Facilities Development

[Knight]

What do you think are the responsibilities of the coach of a program?  If the facilities aren’t up to snuff, I’d expect him to press for an upgrade.  I’m tired of pointing the finger at everyone and no one being responsible.  What does the current inadequate facility lack?

Why spend $2Mil if any coach can get similar results?

 

[beast of the east]

What do you think are the responsibilities of the coach of a program?  If the facilities aren’t up to snuff, I’d expect him to press for an upgrade.  I’m tired of pointing the finger at everyone and no one being responsible.  What does the current inadequate facility lack?

Why spend $2Mil if any coach can get similar results?

 

Facilities discussion is not about the arena or seatbacks. The things our facilties lack have been well documented in other threads.

 

[paultzman]

Incorporating this thread with “Facilities Development” may be prudent when mods have a chance. My back aches reading the title

Thx

 

[Dan V]

The practice facility is the biggest need thats where the players will spend most of their time. Need it to be top notch too, its the biggest city in the world, the facility should be state of the art. Thats where all the funds should be spent. As far as CA to hell with it, I doubt they’ll ever put too much money into it and rightfully so. As long as the big east is not going to kick them out for it they have no reason to build another on campus arena. Do some basic upgrades like air conditioning or whatever make sure it looks presentable. Not to sound mean but blowing it up for old people with back problems is wishful thinking at best. Its the students that matter, they create the best atmosphere and they will be fine sitting on benches. Cameron Indoor is live because of the students not the old folks. CA already provides a decent home court advantage as is anyway. MSG is one of the main things recruits like about SJU. The goal should be as many games there as possible with a shuttle for students if feasible. USB being so close adds another option and less incentive to build a new arena. I think Shanley and Cragg have the right idea focusing on the practice facility first that will fix a lot and it’ll be a chain reaction from there.

 

[Andrew]

Beast-
Is it fair to express that a coach here should be expected to recruit the highest grade talent without improving facilities? 

if the coach cashes his very generous paycheck, YES!

I'll answer this with a hypothetical.   You are an office manager.   The stakeholders hold you accountable for not attracting the best talent when the office is horribly deficient, the equipment is old, and the place doesn't offer all the amenities other offices offer.

This is a real consideration.   I had a crappy basement office for a long time (almost 20 years).   I couldn't hire good talent locally because of that and had to come up with creative ways.   When I moved to a great neigherhood and a grade A building, my rent tripled, but I was able to hire better local talent.

However, I couldn't compete even on an equal salary basis with companies that had awesome offices, amenities like lunch everyday, kegs for after work, game rooms, on and on.   Didn't matter what my salary was, the type of people Google hires were never available to me, even if I paid the same salary.

So to your point 100,000 % what the coach makes has zero impact on a recruit deciding why to come here.

In our case, what they get in Mike Anderson is a man they can identify with, who is a successful family man as his everyone on his staff, who has a history of developing talent, and who understands where they came from and where they can be headed with a solid education.     

However, that only gets you so far.   Just like my personal example, recruits are very visual and definitely consider training facilities, weight rooms, even the dorms they live in.   To deny that is just wrong.

I'm certain we are telling recruits and honestly, that improvements are being planned.   Still that puts us behind schools that already have improvements






 

All very true, but he cashed the check. It’s on him.
What is Anderson doing to change the facilities? Is he intimately working with Cragg for an upgrade to facilities?
What exactly do you think his duties are?
Does The Iona coach work for better facilities?
What’s the case in other programs? Why is SJU spending big bucks for a coach, if they know no one can attract top talent to Union Tpke.?

Facilities are NOT on CMA.   He has a role and it is in a particular lane.   That's preposterous.   

I don't give a damn what Iona coaches do, or Hofstra, or Siena.   I will say that the smaller the program, the more a coach has to do.   Facilities are still not the Iona coach's responsibility.

We are spending $2 million per year on a coach because it's competitive to what a major conference coach makes.   You want experienced at high D1, that's the point of entry in a major market.   Thanks to the fact that we have a competitive athletic administrative leader, he is correctly pointing out that he needs better facilities to allow programs to be on an equal footing with competitors.

