Fw*telegram On New Stadium Status Link

[OldTimer]

http://www.star-telegram.com/college_sport...ory/180220.html

[KBJ]

Though funding-related guesswork persists, athletic director Rick Villarreal said he hopes to "be in a position" by late fall to illustrate concrete plans for a 30,000-seat expandable stadium.

Despite an ongoing capital campaign, Villarreal said UNT hasn't determined if the stadium "is a feasible project."

"It would be a huge undertaking," he said. "We want to move as quickly as possible when that time comes, but I can't say when that will be."

Doesn't sound good..........

[Green Crazy]

Nope

[emmitt01]

This article is a far far cry from the 2009 concrete date bandied about on this board.

[SilverEagle]

It sounds like RV is trying to drum up more interest and/or let the more monied alumni in the metroplex know that this is moving forward.

This could be his way of getting around the University fund raisers who have, up to this point, blocked him from having access to the regular monied doners.

Edited July 25, 2007 by SilverEagle

[PHSCoach]

Though funding-related guesswork persists, athletic director Rick Villarreal said he hopes to "be in a position" by late fall to illustrate concrete plans for a 30,000-seat expandable stadium.

Despite an ongoing capital campaign, Villarreal said UNT hasn't determined if the stadium "is a feasible project."

The boys were shown the layout in 2004 and told that they would be playing in this stadium not later 2008. Now in 2007 they don't know if it "is a feasible project"??

[PlummMeanGreen]

Though funding-related guesswork persists, athletic director Rick Villarreal said he hopes to "be in a position" by late fall to illustrate concrete plans for a 30,000-seat expandable stadium.

Despite an ongoing capital campaign, Villarreal said UNT hasn't determined if the stadium "is a feasible project."

"It would be a huge undertaking," he said. "We want to move as quickly as possible when that time comes, but I can't say when that will be."

Doesn't sound good..........

I interpret our AD's quote that we are close to making a big announcement for a Big Donor. Why? Because why would any NCAA D1-A AD ever want to say such things for public consumption ?

ANOTHER TERRIFICALLY BAD IDEA FROM AN NT EX WHO POSTS ON GOMEANGREEN.COM:

You know, fellow NT Exes/MG fans, for what dear ol' alma mater paid Gene Stallings to come in and tell us how pathetic the Mean Green Club had been in raising monies, we could have added a bit more to whatever they paid Stallings, then hired a consultant who had only been a NCAA Division 1-A Athletic Director and Head Football Coach in the North Texas Metroplex for almost 20 years (with that same person having an impressive reputation as a fundraiser AND...................his knowing many, many, many of DFW's rich & famous and then........................

...............UNT could have turned him loose to find a consortium of Big Donors; you know, like his former employer, ie, SMU had done to build their Ford? In fact, we could have done this several years ago when Hayden Fry was younger. A few older alums on GoMeanGreen.com even made the aforementioned suggestion in a few posts but might that have been the problem in the first place? You know, that such an idea sprang from GoMeanGreen.com? Because.............what the hell do North Texas Exes know about their own alma mater and its history anyway? And............might it possibly be that a few egos may have been bruised had they hired a senior citizen to come in and do a job that could have already all but have us in a new stadium? All this going on BTW...............at our expense, fellow NT Exes. And a 30,000 seat stadium? Uh, isn't that smaller than the one we have now? Go "freakin" figure....................

If Rick Villarreal actually said those exact words to the Fort Worth Star Telegram sportswriter (and who knows, he may have been misquoted), I think he probably wishes he could take those words back and then just merely think such thoughts privately.

Edited July 25, 2007 by PlummMeanGreen

[Charlie NT 73]

Sounds like the powers to be, actually do not have a game plan for

a new football stadium-- 30,000 seat "expandable" stadium? Is this

a new slinky design? Come on! If North Texas truely wants to be the

"Metroplex" team, design and build a stadium that fits the name!

[KingDL1]

Sounds like the powers to be, actually do not have a game plan for

a new football stadium-- 30,000 seat "expandable" stadium? Is this

a new slinky design? Come on! If North Texas truely wants to be the

"Metroplex" team, design and build a stadium that fits the name!

With the plans that UNT will have a student body of 45,000 - 50,000 by 2015 that is kind of a joke. A expandable 45,000 seat stadium minimum is a must if we are really committed to moving our program to the next level.

