Love, just asking and don't mean it in a derogatory or mean-spirited way. Say we had a number of T Boone Pickens type of alums that would throw crazy money at the OHIO football program specifically and OHIO athletics in general what would you hope for the outcome to be?
I know the question wasn't directed at me, but I'd tear Peden stadium down and start over. Not so we can build a 60k seat stadium, but so we could build a great 30k seat stadium. If we had the kind of funds you're talking about, we'd have a state of the art scoreboard, and we'd play on real grass, because we wouldn't need to use Peden for other stuff just for income. If we had a better stadium, with 30K good seats, I think we'd draw better. I think we'd recruit better and this would help advance the program. If we had those things, I'd like to see where that might lead. These, to me, are tangible uses for funds. Buying our way out of, then into a conference seems like flushing money down the toilet.
I'd also feel better knowing that athletics was more self-supporting so short-sighted faculty wouldn't rail against sports every week in the local fishwrap.
Wow, this is so off base, I don't know where to begin. Tear down Peden (including a $20 million in upgrades over the past 15 years) to build a facility that's only a little bit larger? Peden is a great place to watch a game. Yes, the restrooms on the student side are old and the undersides of both stands need some work, but just throw the whole thing away? You do know you can build a new scoreboard without trashing the whole complex, right? And finally, the reason we play on turf is not to accommodate lots of other sports/activities but because grass won't grow there. The field is beneath the water table. Do you really believe that a few thousand Columbus area residents are going to wake up on Saturday mornings and say, "Gee, they've got that great new scoreboard and those updated restrooms down in Athens - let's go to today's game?"
Hey, let's tear down the Convo, too - I really hate the scoreboards in there.
SBH - you do have a knack for misinterpreting everything I say, so let me clarify some things...
1st off, Please note that I am talking about a world where we have a phil knight-type sugar daddy supporting the program...anything goes
2nd I didn't say tear down the stadium
because of the scoreboard. I said start over with both of them. Two separate things. Peden is a "nice" place to watch a game, but it's not great by any stretch. Everything from how it looks with those godawful endzone sections to the tiny stands, to the walkways in front of the seats, to the high-school grade scoreboard, victory hill which isn't really a hill - rather a mound. Everything we've done in the last several years is a proverbial silk hat on a pig. I think the level of upgrades in the last 15 years amounts to about $5-6 million. Whatever actions have been taken inside the tower, sure we can keep that if at all possible. If we put in 20 million just into the stadium, then we got robbed. I think the major upgrade with the lowering of the field came to around 2.5 mil. Lights, plus field turf + restroom upgrades on the blue-hair side. That's hardly 20 million. Then let's talk the strength center. It's obviously a nice facility in and of itself, but it looks like an awkward appendage from inside the stadium, and the damn wall blocks half a section of people from seeing the main scoreboard. Whose idea was that?
Never said anything about the Convo - please don't put words in my mouth (another of your favorite tricks). While it has its quirks and it is, in fact, lacking in the scoreboard department, what a GREAT facility! The Convo is actually a perfect example of MY point. By itself it helps our program and we draw more fans just because it's a great arena. No one goes to Peden just because of Peden. Miami, Marshall, Toledo, WMU, and now Akron... all have stadiums that kick the crap out of ours. Akron's bad timing/coaching hire is costing them people, and Miami is just lame so no one goes to their games anyway despite the modicum of tradition they offer over the other MAC schools. Take Marshall before they expanded. They held about 30k in that place. Not much bigger than Peden's overflow 24 capacity. there is NO comparison between our facilities. Granted, they are handicapped because theirs is full of Marshall fans, but still, what a great stadium - that's what I envision for Ohio. Theirs looks like a smallish college stadium, where ours looks like an oversized highschool stadium. Peden Stadium never has been a selling point for our program.