re: UAB study

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Isn't UAB an extension of UA?

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Conference USA Board

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Are you serious? A flailing football team for 30 years makes that a successful dynamic university. The medical and dental schools are what make it successful. The football team was a hobby.

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Killing athletics will kill UAB undergrad.

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Especially if it were to have an on campus stadium...

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I keep hearing this and always wonder, where would they build an on campus stadium? Where? Please tell me that and I may agree. There isn't a place on the Southside of Birmingham they could put one.

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APIEE

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It's a disservice to UAB as an independent institution and to the city of Birmingham.

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It is not an independent institution.

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It is in everyone's interest for Alabama's largest city to be home to a large, successful, dynamic university.

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UAB was a large, successful dynamic university long before the first club football kickoff, and will be fifty years from now. Its size and success today owe ZERO to the UAB football program.

From a 2011 "A majority of the Board believes that an on-campus football stadium is not in the best interest of UAB, the University System or the State," it said. "It is the Board's duty to be responsible stewards of the limited resources available for higher education. In these difficult economic times of rising tuition and decreasing state funds, we cannot justify the expenditure of $75 million in borrowed money for an athletic stadium which would only be used a few days each year. The UAB football program has not generated sufficient student, fan or financial support to assure the viability of this project."

The statement called it the "wrong project at the wrong time" and added that the board "remains committed to the important mission and success of the university, the medical school and the hospital for the benefit of UAB students and the State of Alabama."

The decision came after UAB officials completed an on-campus stadium feasibility study by athletics director Brian Mackin and vice president for financial affairs Richard Margison. The study, which was circulated to board members, included a debt service of $60 million that would be repaid over 30 years. The annual debt service payment was calculated at $3.88 million.

Projected operating revenue ranged from $5,782,723 in the first year to $6,875,635 in the 10th year. The ticket revenue portion was based on season ticket sales of 7,272 and single-game ticket sales of 16,060.

"I forwarded for consideration by the Board of Trustees the information on our proposed on-campus stadium," UAB President Carol Z. Garrison said in a statement released on Tuesday.

"My responsibility is to make the best recommendations I can, based on the information that I have available to me. The responsibility of the Board includes reviewing the information and making their best individual and collective judgments. In this case the judgment was not to entertain this item."

UAB booster Jimmy Filler, who played a key role in getting purchase commitments for all 27 luxury suites in the proposed stadium, said he does not believe the board of trustees is committed to a successful UAB football program, calling Tuesday a "sad day for UAB and the city of Birmingham."

Can we please stop this UAB madness here??

shite, I actually went to UAB and I am not upset anymore. There was zero support for UAB until it was dead. Outside of the players, the band, and the .05% of the actual students you saw show up for the protests, and the writers for the crappy news organization we have here in Birmingham, no one cares!!

This board is about the SEC, not some bullshite and innuendo that no one here knows anything about. Grow the frack up and move on!

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APIEE

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It is not an independent institution.

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That's the whole issue

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Well, no. Montgomery is a fair-sized city with no major college football team. Why doesn't AU start a football program at AUM?

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Well, no. Montgomery is a fair-sized city with no major college football team. Why doesn't AU start a football program at AUM?

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Really? Montgomery metro has 374k people; Birmingham has 1.1M. AUM has 5,000 students. UAB has 18,000. AUM has not much of anything in the way of academics. UAB is a good academic school. One of those has the potential to operate independently. One does not.

Your immediate reaction of "Why don't you just do it at AUM?" evidences the problem: viewing this as Bama vs. Auburn, or acting as if UAB should only be considered as a subservient part of the UA system. I do not believe that is in the best interest of Birmingham or the state at large. And that is the point of public universities. This is not about Bama vs. Auburn. It is about not permitting our public institutions to be used to play political power games. It was wrong when Auburn had to deal with it from Lowder, and it is wrong when UAB has to deal with it from the BOT.

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UAB has 19,000 students and is the largest employer in Birmingham and the state of Alabama. It's operation should accrue to the benefit of the university, the city, and the state. An unaccountable body and administration are acting against those interests for no justifiable reason other than politics and power games. That is bull shite. It's not about UAT and its not about Auburn. It's a disservice to UAB as an independent institution and for the city of Birmingham.

Good post.

The losses in the report were pretty negligible, especially considering the way it's said to have been projected. The rise in expenses without a football team was extremely optimistic and the assumption that they would remain in CUSA seems unfounded. Additionally, it will likely affect student enrollment.

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All of this. It was the vendetta of one old man that is white trash. Fully supported and backed by gump nation of course.

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It seems UA does not really want them anyway.

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They want it...but they want to systemically gut the school until all that's left is the UA Medical School in Birmingham...it's fricked up.

I'm an Alabama fan fwiw...although, I'd consider myself a lesser fan after this entire ordeal.