[H-towngreen]

Not very encouraging words. Why the hell have we not been able to get a big time donor in here? Are you telling me NT doesn't have a single ex who is willing to step up to the plate? There has to be a mini version of Boone Pickens somewhere.

[GoMeanGreen1999]

Anyboy know what happened to that "big donation" that RV was working on back in the spring? I know we got the one, but I was thinking he was suggesting that he had another one lined up for an even bigger donation, but that was the last I have heard about it.

[Guest GrayEagleOne]

The boys were shown the layout in 2004 and told that they would be playing in this stadium not later 2008. Now in 2007 they don't know if it "is a feasible project"??

I know how strongly dedicated Rick Villareal is to this project and I admit that I am taken aback about the wording of that statement. Either by his own design or pressure from the BOR he is not publicly tipping his hand about what has been done.

That's one reason that there are no quarterly meetings. Things appear to be moving on or ahead of schedule and you make a favorable comment and people take it to the bank. They want to shout it from the rooftops when it is no more than his opinion.

The only poistive that I could see was that he hopes to have an announcement this fall. That's still plenty of time to open a new stadium in 2009.

Another item that I interpreted was that the stadium may be smaller initially. It would be better to have a smaller, shiny new stadium than to either continue to use Fouts (which is even smaller in "real" seats) or wait until the funding for a 40 or 50 thousand seat stadium is available. Now, that is my interpretation only; do not take that for gospel.

For heaven's sake, I've probably got somewhere between ten minutes and ten years of life left on this earth and I'm not nearly as impatient as many of you. The stadium will happen and relatively soon. We need to keep talking about it but also cut a little slack on our insistence that everything done be made public.

Edited July 25, 2007 by GrayEagleOne

[the real grad88]

This is what I have been saying all along, until I started believing some of the things I was reading on this board. From RV's words, I can tell that what has been happening is a FEASABILITY study. This means that the firm that has been hired is beating all the bushes to determine if there is enough support that could be counted on to actually start a fundraising campaign for a new stadium. RV's comments do not sound good. It sounds like he is doing damage control...that in fact the results of the study are showing that there is not enough support at this time to make a stadium campaign successful. Look folks, if the support isn't there, you don't start a campaign of this magnitude. It would be detrimental to all fundraising at UNT from here on out if you announce and start a campaign that is not successful. The mistake that was made was even getting alums fired up about it before the firm was ever hired to do the study. That was the mistake.

[the real grad88]

And another thing, if we can be as successful as we think we are going to be under Dodge, the whole landscape could change...I am still hopeful. If we dominate our conference and win some OOC game, things could change very quickly.

[H-towngreen]

I think more than anything we need a big time business to come in and just lay down the $$$. Plumm has said this many times but Interstate Stadium sounds fine and dandy to me. I believe it was WKU who just got a big sum of loot from a company to help fund their new project. Are you telling me they can find a suitor in Western Kentucky, but we can't find one in the metroplex?? Hell what is Mark Cuban doing?

There has to be an Ex out there somewhere who either owns, operates, founded, or runs a major corporation that would be willing to fund this thing. Does anyone have any type of list of big wig exes?

And that big announcement was concerning a donation, yes it was considerable(1Mill??) but it wasn't anything to really spearhead the progress of the stadium fund.

[PlummMeanGreen]

I think more than anything we need a big time business to come in and just lay down the $$$. Plumm has said this many times but Interstate Stadium sounds fine and dandy to me. I believe it was WKU who just got a big sum of loot from a company to help fund their new project. Are you telling me they can find a suitor in Western Kentucky, but we can't find one in the metroplex?? Hell what is Mark Cuban doing?

There has to be an Ex out there somewhere who either owns, operates, founded, or runs a major corporation that would be willing to fund this thing. Does anyone have any type of list of big wig exes?

And that big announcement was concerning a donation, yes it was considerable(1Mill??) but it wasn't anything to really spearhead the progress of the stadium fund.

OK, my blood pressue points are back to the "no stroke" range so I can now post again.

In all actuality, has anything really changed with any of this even with RV's latest quotes in the StartleGram?

We still need a Big Donor (and we've always have needed a Big Donor--& FWIW...........what school out there doesn't)? Seems UNT is last in line in the "Big Donor Hand Out" department, though; hellsbells, WKU has even beat us to the punch with that, but perhaps our Big Donor will shock the entire Mean Green Nation with the mother-lode of all donations of which none the like have ever been given to our alma mater, right? NOTE: If fellow Texas system school, ie, U of Houston, can get a "biggie" donation (approx. $40 million) given to their athletic department, who is to say we cannot come up with something close--heck, wouldn't even $20 million get all this jump-started for us?

