SZ was completely hand cuffed when he got here ... even if he had the money (which I believe he does, in spades) to do the Memorial rennovation, he legally could not have done anything until some fundamental changes occurred in the athletic department due to title IX (there's a reason Rock Chalk park also has women's soccer and softball facilities)Nonsense
Some of you are so incredibly clueless it is frustrating! KU has the money ... period. Money has never been an issue. Removing the track has ALWAYS been a huge issue because where do the track athletes go? We have to have track, we have to have women's soccer and we have to have softball to meet title IX requirements. It took so long to remove the track because KU did not have the money to build another track. Thus RCP and the taxpayers and others paying the bills. The only thing the big money at KU is interested in supporting is basketball. Why else would a school that supposedly has so much money have to go borrow millions to build a $30 million dollar all in football facility? An Olympic village concept was designed nearly a decade ago, but again, KU did not have the money to build it.
So SZ realizes that the first step has to be getting a new track facility ... and if we're going to do that why not take care of the title IX issues that might hold up the rennovation to memorial by building dedicated sports facilities for Softball and Soccer. Because KU is in Lawrence, this was much more problematic than it should have been ... "little brother" does not have liberal "intellectuals" to deal with at every turn ... RCP took much longer to accomplish than it should have, simply because, sometimes, Lawrence can't get out of its own way. There's no liberals at K-State or in Manhattan? Fascinating. The reason the locals questioned RCP because they rightfully asked why they were going to have to foot the bill on an athletic facility for an athletic department that just reported record revenues??
So ... SZ has some momentum with RCP ... then Basketball Dorms, Booth Hall of Athletics and the Building for the Basketball rules all come up ... NO WAY would any logical person put anything on the back burner if it has to do with basketball. You certainly aren't telling donors, "I'm sorry, we're not looking at basketball right now, just the football facility" - SO, the AD does the prudent, logical thing ... He decides to get all of the current projects complete. As this is happening he tells people that matter (people that have means and money to get things done, not message board folk) that there will be no other athletic rennovations, discussions or plans until a major upgrade to Memorial is completed. Again, the majority of KU people only care about basketball, even the money people. There's still a contingent of people in the KU constituency who wish football would just go away.
From all accounts, this went over well with all of the donors. You could say there is some "discord" with some of them, but that is not with the AD, but rather on which plan to go with and how to go about it.
During this time, another Donor (who wants to be even more involved in KU and KU athletics) who has strong ties to our DC, basically volunteers to remove the track and do all the grading work if someone will pony up the other $$ for the turf ... this was done in a matter of weeks.
The idea that SZ could or should have done more is, frankly, an uneducated and asinine stance. There is WAY more to our situation than simply gathering the $$ to renovate. Money is there ... How long can this thing go before someone figures out that the money wasn't there? How many decades can they talk about this, before someone actually joins reality? They just came off their best season in nearly three decades and they couldn't generate a pint of piss to build the Gridiron Club, and all they were left with was a bunch of excuses about the economy and bad timing. Truly wealthy people laugh at recessions. The money just wasn't there because the few that actually cared to donate to the AFC, which still required millions in borrowing to build, didn't have any more money to give. The big money people don't care about football.
And I want an AD that keeps his mouth shut and isn't an embarrassment to our school or state. Unlike the AD and President to the West. The less I hear from SZ the more I like it, because he is ONLY talking to the people that matter .... and no, you and I don't matter. I don't get a say. WHY? Because I'm not a millionaire (billionaire). Those who have the money to get this done SHOULD have a say in what happens to the Alma Mater. John Currie talks a lot? Really? Schulz is a little weird, but at least he's accessible unlike BGL who sits up in an ivory tower acting like she's the president of Harvard or Yale, not a mediocre 112th ranked public university in Kansas. Anyone who has ever dealt with Zenger knows he's Captain Milquetoast. I hope he stays at KU forever.
I want this done right ... and other than hiring CW (not going to debate this issue ever again) SZ has keep tabs on some pretty phenomenal things that have happened over the last five years. I do not want a stadium like what KSU has. I know they are proud of it, and that is all the really should matter, but I want our Stadium to be something special. Then you should just implode the place and start over. Not one single retrofit on a large scale of an older stadium is "special" they're just revamped nicer versions of what already was
We've waited this long ... the AD has gone about this completely in the right way ... Just because your minimum wage ass hasn't been contacted or allowed to see any of the proposed ideas doesn't mean nothing is happening.
