A&M just another school spending whatever it can on stadium

[Harry]

Since logic and common sense vacated the premises on the spending in college athletics roughly 20 years ago, it makes perfect sense that Texas A&M is considering spending about $450 million for renovated football stadium.

Just when the University of Texas thought its renovated digs at Darrell K. Royal Stadium were going to be grand, the good people wearing the maroon and white have unveiled a plan to make the new Kyle Field large and expensive.

The plan was presented to A&M's board of regents on Wednesday.

Seating capacity would be 102,000 and the price tag on this expansion is $450 million. This project would begin immediately after the 2013 season, or when Johnny Manziel is done playing his last college game. It would be done in time for the start of the 2015 season.

Yes, that means Texas A&M's attendance will be bigger than UT, which currently holds 100,119 proving once and for all that more people can potentially attend a home Aggies game than a UT football game. I think we know some university that has its priorities in order.

But UT wants to expand the stadium again to a capacity of 112,000, so take that. Hopefully by then Texas A&M will have a plan to increase Kyle Field to 113,000.

Seriously. This is insane to spend this much money on a venue that is used six times a year. Maybe eight. It also completely consistent with the rest of the great state a Texas, and the United States.

Read more: http://sportsblogs.star-telegram.com/mac-engel/2013/05/texas-am-just-another-school-spending-whatever-it-can-on-a-football-stadium.html

Read more here: http://sportsblogs.star-telegram.com/mac-engel/2013/05/texas-am-just-another-school-spending-whatever-it-can-on-a-football-stadium.html#storylink=cpy

[THOR]

I really like our 78 million dollar stadium...I have no.desire to ever have our school have 100,000 fans...

[greenit]

I haven't seen pictures, but I assume this means they will be adding a couple more decks to their beautiful end zone seating. Awesome.

[Cougar King]

So...after UNT finishes $78 million Apogee. TCU takes the spotlight by renovating Amon Carter then Baylor announces their new on-campus stadium and UH announces their new stadium using the same company who built Apogee with a cheap $115 million (not that I'm complaining) then Rice in a knee-jerk reaction, announces upcoming renovations to Rice Stadium. Now we have of course, whorn and aggy anouncing renovations of their own.

Who's next? Tech?

[ragpicker]

Getting and spending we really do lay waste to our powers. Emerson was right. A sordid boon, indeed.

[emmitt01]

Notice they're increasing student fees to accomplish $75 million of this.

I wonder if any of their alums are whining about how they're ruining the "bargain" of an A&M education...or if they all recognize that athletics brings more attention than1,000 marching bands or chemistry labs.

[foutsrouts]

Insanity never ends. Not that I'm really a bleeding heart type, but think of all the good that could be done with the overblown budgets for these overblown barely used stadiums. Really kind of sad. At least ours was a mandatory upgrade.

[untjim1995]

The Aggies care about football alot because it connects their university family. They know that the university's main goal is to educate (very well I might add) their students to be ready to go out and make money. By creating such a crazy bond between the school and its "family", you get the "family reunions" at Kyle Field. Yes, the Aggies are different people--they care about dead dogs, bonfires, and pretend military. They are a different breed. But their university produces some very talented engineers, scientists, researchers, and now business majors. That's a lot of money from their core (not Corps) graduates to give back and now tha Kyle Field is being expanded, the money from those current students and former students will pay off this expansion fairly quickly, if just through future donations to the entire university.

Their university invested in ways to connect their students, alums, faculty, local citizens, and their families. They are now reaping the rewards of that continued investment, as well as the forward thinking of their university's leaders to make a change in athletic conference affiliation that has created a new identity that will not drop off for a long time. The SEC thing may have made A&M turn their back on Texas, Tech, and Baylor, but they aren't looking back at their old brethren. And, now, even if they fall backwards again, the $$$ and prestige from being in the SEC and out from under Texas' shadow has raised A&Ms profile for decades to come.

In my opinion, Texas is in big trouble here. When the SEC Network gets going, the payout to A&M is going to be more than Texas gets from the Big XII and LHN. The Aggies get games against the SEC powerhouses in College Station. Texas' biggest opponent is played in Dallas every year. They play home games against teams that aren't nearly as attractive as who the Aggies play now. And once Baylor issues their first bonds for their new stadium, they are going to be welded to Texas. And as we have seen, Baylor produces some very good lawyers who are glad to sue the world to protect their school's interest of being a tick on the hound. To some degree, TCU and Tech fall in those categories, too.

