Memorial Stadium in Lawrence blows

[OregonSmock]

sorry your fellow hawk fans on the phog laughed at you for saying the overhead pic was great and the stadium could be "unreal." 

If by "fellow hawk fans on the phog" you mean Dr. J, then LOL.  Also, LOL at being so damn butthurt about KU's gorgeous setting and stadium location.


 

[Cartierfor3]

 

Is that the abandoned lot where Aaron Hernandez smoked that dude?

Confirmed. Here is another pic closer up:

[OregonSmock]

i can only assume that's the new track? impressive beems but where does your schools priorities lie?

New track = football stadium upgrades and the removal of the track from Memorial Stadium.  How many times does this point need to be made before it sinks in?

[Fake Sugar Dick (WARNING, NOT THE REAL SUGAR DICK!)]

It could be because its track, or maybe because its such a deminimus expense for :ksugrad:, but didn't kstate recently redo their ON CAMPUS track and field complex?  Didn't we host big xii championships right afterwards?  I can't remember but think I heard that somewhere.


Why didn't we celebrate with same excitement and fanfare as BMW is celebrating Lawrence's (new? only?) soccer/rec park?


I suppose BMW is like a poor celebrating the sticker sale at the JCPenney outlet store,everyone else is like "yuck, why would you go there" and he's all camping out in the parking lot salivating over the deal he's going to get on undershirts.

[GoodForAnother]

i can only assume that's the new track? impressive beems but where does your schools priorities lie?

New track = football stadium upgrades and the removal of the track from Memorial Stadium.  How many times does this point need to be made before it sinks in?

oh yeah, I always forget you have a track around your for all stadium 

[PowercatPat]

Do the ku people not understand that many of the most famous and iconic stadiums in history (Michigan stadium, Death Valley, etc) are sunken in the ground? Also, the field at arrowhead goes down about two stories beneth ground level. Are you all dumb or just really have nothing else to grasp onto at this point?

They have nothing else to grasp onto, besides the "stadium surrounded by asphalt" talking point.

[bubbles4ksu]

sorry your fellow hawk fans on the phog laughed at you for saying the overhead pic was great and the stadium could be "unreal." 

If by "fellow hawk fans on the phog" you mean Dr. J, then LOL.  Also, LOL at being so damn butthurt about KU's gorgeous setting and stadium location.


 

i hurt for you when he said upgrades would be "lipstick on a pig."

[sonofdaxjones]

I was actually a little jealous of KU back in the "Lew is building a monster" days, when they rolled out the Olympic Park to be built on campus.

Being seeing KU's athletic department revenue's plummet, seeing KU athletics have to dive into reserve funds to make up for a nearly $9 million dollar budget shortfall in FY 2012, and seeing the urestricted fund account be short by over $4 million dollars.   Coupled with Zulu having to go borrow millions to build a WAY off campus track on a 50 year lease.    Not so much.

[wabash909]

 

Is that the abandoned lot where Aaron Hernandez smoked that dude?

Confirmed. Here is another pic closer up:

Smock, are you building high school?  What is that?

[SEK_EMAW]

Is there a webcam?  Would really love to follow progress on the ladies jogging facility.

[Fake Sugar Dick (WARNING, NOT THE REAL SUGAR DICK!)]

http://www.kstatesports.com/facilities/c-track-venues.html

So elite


I guess us 'taters will never know what its like having a off campus municipal track for tracksters

[ChiComCat]

KU fans will brag about their awesome new stadium until they see the shitty plans for it.  Once those are out, they will decide that despite spending way less $$ on it, it is nicer than KSU's new stadium and has a better setting.  Then it will never be built because they can't raise the funds.  In 5 years, they will roll out a new plan and repeat.  Cycle of shame.

[eastcat]

 

Open pit strip mining in Kansas??
 

[EMAWican]

That's pretty nice that the City of Lawrence is allowing KU to use their facility for womens outdoor running.   

[Fake Sugar Dick (WARNING, NOT THE REAL SUGAR DICK!)]

1911:  kstate builds stand alone track facility
 1921:  Ku builds memorial football, soccer, band,track shared facility
2004:  kstate upgrades stand alone track facility
2012:  Lawrence city council approves track rec facility, agrees to let Ku borrow it sometimes
 2???: Ku upgrades football, band, soccer,track shared facility

Seems like the natural order of things

[kslim]

i can only assume that's the new track? impressive beems but where does your schools priorities lie?

