Louisville practice facility center...

[HeismanWatch]

Click through those photos. Joe C and Boren can do the same imho.

http://www.hok.com/design/type/spor...y-of-louisville-yum-center-practice-facility/

 

[gwydion]

It's titled "raising the bar for the big east", so how old are these pictures cause they are in the ACC now.

 

[HeismanWatch]

It's titled "raising the bar for the big east", so how old are these pictures cause they are in the ACC now.

No idea, but these teams are building nice complexes for their basketball teams, so OU needs to do the same to help recruiting.

 

[DenverSooner]

It doesn't look much different than OU's stuff to me. The is a picture of (i) practice gym; (ii) locker room; (iii) film room; and (iv) coaches offices. I am positive OU has all of that, in fact OU has that stuff for men and women. They don't share.

Perhaps OU needs to remodel a bit but the facilities should be pretty good other than having been built about 15 years ago.

The one thing that was notable is the front of the building was pretty nice. To my knowledge OU doesn't have that look and instead the stuff sticks off the back side of the LNC and isn't all that architecturally appealing.

If some of it needs remodeled, then do it. A few hundred thousand would do quite a bit and a couple of million would do an insane job.

 

[sperry]

At $30 oil, with college sports TV contracts likely to decline, I don't see major facilities upgrades on the horizon.

 

[DenverSooner]

At $30 oil, with college sports TV contracts likely to decline, I don't see major facilities upgrades on the horizon.

Oil is regional so I am not sure I agree with that.

Why are TV contracts likely to decline?

I don't know if facilities upgrades are likely to slow down but they probably should. We spend way too much money on this stuff. I love sports but I don't know that our societal priorities are right in this respect.

It is even worse for professional sports. It is an industry where the players, coaches, owners and high level employees make obscene amounts of money while most of the jobs are low paying yet we subsidize the infrastructure. That is insane. Imagine if car shows were the be all end all in entertainment, with the Detroit auto show being the equivalent of the Super Bowl and then the auto industry got us to build their factories and corporate offices. That is what we do with professional sports.

 

[HeismanWatch]

Oil is regional so I am not sure I agree with that.

Why are TV contracts likely to decline?

Exactly. Bonds have nothing to do with current oil prices and the AD coffers are self sustainable. You have to be pragmatic, but you can't tell me these cheap rates aren't the best time to hedge your projects. Kentucky isn't a state known for it's wealth, so OU can compete with Louisville coffers.

 

[Max Power]

Oil is regional so I am not sure I agree with that.

Why are TV contracts likely to decline?

I don't know if facilities upgrades are likely to slow down but they probably should. We spend way too much money on this stuff. I love sports but I don't know that our societal priorities are right in this respect.

It is even worse for professional sports. It is an industry where the players, coaches, owners and high level employees make obscene amounts of money while most of the jobs are low paying yet we subsidize the infrastructure. That is insane. Imagine if car shows were the be all end all in entertainment, with the Detroit auto show being the equivalent of the Super Bowl and then the auto industry got us to build their factories and corporate offices. That is what we do with professional sports.

Where you you think most of OU's donors get their money?

 

[DenverSooner]

Where you you think most of OU's donors get their money?

I understand that oil is huge in our region. I thought he meant on a national scale. Low oil certainly hurts our local economy. Any gains realized by those not in the industry are far offset by losses felt by those in the industry in our region.

 

[Max Power]

I understand that oil is huge in our region. I thought he meant on a national scale. Low oil certainly hurts our local economy. Any gains realized by those not in the industry are far offset by losses felt by those in the industry in our region.

A hurting local economy means right now we don't have money for facility upgrades when they are currently spending money on the Football Stadium

 

[HeismanWatch]

I understand that oil is huge in our region. I thought he meant on a national scale. Low oil certainly hurts our local economy. Any gains realized by those not in the industry are far offset by losses felt by those in the industry in our region.

Low oil prices hurt state budgets, lower tax revenue, which affects the educational aspect that OU depends on from state contributions. That's the real issue in this oil glut for OU to manage imho.

The OU athletic department is a self sustaining entity. Donors help kick off athletic projects, but bonds carry the cashflow throughout those projects. You can't tell me donors forced to dispose assets via sells won't have tax write-offs in this environment.