To me, the only out Texas has is to go independent for about 2-3years. Basically, they are going to have to take a step back to move forward. They'll still get sued, but they can say that they are leaving Baylor, TCU, and Tech in an AQ league and will still play them, so they can be allowed to move on. Then, they have to figure out how to rework or ditch the LHN, just so they can fit in with another conference. The SEC won't ever take them, since A&M, Arkansas, and Mizzou will never vote for them, nor will LSU, Florida, Kentucky, or South Carolina, who all want to protect their states from getting a second SEC school. The PAC could be a good option, but you're basically giving A&M the advantage of location and time zone for recruiting purposes. Kids in Texas want their families to see them play, even if its on TV. An A&M game at South Carolina will start at 6pm CST, at the latest. A game in the Pac for anyone in this time zone may not start until 9:30. So, to me, the only play Texas can make that would compete well with the Aggies move to the SEC is to look out for themselves by going independent for a short time, which would get rid of Baylor, TCU, and Tech, rework or ditch the LHN, and then join the other major prestigious league that involves the CST--the B1G. Make no mistake about it, the B1G would take Texas in a heartbeat with its AAU status, research capabilities, and huge TV market. Plus, the B1G will only take AAU schools and it won't take schools with poor academic standards in their eyes (i.e., the emails to Texas a few years ago from the Big Ten offices referring to the "Tech problem"). Texas would get games against marquee opponents and they can get into the CIC money that the B1G schools use to fund their research projects. To me, that's the only route I see to allow Texas to get back ahead of where A&M is headed, from all fronts--revenue, conference prestige, and premier scheduling to sell your fans on.

[SilverEagle]

The Aggies care about football alot because it connects their university family. They know that the university's main goal is to educate (very well I might add) their students to be ready to go out and make money. By creating such a crazy bond between the school and its "family", you get the "family reunions" at Kyle Field. Yes, the Aggies are different people--they care about dead dogs, bonfires, and pretend military. They are a different breed. But their university produces some very talented engineers, scientists, researchers, and now business majors. That's a lot of money from their core (not Corps) graduates to give back and now tha Kyle Field is being expanded, the money from those current students and former students will pay off this expansion fairly quickly, if just through future donations to the entire university.

Their university invested in ways to connect their students, alums, faculty, local citizens, and their families. They are now reaping the rewards of that continued investment, as well as the forward thinking of their university's leaders to make a change in athletic conference affiliation that has created a new identity that will not drop off for a long time. The SEC thing may have made A&M turn their back on Texas, Tech, and Baylor, but they aren't looking back at their old brethren. And, now, even if they fall backwards again, the $$$ and prestige from being in the SEC and out from under Texas' shadow has raised A&Ms profile for decades to come.

I have bolded all the sections of this post that are relevant to how North Texas has continually failed as a program. When I was invited to participate in a focus group back in the late fall of 1990 (moderated by Dr. Peter Lane) I tried to point out some of these things about A$M to make my points about how North Texas needs to improve. I was cut off by Dr. Lane with a curt "we don't want to be like A$M".

I thought, "yeah, we want to continue down our old path of being a dysfunctional family with no noticeable ties/connection between the University and it's students/alumni."

We may make fun of A$M and their stupid traditions.....but at least they HAVE traditions.

Does anyone know the official (and uniquely) North Texas spirit yell?

[GL2Greatness]

In my opinion, Texas is in big trouble here. When the SEC Network gets going, the payout to A&M is going to be more than Texas gets from the Big XII and LHN. The Aggies get games against the SEC powerhouses in College Station. Texas' biggest opponent is played in Dallas every year. They play home games against teams that aren't nearly as attractive as who the Aggies play now. And once Baylor issues their first bonds for their new stadium, they are going to be welded to Texas. And as we have seen, Baylor produces some very good lawyers who are glad to sue the world to protect their school's interest of being a tick on the hound. To some degree, TCU and Tech fall in those categories, too.

To me, the only out Texas has is to go independent for about 2-3years. Basically, they are going to have to take a step back to move forward. They'll still get sued, but they can say that they are leaving Baylor, TCU, and Tech in an AQ league and will still play them, so they can be allowed to move on. Then, they have to figure out how to rework or ditch the LHN, just so they can fit in with another conference. The SEC won't ever take them, since A&M, Arkansas, and Mizzou will never vote for them, nor will LSU, Florida, Kentucky, or South Carolina, who all want to protect their states from getting a second SEC school. The PAC could be a good option, but you're basically giving A&M the advantage of location and time zone for recruiting purposes. Kids in Texas want their families to see them play, even if its on TV. An A&M game at South Carolina will start at 6pm CST, at the latest. A game in the Pac for anyone in this time zone may not start until 9:30. So, to me, the only play Texas can make that would compete well with the Aggies move to the SEC is to look out for themselves by going independent for a short time, which would get rid of Baylor, TCU, and Tech, rework or ditch the LHN, and then join the other major prestigious league that involves the CST--the B1G. Make no mistake about it, the B1G would take Texas in a heartbeat with its AAU status, research capabilities, and huge TV market. Plus, the B1G will only take AAU schools and it won't take schools with poor academic standards in their eyes (i.e., the emails to Texas a few years ago from the Big Ten offices referring to the "Tech problem"). Texas would get games against marquee opponents and they can get into the CIC money that the B1G schools use to fund their research projects. To me, that's the only route I see to allow Texas to get back ahead of where A&M is headed, from all fronts--revenue, conference prestige, and premier scheduling to sell your fans on.

