USF, McCullum Seek Polk's Support

[Velcro]

Is the BCC game an exhibition game?  it says its the 4th game of the season... we usually have 1 or 2 exhibition games, then the season starts.

[Papa_Bull]

The idea for having this game was mentioned in an article I posted some tiime ago. It is a regular season game.

Here is a related article from yesterday's meeting. It is obvious that USF is reaching out and trying to make the Lakeland students and alumni feel they are more a part of USF sports. In the coming years they will have 10,000 students there!  

Published Friday, May 14, 2004

USF-Lakeland Celebrates Growth

The university's leaders discuss future plans during an alumni lunch.

By Julia Crouse

The Ledger

julia.crouse@theledger.com

LAKELAND -- Lakeland is an educational hub waiting to happen, University of South FloridaLakeland's L. Preston Mercer told Polk County USF alumni at a luncheon Thursday.

At the luncheon, Mercer, USF vice president and campus executive officer for USF-Lakeland, USF President Judy Genshaft, basketball coach Robert McCullum, and new Athletic Director Douglas Woolard joined members of the USF Polk County alumni chapter to discuss USFLakeland's future plans, the university's athletics outlook and the importance of alumni contributions.

The growth on both the Tampa and Lakeland campuses are symbolic of the interest in higher education, Genshaft said.

"It's about taking what was and bringing it up to this new level," she said. "We're what education is supposed to be -- a transformation agent, educationally, economically and civicly."

Genshaft said Polk County and USF are growing so fast that the Lakeland campus is running out of classrooms.

Each of the past three years, USF-Lakeland's enrollment has increased by about 30 percent, Mercer said. This year, enrollment peaked by about 2,250.

To help with growth, Mercer said the Florida Legislature gave USF-Lakeland about $1.7 million this year.

USF-Lakeland and Polk Community College will break ground Wednesday to begin construction on a new joint-use building at the Lakeland campus shared by the two schools. The 2.5-story building will be split between USFLakeland and PCC and centralize the two schools' student services departments in one location.

"It's a student-centered building," Mercer said after the luncheon.

Also on USF's construction agenda is its new 10,000-student, $200 million campus in Lakeland.

Mercer said USF is finalizing the 570-acre donation from the Williams Acquisition Holding Co. from Tulsa, Okla. The university plans to build a new campus at the southwest corner of Interstate 4 and the Polk Parkway's eastern exit.

"We're moving ahead as fast as you can imagine," he said.

Mercer expects to begin construction on the new campus in about three years with students taking classes in as soon as five years, he said.

"It's going to be amazing what's going to happen here in Lakeland in the next few years," Mercer said.

Julia Crouse can be reached at julia.crouse@theledger.com or 863-802-7536.

[E.T.]

My Beloved MOCS have played BCC up there the past 3 years ... what an experience ... CRAZY !!!  8)

I'll be at this game cheering on the BULLS and expect to see some of you.

I'll talk to the coaches and maybe we can work something with the Lakeland Center for a DBL Header ... Lakeland is bidding on the D2 Elite 8 Tourney again and Lakeland needs college basketball exposure ... especially local schools.

www.lakelandlovesbasketball.com

[BullDoug]

The idea leaves my stomach w/a queasy feeling.  Not quite gung-ho on marketing idea.  However, considering a game vs BCC at the Dome would lower home attendance numbers might be a small percentage of the motivation to do this.

[USFMikeB]

I think that the game will still be classified as a home game, and would still count towards attendance averages...

[E.T.]

The Lakeland Center is a nice place to watch Basketball also ... some may have been there for the State HS Tourney ...

[Velcro]

not sure about that Mike... i think it would count as a "neutral" court, unless game is played on USF lakeland... which isn't in existence yet

[USFMikeB]

If we can do that, then let's start playing all our crappy games at the Forum, so that we can just play the high profile games at the Dome, and have average attendance of 5000! ;D

[Velcro]

I like going to the crappy games so i'd prefer to see them remain at the dome... if we get the hype up about our program and start winning, even crappy games have ok turnouts...  but if you lose, the crappy games get below 500.  If we lose, even our higher profile games suffer.

[USFCollin]

ET I don't know what Lakeland Center you've been to... but when I go to the state tourney I always feel like I'm watching a basketball game in the SuperDome if it only had 5000 seats.  If they would add some floor seating and make it so you're closer to the court, it could be a much better facility... but even though there's not that many seats, you still feel really far away from the action.  I think they need to move the State tourney to The Fieldhouse at Disney or some other facility in the central part of the state.  I remember when my high school team went to the Final Four it was still in Tallahassee, and for the teams from Miami and southern Florida I thought that was a bit unfair.  Lakeland is a nice location, but the facility could use an upgrade for basketball.  

But on the whole I really like the idea of having a game for the branch campus' and alumni in that area.  Maybe we'll do this next year at the Bayfront Center in St. Pete or the TECO Building in Sarasota.  It would be nice to see us include those campuses where we can.   The more Bulls we have statewide the better!