At halftime, Pat Chun talked with Ken LaVicka who asked him point blank where a new arena falls into the priority list now that we're moving to Conference USA.

"You know what, I'm going to start in and work out… to me that's our academic center and our weight room. I want to make some upgrades with our football offices because I think we need platforms to teach a little bit better. But that Burrow is a challenge. If done well, it could be a cozy place to play. I know we do need to make some additions there. I know in the plans of the university, the ones I saw, I know down the road they'd like to put a Convocation Center up, a new Arena up, so it's out there… but ultimately let's give this university a reason to invest in us. If we can do that, we could do something special there. Like I said, you know the deal at FAU, everybody talks about the potential there. We're going to work our butts off to start turning that potential into productivity."

For what that's worth.

So basically "I have no clue when we're gonna start working on it, I just know we need it"

You have to start somewhere within a budget and I think AD Chun feels that the weight room and academic center are within his budget needs.

USMCOWL said

You have to start somewhere within a budget and I think AD Chun feels that the weight room and academic center are within his budget.

Agreed. And while state money can't go towards Athletics, I'm pretty sure you can make the argument that an Academic Center is something separate and therefore can qualify for state money.

Owl_Ranger said

So basically "I have no clue when we're gonna start working on it, I just know we need it"

Probably more like "I'm not sure how we're going to pay for it but I do know we need it."

The only thing I feel is… I don't know how many more improvements you can really make to the Burrow. We have a good scoreboard and video board, we have box seats, we have all seatbacks and I don't think you can add more seats. Pretty sure Angelos told me you can't add an "upper deck" to build it out like the 10k arenas.

For that facility, for that size, it's not going to get too much better outside of maybe a better press room and new concessions. Is that really going to win over more recruits to get us to the level where we need a bigger Arena?

I'm not an expert but I do have a pretty active imagination and I really don't know how much more lipstick you can put on that pig.

Football will drive this university, it's the easiest road to national recognition, especially in Florida. And our weight room is embarrassing. Big time recruits heavily consider the practice facilities when picking a school as they'll spend 90 percent of their time there and Pelini isn't even showing kids the weight room because its so bad. We may have gotten a great new stadium but we have the Lockhart of weight rooms. That is definitely priority 1.

I think thats why AD Chun is stressing the academic and weight room first over everything else.

What we're leaving out in all this is, I think we have the right man on the job. Yes I know it's all talk right now but it's going to take him time. We all want things done overnight but we know its not possible. I have a good feeling about Chun and I think he will help point this university in the right direction

Jab979 said

What we're leaving out in all this is, I think we have the right man on the job. Yes I know it's all talk right now but it's going to take him time. We all want things done overnight but we know its not possible. I have a good feeling about Chun and I think he will help point this university in the right direction

I'm sure Chun is the right man for us now, yes. And FAU does have a lot of facility needs, so it's going to take the man some time - easily a decade, if he sticks around. But he seems like such a straight-shooter, I doubt we'll be able to retain him that long before he gets hired away.

I wonder about that myself but I do think we offer enough to stay for quite some time. Were a start up thats in its second round of funding, we show a ton of promise and if he can get in the stock ownership game (contract provisions that fetch large bonuses for meeting milestones) then Chun could find himself in a lucrative position. He has really young kids, who will eventually get settled in schools down here and his previous tenure was 14 years. On top of that, AD positions dont show near the turnover that you see in head coaching jobs so Im confident we have him long enough to make a lasting impact. And if he takes us next level, then he'll make next level money, so not too many reasons to leave! Thats my hope anyway…

Yet he has shown he is changing the way things are done in the athletics department. More fan friendly customer service for tickets, update athletics website, a daily blog, the addition of our teams on Facebook. reaching out to corporations like ADT. I really do think within the next few months he will be able to lock down sponorship for the renovation of the academic center and the weight room.