Realignment talk not going away

[Hurtlocker 2,208]

9 hours ago, Sbbruin said:

The pandemic crushed ucla.  Fanless games for a full football and hoops season was a gut punch we’re still digging out from.

The pandemic crushed all budgets, even those who figured out how to play.   The B1G had to sell a majority stake in their rights to Fox to make up some quick cash and then Fox went goblin mode.

[gatormarc 897]

27 minutes ago, Hurtlocker said:

The pandemic crushed all budgets, even those who figured out how to play.   The B1G had to sell a majority stake in their rights to Fox to make up some quick cash and then Fox went goblin mode.

One year of COVID really showed how much of a no-win situation we were in.

Our former AD, Jeremy Foley, was extremely tight when it came to finances. He seemed to think (or at least I got the impression) that a bubble was happening and that all these schools taking $100+M loans were going to get it bad once it popped. Our facilities across the board were improved but at a more modest pace. 

But eventually he retired. We're at the end of a $300M facilities upgrade and now with another $400M for the football stadium announced.

You basically have to spend big now if you want to win. But that means those at the bottom are uber fucked when shit hits the fan.

Edited August 10, 2023 by gatormarc

[statsman 5,353]

Observation-  people that like Rush, really, really like Rush. 
 
I mean, I think they’re ok, unarguably in the top 250 bands all time. Arguably in the top 50. 
 
True Rush fans will claim they’re top 5 all time. (In their heart of hearts, they know they’re better than the Beatles, Stones, etc. ). 

[Sandman 3,399]

5 hours ago, Al_4_ISU said:

hop in the car and spend 8-9 hours driving to Norman

Drive to norman, AND spend 8-9 hours to do so? I think I'd rather blow some guy in an alley. 

[gatormarc 897]

Just now, Sandman said:

5 hours ago, Al_4_ISU said:

hop in the car and spend 8-9 hours driving to Norman

Drive to norman, AND spend 8-9 hours to do so? I think I'd rather blow some guy in an alley. 

I bet you can do that in Norman.

[Lymanward 55]

21 minutes ago, gatormarc said:

I bet you can do that in Norman.

Or college station if someone's just looking for a day trip...

[thunderlounge 7,594]

8 hours ago, Rimbo said:

Look, I love Rush dearly, but the whole point of sharing 2112 was to spoof Cal's athletic program.

Extending it to the state of California's politics, Cal's education, or "hrrep deerr Bonham was better" dick-measuring is ...

 

... actually, yeah, a pretty good sign that realignment has in fact jumped the shark and we're done here.

Who’s gonna get the negs now, huh?! 😂

[Trey3216 15,304]

46 minutes ago, statsman said:

Observation-  people that like Rush, really, really like Rush. 
 
I mean, I think they’re ok, unarguably in the top 250 bands all time. Arguably in the top 50. 
 
True Rush fans will claim they’re top 5 all time. (In their heart of hearts, they know they’re better than the Beatles, Stones, etc. ). 

Yep.

 

I like Rush ok, will listen to some songs if they are on and such.  What I won't do is go to a bar on a nice 80 degree spring afternoon and plug 50 credits into the juke machine and play a bunch of Rush songs to have some fun background sound.  But fill that fucker full of "Honkey Tonk Women", "Tumblin' Dice", "Here Comes the Sun", "When the Levee Breaks", "Rain Song" and other such greatness....absolutely.  

[Rimbo 25,213]

31 minutes ago, Trey3216 said:

Yep.

 

I like Rush ok, will listen to some songs if they are on and such.  What I won't do is go to a bar on a nice 80 degree spring afternoon and plug 50 credits into the juke machine and play a bunch of Rush songs to have some fun background sound.  But fill that fucker full of "Honkey Tonk Women", "Tumblin' Dice", "Here Comes the Sun", "When the Levee Breaks", "Rain Song" and other such greatness....absolutely.  

What I'll do is put in twenty-one plays of Tom Jones's "What's New Pussycat."

But, and this is the brilliant part, after the seventh play, put in ONE "It's not Unusual."

[Evil Bill Obrien 2,869]

7 hours ago, CustersDoctor said:

I can't stop laughing at the fact Cals football stadium has a final payment of $75,000,000 in the year 2112.

Of course by the year 2112 $75,000,000 is prolly what we'll be paying for a can of air.

Can't tell who's the bigger genius, Cal for kicking the proverbial can so far down the road that $75 million might be walking around money...or whoever took on the financing on that debt structure paying more than a billion dollars over 100 years for a 450 million dollar project on a stadium that might be vacant for 80 of those years...

Edited August 10, 2023 by Evil Bill Obrien
words

[redswingline 1,057]

12 hours ago, Hurtlocker said:

It's because it's the front porch for most school's marketing to the greater world.   It's worth losing money on sports if you gain it back in admissions, much like a marketing budget.

It's hubris. It's about bragging rights for alumni that are no longer there but want a connection to the school.

Out of the 1100 colleges that had athletic departments across the US in 2019, 25 had a net profit.

To be fair, I am sure that Title IX has a big part in departments not running in the black.

[TKthunder2 4,958]

3 minutes ago, redswingline said:

To be fair, I am sure that Title IX has a big part in departments not running in the black.

Men’s football and basketball (if they run a profit) should be exempt from Title IX. Anything that is unprofitable and cost resources should be balanced dollar per dollar.

