtime.
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Anyone who has followed construction prices since COVID shouldn’t. The inflation there has been much worse than general (and major projects like this have been running over budget for decades). Ignoring the politics of whether it will be good or bad as well (lets not get into that), construction estimates are already going up in anticipation of new tariffs. Have a friend who works in pre-construction management and has some horror stories already. I would be very skeptical of any initial price tag given: its gonna come in way above that when ultimately finished unless the initial budget is VERY conservative.
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Well you certainly could since most of the restaurants are either shut down, or not open on weekends. It looks horrible when they are doing prospective student tours, and you go in Armstrong and virtually nothing is open except the diner upstairs. We commented on that on our daughter’s official tour (and in numerous times we have been on campus since).
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Well Vermont sure as hell is learning that on their new basketball arena which keeps escalating in cost.
Anyone got any better ideas to increase student atttendance?
Win
Institutional support and investment
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Free ritalin and ozempic!
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In all seriousness, idk if this has been mentioned yet since I don’t have time to go read all 600+ messages on this thread but I think building on the Goggin quad would be nice because future development could turn that area into a dedicated athletics plaza, maybe build a proper HoF & Miami history display or something along those lines.
Not on the quad but it has been mentioned to build where Phillips sits, or the Nellie Walker site. The new arena could certainly be built to accommodate and house any classes/depts currently in Phillips.
On a somewhat related or perhaps unrelated note, it sure is nice the University has all this money to spend while they just shuttered the Music Dept library in the College of Creative Arts (of which the Music Dept is a part) as an individual unit and moved it to King. Reason for shuttering: cost. And before anyone asks, yes, it was used everyday by CCA students. And there is also the issue of faculty raises, which haven’t occurred. And yes, the dreaded dining hall ranter is back! Deal with it!! 
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I think far more important to our student base is who we are playing and is there a big name on Miami or the opponent
Playing Sacred Heart or Bethany or Eastern Michigan for that matter isnt going to attract Miami fans to Millet- Cook Field or the basement of their dorm
This is way different than other sports teams because NOBODY grew up a Miami fan
Also we are so worried about building it closer to the students but 6 of our 16 home games are when students arent on campus because of holidays and J term.
I understand this is a multi purpose arena and Millet needs work regardless but if we took the $200m and endowed NIL we would have far greater student attendance at Millet than stretching the athletic department and donors to their max for a shiny new (much needed building)
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I will be honest, I think this whole “closer to the students” is a red herring. Bottom line, Miami has some donor, who wants to contribute some sort of money to a new arena and Miami now has to justify it and saying “closer to the students” sounds good, especially when this donor apparently wants the new arena in the center of campus. I wish Miami was honest about it and just said, “the donor wants it in the center of campus”. (Or centrally located) I would also like to know how much of the cost this donor is putting up. The McVeys paid about 35% of the cost of the data science building project. I would hope this donor is somewhere comparable to the cost of this project.
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I think the use of the term red herring doesn’t really apply here. I would agree it’s burying the lead that the donor wants it centralized because that’s not going to sway public opinion but having it closer to the students is likely genuinly high on the list as well so not exactly being used to mislead anyone.
It seems fairly clear from the David Creamer quote in the linked Miami student article how much is coming from the university and how much from donors.
$3 million dollar payments for 25 years plus $7 milion in debt funds = $82 million. That leaves roughly $118 million being covered by donors.
I don’t think Phillips or Nellie Walker sites were on the map of potential locations that was shared. The corner of Spring and Oak was.
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Some people do grow up as Miami fans. Am I right #CWRedhawks ?
I am one
There is no Ohio tribe. There’s the Federally recognized tribe in Oklahoma (The Miami Tribe of Oklahoma) and the Miami Nation of Indians of Indiana, which is not Federally recognized.
I don’t care if you call it red herring or not. The point is the University is not being honest about this. Certainly not transparent as to why “central location” is so important. Students probably don’t care as long as it is a product worth seeing. I don’t think the article was quite that clear on how much of this Miami would have to pay. I did the same calculations as you. But bottom line, before the shovel hits the dirt, Miami needs to fully disclose the cost to the University versus the donor money. And they need to disclose how much of the donor money is fully committed, if not already in hand. When you are talking about a project that costs more than the last two projects combined, both of which opened in the last few years, there needs to be full disclosure.
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My $0.02:
It seems like you’re judging the University on a project timeline of your own creation. Whereas the actual project timeline I’ve seen, heard and read about is pacing towards transparency and information sharing.
Feels like you think this is all some sort of conspiracy Miami is engaging in, when I just see a bulky project slowly moving through initial phases.
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If they have 20 other reasons why “centrally located” would be beneficial to the campus and community why is it necessary to lead with “it’s what the donor wants” when it’s not even public who the donor is or what their requirments are?
If you did the same calculations then you likely have the same basic estimate of how much the university will spend as anyone does.
Like Phil04 I’m not sure why you think there is some conspiracy to hide the cost when the cost hasn’t even fully been determined. All they have are ballpark figures. Miami is a public university, the information will be available.
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No conspiracy at all.I am simply saying if a public university is about to spend 200 million (or more) on a project, they need to disclose all the figures including funding. Maybe they have done that already. Maybe they haven’t. And the area I was talking about, which perhaps I mistakenly called Nellie Walker is the yellow area labelled “2” on this “Miami University Buildable Sites” map from the Physical Facilities Dept.I believe the “2” sits right next to Phillips Hall. I have no interest in this at all. Why should I care at all? It isn’t like I am about to write a tuition check to the University by January 9, 2025. Clearly I have nothing but the worst interest at heart from the University I graduated from in 1987. My priority from the beginning is to get a new arena, but doing so responsibly, both fiscally and to keep the beauty and integrity of the campus intact. But maybe I have the wrong priorities.
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