New track = football stadium upgrades and the removal of the track from Memorial Stadium.  How many times does this point need to be made before it sinks in?

and how many times do i have to tell you your school mumped up here.

quick question cat fans out there. If you were to say have a shitty football stadium that was being used for track would you want a new track built or say eff track and give us a better money making sport stadium/upgrades?

if this situation was reversed and it was ksu that needed upgrades that hampered both sports until a facility was built our AD would probably just scrap track all together until it was built

[OregonSmock]

I was actually a little jealous of KU back in the "Lew is building a monster" days, when they rolled out the Olympic Park to be built on campus.

Being seeing KU's athletic department revenue's plummet, seeing KU athletics have to dive into reserve funds to make up for a nearly $9 million dollar budget shortfall in FY 2012, and seeing the urestricted fund account be short by over $4 million dollars.   Coupled with Zulu having to go borrow millions to build a WAY off campus track on a 50 year lease.    Not so much.

It's a 30-year lease, and yeah, a 1-11 football season will hurt any athletic department in terms of generating revenue.  Meanwhile, K-State has over $83 million in long-term debt.  Keep the butthurt 'tater propaganda machine rolling, though. 

[OregonSmock]

i can only assume that's the new track? impressive beems but where does your schools priorities lie?

New track = football stadium upgrades and the removal of the track from Memorial Stadium.  How many times does this point need to be made before it sinks in?

and how many times do i have to tell you your school mumped up here.

quick question cat fans out there. If you were to say have a shitty football stadium that was being used for track would you want a new track built or say eff track and give us a better money making sport stadium/upgrades?

if this situation was reversed and it was ksu that needed upgrades that hampered both sports until a facility was built our AD would probably just scrap track all together until it was built

The track & field program is an athletic program with real athletes and real coaches.  They won a national championship last year.  Grow up.

[sonofdaxjones]

I was actually a little jealous of KU back in the "Lew is building a monster" days, when they rolled out the Olympic Park to be built on campus.

Being seeing KU's athletic department revenue's plummet, seeing KU athletics have to dive into reserve funds to make up for a nearly $9 million dollar budget shortfall in FY 2012, and seeing the urestricted fund account be short by over $4 million dollars.   Coupled with Zulu having to go borrow millions to build a WAY off campus track on a 50 year lease.    Not so much.

It's a 30-year lease, and yeah, a 1-11 football season will hurt any athletic department in terms of generating revenue.  Meanwhile, K-State has over $83 million in long-term debt.  Keep the butthurt 'tater propaganda machine rolling, though.

First off, it's a 50 years lease, the first 30 are a set annual payment, and the next 20 are at FMV.

K-State Athletics Inc. by KDFA mandate has millions in bond reserve funds to pay the debt.   Otherwise the KDFA and the BOR would not have backed the debt offering.   

You simply don't understand how this works.



   

[OregonSmock]

I was actually a little jealous of KU back in the "Lew is building a monster" days, when they rolled out the Olympic Park to be built on campus.

Being seeing KU's athletic department revenue's plummet, seeing KU athletics have to dive into reserve funds to make up for a nearly $9 million dollar budget shortfall in FY 2012, and seeing the urestricted fund account be short by over $4 million dollars.   Coupled with Zulu having to go borrow millions to build a WAY off campus track on a 50 year lease.    Not so much.

It's a 30-year lease, and yeah, a 1-11 football season will hurt any athletic department in terms of generating revenue.  Meanwhile, K-State has over $83 million in long-term debt.  Keep the butthurt 'tater propaganda machine rolling, though.

First off, it's a 50 years lease, the first 30 are a set annual payment, and the next 20 are at FMV.

K-State Athletics Inc. by KDFA mandate has millions in bond reserve funds to pay the debt.   Otherwise the KDFA and the BOR would not have backed the debt offering.   

You simply don't understand how this works.

The lease agreement is for 30 years, 'Pad. 

Kansas Athletics will pay Fritzel’s Bliss Sports $1.3 million each year for 30 years as part of a lease that will give KU full use of the track and field stadium, the soccer field, softball stadium and other amenities in the park. The 30-year agreement will produce $39 million in payments to Bliss. KU officials have estimated the value of the proposed facilities to be about $50 million.

• The payments to Bliss Sports will last for 30 years, but Bliss Sports will own the facilities for 50 years. At that point, ownership of the facilities will transfer to either Kansas University Endowment Association or KU Athletics. The property the facilities will sit on will be owned by KU Endowment. The Endowment Association has created a separated limited liability company — called RCP LLC — to own the property on its behalf.

• Fritzel confirmed that if any non-KU events are held at the facility, Kansas Athletics — not Bliss Sports — will collect any facility rental fees or other type of charges associated with using the property. When asked if the $1.3 million per year lease payments were the only revenue that Bliss Sports would receive from the project, Fritzel said: “Yeah, if you want to call that revenue, sure.”