Denying this falls into the same old trap that investment isn't necessary.   We complain about the mom and pop mentiality, but by ignoring facilities, that is a mom and pop attitude.

It's Cragg's responsibility to give all of our sports and athletes the best chance to succeed, within our budget limitation.  He is correctly working on this.   What I think most people on here who identify as fans and alums are most angry about is that the responsibility to fund this come from donations.     

The reason most private schools cannot create sustained success in revenue producing sports is that revenue alone is not enough to compete with programs funded by tax dollar plus the ability to raise large sums of money.    Villanova fans get that.   Duke fans get that.    Collecitvely, our don't, at least not to the same extent as programs who enjoy tremendous success in sports.

                Your points are all valid but its not that easy for St. John's. Even if you have state money you need a strong donor base and corporate sponsorships to build the best facilities. Most of those schools however, have long standing football and basketball programs, long running Greek systems that are usually the largest affinity group for a school and have a history of large donors. There are also a number of private schools that fit into that same category (Stanford, Duke, USC, Notre Dame and several others for example). Villanova has moved in that direction as for the most part the student body comes from affluent families and as you often point out, they do a great job at fundraising. Winning basketball games doesn't hurt them either.

St. John's was and for the most part still is a commuter school. In addition most of the students have and still come from lower to middle class  families which means it takes them longer to think about giving back to the University for a number of reasons. And to some extent past administrations made this much worse in a number of ways and have impacted the future. This doesn't mean they can't raise money and in reality they have some very generous donors but I don't believe the alumni attachment is as strong as it could be. In a perfect world the 1,000 wealthiest alumni would pledge $50,000 a year for four years and you could raise $200 million to upgrade facilities and fix the arena problem. Otherwise you need someone who has unlimited resources to make a huge donation. It is great for many reasons to have many smaller donors but those donations help fund the day to day costs of running an athletic department and not building new facilities.

 

 

[kranmars]

We don’t need any stinking “Facilities Development.”
We need chair backs.

 

[Johnny Rapper]

Beast-
Is it fair to express that a coach here should be expected to recruit the highest grade talent without improving facilities? 

if the coach cashes his very generous paycheck, YES!

I'll answer this with a hypothetical.   You are an office manager.   The stakeholders hold you accountable for not attracting the best talent when the office is horribly deficient, the equipment is old, and the place doesn't offer all the amenities other offices offer.

This is a real consideration.   I had a crappy basement office for a long time (almost 20 years).   I couldn't hire good talent locally because of that and had to come up with creative ways.   When I moved to a great neigherhood and a grade A building, my rent tripled, but I was able to hire better local talent.

However, I couldn't compete even on an equal salary basis with companies that had awesome offices, amenities like lunch everyday, kegs for after work, game rooms, on and on.   Didn't matter what my salary was, the type of people Google hires were never available to me, even if I paid the same salary.

So to your point 100,000 % what the coach makes has zero impact on a recruit deciding why to come here.

In our case, what they get in Mike Anderson is a man they can identify with, who is a successful family man as his everyone on his staff, who has a history of developing talent, and who understands where they came from and where they can be headed with a solid education.     

However, that only gets you so far.   Just like my personal example, recruits are very visual and definitely consider training facilities, weight rooms, even the dorms they live in.   To deny that is just wrong.

I'm certain we are telling recruits and honestly, that improvements are being planned.   Still that puts us behind schools that already have improvements







 

All very true, but he cashed the check. It’s on him.
What is Anderson doing to change the facilities? Is he intimately working with Cragg for an upgrade to facilities?
What exactly do you think his duties are?
Does The Iona coach work for better facilities?
What’s the case in other programs? Why is SJU spending big bucks for a coach, if they know no one can attract top talent to Union Tpke.?

Facilities are NOT on CMA.   He has a role and it is in a particular lane.   That's preposterous.   

I don't give a damn what Iona coaches do, or Hofstra, or Siena.   I will say that the smaller the program, the more a coach has to do.   Facilities are still not the Iona coach's responsibility.

