Arlington Superbowl

Cowtown · May 21, 2007

Did anyone catch Babe last night?

I swear I heard him say that part of the proposal was that the AFC team would practice at TCU and the NFC team would practice at NT.

Green Means Go! · May 21, 2007

I think you heard wrong, buddy.

The AFC would practice at TCU....but the NFC would practice at Valley Ranch.

Since the game is in February now....an indoor practice facility is a must. That's why TCU is getting the AFC team.

Cowtown · May 21, 2007

I know that was why they picked TCU and I was wishfully reading between the lines...thinking there might be some big announcements on the horizon.

But you are right, he must have been referring to the North Texas area.

PlummMeanGreen · May 22, 2007

I think you heard wrong, buddy.
The AFC would practice at TCU....but the NFC would practice at Valley Ranch.
Since the game is in February now....an indoor practice facility is a must. That's why TCU is getting the AFC team.

So its most likely an indoor practice facility that sealed the deal for TCU when Arlington gets a Super Bowl? Hmmm? ? ? ? :rolleyes:

UNT can wait 10 years & get even further behind everyone else in Texas before we get one or we can get pro-active and get an indoor practice facility ASAP (1-2 years).

New stadium or not, we will one day need such a recruiting "wow" factor as an indoor practice facility that the other 9 D1-A football schools will all undoubtedly have. (Sorry, but if our long over-due jumbotron with a very loud eagle screech sound is still doing it for you, well, just what were we going to have for a scoreboard that would have fit in this new millenium if we didn't have such a jumbotron)?

Some may even wonder when the day might come when we actually get pro-active about such things as an indoor practice facility rather than always just mostly being re-active to what's being done by our peers, being built by our peers or what's going on all around us with our peers as we seem to continue our non-stop slumber as compared to the other nine (9) Texas' NCAA D1-A schools? :huh:

Edited May 22, 2007 by PlummMeanGreen

CorinthEagle · May 22, 2007

So its most likely an indoor practice facility that sealed the deal for TCU when Arlington gets a Super Bowl? Hmmm? ? ? ?
UNT can wait 10 years & get even further behind everyone else in Texas before we get one or we can get pro-active and get an indoor practice facility ASAP (1-2 years).
New stadium or not, we will one day need such a recruiting "wow" factor as an indoor practice facility that the other 9 D1-A football schools will all undoubtedly have. (Sorry, but if our long over-due jumbotron with a very loud eagle screech sound is still doing it for you, well, just what were we going to have for a scoreboard that would have fit in this new millenium if we didn't have such a jumbotron)?
Some may even wonder when the day might come when we actually get pro-active about such things as an indoor practice facility rather than always just mostly being re-active to what's being done by our peers, being built by our peers or what's going on all around us with our peers as we seem to continue our non-stop slumber as compared to the other nine (9) Texas' NCAA D1-A schools?

Write the check

PlummMeanGreen · May 22, 2007

Write the check

Only if you will write yours for a new stadium, C.E. What a pair of Texas philanthropist we could be, CE, right up there with Sid Richardson, Hugh Cullen, the Murchissons, the Bass Family over here in Fort Worth, etc, etc, etc, :thumbsup: :santa:

But, uh.......................seriously.....................what saddens many (unless $10 million came in in the last few days or weeks) is how the UNT System endowment has grown so very little since Bobby Ray has been chairman of the Board of Regents (and this group sorta' has influence in such matters now don't they)? Well, they do at most other large Texas universities and that's all I will say about that................BUT......................ALL IS NOT TOTALLY LOST HERE.......................

.....................UNT does have a very large endowment of alumnus lists over well over 100,000 names of which every once in a while a Robert Randall Onstead (who UNT fundraisers were "totally" unaware until one day I drove up to the Top of the Golden Triangle and told Dr. Peter Lane of the old Advancement group about the Houston multi-millionairre/NT EX many years ago now) and plaudits go to later NT Advancement-types who did jump on the Onstead development and got this man and his family involved before his most untimely passing about 3 years ago; then a Kansas St. Wildcat had to uncover and develop a guy nick-named Mattress Mac who as most on this forum know ended up giving a significant $1,000,000 (and BTW, this man's name had been on UNT fundraising lists long before Darrell Dickey arrived in Denton...........

