Ok I'm gonna hijack the thread for a second…

You're in charge of FAUs budget and you've got say, $25mm to spend on ONE facility to make major improvements/rebuild and your choice is between baseball and basketball.

For us, our location, and our potential to build a long term winning program, (and I'm saying this as a passionate basketball fan with years with of season tickets) I think baseball might be the better bet.

Neither of these programs will produce a profit for the school (I think LSU is the only college baseball team in the black year over year) so I'm looking at talent, fan base, potential. Florida probably produces more baseball players than basketball players for div 1 so from a talent perspective i think baseball wins, we all know football rules down here, but after that, basketball isn't a hometown game here in Florida, as compared to the Midwest/Northeast, I think baseball could take it from an interest level if we were winning, and I think that it'd be easier to build a championship baseball team here.

Look at UM. this year is their first impressive basketball season that I can remember. How many super regionals has their baseball team been to in the last 20 years? 18?

Would love to hear others thoughts..,you've got the checkbook, what sport gets us best bang for the buck?

TeamBeer said

Ok I'm gonna hijack the thread for a second…

You're in charge of FAUs budget and you've got say, $25mm to spend on ONE facility to make major improvements/rebuild and your choice is between baseball and basketball.

For us, our location, and our potential to build a long term winning program, (and I'm saying this as a passionate basketball fan with years with of season tickets) I think baseball might be the better bet.

Neither of these programs will produce a profit for the school (I think LSU is the only college baseball team in the black year over year) so I'm looking at talent, fan base, potential. Florida probably produces more baseball players than basketball players for div 1 so from a talent perspective i think baseball wins, we all know football rules down here, but after that, basketball isn't a hometown game here in Florida, as compared to the Midwest/Northeast, I think baseball could take it from an interest level if we were winning, and I think that it'd be easier to build a championship baseball team here.

Look at UM. this year is their first impressive basketball season that I can remember. How many super regionals has their baseball team been to in the last 20 years? 18?

Would love to hear others thoughts..,you've got the checkbook, what sport gets us best bang for the buck?

If we had a world class basketball arena or world class baseball stadium and another round of conference expansion occurs…the basketball arena would be a bigger asset to us.  And therefore the basketball arena would help the ENTIRE athletic program more than the baseball stadium.  Keep in mind…I am not saying the baseball stadium is not over due for renovation or new construction.  I am just saying it is a lower priority at this point in my opinion.  I might donate $200 to the athletic program and put a restrictive convenant on it that the money is only to be used a single draw for drawing of Powerball.  Quick pick.

TeamBeer said

Ok I'm gonna hijack the thread for a second…

You're in charge of FAUs budget and you've got say, $25mm to spend on ONE facility to make major improvements/rebuild and your choice is between baseball and basketball.

For us, our location, and our potential to build a long term winning program, (and I'm saying this as a passionate basketball fan with years with of season tickets) I think baseball might be the better bet.

Neither of these programs will produce a profit for the school (I think LSU is the only college baseball team in the black year over year) so I'm looking at talent, fan base, potential. Florida probably produces more baseball players than basketball players for div 1 so from a talent perspective i think baseball wins, we all know football rules down here, but after that, basketball isn't a hometown game here in Florida, as compared to the Midwest/Northeast, I think baseball could take it from an interest level if we were winning, and I think that it'd be easier to build a championship baseball team here.

Look at UM. this year is their first impressive basketball season that I can remember. How many super regionals has their baseball team been to in the last 20 years? 18?

Would love to hear others thoughts..,you've got the checkbook, what sport gets us best bang for the buck?

Basketball.  No question.

If we are talking about a business decision and not about what program is more deserving, then it is basketball.  That is the sport I would have a chance at getting the investment back.

We have had one of the best baseball teams in the nation, consistently.  I believe we were named an all-time top 40 team several years ago.  We have had a great product for many years and people don't really support it.  So the "winning cures everything" seems to not count for baseball.

The baseball stadium as is…is embarrassing.  That needs to be upgraded if we think we are ever advancing to the next level.

However, in your scenario, I have to make a choice.  It's basketball.  It is all about revenue potential and not much else.

