The Bulldog meeting at the Cobb Galleria last night was fun, but a bit subdued. Then again, after the 2000 preseason meeting where Donnan issued his "Guarandamntee," they're all mild by comparison. The sooner the event returns to Colony Square the better. The crowds there were larger and a damn site better looking.
The AJC and ABH have reviews of the meeting up. One tidbit that was left out of all the recaps was Richt's description of the new Butts-Mehre renovation vs. the perceived need for an indoor practice facility. He talked about the new meeting rooms, training rooms and walk-through areas, and he explained why he and Damon elected to make this investment vs. an indoor practice facility.
I won't go into the answer because it's too long to type, but I'll say this. I loved it. It was straight out of my hymn book. Long and short of it...we don't need it right now because we'd only use 5+ days per year. I think a tear rolled down my cheek when he got finished explaining the prioritization.
Anyway...I promised a stats driven article for last night. It turns out that I have way more stats around penalties to do just one article. It needs more time to make the point come across more simply. In other words, my dog ate my stats post.
PWD
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8 comments:
Why was the event was moved out of the Colony Square?
Renovations to the Sheraton at Colony Square.
It is now a W Hotel that feels like Studio 54. Even if it does leave Cobb, it aint gonna be at the old spot.
The UT athletic dept. use to be one of my customers and I know for a fact that they used their indoor field almost every day. I went in there at different times of the year and it was in constant use by more than the football team.
Ernest,
While I agree with PWD that practices are altered due to weather "5+" times a year, I agree with you that we would probably use an indoor facility more than "5+" times a year. Still, I don't think that we would use it everyday. Heck, I wouldn't want us to use it everyday. We play all of our games out side on grass, why spend practice in the air conditioning on an artificial surface.
I agree with the decision to enhance team meeting rooms and locker rooms. We wouldn't use the indoor facility enough to warrant that being built before a Butts-Mehre renovation. Indoor facility can come later.
I do understand the need for the Butts Mehre renovation, but why can't we do both. I seems like the cauffers are full.
Ernest,
Because we have $100 million in debt. And why pay $30 million for something we don't need and won't make us better. How in the world would practicing indoors make us better prepared to win a game outdoors?
The Gators don't have one. They do ok.
And mostly because Basketball and Baseball have facility real needs. Not pretend needs based on comparing wiener size with other athletic departments.
PWD
Hello all,
First time poster, but a long time lurker. Paul, no offense intended, but why do opponents of an indoor practice facility always bring up the fact that Florida doesn't have one? Who cares what Florida has and doesn't have? I don't. To heck with them. UGA should have an indoor practice facility.
As for basketball and baseball, I do agree that their needs come first. So I don't propose we build one until those two programs are taken care of first. Then we can build an indoor practice facility. As for the 100 million dollar debt, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't it used to be close to 200 million? UGA can and will pay that down. If that were such a huge concern, we wouldn't be spending 40 million on Butts in this economy. I support that by the way. Weight room needs to be at least 20,000 sq feet though, not 12,000. That's not much of an upgrade over the old weight room, and other lesser football programs have much bigger weight rooms than that.
As for Stegeman, I don't support a 10-15 million dollar upgrade. That's like putting curtains on an outhouse. If UGA is really committed to basketball, and the practice facility was a start, they need a massive overhaul of that place. I would support keeping the guts of the building, while tearing down that ridiculous and outdated roof and sweeping columns, and redo the entire exterior facade of the building to match the practice facility. Right now t looks like it belongs in Disney World's Tomorrow Land in the 80s. I also think they need to push out the flat wall on the inside, add a couple thousand seats and making the interior of the Steg a perfect oval. A state of the art overhead scoreboard would be a good upgrade as well.
I don't know if any of that is even feasible. But Stegeman needs a monumental overhaul of epic proportions. The interior is not all that bad. But the exterior is just sad. Bathrooms, concessions, and concourse also need to be gutted and redone.
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