...................and then some (apparently undeveloped by UNT officials) home-builder (Warranch sp?) in California suddenly fell out of the heavens for UNT when he asked Norval Pohl where his monies could best be used and where he could earmark a couple of million dollars (or at least that is how the story goes with how our former president deferred that phone call from Warranch to the UNT Athletic Dept (that supposedly didn't really have anything to do with the early development of this Big Donor, either............................

...............so I suppose what many of us have been suggesting for years is that those who get paid nice salarie$ to do fundrai$ing to do ju$t that..............rai$e fund$$$$$! :rolleyes:

Don't we all sorta' feel by past experience that UNT has many, many, many other Gold Nuggets (such as all of the aforementioned) who have been very ble$$ed and who just happen to be North Texas Exes that maybe some of our full time fund-raisers should (firstly) discover a map of Texas and then (secondly) instead of feathering their future state of Texas/Denton retirements should just maybe (instead) get off their duffs, do some research with those fund-raising lists of possible donors and then just get the hell out of their on-campus offices and the Denton City Limits to haul in some more of our Gold Nugget-NT Exes type donors who with their Big Money can make things happen much quicker than most of us on this forum could ever dream of doing; even if we were to pool all our monies. If things got done in Denton by thousands of small donors, wouldn't we already have some of the venues we all want to see in the Mean Green Village?

Who knows, maybe one of those Gold Nugget/NT Exes could even under-write such things as getting a new football stadium jump-started (or better yet..........get one built entirely) and, uh, if we get real lucky because someone on campus whose job description suggests they be a fund-raiser actually did even more research from our extensive alumnus "A lists" of heavy-hitter potential donors (of which most of us are not on that list) and find yet another Gold Nugget/NT Ex donor that could help us build what I feel we all will see in due time to be a much-needed indoor practice facility at the Mean Green Village; that is, so we can keep up with even some Sun Belt schools since the first shot has already been made concerning such by one of our fellow Sun Belters......BECAUSE....................Remember just last week when one of our best, ie, Emmitt01...............

........................ posted a photo link that showed a very nice architectural rendering of what UL-Lafayette's indoor facility will look like; and such a facility which will also house the UL basketball practice facility once finished?

...........................................

Do we really need to start getting left behind at the train station by even some of our fellow Sun Belt schools, fellow alums/MG fans?

Edited May 22, 2007 by PlummMeanGreen

Greenblood94 · May 22, 2007

I think you heard wrong, buddy.
The AFC would practice at TCU....but the NFC would practice at Valley Ranch.
Since the game is in February now....an indoor practice facility is a must. That's why TCU is getting the AFC team.

Even if NT had an indoor practice facility, heck, even if all the facilities were equal, TCU would still get the nod over NT. Why? Do the math...

Approximate driving distances:

TCU to new Cowboys stadium - 17.5 miles

UNT to new Cowboys stadium - 46.5 miles

Facilities aside, UNT is in the wrong location to be able to be an active host for anything involving Super Bowl week.

UNTflyer · May 27, 2007

Plumm, how can we even think of an indoor facility right now? Our stadium is crap.

Not to mention, we just spent millions on a nice new outdoor practice facility over in the Village.

PlummMeanGreen · May 27, 2007

Plumm, how can we even think of an indoor facility right now? Our stadium is crap.
Not to mention, we just spent millions on a nice new outdoor practice facility over in the Village.

THINGS FOR ALL FELLOW MEAN GREENERS TO PONDER (UPON)...[ :rolleyes:

..........................................................................................

NOTE: Let me be perfectly clear about my feelings for a new stadium for our alma mater (for some of you newer members of GMG.com): I have believed that North Texas needed a new football stadium since the very first Mean Green home football game I attended as an NT student in September of 1973. FWIW, I though Fouts Field sucked way back then and (like many of you do now) I still think Fouts Field sucks no matter how many times (as AD Helwig used to say) "we polish this t_rd."