Oil sector companies are laying off and they should because they need to right size their payroll scales. Those payroll scales fell off the rails years ago with $350k geoscientists that should be topping off at $200k in the first place. Supply chain guys making $125k, should be in the $90k range. Those payroll scales are inflated 35% on average from my estimates.

Right sizing the industry is a major blessing to get these payrolls back in order, so oil at $60 will be just as profitable as oil at $90 again.

 

[SoonerBounce13]

OU is a football school. Football will be taken care of first. Basketball second. Just the way it is

 

[SoonerBounce13]

plus i don't see anything special in those pictures

 

[BigTime]

OU is a football school. Football will be taken care of first. Basketball second. Just the way it is

Don't see why this is necessary? Football is being taken care of and so will basketball.

 

[SoonerBounce13]

Don't see why this is necessary?

Just the way it is. When there was more money in the economy, there were talks of renovating the arena at the same time as the football stadium. Then when the markets crashed, bball upgrades were scrapped and football continued on.

Football is being taken care of and so will basketball.

Kind of my point. Bball WILL be taken care of AFTER football

 

[opsooner]

Louisville is an interesting situation. The city is about the same population as OKC and from what I can tell (I do a lot of work there) the entire town is UofL and then those same fans either like UK secondarily or they hate UK. They get the advantage of combining the city and university interests. The Yum Center is a very nice facility downtown.

Having that that, UofL previously played at Freedom Hall at the fairgrounds and that place is/was a dump. They still had good teams most of the time when they played there.

 

[Sooner04]

to help recruiting.

The dirtiest phrase in the Queen's English as far as I'm concerned.

The current construction at Owen Field (south endzone) is Phase 1.

Phase 2 will be the overhaul of the west side upper deck and parking facilites at Owen Field.

Phase 3 will be LNC renovations.


I do not believe they have the coin to proceed with Phase 2 yet, so it's going to be a while before Phase 3 gets a sniff. There are plans drawn up, and as far as I know, they are approved. Just got to get the juice...and good luck with 29-dollar oil.

 

[sperry]

Oil is regional so I am not sure I agree with that.

Why are TV contracts likely to decline?

I don't know if facilities upgrades are likely to slow down but they probably should. We spend way too much money on this stuff. I love sports but I don't know that our societal priorities are right in this respect.

It is even worse for professional sports. It is an industry where the players, coaches, owners and high level employees make obscene amounts of money while most of the jobs are low paying yet we subsidize the infrastructure. That is insane. Imagine if car shows were the be all end all in entertainment, with the Detroit auto show being the equivalent of the Super Bowl and then the auto industry got us to build their factories and corporate offices. That is what we do with professional sports.

I'm talking about upgrades for OU. They already had to cut in half the stadium upgrade plans for football.

And I think college sports TV money is going to take a big hit because they are overinflated due to Cable prices. With unbundling rapidly occurring, ESPN and the other cable networks are in big trouble and it's likely that these contracts are overvalued just like ESPN was.

 

[HeismanWatch]

I'm talking about upgrades for OU. They already had to cut in half the stadium upgrade plans for football.

And I think college sports TV money is going to take a big hit because they are overinflated due to Cable prices. With unbundling rapidly occurring, ESPN and the other cable networks are in big trouble and it's likely that these contracts are overvalued just like ESPN was.

True, but where were the upgrades with oil at $100 and the tv contracts bloated? Was OU waiting for $200 oil and better tv revenue?

OU's football project was tapered off for the right reasons, but construction will be cheaper in this environment as it deflates in the next 12 months. The South endzone and the West side shouldn't have been projects to be completed at the same time anyway.

It's too complex from both project completion and new suite sales angles. You want a feeding frenzy of the Joneses to come into play once the South endzone is complete. Fans will see the true benefits of that entertainment business model, then the demand will increase $ for that same product on the West side. The West side bid will have cheaper bid tabs, knowing stagnant equipment and personnel will need to be on projects, not stagnant.

I believe the estimated cost of the West side was $180M. I now believe that will be around $150M with adjustment construction demand in this oil glut driven market.