[John80 121]

Cal and the other UC's don't need athletics to get a huge number of applications from great students and that's one of the reasons the administration has never made much of an effort in athletics. Cal will always be known for Nobel prizes instead of athletics.

[bullet 1,596]

4 hours ago, statsman said:

Observation-  people that like Rush, really, really like Rush. 
 
I mean, I think they’re ok, unarguably in the top 250 bands all time. Arguably in the top 50. 
 
True Rush fans will claim they’re top 5 all time. (In their heart of hearts, they know they’re better than the Beatles, Stones, etc. ). 

So in other words, Rush fans are as delusional as Pac 12 presidents?!

[Sbbruin 21,575]

I posited this a bit ago.  Vegas is just too perfect for these things.  

 

['stache 21,505]

16 hours ago, FartingDreamer said:

You do apparently.

Yeah I care that you neg anyone for having any opinion you don’t like and constantly inserting your bullshit into an otherwise interesting thread. Literally everyone is fucking sick of it already. And in this group, it’s 90% BYU fans instigation the same shit over and over and over again, and posting the same memes multiple times a day. I always said there is no comparison to aggy when it comes to inflated sense of self worth and serious hatred for a rival foosball team, but goddamn you guys are close.

 

Edited August 10, 2023 by 'stache

[BachelorTrek 2,884]

1 hour ago, redswingline said:

It's hubris. It's about bragging rights for alumni that are no longer there but want a connection to the school.

Out of the 1100 colleges that had athletic departments across the US in 2019, 25 had a net profit.

To be fair, I am sure that Title IX has a big part in departments not running in the black.

Historically, Texas is one of the few athletic departments that would regularly make a net profit off of baseball (not counting covid years).

[Sbbruin 21,575]

9 minutes ago, 'stache said:

Yeah I care that you neg anyone for having any opinion you don’t like and constantly inserting your bullshit into an otherwise interesting thread. Literally everyone is fucking sick of it already. And in this group, it’s 90% BYU fans instigation the same shit over and over and over again, and posting the same memes multiple times a day. I always said there is no comparison to aggy when it comes to inflated sense of self worth and serious hatred for a rival foosball team, but goddamn you guys are close.

 

No kidding.  And it all doesn't matter.  The one team everyone should hate is SC.  

[BachelorTrek 2,884]

10 minutes ago, Sbbruin said:

I posited this a bit ago.  Vegas is just too perfect for these things.  

 

I expected they'll have the conference championship in the Rose Bowl not too long into the future.  Lulz.

[Zhorn96 1,772]

1 hour ago, John80 said:

Cal and the other UC's don't need athletics to get a huge number of applications from great students and that's one of the reasons the administration has never made much of an effort in athletics. Cal will always be known for Nobel prizes instead of athletics.

you, sir, are clearly unaware that a mere one hundred years ago, Cal was finishing up the (now) 2nd greatest undefeated run in college football history.  "Never"... pffffttt

['stache 21,505]

Did I read that the cost of Cals renovation was so high because it sits in a fault line? For the same price or less they could have built a new smaller stadium away from the fault line. 

[FartingDreamer 138]

4 hours ago, Sandman said:

I think I'd rather blow some guy in an alley. 

For 8-9 hours?

['stache 21,505]

4 minutes ago, Sbbruin said:

No kidding.  And it all doesn't matter.  The one team everyone should hate is SC.  

The SC guy railing on Oregon constantly got a little tiring but I haven’t seen it in several pages. I do love that every success by Riley gets the Sooner fans all riled up. Fuck those guys, lol.

Edited August 10, 2023 by 'stache

[BachelorTrek 2,884]

1 minute ago, 'stache said:

Did I read that the cost of Cals renovation was so high because it sits in a fault line? For the same price or less they could have built a new smaller stadium away from the fault line. 

Nah, they'd rather feel smug about their no-pricetag-too-large earthquake-proofing the stadium in defiance, it seems:
 

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Retrofit-plan-to-ride-out-quake-at-Cal-stadium-3193674.php

 

Retrofit plan to ride out quake at Cal stadium
Retrofit plan calls for carving up blocks of stands atop fault to give them wiggle room

By Carolyn Jones,
Chronicle Staff Writer
Sep 25, 2008
 

Seismic engineers apparently have solved one of the world's great retrofit puzzles: how to keep UC Berkeley's Memorial Stadium from crumbling into a pile of concrete rubble during a major earthquake.

It took decades of research, experimentation and head-scratching, but a team of San Francisco engineers says it has found a way to save the beloved landmark in Strawberry Canyon, which straddles the state's most dangerous earthquake fault.

"I'll sleep well at night, even if I have season tickets in Section KK," said David Friedman, lead engineer on the long-awaited Memorial Stadium retrofit project. "We've come up with a unique solution to a very unique problem."

The plan, which is expected to get under way in the next year or two, calls for portions of the stadium to be sliced into blocks that will rest on plastic sheets. When the earth ruptures, the soil will move under the sheets but, engineers hope, will leave the blocks intact. The price tag for the retrofit is estimated at between $150 million and $175 million.

"If there's a quake during a football game, people sitting on those blocks might be seated a little differently after the quake, but they'll be safe," Friedman said. "We can't prevent the building from moving or cracking, but we can save lives."

