Basketball Facilities Campaign Exceeds Goal

[MeanGreen61]

DENTON, Texas --The University of North Texas basketball teams will have a new training facility and additional scholarship support soon, thanks to more than $2.5 million that the athletics department has raised in 30 days for the program.

“After a few short weeks of launching a capital campaign project to enhance our basketball facilities, I am happy to announce that we have accomplished our mission and will exceed our goal,” Director of Athletics Rick Villarreal said. “Thanks to the support of some of our loyal donors who have committed to fund important improvements for our program, our basketball teams will have a strong foundation for success. The University also made significant strategic investments this offseason with the hiring of coaches Tony Benford and Mike Petersen. All of these efforts will help elevate our basketball programs to new heights.”

FULL ARTICLE

http://www.meangreensports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=205648215&DB_OEM_ID=1800

Edited August 22, 2012 by MeanGreen61

[Harry]

This is really good news...

[LakeTravis]

Hopefully they can flip it fast.

It's a pre-existing structure, potentially adding on.

RV December availability guess sounds about right on the practice facility

He seemed that the super pit renovations will take a lot longer, maybe not even this year.

Just my take from the podcast.

Maybe Vito can ask about specific dates and features in practice facility

[MDH]

Kinda skeptical about the practice facility flipping that quickly, unless it's not completely done and just available to be played on in December. I'm not sure how much the jumbotron cost is out of the $2.5, but I'm hoping most is going to the practice facility.

[UNTLifer]

$2.5 million in 30 days.

Excellent work by the fundraising team!!!

“When Rick explained the need for this facility and asked me to lead the effort, I had to accept,” campaign chairman and alumnus Ernie Kuehne said. “This university changed my life and put me in a position to give back. This project was special because it wasn’t in response to what other schools were building, but rather a need to fill a void for the continued development of our basketball programs.”

Edited August 22, 2012 by UNTLifer

[Hunter Green]

SCOREBOARD!!

[GL2Greatness]

I just tried to log onto the meanandgreen forum and it crashed.......service 503 error

[Mean Green Matt]

Awesome work by the athletic department! I admit to being critical of them at times, but raising this kind of money in this time period is very impressive.

Also, if you read between the lines here, it shows that people are more than willing to give substantial amounts of money to successful programs. I know we can get in to the chicken/egg argument, but If the football team can put up 7-8 wins and a bowl game this year, I can't wait to see what that does for fundraising in general (and not just athletics).

Go Mean Green!

[UNT90]

I just tried to log onto the meanandgreen forum and it crashed.......service 503 error

I figured you were the owner of that board.

[NT03]

Awesome news. Job well done!

[GL2Greatness]

I figured you were the owner of that board.

why would you think that....I am a big proponent of RV....the meanandgreen forum places the blame for everything on RV.......while I properly place it on the actual university and system administration

[UNT90]

why would you think that....I am a big proponent of RV....the meanandgreen forum places the blame for everything on RV.......while I properly place it on the actual university and system administration

Naw.... I figured it was so you could eat up as much space as you wanted on your own server with 43 page posts about how UNT sucked.

Checkfacts//

[All About UNT]

Let's take Tulsa's situation:

http://www.tulsahurricane.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/120711aaa.html

"The video board is part of a $2 million project that will also include a new sound system and two 4x12 video boards that will replace the two smaller scoreboards in the opposite tunnels"

They started tearing down the old video board on the 8th of Dec 2011 and had the new ones up by Dec 17th.

"It is 30 feet wide and 15 feet high on the two main boards (the south and north walls). It will stretch nearly three-point line to three-point line and will have a six-millimeter display. The end boards (east and west walls) are 12 feet wide by 15 feet high."

So for 2 Million they got a center screen (30x15x12) and two smaller screens for the stadium plus a new sound system. I would say that was a great buy!

Now as far as facilities are concerned:

UTEP - $14.3 Million on the Foster Stevens Basketball Center http://www.utepathletics.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/utep-07-bbl-fsb-center.html

University of Evansville- 3.3 million http://www.gopurpleaces.com/news/2012/3/14/MBB_0314122253.aspx

ODU- $6-$8 million http://hamptonroads.com/2011/12/odu-basketball-practice-facility-planned-2014

Tulane- $14 million http://www.nola.com/tulane/index.ssf/2011/10/new_tulane_green_wave_practice.html

Colorado- $10-12 Million http://www.universityparent.com/colorado/2010/05/29/new-practice-facility

Illinois- Great deal apparently at $5 million http://www.athletics.illinois.edu/facilities/facilities/ubben/default.htm

San Diego St.- $13-20 Million (bids going on now) https://www.bidsync.com/DPX?ac=view&auc=1923614&useanchor=attach#attach

ECU- $15 Million http://www.ecupirates.com/genrel/111010aaa.html

Charlotte- Has a athletes only basketball court adjacent to their arena

FIU- must practice inside their arena

Iowa State- $8 Million http://www.cyclones.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=10700&ATCLID=1506746

Marshall- Doesn't have one that I could see

I really hope that $3 million will update the pit and get something decent built for these guys.