We are spending $2 million per year on a coach because it's competitive to what a major conference coach makes.   You want experienced at high D1, that's the point of entry in a major market.   Thanks to the fact that we have a competitive athletic administrative leader, he is correctly pointing out that he needs better facilities to allow programs to be on an equal footing with competitors.

Denying this falls into the same old trap that investment isn't necessary.   We complain about the mom and pop mentiality, but by ignoring facilities, that is a mom and pop attitude.

It's Cragg's responsibility to give all of our sports and athletes the best chance to succeed, within our budget limitation.  He is correctly working on this.   What I think most people on here who identify as fans and alums are most angry about is that the responsibility to fund this come from donations.     

The reason most private schools cannot create sustained success in revenue producing sports is that revenue alone is not enough to compete with programs funded by tax dollar plus the ability to raise large sums of money.    Villanova fans get that.   Duke fans get that.    Collecitvely, our don't, at least not to the same extent as programs who enjoy tremendous success in sports.

                Your points are all valid but its not that easy for St. John's. Even if you have state money you need a strong donor base and corporate sponsorships to build the best facilities. Most of those schools however, have long standing football and basketball programs, long running Greek systems that are usually the largest affinity group for a school and have a history of large donors. There are also a number of private schools that fit into that same category (Stanford, Duke, USC, Notre Dame and several others for example). Villanova has moved in that direction as for the most part the student body comes from affluent families and as you often point out, they do a great job at fundraising. Winning basketball games doesn't hurt them either.

St. John's was and for the most part still is a commuter school. In addition most of the students have and still come from lower to middle class  families which means it takes them longer to think about giving back to the University for a number of reasons. And to some extent past administrations made this much worse in a number of ways and have impacted the future. This doesn't mean they can't raise money and in reality they have some very generous donors but I don't believe the alumni attachment is as strong as it could be. In a perfect world the 1,000 wealthiest alumni would pledge $50,000 a year for four years and you could raise $200 million to upgrade facilities and fix the arena problem. Otherwise you need someone who has unlimited resources to make a huge donation. It is great for many reasons to have many smaller donors but those donations help fund the day to day costs of running an athletic department and not building new facilities.


 

To use the example of Nova fans and Duke fans get that kind of defeats the purpose of your argument.  Nova and Duke fans get that ( and donate money) cause they follow most successful programs. Thats not the the recent history (20 plus years) of St. John's. In order to get all the things you want, the program must win. The priority should be to have the best possible staff and organization on hand to promote winning. If progress is not displayed soon, a new staff should be in order. The reality is, in the world of college hoops, winning solves everything. A few more years like this one can have a most negative effect on donors and student interest which infers future donors. 

 

[beast of the east]

Sju is not a sports franchise.  I do not believe that athletic department department donors only objective is winning in basketball.  

Of course we try to win in all sports but in this case we want our student athletes to have facilities that rival the best schools in the conference and country.   It is not an excuse for not winning before completion but will allow our teams to recruit on a more equal footing as explained by aj hidell.

The notion that donations will not come until we win is self defeating.   Many donors have already committed funds for this project and our athletic development team meeting with potential donors.

Of course when we win  donations will increase and ticket sales improve but if everyone stayed home and no one donated, our programs would collapse.    Revenue producing sports partially fund all other sports, the rest coming from donations and university operating budgets.

Thankfully our board of trustees is comprised partially of men and women who have had incredible career success in business.  Our chair of the board of trustees was the CFO of a private investment firm that grew under his leadership to $400 billion in assets.  He has already donated millions to this school.  Other board members have had similar career success and grown businesses and at the same time donate hundreds of hours annually to st johns..   From my first days as a university employee I came to understand that st John's very much is a business.   In my opinion. There is no question that at present we have superb leadership.

The next several years should be exciting times.  While it would be great if all fans were on board.  I understand the frustration of limited success over the past dozen years but fans who put a short timeline on winning may be disappointed.  

It's not a view that is shared by everyone here but the best thing fans can do to accelerate winning is ask "How can I help?"    That very question distinguishes college sports fans from professional fans.