Right through the end zones

Memorial Stadium was built in 1923 atop the Hayward Fault, which the U.S. Geological Survey said has a 70 percent chance of hatching a 6.7-magnitude or greater quake by 2030. The earth could move up to 6 feet horizontally and 2 feet vertically, presenting a challenge to engineers charged with saving the stadium and the football fans who might be inside.

While plenty of buildings around the world sit atop earthquake faults, Memorial Stadium is unique because of the sheer quantity of people it holds: 75,662. It's also unique because seismologists know exactly where the fault lies - under Section LL, through both end zones and out Section XX.

Adding to the challenge is the stadium's architectural and historical merit, which prevents engineers from ordering major overhauls of the building's exterior. Designed by John Galen Howard, the bowl is on the National Register of Historic Places and is widely considered the most beautiful college football venue in the country.

But it's also the most perilous. The eastern half is built into the hillside and does not need to be retrofitted. But the western half, with its Beaux Arts flourishes and spectacular views of the hills and bay, rests precariously on landfill over a creekbed. Its concrete walls are cracked and strained, as the Pacific Plate - which is under Sections M through XX - inches south and the North American Plate - under Sections MM through X - creeps north.

The problem has vexed engineers for decades. At various times, the campus has considered building a giant steel net under the stadium or filling the stands with sand.

But the model the university finally chose is notable for its simplicity, said independent structural engineer Craig Comartin, who sits on the campus' Seismic Review Committee.

'Earthquake junkies'

"It's a complex problem, but it's a simple and very effective solution," he said. "Although it's no accident. The campus has taken a leadership role in seismic retrofit technology. They're all earthquake junkies, so to speak."

At Memorial Stadium, the sections directly on top of the fault will be cut into three large free-floating blocks. The blocks will be separated from the surrounding structure by 5 feet of open space, which will give the blocks room to wobble and twist - but not topple - in the event of an earthquake.

Hinged steel flaps would prevent people from falling through the 5-foot gaps around the blocks.

The blocks would sit on plastic sheets unanchored to the soil, so when the earth moves the blocks should stay put, more or less.

"The earth would slide past along that slippery surface," Comartin said.

Below the plastic sheet, a series of stone columns will stabilize the soil, hopefully keeping shaking to a minimum.

"The blocks might twist and wiggle, but they should retain their structural integrity," said Loring Wyllie, a structural engineer at Degenkolb Engineers in San Francisco who reviewed Friedman's plan. "It'll be like a ship at sea. It might move a little, but the stadium's a few inches off now anyway."

The western half of the stadium will undergo a standard retrofit, with bracing, sheer walls and an extra layer of concrete coating the interior. The concrete will have breaks at either end over the fault, so if the stadium cracks, it will crack in a designated and relatively clean way.

Cracked, not collapsed

"Under severe ground shaking, the building will crack, but we do not believe it will collapse or pancake," Friedman said. "We want the exterior to fracture, but we'll pin it so it doesn't fall."

Friedman said he came up with the block idea by studying the existing cracks in the stadium, most notably in Section KK. The cracks were a clue to the structure's particular weaknesses, and also the nature of the fault's movement.

"We said, 'OK, we're going to do this retrofit,' " he said. "But is the stadium already trying to tell us something?"

The funds for the retrofit must be privately raised. The state Alquist-Priolo Act prohibits retrofit projects from costing more than half the value of the building, which could be a roadblock at Memorial Stadium.

The university values the stadium at $600 million, based on its replacement cost, but the valuation could end up in court if challenged by the plaintiffs in a recent battle over the adjacent athletic training center being built.

"We remain completely confident we're compliant with Alquist-Priolo," said campus spokesman Dan Mogulof. "We're excited to finally move forward with this retrofit project. Our primary goal has always been safety."

 

[Sbbruin 21,575]

11 minutes ago, 'stache said:

Did I read that the cost of Cals renovation was so high because it sits in a fault line? For the same price or less they could have built a new smaller stadium away from the fault line. 

Yes.  What a clusterfuck.

[camel at sea 589]

So if the CalFord to ACC stuff is done, the next move for the PAC4 is either 1) merging with the MWC, or 2) an AAC raid and an Apple+ media del.  They could park on 8 members for a year and then fill out the roster with MWC teams when the buyout number drops.  I'd guess that the Bay Area schools prefer the second option.  There's some value in the "Pac" brand and they'd want to keep its history, NCAA credits, etc.  

If Apple can promise better money than the AAC, then I think they could get SMU, Rice, and Tulane relatively easily.  The tug-of-war between the academic people in the Bay Area, and Apple, over which other MWC/AAC schools get invited later would be really fascinating.  SDSU and Colorado State seem like safe bets, but would Apple twist their arm enough to make them invite Boise or Fresno St?    

[Hurtlocker 2,208]

16 minutes ago, 'stache said:

Did I read that the cost of Cals renovation was so high because it sits in a fault line? For the same price or less they could have built a new smaller stadium away from the fault line. 

 

8 minutes ago, BachelorTrek said:

Nah, they'd rather feel smug about their no-pricetag-too-large earthquake-proofing the stadium in defiance, it seems:

 

['stache 21,505]

3 minutes ago, camel at sea said:

So if the CalFord to ACC stuff is done, the next move for the PAC4 is either 1) merging with the MWC, or 2) an AAC raid and an Apple+ media del.  They could park on 8 members for a year and then fill out the roster with MWC teams when the buyout number drops.  I'd guess that the Bay Area schools prefer the second option.  There's some value in the "Pac" brand and they'd want to keep its history, NCAA credits, etc.  