[UNT90]

Let's take Tulsa's situation:

http://www.tulsahurr.../120711aaa.html

"The video board is part of a $2 million project that will also include a new sound system and two 4x12 video boards that will replace the two smaller scoreboards in the opposite tunnels"

They started tearing down the old video board on the 8th of Dec 2011 and had the new ones up by Dec 17th.

"It is 30 feet wide and 15 feet high on the two main boards (the south and north walls). It will stretch nearly three-point line to three-point line and will have a six-millimeter display. The end boards (east and west walls) are 12 feet wide by 15 feet high."

So for 2 Million they got a center screen (30x15x12) and two smaller screens for the stadium plus a new sound system. I would say that was a great buy!

Now as far as facilities are concerned:

UTEP - $14.3 Million on the Foster Stevens Basketball Center http://www.utepathle...fsb-center.html

University of Evansville- 3.3 million http://www.gopurplea...0314122253.aspx

ODU- $6-$8 million http://hamptonroads....ty-planned-2014

Tulane- $14 million http://www.nola.com/...e_practice.html

Colorado- $10-12 Million http://www.universit...actice-facility

Illinois- Great deal apparently at $5 million http://www.athletics...ben/default.htm

San Diego St.- $13-20 Million (bids going on now) https://www.bidsync....r=attach#attach

ECU- $15 Million http://www.ecupirate.../111010aaa.html

Charlotte- Has a athletes only basketball court adjacent to their arena

FIU- must practice inside their arena

Iowa State- $8 Million http://www.cyclones....&ATCLID=1506746

Marshall- Doesn't have one that I could see

I really hope that $3 million will update the pit and get something decent built for these guys.

I think (or hope would be a better way of putting it) that having the existing structure eliminates a lot of cost.

[LakeTravis]

RV said it will take time to get a custom order put together for video boards.

I still doubt we see them before Christmas or this basketball season.

Unless we put in the order and deposit down, already working on the order for us.

Time will tell

[golfingomez]

RV said it will take time to get a custom order put together for video boards.

I still doubt we see them before Christmas or this basketball season.

Unless we put in the order and deposit down, already working on the order for us.

Time will tell

We should wait for black Friday... Maybe we can get in on a two for one sale and put one in storage for the future baseball stadium

Edited August 24, 2012 by golfingomez

[LakeTravis]

I also remembered from the podcast that the engineers are basically looking for 2 things.

1. Can the current structure support a center hung video board

2. If not, would it be feasible to put in additional supports

While they are at it up there, if they can slap on some green paint on the Super Pit roof then that would be amazing.

If not, drawing 10,000 wieners would look better then the ugly brown roof.

If your kid asks what they are, its the original flying worm logo

You would think with all the art students we have, we could strap up the hipsters to cranes and give them a couple paint brushes.

[FirefightnRick]

Gotta give these folks props for stepping up to the plate. Excellent news, and hopefully funding is found for baseball as well.

As for the scoreboard/video board, I'm hoping it's a four sided center video scoreboard, not just another single video board mounted way back up in the rafters.

As to the question about the roof able to hold the weight? We had a four sided center score board before but I have no idea as to what it weighed? . In checking with current products such as Daktronics, a new four sided center scoreboard weighs around 1200lbs, and a new four sided video scoreboard weighs around 2700lbs. So hopefully the structure will be good to go. I spoke to the director of facilities back in May, and told me they were checking on the structure's ability to support the weight. I would have thought they would have had an answer by now? Proba my announce it soon.

Rick

[ADLER]

As for the scoreboard/video board, I'm hoping it's a four sided center video scoreboard, not just another single video board mounted way back up in the rafters.

I would sure love to see something similar to the 30-foot wide and 15-foot tall video board CUSA conference mate Tulsa installed in the Reynolds Center last season:

The concept came from the huge video board at Cowboys Stadium. The only other basketball video board in existence similar to what went in at the Reynolds Center is in use at the Amway Center -- the home of the NBA's Orlando Magic.