• Fritzel said he and his wife, Dru, are the only owners of Bliss Sports. Questions have arisen why Fritzel is providing the financing through a for-profit company as opposed to a not-for-profit foundation that he previously had established. He said the only reason is because tax and financial professionals he had hired had advised him to do it this way.

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2013/jan/18/fritzel-breaks-silence-proposed-rock-chalk-park-de/



And you can spin $83 million in long-term debt any way you want... it's still $83 million in long-term debt.  If KU had that much debt, you would be jacking off to it at least twice a week and talking about how sad our financial situation was.

[Dr Rick Daris]

i like fritzel's house more than compton's house. total studd/boss of lawrence. would use the airport abbreviation like we do for manhattan/mhk but i don't think lawrence has one.

[sonofdaxjones]

Well that's changed multiple times Beems, because another article in the LJWorld referenced a FMV payment for the last 20 years the landlord owns the land, and KU athletics as of right now is financially obligated to cover over $80 million dollars worth long term debt and lease obligations.  Between outstanding bonds, loans from private individuals and long term lease obligations.

[Belvis Noland]

Our debt derives from constructing revenue generating facilities.  40 new suites and about 2000 new club seats. 

Congrats on the track title, where can I sign up for my season track tickets?  Are there suites?  who's your favorite/best track runner?  Thanks, I'll listen off the air. 

[kostakio]

KSU has about 80 million in long term debt

KU has about 50 million in long term debt and another 39 million in lease obligations per this article. 

So KU actually has more future obligations then KSU does it is just structured differently.  Also KSU has like $50 million in cash on it's balance sheet where as KU only has like $5 million or so in cash and another $25 million or so invested with endowment.  So the ratio of liquid assets to LTD is almost exactly the same and that isn't even factoring in KU's lease obligations.   

[OregonSmock]

Well that's changed multiple times Beems, because another article in the LJWorld referenced a FMV payment for the last 20 years the landlord owns the land, and KU athletics as of right now is financially obligated to cover over $80 million dollars worth long term debt and lease obligations.  Between outstanding bonds, loans from private individuals and long term lease obligations.

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2013/jan/18/fritzel-breaks-silence-proposed-rock-chalk-park-de/

Fritzel — who has multiple business interests in Lawrence, including The Eldridge Hotel and The Oread hotel — said he hopes the sports complex will attract non-KU events to the community. “If you want the city to continue to prosper, then we had better do things to make people want to come to our community to enjoy the University of Kansas, the city of Lawrence and our amenities here because we don’t have a lot to offer at this point,” Fritzel said “We can do so much more.”

Local leaders have mentioned using the new sports complex as the venue for possible bids for the Junior Olympics, the U.S. Special Olympics, the Kansas High School Track and Field Championships and other events. Fritzel said Bliss Sports’ ownership of the property won’t allow him to directly profit from any such events.

City commissioners acknowledged Friday that they had not previously seen many of the details about the proposed agreements between Bliss Sports and the KU entities. But they said they were pleased with what they had learned.

City Commissioner Mike Dever said he now has a better understanding of how the sports complex would be run and that it would be done so in a way that the public could have confidence in.

Mayor Bob Schumm said Friday’s details were consistent with what he had heard of the relationship between Bliss and KU. He said he believes Fritzel’s offer to finance the project is particularly attractive to KU Athletics because it is trying to prepare for major spending projects at Memorial Stadium and Allen Fieldhouse.

“They are trying to structure this in a way so that is an affordable amount of money each year so that they can get to some other projects,” Schumm said. “Memorial Stadium and the fieldhouse will take a great deal of money, I believe.”

Fritzel said he would provide copies of the signed agreements between Bliss and the KU entities to the Journal-World and the City Commission so that they can be viewed by the public.

“I want to be open,” Fritzel said. “There is nothing to hide here.”

When those agreements will be completed, however, isn’t certain. But Fritzel said his timeline is “real quick.”

City commissioners in mid-February are scheduled to make a final decision on a separate but related project: the $25 million recreation center and youth fieldhouse.

That project would be on about 25 acres of ground that is adjacent to the KU facilities and that KU Endowment will provide to the city. As part of the land transfer deal, KU Endowment is insisting that it build the recreation facility to the city’s specifications. The city then will make a one-time payment not to exceed $25 million to KU Endowment, giving the city outright ownership of the land and the recreation center.

This new complex will generate millions of dollars worth of revenue for KU, plus $25 million for the KU Endowment.