If Apple can promise better money than the AAC, then I think they could get SMU, Rice, and Tulane relatively easily.  The tug-of-war between the academic people in the Bay Area, and Apple, over which other MWC/AAC schools get invited later would be really fascinating.  SDSU and Colorado State seem like safe bets, but would Apple twist their arm enough to make them invite Boise or Fresno St?    

Maybe CSU and Air Force too? SDSU would then make 10. Who decides whether a conference is "autonomous" i.e., P5?

Edited August 10, 2023 by 'stache

[Hurtlocker 2,208]

4 minutes ago, camel at sea said:

So if the CalFord to ACC stuff is done, the next move for the PAC4 is either 1) merging with the MWC, or 2) an AAC raid and an Apple+ media del.  They could park on 8 members for a year and then fill out the roster with MWC teams when the buyout number drops.  I'd guess that the Bay Area schools prefer the second option.  There's some value in the "Pac" brand and they'd want to keep its history, NCAA credits, etc.  

If Apple can promise better money than the AAC, then I think they could get SMU, Rice, and Tulane relatively easily.  The tug-of-war between the academic people in the Bay Area, and Apple, over which other MWC/AAC schools get invited later would be really fascinating.  SDSU and Colorado State seem like safe bets, but would Apple twist their arm enough to make them invite Boise or Fresno St?    

Yeah the only problem is they didn't start doing this last year.   Every MWC school now has a $34m buyout to get out by next year, instead of $17m.  The AAC has around $20m.   They'll all have some negotiated down, but still, the only teams west of the Mississippi who can move for free are the Pac 4.

 

[Hurtlocker 2,208]

2 minutes ago, 'stache said:

Maybe CSU and Air Force too? SDSU would then make 10. Who decides whether a conference is "autonomous" i.e., P5?

The other autonomous conferences.

I can't see where we'll have 5 going forward.  

[bullet 1,596]

21 minutes ago, Sbbruin said:

Yes.  What a clusterfuck.

Stadium is too.  Hard to believe it was worth saving.

More likely, they just didn't want to relocate any other departments to find a new site.

[bullet 1,596]

14 minutes ago, Hurtlocker said:

The other autonomous conferences.

I can't see where we'll have 5 going forward.  

If not 2024, then by 2026 its down to an A4.  Whether they reload or merge, that conference will be a G conference.

[Trey3216 15,304]

21 minutes ago, Hurtlocker said:

The other autonomous conferences.

I can't see where we'll have 5 going forward.  

The Chaz Autonomous Conference??  

[Rimbo 25,213]

58 minutes ago, 'stache said:

Yeah I care that you neg anyone for having any opinion you don’t like and constantly inserting your bullshit into an otherwise interesting thread. Literally everyone is fucking sick of it already. And in this group, it’s 90% BYU fans instigation the same shit over and over and over again, and posting the same memes multiple times a day. I always said there is no comparison to aggy when it comes to inflated sense of self worth and serious hatred for a rival foosball team, but goddamn you guys are close.

 

One of you claims a school whose patron was a messianic bigamist.

One of you claims a school whose patron was a robber baron scumbag.

Both of your schools can get fucked.

I like stache because he's been here a while and occasionally shows an intelligence level unbecoming of an okie. I get the impression he's actually read books without pictures before.

[gatormarc 897]

10 minutes ago, bullet said:

Stadium is too.  Hard to believe it was worth saving.

More likely, they just didn't want to relocate any other departments to find a new site.

It's on the list of National Historic Places.

I wonder if it would have been near impossible to tear down. Also, is there a legit place it could have moved to?

[Rimbo 25,213]

51 minutes ago, Sbbruin said:

No kidding.  And it all doesn't matter.  The one team everyone should hate is SC.  

nah

The thing about USC is, like us, they're an arrogant blue blood who gets more credit than they deserve, and demands big money from the media because of intelligent yet rabid fan bases. We are very much alike. Really enjoyed meeting their alumni in '06... and then beating them.

I'll root for the Trojans against anyone not named Texas, Michigan, or Florida.

I went to a UC for grad school; see how much school spirit I have?

[Sbbruin 21,575]

3 minutes ago, Rimbo said:

nah

The thing about USC is, like us, they're an arrogant blue blood who gets more credit than they deserve, and demands big money from the media because of intelligent yet rabid fan bases. We are very much alike. Really enjoyed meeting their alumni in '06... and then beating them.

I'll root for the Trojans against anyone not named Texas, Michigan, or Florida.

I went to a UC for grad school; see how much school spirit I have?

Uh, I think you left one off.

[Hurtlocker 2,208]

6 minutes ago, Rimbo said:

nah

The thing about USC is, like us, they're an arrogant blue blood who gets more credit than they deserve, and demands big money from the media because of intelligent yet rabid fan bases. We are very much alike. Really enjoyed meeting their alumni in '06... and then beating them.

I'll root for the Trojans against anyone not named Texas, Michigan, or Florida.

I went to a UC for grad school; see how much school spirit I have?

['stache 21,505]

8 minutes ago, Rimbo said:

One of you claims a school whose patron was a messianic bigamist.

