Interesting......

LAZER · October 21, 2008

Overall the article kinda blows (UT that is) but I thought the last paragraph was interesting. It talks about future developments to the Mean Green Village. When the Mean Green Village is complete with the FB stadium, the track stadium, the baseball stadium, and the "new softball stadium" it will be really nice. A completed Mean Green Village will be comparable to the athletics facilities of any other university in the country. I think it will be very attractive to prospective student athletes because everything they will need will be at the Mean Green village (except the super pit for bball games and actually going to class). As much as some of us dislike RV, he has accomplished a great deal at UNT. If he accomplishes all of these plans it will be amazing. Has the Basketball practice facility been built in the cafeteria yet? As much as I would like to see luxury suites at the Super pit I think we need to continue to get better and nationally recognized. I know this is contradictory to what many of us argued for the stadium but the Super Pit is already nice and Bball does not make nearly as much money as FB. On a positive note, I think the Bball team is well on their way to being a more nationally recognized team. Does anybody know how "nice" the private school we bought is now that much of it has been renovated? Does it still look like a school?

Was the Mean Green Village an idea hatched by RV or was it planned before he arrived.

Last paragraph from the article:

Betting on the future

This year, UNT athletics is spending even more money in the hope that it will pay off later. It increased its marketing program by $100,000 and spent tens of thousands more hosting fundraising functions. Two new hires are chasing private donations for new facilities.

"We had a lot of people counting money, but no one out raising it," Villarreal said. The Mean Green Club now brings in about $500,000 a year - paltry by Longhorn Foundation standards, but several times more than five years ago. Hiring well-known high school football coach Todd Dodge has boosted season ticket sales 40 percent.

Villarreal said he hopes additional investments in basketball and football pay off, too. He has increased the men's recruiting budget for basketball and football. A new football apparel deal with Under Armour should eventually help the bottom line, although it will actually cost the department money while the Mean Green switch from New Balance gear.

At the same time, he is upgrading the sports complex to convince recruits that North Texas is a place to be taken seriously. The department has built 12 new facilities in the past four years.

The new athletics building has a hydrotherapy rehab room - just like the big schools - and gleaming new training and weight rooms. The new football locker room includes a players lounge with the now-standard large flat screen TVs. The foyer was finally decorated with trophies and other sports souvenirs.

The school also has new softball, soccer and tennis facilities. In 2004, UNT purchased the entire campus of a private school across I-35 from it. Since then, Villarreal has been transforming the old buildings into a "new" athletic campus, Mean Green Village.

A single-story schoolhouse is the new academic center (the old one was under the football stadium and leaked). The old gym was refloored and is now the women's volleyball center. A choral hall was transformed into an indoor golf practice room. The cafeteria will become the new basketball practice facility.

He has bigger plans, too, should the opportunity - and money - arise. The weed-choked softball field will become an indoor practice field. A baseball stadium and track and field complex will arise from empty lawns, and luxury suites will blossom in the Super Pit, the 35-year-old basketball arena in the center of campus. (He settled last year for a renovation of the basketball locker rooms and players lounges - 60-inch TV included.)

The capstone, of course, will be the new $60 million football stadium to replace the 56-year-old Fouts Field. Villarreal said he hopes to see construction under way by the end of the decade.

Yet he vows not to get too caught up in the athletics arms race. "We make sure our people get everything they need - though not everything they want," he said. "There won't have to be a logo every two feet."

Edited October 21, 2008 by LAZER