is this a joke?

the UT Football program generated $103.8 million in 2011-2012 and TAMU was not even in the top 10 and the #10 program was Nebraska at $55.1 million so TAMU better figure out a way for their program to generate 48 million more if they want to get to where UT is

in 2010-2011 total athletics revenues were $150.3 million for UT and 75 million for TAMU so TAMU better figure out a way to bring in 75 million more to get close to UT and ask Tennessee about the big time SEC revenues.....Tennessee has the third largest stadium in the country and they have been in the SEC for decades and even with all those big rivalry games they are just breaking even financially and have a large amount of debt and spend every cent they bring in and they brought in $102 million in 2010-2011 so they are already well ahead of TAMU and have been playing for their larger stadium for years.....hell just a few years back TAMU had their president at the time demanding the athletics department pay back an $18 million dollar loan from the university

for "all that TAMU has done in the SEC" at the end of the day the reality is they were still only 11-2, they were 3rd in their division, did not win their division, did not play in the CCG, did not win the conference, and did not play in a BCS game......since 1999 TAMU is 0-1 in BCS games while Texas is 3-1 with a MNC and having played for a second one

even in 2010 with a 5-7 record Texas still had a home attendance of 100,654 which was #5 in the country and that is with the OU game in dallas and it is Texas that likes to keep the game there by the way it is OU that would go home and home in a heart beat, but Texas likes the exposure and the revenues over and above the ticket sales.....and by the way TAMU and Arkansas are going to go back to playing in dallas pretty soon as well so there goes one of those "big SEC rivalry games" from Kyle Field as well

since 1996 when the Big 12 formed Texas has been ranked 14 times and 7 times in the top 10 and 5 times in the top 5.....TAMU has been ranked 5 times and only one time in the top 10 or top 5 and that was last year @ #5....and the big joke is if they had stayed in the Big 12 they most likely would have been undefeated and played for the MNC and clearly they could beat Alabama because they did in the regular season.....so by making their "century move" they most liely cost themselves a conference championship, a BCS game, and a chance at the MNC and instead they setteled for 3rd in their division and the Cotton Bowl.....so yea that was a "great move" there Aggies....Texas has had 6 seasons when they were 11-2 or better since 1996 while TAMU has had the one (and 11-3 in 1998) and all they have to show for it is a ranking lower than Texas has had twice since 2008 #4/3 and 2009 #2 and a Cotton Bowl.....so yea that was a HUGE season for Texas A&M, but it was an average season for Texas of for a top SEC team

and as for the SEC network just like the "big contract lookin" that never materialized for the SEC those numbers are dramatically inflated for the SEC network just like they were for the PAC 12 network as well......cable TV subscribers declined for the first time ever in the USA in 2011 and it is only going to continue to decline as other means of watching programming materialize and as people get tired of paying for crap they don't want to see stuff they only marginally care about

the PAC 12 network started in 2012 and here is the Oregon Athletics Department take on their total TV revenues

http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205705405

so in fiscal year 2013 OU expects tot ake in under 20 million for ALL TV revenue, bowl revenue, and NCAA basketball distributions...so witht he "21 million per year" TV contract and the "huge new" PAC 12 network OU expects tot ake in less than 20 million INCLUDING bowl revenues and basketball distributions......because their "21 million per year TV contract" is back loaded and people ignore that and because the PAC 12 network had huge startup cost and has so far not signed on with a large number of cable TV companies or with Dish or Direct TV

so the idea of conference networks making huge TV money is dramatically over stated and even if the amounts for the SEC or the PAC 12 ever come close to being what is mentioned Texas will still have a huge lead in total athletics department revenues over TAMU and the vast majority of the SEC and over all of the PAC 12