One of you claims a school whose patron was a robber baron scumbag.

Both of your schools can get fucked.

I like stache because he's been here a while and occasionally shows an intelligence level unbecoming of an okie. I get the impression he's actually read books without pictures before.

The First Billion is the Hardest has a picture on the cover, but it's still got too many words, maybe I'll figure them out some day.

But to be clear, this is our school's patron, and he was a fucking badass.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Eaton

 

Edited August 10, 2023 by 'stache

[Zhorn96 1,772]

1 hour ago, 'stache said:

Did I read that the cost of Cals renovation was so high because it sits in a fault line? For the same price or less they could have built a new smaller stadium away from the fault line. 

not in the Bay Area they couldn't.  Available land to build a stadium was searched for but wasn't available nearby.  And Cal's relationship with the City of Berkeley is... strained.  Cal isn't a part of the City, it is its own entity that uses COBs facilities (for lack of a better word).  Berkeley (the city) is extremely poorly run and the politics of their relationship with Cal make things ridiculous.  See "Covid reponse."  COBs rules fucked Cal's athletics over big time and is partly responsible for the current downtick in their departmental performance.  Not completely but definitely played a part.

 

Anyways, back to Memorial Stadium... amazing location and phenomenal atmosphere for a game but to upgrade it from the crumbling hulk it had become and make it safe from earthquakes, it cost almost $500M

[Zhorn96 1,772]

55 minutes ago, camel at sea said:

So if the CalFord to ACC stuff is done, the next move for the PAC4 is either 1) merging with the MWC, or 2) an AAC raid and an Apple+ media del.  They could park on 8 members for a year and then fill out the roster with MWC teams when the buyout number drops.  I'd guess that the Bay Area schools prefer the second option.  There's some value in the "Pac" brand and they'd want to keep its history, NCAA credits, etc.  

If Apple can promise better money than the AAC, then I think they could get SMU, Rice, and Tulane relatively easily.  The tug-of-war between the academic people in the Bay Area, and Apple, over which other MWC/AAC schools get invited later would be really fascinating.  SDSU and Colorado State seem like safe bets, but would Apple twist their arm enough to make them invite Boise or Fresno St?    

I am not sure the ACC thing is over... They need 3 or fewer "no's" for an invite to Cal/Furd.  There are 4 currently from what I heard.  FSU, Clemson, Miami and VT.  Apparently UNC and NC St are leaning towards "yes" now.  All the others are strong "yes" votes.  So really it hinges on VT and if they change their mind... 8/15 is when FSU has to notify if they are opting out if they are doing so...

[Hurtlocker 2,208]

10 minutes ago, Zhorn96 said:

 8/15 is when FSU has to notify if they are opting out if they are doing so...

So....Tuesday.

[oSuJeff97 3,435]

18 hours ago, Al_4_ISU said:

I bet the average actual attendance of a Cal, Stanford, and SMU game combined might hit 25K

Years and years ago we played SMU in Dallas and the stadium was probably 1/2 to 3/4 orange. And this was in the Les Miles era before OSU football really got going.

I know it would basically be the same for any of the Texas P5 schools (or OU) if they played there too, but it was really something to see. It was like we were playing a home game against SMU on their own field.

[BachelorTrek 2,884]

4 minutes ago, Hurtlocker said:

So....Tuesday.

So......Tuesday is the day?  Lulz.

[Horn of Gabriel 1,571]

21 minutes ago, Zhorn96 said:

not in the Bay Area they couldn't.  Available land to build a stadium was searched for but wasn't available nearby.  And Cal's relationship with the City of Berkeley is... strained.  Cal isn't a part of the City, it is its own entity that uses COBs facilities (for lack of a better word).  Berkeley (the city) is extremely poorly run and the politics of their relationship with Cal make things ridiculous.  See "Covid reponse."  COBs rules fucked Cal's athletics over big time and is partly responsible for the current downtick in their departmental performance.  Not completely but definitely played a part.

 

Anyways, back to Memorial Stadium... amazing location and phenomenal atmosphere for a game but to upgrade it from the crumbling hulk it had become and make it safe from earthquakes, it cost almost $500M

Unsurprising about CoB.  Also was $500MM the cost of the retrofit?  That might buy one-eigth of a new stadium construction in Cali...

For reference:

Quote

SoFi Stadium cost $5.5 billion and took almost four years to build, first serving as home for the Rams and Los Angeles Chargers in September 2020. Constructed as a JV between Turner Construction and AECOM Hunt, the stadium has 70,240 seats, and can expand to 100,240 for major events like the Super Bowl. The stadium also has 260 executive suites and is designed to withstand seismic activity. 

https://www.constructiondive.com/news/the-super-bowls-most-recent-stadiums-and-how-much-it-cost-to-build-them/642348/#:~:text=SoFi Stadium cost %245.5 billion,events like the Super Bowl.

Edited August 10, 2023 by Horn of Gabriel

[Zhorn96 1,772]

Just now, Horn of Gabriel said:

Unsurprising about CoB.  Also was $500MM the cost of the retrofit?  That might buy one-third of a new stadium construction in Cali...

it was $450M or something.  The stadium was in wretched shape, basically all they kept was the outer shell for the architecture and history of it.  Everything else was completely gutted and they massively upgraded the athletic facilities in general.  Locker rooms, weight rooms, meeting rooms, etc.  Partnered with the Biz school so some classrooms there and that spread the cost a little. Its pretty nice now... 