But in the following manifesto :rolleyes: and as much as I (like almost 100% of you) would like to see a bright, shining new stadium at at the MG Village ASAP and with that in mind............. I still think an indoor practice facility for football & basketball would still be what we can afford quicker and would best fit our immediate needs (as we must keep up in the NCAA D1--A "WOW"facililty's arms race.

...........................................................................................

Now...back to (most) of the original response to UNTflyer:

Oh, like most other posts on this board, UNTflyer, just more wishful speculation and dreaming going on here.

BUT........ If we are going to be able to raise the monies needed for a new stadium (which is now more than our present entire UNT System endowment for all you who have forgotten that small fact), then surely raising $5-7 million will not be so much a challenge for an indoor practice facility plus.............

.............it would to some degree show we really mean business in Denton about being an eventual true player in the upper echelon NCAA D1-A with this kind of construction activity (and completion). Such a most functional and oft-used facility as an indoor practice facility might very well stimulate our future Big Donor to ante up. Might be the final proof of the pudding or strategic piece of the puzzle such potential Big Donor(s) might need as a convincer to get his/her/their check book(s) out.

QUESTION: Who out there really thinks that at UNT we are not going to need the same thing, ie, a Big Donor (albeit on a smaller scale for our stadium) that Oklahoma State had step up for them when all their alums/fans woke up one morning to read that T. Boone Pickens had given their school some most significant monies to (all but) do a complete make-over of their football stadium?

IMO.......................an indoor practice facility should become a top-of-the-list priority (which I predict it actually will become in due time from Todd Dodge once he gets fully settled in Denton and appraises our situation the way it is now); nevertheless, it could also be used as a multi-purpose facility for students (PE?), the Green Brigade marching band and who knows, like UL-Lafayette's indoor practice facility will be, it could also serve as the main practice facility for JJ's Mean Green basketball program. With the former 2 groups I listed using such an indoor facility UNT might then have some state funding formulas made available to build this facility which (of course) we won't have such funds from the state of Texas for our eventual new football stadium.

Anyhow, the fact that an indoor practice facility could be built much quicker than a new stadium and be made readily available might make sense for this facility to be built since it will also serve as a prime recruiting tool; that is, a tool that many NCAA D1-A coaches (who have such a luxury) call one of their key "WOW" factor recruiting tools.

ANOTHER QUESTION: If UNT and UL-Lafayette are recruiting a kid from a high school on the Texas/Louisiana state line (or wherever), will it be ULL's new indoor practice facility that seals the deal for them when we matchup against the Rajun Cajuns in the future on several other recruits?

Well...........we already know that ULL has us beat stadium-wise. (FIU will soon have us beat in the stadium department, too). So does it become ULL-2 & UNT-0 when it comes to football facilities that potential recruits will be checking out the most (and with the present trend of indoor practice facilities apparently becoming deciding factors for many recruits these days)? :unsure:

Can we all pretty well assume that we don't get such a "WOW" effect from potential recruits when they are given a tour of Fouts Field? So why not start building what "WOW" football/basketball practice facility we will be able to afford most likely much quicker than our eventual new stadium? PLUS....................we would have a facility that would be used much more often than our eventual future new football stadium since that would probably amount to only 6 or 7 Saturdays per year? :blink:

UNT & THE NORTH TEXAS SUPER BOWL? ........................ I would think if we had had such an indoor facility in place complementing all those other fine facilities we presently have at the Mean Green Village (including a "very convenient" Radisson Hotel adjacent to the MG Village) that UNT may have been considered by the NFL for one of its 2 Super Bowl teams to use for their lodging & practice. Who knows, even w/o those facilities in place they still might have something in mind for UNT/Denton before its all over with with the upcoming North Texas Super Bowl.

Edited May 29, 2007 by PlummMeanGreen