 

[Johnny Rapper]

Looking back, I don’t know who over saw the Taffner project but I think it was a big mistake. What the school needed more then anything was an upgraded arena as Carnessecca is just a glorified gym. What I believe could have been done is to tear down Carnessecca arena and build one large facility for games, practices etc. That way, the arena as well as practice facilities the weight room etc would have been upgraded and we could have had a Villanova type arena. Obviously I’m not aware of any legal constraints regarding size and land usage but I wonder if that was ever a consideration. 

 

[SJU Double Alumn]

Looking back, I don’t know who over saw the Taffner project but I think it was a big mistake. What the school needed more then anything was an upgraded arena as Carnessecca is just a glorified gym. What I believe could have been done is to tear down Carnessecca arena and build one large facility for games, practices etc. That way, the arena as well as practice facilities the weight room etc would have been upgraded and we could have had a Villanova type arena. Obviously I’m not aware of any legal constraints regarding size and land usage but I wonder if that was ever a consideration. 

That would have cost at least triple what Taffner cost. 

 

[redmannorth]

Looking back, I don’t know who over saw the Taffner project but I think it was a big mistake. What the school needed more then anything was an upgraded arena as Carnessecca is just a glorified gym. What I believe could have been done is to tear down Carnessecca arena and build one large facility for games, practices etc. That way, the arena as well as practice facilities the weight room etc would have been upgraded and we could have had a Villanova type arena. Obviously I’m not aware of any legal constraints regarding size and land usage but I wonder if that was ever a consideration. 

Good morning Jermaine 
While I do not practice in New York State I am positive there are major legal constraints. First off would be set backs, meaning a building cannot be constructed right on the lot line of the property. ÇA is built very close to the Street and I can only imagine when it was constructed the architects and urban planners attempted to go legally as close as possible to the street , remember there has to be space for fire exits which there are at both of ÇA and Taffner so I can say with 99% certainty as I have not read the municipal by laws that the building cannot be built closer to the street. 
secondly the school is located in a densely populated residential area. If the number of people permitted into ÇA was to be increased above the maximum permitted under the by laws you would probably be subject to a local referendum. Rest assured it would probably be defeated as citizens today are very organized and understand their rights. They would mobilise and defeat a municipal proposal to allow for increased seating at one time which would bring about much greater traffic in a short period of time to the area. Parking and fire concerns are just some of the other challenges that the planners would be faced with. 
this is why every time there is a discussion of enlarging ÇA I don’t really partake because other than adding probably a maximum of 1500 seats to the existing structure there is not really more that can be done. Again someone would have to read the municipal by laws to know the maximum seating permitted. I am just pulling a reasonable figure from my head. 
So I hope you understand that building Taffner was absolutely the right thing to do. Is it perfect no but it was a lovely upgrade at the time and the coaching staffs were very happy with the improvement. 
the best thing we can do is win and have more games at MSG, hopefully that will happen sooner than later. 

 

[Johnny Rapper]

Looking back, I don’t know who over saw the Taffner project but I think it was a big mistake. What the school needed more then anything was an upgraded arena as Carnessecca is just a glorified gym. What I believe could have been done is to tear down Carnessecca arena and build one large facility for games, practices etc. That way, the arena as well as practice facilities the weight room etc would have been upgraded and we could have had a Villanova type arena. Obviously I’m not aware of any legal constraints regarding size and land usage but I wonder if that was ever a consideration. 