[Aqua Buddha 13,928]

11 minutes ago, oSuJeff97 said:

Years and years ago we played SMU in Dallas and the stadium was probably 1/2 to 3/4 orange. And this was in the Les Miles era before OSU football really got going.

I know it would basically be the same for any of the Texas P5 schools (or OU) if they played there too, but it was really something to see. It was like we were playing a home game against SMU on their own field.

SMU might not be in the 10 largest fan bases in DFW and I'm not exaggerating.

 

[ABSR 5,270]

On 8/9/2023 at 12:45 PM, gatormarc said:

Stanford already competes in a lot of sports outside of the Pac12. I guess those would stay Independent or in the MPSF or other oddball conference.

Taking a quick glance at sports that would need to change.

Men's Fencing, Women's Fencing, Women's Field Hockey - those were not PAC sports but are ACC sports so Stanford would move those sports to their new conference

Men's Rowing, Women's Beach Volleyball - those were PAC sports but not ACC; Probably EARC for Rowing, CCSA for Beach Volleyball

But here's the kicker.  What pays for all of those Olympic and other sports?   Well, that is the Pac-12 driven by Football revenues.  So Stanford and Cal can try to self fund through donations or University funds all of the other sports...but even Stanford will struggle with this and Cal will just not care.  

So losing a real P-5 conference affiliation for football, along with the financial support it provides, will severely affect every sport in the athletic department.

[Trey3216 15,304]

3 minutes ago, Aqua Buddha said:

SMU might not be in the 10 largest Non-Professional fan bases in DFW and I'm not exaggerating.

 

FIFY

[Francisco 2.0 31,629]

https://theathletic.com/4763046/2023/08/10/pac-12-realignment-big-ten-big-12/

 

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As Thursday inched toward Friday, leaders at the universities of Oregon and Washington were wavering.

It was Aug. 3, one day before conference realignment would once again send tremors through the landscape of college sports. The Pac-12, the country’s preeminent West Coast league, was about to be stripped for parts by the television networks, its fellow conferences and its own ghastly mismanagement. But it wasn’t dead yet. The conference, whittled to nine remaining members, was teetering as the Big Ten and Big 12 circled overhead. Yet quietly, cautiously, there was renewed optimism within the league office that the Pac-12 may still have a future.

 

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Just after 10:30 p.m. PDT, the University of Washington Board of Regents adjourned a virtual “closed door” special meeting to discuss the future of its athletic programs. Along with the University of Oregon, its border-state rival 300 miles south, the two schools weighed offers to leave the Pac-12 for the Big Ten — the richest athletics conference in America with annual revenues projected to top $1 billion by 2024 — and were widely expected to follow the money.

 

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But as founding members of the original Pacific Coast Conference in 1915, each had its own reservations about leaving. There was hope that Arizona, linked to the Big 12, might jump first and lessen the blow. Oregon president John Karl Scholz, in particular, was hesitant to leave Cal and Stanford behind, according to two conference sources familiar with the process, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the internal discussions. Scholz also was intrigued by the proposed media-rights partnership with Apple that Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff had presented to the conference earlier in the week, according to the two sources. That deal was entirely dependent on a subscription-based streaming service as opposed to traditional television networks. Devised with subscription escalators, it was an innovative yet risky proposition that could potentially yield a big payday. Or flop in debilitating fashion.

 

Spoiler

Oregon and Washington had another issue: The schools had only a verbal agreement in place with the Big Ten, and neither felt comfortable walking away from the Pac-12 without something more concrete, according to one conference source familiar with the process. Meanwhile, the Big Ten was receiving pushback on its expansion efforts from multiple athletic directors within the conference, according to four league sources, despite the necessary support of the university presidents.

With a 7 a.m. meeting of Pac-12 presidents scheduled for Friday, Aug. 4, there was a growing sense that Oregon and Washington to the Big Ten could fizzle.

“We were all expecting, Friday morning, we were showing up together to sign in blood our grant of rights over to the Pac-12 Conference,” Arizona president Robert Robbins said.

Only it didn’t happen. Minutes before the meeting, Oregon and Washington informed the league office that the programs would, in fact, be joining the Big Ten. “Blindsided” was the word used by a person familiar with the proceedings.

At the eleventh hour, the Ducks and Huskies received necessary assurances from the Big Ten, including an analysis of the conference’s long-term revenue projections and what they could potentially collect as members down the road.

“Listen, all along we’ve done everything we could to find an opportunity forward with the Pac-12. Over the last few days, obviously, the opportunity presented itself with the Big Ten,” Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens said on Friday. “I’d say in the last 24 hours is when it really intensified, and wasn’t done until the early, early hours of the morning.”

Oregon and Washington to the Big Ten was official by dinnertime Friday. Fellow Pac-12 members Arizona, Arizona State and Utah made a similar dash for the exits and joined the Big 12 a few hours later.

The announcements punctuated 96 hours of pure realignment chaos. It started with Kliavkoff’s ill-fated presentation of the Apple partnership, followed by a bevy of special board meetings and back-channel machinations.

It ended with the Big Ten and Big 12 expanding (again), the Pac-12 in ruins, and the further destruction of regionality and tradition within college athletics, as college football moved ever closer to a super-conference reckoning.

