Important OCS Update

[Brad]

4 minutes ago, Triple B said:

I guess I don't understand the process. Isn't the project based on the current situation and that's where the budget was set?

The "current situation" changes daily.

If you don't think our USF leaders are concerned with what's happening in CFB...I really hope you are wrong.

[Triple B]

49 minutes ago, Brad said:

The "current situation" changes daily.

If you don't think our USF leaders are concerned with what's happening in CFB...I really hope you are wrong.

Our current situation hasn't changed since this whole ocs thing got real.

If you think our USF leaders made financial decisions on what might happen in CFB...I really hope you are wrong.

[Bull Matrix]

12 minutes ago, Triple B said:

Our current situation hasn't changed since this whole ocs thing got real.

If you think our USF leaders made financial decisions on what might happen in CFB...I really hope you are wrong.

Well said. I do believe or like to think USF would be ahead of this type of scenario which is probably why they decided to build a solid OCS  to begin with. I think we will see P4. And USF is doing the best they can to be part of it 

[Brad]

24 minutes ago, Triple B said:

Our current situation hasn't changed since this whole ocs thing got real.

If you think our USF leaders made financial decisions on what might happen in CFB...I really hope you are wrong.

I’m obviously not articulating this in a good way. But if you can think about traditional books (or newspapers) and how they have faded away.  If you were building a traditional bookbinding factory, and the Kindle and Nook were launched, you might change that, or your financers might charge a little bit more interest because the risk has increased.  

It doesn’t take an Einstein to figure out that there will likely be fewer financially successful football programs in the future.  Media deals are not as good and access continues to be constricted.  There is literally no one in control of the industry. That doesn’t make for a good investment.

We don’t exist in a vacuum. 
 

The concerns people had a year ago are magnified today. 

[Cat941]

25 minutes ago, Brad said:

It doesn’t take an Einstein to figure out that there will likely be fewer financially successful football programs in the future.  Media deals are not as good and access continues to be constricted.  There is literally no one in control of the industry. That doesn’t make for a good investment.

We don’t exist in a vacuum. 
 

The concerns people had a year ago are magnified today. 

One thing that USF has been doing well is fundraising.  I expect that to be the same for funding of the OCS. 

I can see that OCS naysayers will have more venom to spit with the ongoing change in the college athletic landscape.  Will it be worth it?  I hope so.

[Brad]

Of course I hope it works out, too.  But everything sped up
 

If I thought the Kindle/Nook e-book thing was going to be here by 2020 and it arrived in 2007, the game changes.  My current threats increase and opportunities diminish.  
 

Now, if we’ve been planning to be in the minor leagues the whole time then I suppose we are just fine.  
 

if that’s the case, I kind of think it’s gonna be difficult to support a 35,000 seat stadium.

And people talk, even on this site, about the ACC coming under fire and an attack is a real concern. That’s what we’re hanging our hats on right, the ACC?

I know if I were presenting this to the board of governors or trustees or whomever, I’d really like to talk about our invitation to a major conference rather than the stark possibility we’re at where we’re going to be - and the market has spoken.  

[Jim Johnson]

39 minutes ago, Brad said:

I’m obviously not articulating this in a good way. But if you can think about traditional books (or newspapers) and how they have faded away.  If you were building a traditional bookbinding factory, and the Kindle and Nook were launched, you might change that, or your financers might charge a little bit more interest because the risk has increased.  

It doesn’t take an Einstein to figure out that there will likely be fewer financially successful football programs in the future.  Media deals are not as good and access continues to be constricted.  There is literally no one in control of the industry. That doesn’t make for a good investment.

We don’t exist in a vacuum. 
 

The concerns people had a year ago are magnified today. 

"Hope for the best, plan for the worst."

I get what you're saying -- what if USF never ever gets the invite, and we're stuck playing teams with limited appeal?  Your assertion is those teams don't move the needle very much -- and you have a point.

Your math might be off, tho.  A 35,000 seat stadium will have some portion of that set aside for students and the athletic department (recruits, family, etc).  So, the "paid" capacity might be 25,000 to 28,000 total.  Remember, paid tickets support the total athletic budget today.  So they can't entirely plan that all ticket sales for the stadium will pay the debt for the stadium.  (To be honest, that cannot be the only revenue source to make the $15M annual debt payments anyway.)   As you know, having a stadium does provide additional revenue streams (naming rights, advertising, concessions, boxes / suites, etc) - which reduces the need to rely on ticket sales for debt payments.

I don't believe anything that happened this week should give anyone pause to reconsider the stadium project.

Just my two cents.

[WoolyBully]

@Jim Johnson & @Brad, I'm gonna go ahead and submit the paperwork for your awards. You should hear back from the committee sometime later this month. Good work, fellas. Good work! 

[Triple B]

29 minutes ago, Brad said:

Now, if we’ve been planning to be in the minor leagues the whole time then I suppose we are just fine.  

if that’s the case, I kind of think it’s gonna be difficult to support a 35,000 seat stadium.

If they were sincerely planning on being in the major leagues, they should have built a bigger stadium ..... which would have been totally irresponsible, imo. 35K is a completely supportable number based on where we are right now. Jim's first sentence said it perfectly, "Hope for the best, plan for the worst."

[Bull Matrix]

25 minutes ago, Triple B said:

If they were sincerely planning on being in the major leagues, they should have built a bigger stadium ..... which would have been totally irresponsible, imo. 35K is a completely supportable number based on where we are right now. Jim's first sentence said it perfectly, "Hope for the best, plan for the worst."

Seems USF is building an ACC sized OCS