Good morning Jermaine 
While I do not practice in New York State I am positive there are major legal constraints. First off would be set backs, meaning a building cannot be constructed right on the lot line of the property. ÇA is built very close to the Street and I can only imagine when it was constructed the architects and urban planners attempted to go legally as close as possible to the street , remember there has to be space for fire exits which there are at both of ÇA and Taffner so I can say with 99% certainty as I have not read the municipal by laws that the building cannot be built closer to the street. 
secondly the school is located in a densely populated residential area. If the number of people permitted into ÇA was to be increased above the maximum permitted under the by laws you would probably be subject to a local referendum. Rest assured it would probably be defeated as citizens today are very organized and understand their rights. They would mobilise and defeat a municipal proposal to allow for increased seating at one time which would bring about much greater traffic in a short period of time to the area. Parking and fire concerns are just some of the other challenges that the planners would be faced with. 
this is why every time there is a discussion of enlarging ÇA I don’t really partake because other than adding probably a maximum of 1500 seats to the existing structure there is not really more that can be done. Again someone would have to read the municipal by laws to know the maximum seating permitted. I am just pulling a reasonable figure from my head. 
So I hope you understand that building Taffner was absolutely the right thing to do. Is it perfect no but it was a lovely upgrade at the time and the coaching staffs were very happy with the improvement. 
the best thing we can do is win and have more games at MSG, hopefully that will happen sooner than later. 

Thanks for your insights. Yes, winning will solve a multitude of issues. 

 

[beast of the east]

Looking back, I don’t know who over saw the Taffner project but I think it was a big mistake. What the school needed more then anything was an upgraded arena as Carnessecca is just a glorified gym. What I believe could have been done is to tear down Carnessecca arena and build one large facility for games, practices etc. That way, the arena as well as practice facilities the weight room etc would have been upgraded and we could have had a Villanova type arena. Obviously I’m not aware of any legal constraints regarding size and land usage but I wonder if that was ever a consideration. 

Good morning Jermaine 
While I do not practice in New York State I am positive there are major legal constraints. First off would be set backs, meaning a building cannot be constructed right on the lot line of the property. ÇA is built very close to the Street and I can only imagine when it was constructed the architects and urban planners attempted to go legally as close as possible to the street , remember there has to be space for fire exits which there are at both of ÇA and Taffner so I can say with 99% certainty as I have not read the municipal by laws that the building cannot be built closer to the street. 
secondly the school is located in a densely populated residential area. If the number of people permitted into ÇA was to be increased above the maximum permitted under the by laws you would probably be subject to a local referendum. Rest assured it would probably be defeated as citizens today are very organized and understand their rights. They would mobilise and defeat a municipal proposal to allow for increased seating at one time which would bring about much greater traffic in a short period of time to the area. Parking and fire concerns are just some of the other challenges that the planners would be faced with. 
this is why every time there is a discussion of enlarging ÇA I don’t really partake because other than adding probably a maximum of 1500 seats to the existing structure there is not really more that can be done. Again someone would have to read the municipal by laws to know the maximum seating permitted. I am just pulling a reasonable figure from my head. 
So I hope you understand that building Taffner was absolutely the right thing to do. Is it perfect no but it was a lovely upgrade at the time and the coaching staffs were very happy with the improvement. 
the best thing we can do is win and have more games at MSG, hopefully that will happen sooner than later. 

As an employee at St. John's, it was explained to me that the buildings on campus at the time were packed tightly together to reduce the considerable cost of running electricity and plumbing across campus.

If we expand the arena, even if we find the space, the community will be concerned about additional traffic in the area on game night and the availability of sufficient parking on campus.   As it is, some people park on side streets on busy game night to avoid the delay in getting out of the lots.

This was done with one purpose in mind: to keep tuition and operating costs as low as possible.   As a result, every alum on here above the age of 50 received a private, Catholic education at a cost of 40-60% than the typical private education.   The university was staffed with moms and dads at lower salaries who were afforded a benefit of free tuition for their kids.   Many of the faculty were foreign born, and in that time period their thick accents inhibited them from gaining higher salaries at other schools.   

This wasn't so much "mom and pop" small minded thinking as it was a strategic attempt to educate lower income Catholic students who could never have afforded a high priced private education, not to mention the cost of room and board by travelling away from home.   I would venture a guess that for most of us, it wasn't St. John's or away school somewhere else, it was SJU or CUNY.  

What this strategy never included was creating a sense of gratitude in students, or in any way create a culture of giving or indebtedness.   Many older alums tell the same story - classes that began at 8 AM, and then a mad rush to the parking lot at 2:20 pm to travel to part time and sometime full time jobs where tuition was paid out of pocket by us.    Rightfully so, many alums feel that they worked their butts off academically and juggled part time jobs to pay for their education, but incorrectly think that it was all of our own doing.    