 

The groundwork for Friday’s demolition began in earnest a few days earlier. The Pac-12 presidents and chancellors met virtually around 7 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 1, for specifics on a new media-rights deal that would initiate in 2024.

The details, reported by The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel, included a five-year, subscription-based streaming package from Apple with a base annual rate of $23 million per school. (A subsequent counteroffer elevated that rate to $25 million.) Kliavkoff’s pitch leaned heavily on subscription incentives the commissioner claimed would help Pac-12 members to surpass the Big 12’s reported $31.7 million annual average and even close the gap on the Big Ten and SEC, both of which project to roughly double the Big 12 mark. There were no guarantees of a linear component that would broadcast games on traditional television networks.

The offer represented a critical juncture for the conference, but to best explain the calamity that ensued, one must understand the breakdowns that preceded it, and an additional offer that never materialized.

Way back on July 5, 2022, five days after USC and UCLA announced their departures to the Big Ten, Pac-12 presidents authorized Kliavkoff to open a 90-day exclusive negotiating window with ESPN and Fox. According to three sources involved in the discussions, ESPN and the conference got closer to a workable number, but the window passed without a deal. In the meantime, Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark famously leapfrogged the Pac-12 to renegotiate its own rights deal with ESPN and Fox that didn’t expire until 2025. It established the $31.7 million annual rate that proved to be a bar the Pac-12 couldn’t clear.

It would be a full year before Kliavkoff procured a firm offer.

On June 30, the Pac-12 members privately set a July 31 deadline for Kliavkoff to finally present a deal. At the conference’s media days in Las Vegas on July 21, Kliavkoff publicly praised league members for their patience and claimed it would be rewarded with a rights offer that had improved over time.

“I will tell you what we’ve seen is the longer we wait for the media deal, the better our options get,” Kliavkoff said.

Those plans were upended, however, when Colorado elected to flip to the Big 12 on July 27, before any of the Pac-12 media numbers were provided.

Two sources – one conference and one industry – familiar with the negotiations told The Athletic that before Colorado’s departure, Kliavkoff believed he had pieced together a second option involving four media companies. Those sources described the deal as a combination of three linear partners (ESPN, Fox and CBS) and one streaming partner (Amazon), with CBS only bidding on a limited number of men’s basketball games. But around the same time Colorado left, Amazon declined to submit a formal proposal, according to a media executive familiar with the process, and the accompanying linear bids were viewed as too small to present to the conference.

The conference source said that Colorado’s departure also caused ESPN to pull back because it now owed the Big 12 an agreed-upon pro-rata share for adding a power-conference program. Apple was not interested in joining any linear partners as part of a deal, according to an industry source familiar with the negotiations.

Regardless, by the end-of-July deadline, there was no second offer.

Despite having only the Apple specifics to present to the league presidents on the morning of Tuesday, Aug. 1, immediate response to the deal was mixed, even among soon-to-be-departing members. In addition to sources describing Scholz, Oregon’s president, as intrigued, Arizona State president Michael Crow described the Apple offer as “a technological, 23rd-century, ‘Star Trek’ thing with really unbelievable capability that ASU was very interested in.”

For others, especially on the heels of Colorado’s exit, a streaming-dependent subscription wasn’t enough to stop them from entertaining the more stable and lucrative guarantees they had been holding at bay.

“We were trying to think, well, it’s going to be like selling candy bars for Little League or Girl Scout cookies,” Robbins said. “You gotta convince 3 (million) to 5 million people every year to sign up for $100 a year to watch a streaming-only app.”

Based on public comments from leadership at all six of the recently departed Pac-12 programs — Colorado included — the lack of traditional, linear broadcast partners was just as much of a sticking point as the revenue base.

“In the end, we looked at the deal that we had — the only deal that we had — and it was clear that it was not giving us what we thought. It was not the deal we had been discussing just days before,” Washington president Ana Mari Cauce said. “I do think some level of linear TV mattered. We have a history with the Pac-12 Networks that wasn’t a good one. … We had been living in uncertainty for too long to continue at that level. It makes it very, very hard to build.”

 

 

Coming out of the Aug. 1 meeting, the Pac-12 presidents and chancellors agreed to present the Apple offer to their respective boards and reconvene on the morning of Friday, Aug. 4, according to a Pac-12 source familiar with the plan. But from there, the chess pieces started shifting. Arizona, tabbed as the Big 12’s next expansion target after Colorado, had already scheduled a special board meeting for Tuesday afternoon.

By Wednesday, the Wildcats submitted a letter officially seeking Big 12 membership, according to two conference sources, the same day news broke that a subgroup of Big Ten presidents held exploratory discussions about potentially adding Oregon and Washington, as well as Cal and Stanford. This was also the same day Florida State eagerly hoisted itself into the realignment discourse when its Board of Trustees publicly threatened to leave the ACC over media revenue imbalance.

On Thursday, Aug. 3, Big Ten presidents authorized commissioner Tony Petitti to explore expansion and seek more information on Oregon and Washington specifically as potential additions. The two schools had been vetted by the Big Ten when the conference added USC and UCLA in summer 2022, but this was also the first opportunity for a major splash by Petitti, who was hired in April.