Texas could have gone to any conference in the country over the last few years so the idae that they are suddenly going to regret not doing so in the next few years because TAMU had a top 10 ranking and made the Cotton Bowl and placed 3rd in their division in the SEC is laughable much less that Texas signed their TV rights away only to turn around and face a huge lawsuit and a potential loss of that lawsuit a few years later because they suddenly changed their mind because TAMU had a single top 10 finish in the last several decades

there have been several other periods when TAMU was doing better than Texas and the response by Texas was simply to hire a better coach and watch TAMU fire their mist successful coach ever and replace hime with a succession of other coaches so the idea that Texas is suddenly in panic mode because TAMU did something once that texas has done many times in the recent past is laughable and Texas has all the needed resources to compete with anyone in the country even if the vast majority of teams in the country could double their current TV revenues and Texas can easily add 12,000 or more seats to their stadium in a year or two if they need to and they would have the largest stadium in the country with no one else being close to being in a position to grow larger especially TAMU

so before anyone crown TAMU the bestest football program evAR and world dominators how about they mix in a division championship in the SEC, win the SEC and maybe play ina BCS game or even for a MNC which is somethingTexas has done twice in the last decade and even won one and went 3-1 overall in BCS games

Texas is not going anywhere and TCU, Baylor and Texas Tech are not going to be left behind even if Texas was to go somewhere in 12 years when the Big 12 TV contract and GOR runs out.....and TAMU is far from guaranteed to be a dominant team in the SEC just like Nebraska learned they are still a ho hum middle of the road non-BCS team playing in the powerful Big 10 with even revenue sharing, a huge money making Big 10 TV network, and out from under the shadows of evil Texas....and now playing games soon against powerhouses like Rutgers and Maryland and Texas is not going to go west they know that is a stupid idea and the PAC sucks anyway and is only going to get worse (which will further hurt their TV network) and the PAC has terrible NCAA distributions especially VS the Big 12 which is not huge revenue, but is still a few million here and there season after season

Texas has no problem scheduling big name teams if that is what they desire to do even with 9 conference games and Texas is even less interested in the Big 10 with Rutgers and Maryland added in

and just an FYI the CIC does not have money, they have no endowment and they do not give grants or award any money.....they are simply a COOPERATION agreement that makes it easier for the member universities to write grants togather and conduct research together, but the provide ZERO actual dollars and they have no dollars...and Texas already has plenty of abilities to cooperate with any university out there as it is now and they already do on things like the GMT and while the CIC did 9.27 billion in research in 2011 the UT System did 2.1 billion just in that system and with the austin medical school and the south Texas medical schools coming on line that will probably go up about 400 to 500 million over the next decade and the Austin school especially gets rolling....and UT has research cooperation agreements with members of the CIC and the PAC already as well and with TAMU still.....so being a memeber of the CIC might make some things easier, but not being a member does not preven them from cooperating on major research projects with others including members of the CIC

you vastly underestimate the ability of the UT Athletics department and the UT Austin leadership to look at, analyze, and understand the various options open to them and what those options REALISTICALLY mean VS all the "news reports" and message board BS says they mean...Texas did not get to where they have 20+ million in revenues over and above the next highest program and 25 million over the highest SEC program because they did not listen to the hypsters and BS artist on GMG or because they missed out on something that TAMU might finally "accomplish" and as the link directly from the Oregon Athletics department states news reports are GROSSLY overestimated about revenues and potential revenues.......understanding that is why UT is where UT is even when they have off years VS where other programs are where they are even when they have their best season in decades

once again get a clue you know nothing about UT and it shows in your recent post based on nothing but BS and easily disproven garbage

[10Eagle10]

GLG. a texas longhorn athletics fan since 19__

[Green Otaku]

So...after UNT finishes $78 million Apogee. TCU takes the spotlight by renovating Amon Carter then Baylor announces their new on-campus stadium and UH announces their new stadium using the same company who built Apogee with a cheap $115 million (not that I'm complaining) then Rice in a knee-jerk reaction, announces upcoming renovations to Rice Stadium. Now we have of course, whorn and aggy anouncing renovations of their own.

Who's next? Tech?

Texas Tech have already renovated and expanded theirs over the last few years.

[ragpicker]

We need to do some of that family, bonding and connecting stuff. There are, of course, several ways we should want to be like A&M - Top Tier, major conference, loyal and active alumni base etc. What an incredibly stupid thing for this Lane character to say. Good post.

[Cerebus]

is this a joke?

Edited May 3, 2013 by Cerebus

[letsgiveacheer]

Per fan, A & M's experditure and our's is not all that different.

[MeanGreenTexan]

... extremely long drivel ...

Lots of run-up, but when a point needs to be made...

[greenit]

f aggy. f whorn.

nfm.

Edited May 4, 2013 by greenit

[ragpicker]

Getting and spending we really do lay waste to our powers. Emerson was right. A sordid boon, indeed.

Scratch Emerson, insert Wordsworth. My minds going fast