Blades of grass? Think Astroturf or Redmenturf. Or Italian turf - concrete lol
Good news is in the U.S. Mail but such a slow process. 2027?
Just get the improvements done already.
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New Facilities Update
- Thread starter paultzman
- Start date
Good news is in the U.S. Mail but such a slow process. 2027?
Just get the improvements done already.
Alumni Hall
Well-known member
The NCAA told us either make all student athletes FT pay or none. The FT pay just for one sport was the violation. Around the same time they also got Seton Hall for giving their basketball players "no show" or hardly showing type jobs at the Meadowland Sports Complex.
Don't hold your breath .
$3M grant
www.stjohns.edu
St. John’s University Awarded $3M HECap Grant to Support New Basketball Practice Facility
St. John’s University has been awarded a $3 million New York State Higher Education Capital Matching Grant (HECap) that will be used to help finance the construction of a new state-of-the-art basketball practice facility adjacent to Gate 4 (175th Street and Union Turnpike) on the Queens, NY, campus.
Thank you DASNY.$3M grant
St. John’s University Awarded $3M HECap Grant to Support New Basketball Practice Facility
St. John’s University has been awarded a $3 million New York State Higher Education Capital Matching Grant (HECap) that will be used to help finance the construction of a new state-of-the-art basketball practice facility adjacent to Gate 4 (175th Street and Union Turnpike) on the Queens, NY, campus.
A few hundred million more to go
Meanwhile, Danny Hurley signs a 6 year, $50 million contract to stay at UCONN, a state school. Nicely played by Hurley, and another reason why UCONN doesn't belong in this conference.
Yes let's kick out the back-to-back national champs that helped secure millions for every mediocre BE school like St John's through an amazing TV deal.
Give them to a power conference. Let the rich get richer. We don't need 'em.
SJU14
Well-known member
I think he was referring more to the state school aspect, as all other BE schools are private.
I'm sure he was, but I just think if we go down the road of saying UConn doesn't belong in the Big East than we're also implicitly saying the Big East isn't an elite conference. It drives me nuts.
Schools like Georgetown and Villanova have huge endowments and alumni donor bases, and could afford to give their version of a Dan Hurley that contract. UConn also doesn't have limitless resources -- does anyone think they can actually swing the deal SMU did to go to the ACC? Football's bankrupting the school, and it's why they're with us in the first place.
It isn't limitless, but it sure is a heck of a lot more than nearly all Big East schools can spend, plus its on the taxpayer dime. It isn't about whether we are elite or not, it's that UCONN being a state school can spend a heck of a lot more on coaches, facilities, even a home court arena. We are so far beneath their capabilities, that I would venture to guess our entire athletic department payroll, coaches and administrators, isn't far off that number if it even comes close.
I would argue the reasons we're "so far beneath their capabilities" is because we've been in a self-inflicted doom cycle for 20+ years more than anything necessarily structural.
We had a plan to take over Tafner, expand it, accommodate all athletes, and build a student wellness center - a minimum bar for all competitive d1 schools. The project failed to launch because a wellness center has priority and even building a tennis bubble structure was coming in at $70 million. Why do you think it was scaled back to basketball only, with no other discussion about the need for full facilities for all athletes? Why after UBS has proven to be not too great a home court for basketball is there no talk of an overhaul or teardown of CA? UCONN can do all of those things, and so can most Big East schools. Basketball will be fine under Pitino but unless there is a huge trickle down effect on other sports, a big bump in revenue, donations, and enrollment, we likely will not see new facilities or an upgraded arena anytime soon.
Again, basketball will be fine under Pitino so long as NIL stays strong, but better funded schools are way ahead of us in conference.
In the FWIW, if we had hired Danny Hurley, if we ever had a chance to (I'd say he was very selective in waiting for a job like UCONN) he'd be long gone by now as evidenced by his $8.5 million contract.
Bottom line to me is just how much is UCONN in league helping us in quantifiable terms.
We just got a 95% increase on our TV deal. UConn is responsible for the conference's highest rated games, and absolutely a big reason why we were able to reach that number. UConn also has a looming $70 million dollar deficit to their budget. Not sure I'd say they're able to afford everything. Hurley is a once in a generation coach, and there was definitely some political pressure to ante up the contract for him.
My point is that we now finally have a President who both values basketball and competent enough to finally do the things required to make us a formidable program again. We literally haven't had that in 20+ years, so, yes, of course, we're playing catch up on all things -- $$ raised, facilities, attendance, etc. It also won't all be able to happen under Shanley or Pitino's tenure. We need consecutive wins at both of those positions to be there. But I don't think we're structurally disadvantaged to where we should either say other schools don't belong or that we don't.
UConn means everything to this league.
UConn fans love the Big East and the Garden. They’d all rather keep this going than lose by 50 to football schools, but money may force their hand at some point unless the ACC and the Big East merge.
Down the road, the way things are going, a Big East merger with the ACC might be the best move we can hope for.