When I applied to St. John's I checked the tuition at Fordham and Manhattan.   Both were more than 50% higher than St. Johns.  While I had considered a major that Fordham had at the time just eliminated (as did Columbia), I checked anyway.   In the end it was that "mom and pop" way of running a university with few frills that provided me with a college education .

Today if we are honest, one reason among many that there was considerable distance created between St. John's and other private schools in the region,is our own lack of giving.    I bring up Villanova frequently, not only because I admire their school and success, but I know it intimately.   They initiated a giving campaign in 2014, and I attended their kickoff gala, slightly surprisingly not in Philadelphia, but in a hotel ballroom up the street from MSG.  Before the campaign formally kicked off, they had over 50 donations of $1 million or more, the capstone being $22 million by Mr. Finneran.    Their President, Father Peter, was known to love Dramatic Arts.  One donor was aware of this and immediately contributed $100,000 to the campaign for a performing arts center that I'm not even sure was an objective of the capital campaign.  

This was all before a national championship was won by Jay Wright.   I can't say the $700 million or so raised helped win 2 national championships, but it did provide the improvements across campus that athletes in all sports could consider when selecting a college.

Yes, winning generates donations and money.   But to think we can create winning without donations and investment increases the chances that we will never get there.  

 

[Alumni Hall]

Looking back, I don’t know who over saw the Taffner project but I think it was a big mistake. What the school needed more then anything was an upgraded arena as Carnessecca is just a glorified gym. What I believe could have been done is to tear down Carnessecca arena and build one large facility for games, practices etc. That way, the arena as well as practice facilities the weight room etc would have been upgraded and we could have had a Villanova type arena. Obviously I’m not aware of any legal constraints regarding size and land usage but I wonder if that was ever a consideration. 
Jermaine, you do realize that Villanova also has a separate practice facility for their hoops teams across the driveway from a renovated Pavillion?
And Nova is so flush with cash that even after they did a complete remodel of the Pavillion with brand new Mens locker rooms there, Jay did not like the design scheme and after 1 year COMPLETELY REDID HIS LOCKER ROOM and team areas again.
And BTW another example of how cash rich Nova is, they purchased the court they won their last NCAA championship on, had it shipped to campus, and that’s what their booster lounge area sits on on game night…complete with the footprint of where Kris Jenkins’ game winning shot was!
WATCH this clip
 

 

[beast of the east]

Looking back, I don’t know who over saw the Taffner project but I think it was a big mistake. What the school needed more then anything was an upgraded arena as Carnessecca is just a glorified gym. What I believe could have been done is to tear down Carnessecca arena and build one large facility for games, practices etc. That way, the arena as well as practice facilities the weight room etc would have been upgraded and we could have had a Villanova type arena. Obviously I’m not aware of any legal constraints regarding size and land usage but I wonder if that was ever a consideration. 
Jermaine, you do realize that Villanova also has a separate practice facility for their hoops teams across the driveway from a renovated Pavillion?
And Nova is so flush with cash that even after they did a complete remodel of the Pavillion with brand new Mens locker rooms there, Jay did not like the design scheme and after 1 year COMPLETELY REDID HIS LOCKER ROOM and team areas again.
And BTW another example of how cash rich Nova is, they purchased the court they won their last NCAA championship on, had it shipped to campus, and that’s what their booster lounge area sits on on game night…complete with the footprint of where Kris Jenkins’ game winning shot was!
WATCH this clip


 

If at all possible, the facility is now even more impressive in person than the video describes it.

The walkway to the arena reminded me of accepted student's day at VIllanova, where the university invites all accepted students to the school in a final attempt to gain their decision to attend.  The day begins in the Pavillion with a presentation that includes Father Peter, and includes tours of the campus, bands playing, food, etc.    

As accepted students and their parents approach the Pavillion, even as they drive to the parking lot,  the roadway and walkway to the Pavillion are lined with hundreds of Villanova students, cheering for and high fiving these students (not athletes mind you) as if they were 5 star recruits.    