On the Big 12 front, Yormark called an emergency meeting Thursday afternoon with the Big 12 leadership, and the board voted to approve Arizona’s membership, according to three league sources. Arizona and Washington both held special board meetings that evening as well, amping speculation that realignment moves were imminent. Two Pac-12 sources also claimed that Kliavkoff had not been communicative as the week progressed with multiple Pac-12 programs who had options to leave the conference.

Amid all this drama, the Arizona schools, which share the same Board of Regents, remained a curious hypothetical. Robbins attended the Thursday special meeting believing that he had the necessary support from the board to facilitate Arizona joining the Big 12, according to a person briefed on the discussions, and there was hope that the regents would encourage Crow to pursue the same.

“(Robbins) went into the board meeting, and all hell broke loose,” the source told The Athletic.

Instead, Crow was adamant about Arizona State remaining in the Pac-12 and working to preserve the conference — a stance he reiterated publicly over the weekend — and the Board of Regents recommended to Robbins that the two universities remain aligned, the source said.

“We were the stalwarts fighting for the Pac-12 until the last ditch,” Crow told reporters on Saturday, later adding, “Arizona and Arizona State decided we wouldn’t split up under any circumstances. You can ask President Robbins about that.”

Robbins echoed as much a couple days later. Responding to a question about Arizona’s move to the Big 12 being a done deal by Thursday of last week, Robbins said, “That’s not true.”

“This was something that the two of us thought was in the best interest of the state for both of our universities, for the rivalry, for both of us to stay together,” Robbins told reporters.

Arizona requesting and receiving a Big 12 invitation are hardly the actions of a program that truly intended to sign the Pac-12’s grant of rights on Friday morning, but it all became moot once Oregon and Washington bolted minutes before the call. That effectively nullified the Pac-12’s offer from Apple and left Arizona, Arizona State and Utah hurriedly dialing the Big 12 for a lifeline.

Oregon and Washington will join the Big Ten in 2024 as partial media-rights members at an average annual rate in the low- to mid-$30 millions — roughly half of what full-share members will earn, according to a source familiar with the negotiations. Fox upped that amount at one point at Petitti’s request, according to the same source, as the Big Ten stressed to the schools how the final-year, full-member revenue payout for the upcoming deal will essentially be a starting point for those two as full members in 2030. Meanwhile, the revenue distribution for current Big Ten schools was not diluted by the additions of Oregon and Washington. “Fox brought new money to the table,” Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said Wednesday.

In the Big 12, the four Pac-12 defections joining in 2024 will immediately receive full-membership revenue shares per the conference’s pro rata clause, because they joined as existing power-conference members. The prior four additions who joined this summer (BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF) will still have a two-year ramp-up to full-membership revenue under the extended media-rights deal in 2025, according to a Big 12 spokesperson.

There was one more alternate timeline that went unexplored. When Oregon and Washington committed to the Big Ten, the ACC scheduled a meeting for late Friday to discuss adding as many as all seven of the remaining Pac-12 universities, something Pac-12 leadership would have worked to facilitate, according to two conference sources familiar with the thought process. But the Big 12 struck first.

“Once Oregon and Washington decided to go to the Big Ten, the (Pac-12) was no longer viable,” Crow said on Saturday. “You can’t be in a non-viable position for more than a few hours in our minds, so we resolved that.”

Severed rivalries. Ballooning travel demands. Conferences gerrymandered beyond recognition. And a league with 108 years of history — the home of the Rose Bowl, the self-dubbed Conference of Champions — undone over the course of 13 months by leadership missteps, a chastening dose of media-market reality, and by the folks who brought you “Ted Lasso.”

“This conference has mismanaged itself on a bunch of different levels. And when you have poor leadership, one of the outcomes is failure,” Washington State athletic director Pat Chun told reporters Wednesday. “That’s what has happened to the Pac-12.”

 

 

Stanford at USC. Texas Tech at Texas. The Apple Cup. Oregon State at Oregon. Bedlam.

This fall likely will be the last time each of those rivalries is played for the foreseeable future. For every renewed matchup — Texas vs. Texas A&M, Utah vs. BYU — another couple are lost. Officials from Washington and Oregon pledged to preserve their intrastate contests with the former Pac-12 members last week, but time will tell.

Asked by The Oregonian about Oregon’s vow to prioritize future competition with Oregon State across all sports, Oregon State athletic director Scott Barnes expressed his doubts, stating: “To be determined.”

If history is any indication, the conference shuffling isn’t quite done, either. Ripple effects of the Pac-12’s plunge are just now starting to spread, with Cal, Stanford, Oregon State and Washington State wandering the realignment desert. The ACC continues to explore the possibility of adding Stanford and Cal, as well as potentially SMU — after the Mustangs had been a Pac-12 target in recent months — though there is significant pushback to the idea within the conference. If they can’t land ACC invites, Stanford and Cal might be forced to drop from the ranks of the Power 5, to the Mountain West or the American Athletic Conference.

While SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said Tuesday that his conference — whose bombshell addition of Oklahoma and Texas in the summer of 2021 set all this in motion — is “not actively recruiting” other institutions, he also called for the College Football Playoff to reconsider its format to pave the way for more at-large berths now that one of the 10 FBS leagues appears headed for extinction.

And never to be outdone, Florida State continues its saber rattling about escaping the ACC’s purgatorial grant of rights, positioning itself for an inevitable Super Conference To Be Named Later.

How and when remains to be seen.