I do think Rick V could hire one (whether it would be Hayden Fry or not and for the life of me, I still would not rule him out as a fund-raising consultant if I were top UNT officials); but quite frankly, all this latest bit of negativity could change very quickly--you know, like in the space of 24 hours with one special called press conference that UNT Prez' "B", the entire Board of Regents and many of our own rich & famous would not want to miss?

Edited July 25, 2007 by PlummMeanGreen

[DeepGreen]

RV's comments are discouraging, indeed. But I'm not surprised in the least.

[UNTLifer]

Though funding-related guesswork persists, athletic director Rick Villarreal said he hopes to "be in a position" by late fall to illustrate concrete plans for a 30,000-seat expandable stadium.

Positive: Why would he illustrate concrete plans for a 30,000-seat expandable stadium if he didn't think a donor was close to commiting to this project?

Despite an ongoing capital campaign, Villarreal said UNT hasn't determined if the stadium "is a feasible project."

"It would be a huge undertaking," he said. "We want to move as quickly as possible when that time comes, but I can't say when that will be."

Negative: the feasibility study has shown that the money just isn't there right now.

IMHO, I choose the positive and believe he threw out the "negative" as protection should the deal fall through.

[Stan R]

ugh.

[RETSO]

Not very encouraging words. Why the hell have we not been able to get a big time donor in here? Are you telling me NT doesn't have a single ex who is willing to step up to the plate? There has to be a mini version of Boone Pickens somewhere.

As a teacher, the state of Texas gave me a $495 raise this year. I will donate all of my windfall. Maybe I can get a urinal named after me.

[The Fake Lonnie Finch]

Again, just renovate the stadium we have now:

-Build a new facade/wall around the whole stadium where the crappy chain link fences now stand

-Eliminate the track and move the bleachers in where the track is now

-Build a separate track facility down in the area between beer barn and the stadium, etc.

-Kill the crickets

It's not rocket science. We don't need to build a $50 million dollar structure that no one sits in like they have at SMU. If SMU, in the heart of Dallas, can't even fill up Ford, there's no way we'd fill up a new stadium. It's a complete waste of money to do a completely new stadium from the ground up.

Do what is possible, and quit f'n around.

It's no less than amazing that we have stayed I-A. It's like Larry, Curly, and Moe oversee our athletic department.

Edited July 25, 2007 by The Fake Lonnie Finch

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

As a teacher, the state of Texas gave me a $495 raise this year. I will donate all of my windfall. Maybe I can get a urinal named after me.

---The state "went all" out for Teachers this year...you got more than most......Now if every teacher in the state donated their raise we would have a little less than $100 million which should be enough... that or ask everyone in the state to chip in $5.00... about the same difference.

---We really need a very wealthy person to chip in or a at least twist arms of a lot of very wealthy friends... A good corporate sponsor might appear if we can get on TV more which would produce advertising for them. Sure would be nice for a miracle occur at Oklahoma and get peoples attention and us more TV exposure.

Edited July 25, 2007 by SCREAMING EAGLE-66

[UNTflyer]

Yeah, this isn't good. A big blow to what is going to be an exciting season.

[Stan R]

Again, just renovate the stadium we have now:

-Build a new facade/wall around the whole stadium where the crappy chain link fences now stand

-Eliminate the track and move the bleachers in where the track is now

-Build a separate track facility down in the area between beer barn and the stadium, etc.

-Kill the crickets

It's not rocket science. We don't need to build a $50 million dollar structure that no one sits in like they have at SMU. If SMU, in the heart of Dallas, can't even fill up Ford, there's no way we'd fill up a new stadium. It's a complete waste of money to do a completely new stadium from the ground up.

Do what is possible, and quit f'n around.

As I've said in the past, this is the one thing we agree on. It isn't going to happen that way, you and I both know that, but I don't see why it shouldn't. I don't like the location of the AC for a stadium to be built there when you already have an on-campus location. Actually killing the crickets needs to happen this year. The million dollar question is could they be moved (not certain) and how much would it cost. But I have a feeling it would be way less than 50 million.

The only disagreement I have with that is that it *IS* rocket science to move 20,000 concrete and aluminum seats 10 yards. You don't just hook up a dolly, you know.

Edited July 25, 2007 by Stan R

[greenminer]

ugh.

what he said.