Every damned thing Villanova does is 5 star.   Damn them.

 

[Alumni Hall]

Just to show you all how desperate SJU was about our facilities and their sports teams:
in the 1990’s SJU looked at moving all of their outdoor athletic teams to the Oakdale campus, both soccer teams, baseball, softball, XC, tennis and also VB was included. There plan was to house all the athletes in their dorms there and set up training facilities there. They did several site visits with athletic department staff and coaches to see the feasibility of moving almost 200 athletes there. But after seeing how poor the overall campus and athletic facilities were, and they logistics of moving all the athletes back and forth to classes, that idea was discarded. It was thought to be like Columbia moves their athletes up to Baker Field each day by bus from their campus. They did eventually run several summer sports camps there and our football team actually had their summer 10 day practice camp there one summer.
Another separate idea was to move MBB practices to Cathedral College in Queens off the Cross Island, since they already practiced there 2-3 times a week under Jarvis’ time because of scheduling times at Carnesecca Arena. Also included in that plan was to move baseball to the site off Union Turnpike near Creedmore (the south side of Union Tpke where a State run facility now stands) and moving softball also off campus to the softball field complex nearby which is run by a local athletic group. 
A third idea was to build athletic facilities up near the Throgs Neck Bridge on the military installation off of the Cross Island Pkwy. That was heavily looked at until that area was off limits due to ground waste there from the military dumping of toxins.

 

[RedStormNC]

Very interesting AJ.

The logistics of isolating 200 athletes and busing  40-50 miles back for classes seems bizarre. Big distance difference from Columbia to Baker Field.

I do find it fascinating how much real estate on Queens campus is taken up for baseball, softball, track/lacrosse that generate low student interest and only get used intermittently.  At least soccer @  Belson also serves double duty as parking underneath.

 

[rcatalano]

Has anyone on this board taken a look at both Xavier’s and Creightons basketball arenas? It makes The Pavillion look like Carnesseca Arena! Please I am so sick of hearing we don’t have the money just go out and float a 100 million dollar bond and amortize the cost over the next 20 years! Let’s get it done!

 

[beast of the east]

Has anyone on this board taken a look at both Xavier’s and Creightons basketball arenas? It makes The Pavillion look like Carnesseca Arena! Please I am so sick of hearing we don’t have the money just go out and float a 100 million dollar bond and amortize the cost over the next 20 years! Let’s get it done!

If we let you choose the next coach will you put up the money? I'm guessing you were an economics major.

 

[Las Vegan]

Just to show you all how desperate SJU was about our facilities and their sports teams:
in the 1990’s SJU looked at moving all of their outdoor athletic teams to the Oakdale campus, both soccer teams, baseball, softball, XC, tennis and also VB was included. There plan was to house all the athletes in their dorms there and set up training facilities there. They did several site visits with athletic department staff and coaches to see the feasibility of moving almost 200 athletes there. But after seeing how poor the overall campus and athletic facilities were, and they logistics of moving all the athletes back and forth to classes, that idea was discarded. It was thought to be like Columbia moves their athletes up to Baker Field each day by bus from their campus. They did eventually run several summer sports camps there and our football team actually had their summer 10 day practice camp there one summer.
Another separate idea was to move MBB practices to Cathedral College in Queens off the Cross Island, since they already practiced there 2-3 times a week under Jarvis’ time because of scheduling times at Carnesecca Arena. Also included in that plan was to move baseball to the site off Union Turnpike near Creedmore (the south side of Union Tpke where a State run facility now stands) and moving softball also off campus to the softball field complex nearby which is run by a local athletic group. 
A third idea was to build athletic facilities up near the Throgs Neck Bridge on the military installation off of the Cross Island Pkwy. That was heavily looked at until that area was off limits due to ground waste there from the military dumping of toxins.

Interesting historical information, AJ.  I remember a rumor going around many years ago concerning CW Post campus, of LIU. Supposedly SUNY would buy St. John's Queens campus and SJU would purchase  the Post campus, and move everything to Nassau County. Any truth to this?