Again, UH has exactly one chance to get this right.
This Building, and Stadium changes, will endure for decades.
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This needs to be made crystal clear to Pez because based on his quotes he does not get how long term important this is. If he blows this the probably biggest project since he has been here then he needs to go. Do it right!!!
Look at the law and med building those are nice as wow and were less than 90mil. 140mil would be overkill⊠what are they hiding with 90mil?
I guarantee we have a huge chunk in hand for the building. Probably enough to build âcheapâ at $90m.
The problem is weâve hit a wall. No new leads are coming in and all the usual trees have been shaken.
So you go forward with this recent report.
Fundraising 101.
Hopefully a surprise gift of $10m comes in that kicks off the very public part of the project. Thatâs what happened with TDECU. A gift like that puts you in range of your goal and then you go for naming rights to close the deal.
I agree with the notion that they have funding for the $90M but as stated before we do not want to regret this⊠aim high and go for a long-term solution. Hopefully by unlocking the revenue generating potential of adding premium seating to the stadium helps to offset some of the extra cost long-term.
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Hasnât this been in the works since Herman?
Like Phillip said, they donât likely have a path to $140M. Could use debt but interest payments will add to annual deficit at a time when weâre trying to trim an already huge subsidy.
If Renu can get multiple big name corporations to donate to the $1 Billion fundraising campaign for the UH endowment then Pezman should be able to find a corporation or business two to donate for the football ops building and naming rights. Shell just paid big money for the naming rights to the Dyamnos stadium. Starting to think maybe Pez might not just be a great fundraiser and to narrow minded. Have to be creative and just not look at alumni only for funds.
Isnât Katina Jackson still in charge of AD fundraising? Sheâs very experienced.
Corporations arenât just writing blank checks to the endowment. A football ops building isnât a big corporate donor type thing is it?
Big funrasing projects like the ops buidling fall on the responsibility of the AD. The last two ADs did show they could raise money for projects and we know they were upfront on those projects
Give them the naming rights to the building and it is. The Texans practice facility has naming rights to Methodist. It is the Texans Methodist Training Facility. So you most definitely can sell naming rights for the ops building. Plus driving down Scott St. Everyone would see whatever business decides to donate name on the building for all to see.
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I am a huge fan of Tilman Fertitta. I thank him and Khator for all the support and change to advance this university at an unprecedented pace in the last 50+ years at UH. Khator has set the bar very high for those who follow in her footsteps. Mr. Fertitta will pass away one day, but he has been also raising the bar for projects for funding in the future. One only needs to look at the ongoing legacy of T Boone Pickens at Oklahoma State.
The UH stadium and other athletic facilities were built with the belief we would get into P5 7+ years earlier. And that delay of getting into the B12 has cost the UH millions of dollars every year in subsidizing the athletics program. Weâre not even officially in the B12 today. Yet weâre already saying âbuild Fill In The Blank and they will comeâ. I agree we need to do the operations center right.
First a 105,000 sq ft building is not a small space. To put into perspective it is the equivalent of 2.33 football fields. By coincidence it is the average size of Home Depot stores. 105,000 sq ft at 4 stories is 26,000+ square feet at 175âx150â. Who among us really has the know-with-all to say this isnât big enough for this purpose. If they had told us 90,000 sq ft was needed originally, I wouldnât have known to question it.
The most expensive custom home I have built for a client is $7 mil. But it only had 3,000 sq ft of living area. The next most expensive was $5 mil and it had 10,000 sq ft. To the untrained eye (most of the population) both of these houses looked equally luxurious. I say this to show there is a way to get the feel needed to satisfy the goals with the funds currently available.
I donât believe inflation is going to drop back down in 2 or 3 years, It took 20+ years to get back to the current rates.
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Wasnât the goal 60% (of original cost) to start building and they had enough in late 2022 ?
It was mentioned somewhere.
Yes.
Many said:
That $ for the end zone facility is a fair ___% of a new stadium.
It worked out.
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On the opposite side, Interest rates are very attractive to SAVERS.
They can park the money theyâve saved in a money market or CD account and make close to 5% while they try to secure the remainder of the funds
I have a Roth IRA and switched to putting my funds in commodities and long term money funds and bonds funds and still have lost money from where my IRA was about 2 years ago. Ill just say alot of people are more focused right now on their own financial future
Zero excuse with the Big 12 paydays coming soon that we do not go all in with this facility and others sports. If he cannot get this right then find someone who can.
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I agree this has to be Pezmans big contribution and legacy as AD because Renu and Tilman were more of the powers who got us into the Big12. If he cant get this right then he needs to go.
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Thatâs laughable. So if Pez canât find/print up another $50+ million RiGHT NOW then he needs to go?
Itâs not like our competition in the Big 12 has been collecting an extra $30+ million/year for the past 30 years from media rights to help pay for their facility improvements and build up their fan base. But yet according to some folks on here, Pez is supposed to be able to erase the legacy Big12 schoolsâ ~$1 billion funding head start in the next year or so. IMHO, if Pez could do that, it would constitute a miracle!
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WE ( our leaders) desperately wanted a P5 invitation.
Surely, they knew that invitation came with facility upgrades.
This is the big leagues. Yes, we get a bigger payday but that also comes with investment from us.
If not, we could have maintained having G5 facilities in the AAC.
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How many more seats does it add with the current plan?
How is it laughable? One of the big parts of an AD is working on projects like this. The previous ADs were ones who got everything going for TDECU, Guv V. Lewis Facilty, Fertitta Center, The turfing of the basbeball field. What major legacy achievment has Pez had since becoming AD. Every AD has to leave some kind of big achievement as an AD for the Uh athletic legacy and being this is the big and one most vital projects we need, I do believe this has to be his measuring stick. We are going into the Big12 now and once the tv revenue contract kicks in should help with the facility. All the other current Big12 schools were able to partly finance their great facilities by tapping into Big12 revenue. We have donors giving what they can in what is not a good economy. We should not just biuld the ops building scaled down in a rush just say we have it. If going to do it then do it right even if it means taking a year or two more of fundraisning, access to the Big12 money, and reeling in naming rights from a corporate sponsor. Pez is in a much better place now then his predecessor ADs who were not going into the Big12 and still were able to get the other projects done right even with more tigther money strings. Yes as an AD you are responsible for fundraising and you cant get the finances and donations in place to build a facility for the biggest revenue generating sport in college then maybe you are not the best of ADs and time bring someoen else in.
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