That being said…$25M is not enough to build a new basketball arena, which is what I would prefer.  If I had to keep the Burrow and use the money to expand (and don't think for a second that I actually know how much this would all cost–but is an indication of what is wrong with the facility)…

1) I would tear down the back wall where the large scoreboard is and expand out toward the track.  I would move the court toward that back wall to give room to add seats to creat a "bowl."  If you don't have seats behind the basket in a bowl, you are junior high school.

2) The extra room created by the expansion will create room for 2 more locker rooms.  I don't know if everyone realizes it or not, but we cannot do doubleheaders and never a tournament there because there are not enough locker rooms.

In years past when we did women's and men's double headers, one team cannot go into a locker room until the other takes the court, etc.  It's a joke.

3) Add concessions.  How much money do we leave on the table because of the lack of concessions and long lines?  How many people don't come back to see a game because of the inconvenience that causes?

4) and my personal favorite…add a nice merchandise store that stays open every day, not just whenever someone feels like showing up and selling gear.  This gererates royalties!

If we did all of this and spent $25M, after all is said and done…it would still be one of the worst facilities in the country as compared to the likes of a Dayton and other legitimate Mid-Majors.

The plain truth is (as stated earlier) that people around here need to see a winner. If the dolphins are having a terrible year they can't even get good attendance, how is FAU? Especially at our level with having a small fraction of the die hard fans that schools like Ohio State (mentioned earlier), we can't expect people to want to watch a bad team. you wouldn't go to a restaurant and pay for a bad dinner knowing it would be bad? I believe the FAU product is improving and can't wait to see where Pelini takes this team.

DumpTruck said

we can't expect people to want to watch a bad team. You wouldn't go to a restaurant and pay for a bad dinner knowing it would be bad?

And thus the contradiction we create for ourselves here.

On one hand, Group A people argue that as diehard fans you should support the team no matter what, pay the money, good times or bad. They say that in order for things to get better, we have to put as much money as possible to the university for anything they ask (Not saying this is or isn't true BTW).

On the other hand, Group B argue that if you don't like the state of things - whether the coach is bad, they're pulling the rug out from under high school teams or charging too much for the product - then you speak loudest with your wallet. They contend that if you removed FAU from the equation and replaced it with something else that was performing poorly, say an investment in the stock market, you might wonder if you're being taken for a ride (again, true/untrue, doesn't matter right now).

The Group A people deride Group B people for not being "true fans." FAU knows they can count on Group A people for the revenue stream and they're just wondering how best to turn Group B people into Group A people. Usually the arguments are "support YOUR hometown team", "support your alma mater, you owe them" or "be True Blue and make a difference."

Somewhere there's a happy medium. Obviously we can't deprive FAU of funds if we want it to grow but we also can't let them half-ass things like refusing to market to students, "wait and watch" for conference re-alignment (granted, this was Angelos, but this is something we did), botch what little tradition we have (no Redout for Shula Bowl) and keeping consistently underperforming staff in non-revenue sports (how long did we sit on women's volleyball coach Jody Brown?). Problem is if the money stops coming in, they're not sure why unless:

A) They read this board (which they do because it's the best way to measure the "pulse" of the fan community, thus "complaining anonymously on here does nothing" is not true)

B) Or you email them explaining why you won't be renewing your season tickets (this they can print out and keep track of so they know how many people are canceling and for what reason, so they can fix it)

TeamBeer said

Ok I'm gonna hijack the thread for a second…

You're in charge of FAUs budget and you've got say, $25mm to spend on ONE facility to make major improvements/rebuild and your choice is between baseball and basketball.

…

Would love to hear others thoughts… you've got the checkbook, what sport gets us best bang for the buck?

One facility? Basketball. Absolutely basketball.

And I know this isn't the point of the question but technically with $25M you could put $10M toward a new baseball stadium and use the other $15M as a downpayment on a $60M basketball arena. After all, we put down $12M on the $70M for the stadium.

Getting back on track. You know with the baseball team hosting Alabama, Cincinnati, and Miami within the first week of the season, it would be a appropriate time to show some potential donors how the team performs, and maybe they can help pay for renovations or complete overhaul of the stadium.