Northern State University could buy 29,800 vaping sensors (that’s almost 200 for every school district!) with the money it may spend on its new temple of sport:
A building committee for the South Dakota Board of Regents in a teleconference set a guaranteed maximum price of $26,800,000 for a football stadium that seats 3,569, a women’s softball field with room for 254 and a two-story addition for locker rooms and viewing at the Barnett Center next door [Bob Mercer, “Regents Panel Sets Guaranteed Maximum Price of $26.8 Million for NSU Regional Sports Complex,” KELO-TV, 2019.09.30 ].
Don’t forget that the $26.8-million max does not include the $20 million already spent to build a new practice field and to move the School for the Blind out of the way of our new stadium:
The campaign also raised $6 million for an athletic and practice fields project and $14 million for a new School for the Blind and Visually Handicapped. School officials are seeking more donations.
The new football and softball fields will be synthetic turf. The first football game at the new stadium is scheduled for September 2021. The committee approved the design for the new complex June 12 [Mercer, 2019.09.30].
…or the additional $4.2 million that NSU will spend on furniture, toilets, professional fees, and other incidentals to the project.
So that’s $53 million raised to make a football and softball complex. Divide that amount by NSU’s 1,817 student FTEs this fall, and you get about $29,000, enough to cover almost four years of resident tuition for all of those FTEs.
But let’s watch some football….
If the project does come in under budget, Northern has a wishlist of additions, including a walkway bridge from the Barnett Center; walls, roof, and radiant heat for a football party deck; parking for the softball field, and trees.
Dang, maybe I’ll donate a couple trees….
WHAT?!? Only 254 seats for softball? Is that a joke? Seriously, 500 minimum with space to add more. And no parking? Then they’ll say softball doesn’t draw fans. Typical kind of setup. It’s disgustingly sexist, but NSU always has been. It’s in SD, after all.
Isn’t the current football field fairly new? I mean around 20-30 years old? I know colleges are really into fancy athletic facilities to entice athletes and woo donors into writing big checks.
Wait. Does NSU harbor dreams of Division I sports? Really bad idea. Really bad.
Really, Northern State Normal School is nowhere near a division 1 sport outfit. They are barely a college, let along a university, and will likely be consolidated by the legislatures within a few years. They should focus on Men’s Football exclusively, and get rid of all other sports. Do one thing, the one thing that makes a little money and people watch. Men’s football. Get rid of all the girls sports, and maybe keep men’s basketball as an intramural endeavor.
California Gov. Newsom today signed a law that allows NCAA athletes to be paid for endorsements and participation. “Nothing will change until we force them to. Coaches make a fortune and so do Universities.” he said. Already lawmakers in New York, South Carolina, and Florida are busy drafting similar legislation. *Studies have shown paid athletes are much less apt to cheat and throw games for money.
Some other ways to think it. Assumptions 5.5 games a year and 3 hours per game. Assume a 35 year life span before a major renovation. Assume average paid attendance of 3,000 per game.
-That would be over $91,000 per hour of use.
-That would be $92 per ticket.
Even at 26.8M, that would amount to $46 per ticket.
I’ll let people form there own opinion if this is a good use of money.
Porter, I like what Newsom is doing in California. I wonder, does it cover all athletes in all sports? All levels or just scholarship athletes?
It’s simply wrong for athletes to be the new field slaves.
Me too, Debbo. I also like that he signed the law that outlawed private prisons. This one covers all athletes. Of course, you have to be good enough to hire an agent and negotiate a contract. Athletes won’t be paid just to be on a team, with a minimum wage … yet. That will come. An entire softball team will eventually be able to negotiate as a group and strike. But, NCAA is expected to sue, so it will take a while. It’s the beginning, though.
Yeah. The hyper corrupt NCAA loves its power, its “overseer, massa” position.
No more school, no more books, just sports! Wonder when will we start paying high school athletes??
Debbo, the current football field, down at the new Aberdeen Central HS on teh SE corner of town, is fairly new, built just 15 years ago, I believe. But it’s not NSU’s own. It’s not on campus, where it can wow all the kids and parents and donors who come for tours.
And I’ll admit, from a pure marketing perspective, I don’t want to have to admit to the people I’m trying to make the sale to that we have to borrow the facility that matters most to some customers from another institution. Having our own makes us look bigger and better.
But it also means spending $53 million of community resources on a bragging project that does not directly improve learning outcomes and professional preparation.
cibvet, I think the best answer is to go with only intramural sports and let all the pro sports emulate Major League Baseball and create their own “farm teams.” The NBA has a version with its D and G leagues.
Part of the individual contracts with post high school athletes can be team contributions to a college fund so those kids can still get their educations since the majority of them won’t make the top level.
Cory, new stadiums are proven to make teams better. The Vikings owners promised that each time they got taxpayers to fork over another one and look at all the Super Bowls they’ve won! 🙄🙄🙄
In addition, the Minnesota Gophers got a new stadium on campus because they’d pack it with fans, recruits would flock to Mpls and the Gophers would dominate the Big Ten! 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄 (Half full on good days.)
Oh yeah. Minnesota knows those football stadiums are as good as FOOL’S gold.
“Katelyn Ohashi soared to internet fame this year after her UCLA gymnastics routine went viral. The perfect-10 performance set to pop music and featuring an exuberant Ohashi has been viewed nearly 44 million times on Twitter.
“A former Team USA member, she brought a positive light back to the sport and made media appearances from coast to coast. But the 2019 UCLA graduate didn’t make a dime off of any of that. UCLA and mainly the NCAA, though did. When NCAA president Mark Emmert called to congratulate her, she shot back with ‘You should be thanking me.’”
is.gd/nlRrJT
This was in Yahoo! Sports and Ohashi makes several really good points. The piece is short and worth your time.
I noticed that article about her, Debbo. The author noted that other young people who can draw a big online following can monetize that Web attention, but the NCAA rules prevented Ohashi from making any money from even that off-court action. The NCAA owns her and her fame. Not fair.