TexasTerror
June 24th, 2006, 06:53 PM
Pretty rough review from Schiefelbein of the Advocate in Baton Rouge regarding the Southern University Athletic program.
The article confuses me on whom the blame is on. The university system? Possibly the state for the lack of state-issued bonds? The university itself for it's inability to utilize the money that was increased? Or is it all of the above?
Would definitely like to swing through Baton Rouge to check out a Southern game. May very well do the Bayou Classic this year. Lots of I-AA football nearby. Time to take advantage!
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Here are some snapshots:
* Since a fire in the F.G. Clark Activity Center in late September 2002, the SU athletic department has been housed in Jesse Owens Hall and the training rooms and weight rooms have been in temporary trailers.
* Less than a month after a December 2002 letter from SU football coach Pete Richardson to the Board of Supervisors to inform that body of the horrendous state of the athletics facilities, SU Chairman Edward Jackson in January 2003 announced a plan to put construct a $5 million sports complex under the west side of A.W. Mumford, with construction to begin that summer. (Ex-Athletic Director Floyd Kerr promised lights for the practice fields would begin that month).
A $3 surcharge was added to football tickets that fall. The practice-field lights were never installed, and the idea for the 29,000-square feet facility was eventually scrapped.
* In November 2003, the board again took up the issue, this time giving the go-ahead for $8-10 million to enclose the north end zone.
* In June 2004, the board increased ticket prices by $12 and a month later raised student fees by $64 per semester to help pay for the assorted projects. That July, the State Bond Commission approved a cooperative endeavor between the school and a subsidiary of the Southern University System Foundation.
* In November 2004, officials held a groundbreaking ceremony just past the north end zone, with Jackson saying the financing was all in place and that construction would begin in the spring, no later than the summer, of 2005.
That timetable — and the plan to sell state bonds — fell by the wayside as well.
All of this brings us to here, late June 2006, and optimism again. Guarded optimism, of course.
Southern needs to get this project done, needs to get this done right and needs to get this done soon.
http://www.2theadvocate.com/sports/3222056.html?showAll=y
The article confuses me on whom the blame is on. The university system? Possibly the state for the lack of state-issued bonds? The university itself for it's inability to utilize the money that was increased? Or is it all of the above?
Would definitely like to swing through Baton Rouge to check out a Southern game. May very well do the Bayou Classic this year. Lots of I-AA football nearby. Time to take advantage!
-------------
Here are some snapshots:
* Since a fire in the F.G. Clark Activity Center in late September 2002, the SU athletic department has been housed in Jesse Owens Hall and the training rooms and weight rooms have been in temporary trailers.
* Less than a month after a December 2002 letter from SU football coach Pete Richardson to the Board of Supervisors to inform that body of the horrendous state of the athletics facilities, SU Chairman Edward Jackson in January 2003 announced a plan to put construct a $5 million sports complex under the west side of A.W. Mumford, with construction to begin that summer. (Ex-Athletic Director Floyd Kerr promised lights for the practice fields would begin that month).
A $3 surcharge was added to football tickets that fall. The practice-field lights were never installed, and the idea for the 29,000-square feet facility was eventually scrapped.
* In November 2003, the board again took up the issue, this time giving the go-ahead for $8-10 million to enclose the north end zone.
* In June 2004, the board increased ticket prices by $12 and a month later raised student fees by $64 per semester to help pay for the assorted projects. That July, the State Bond Commission approved a cooperative endeavor between the school and a subsidiary of the Southern University System Foundation.
* In November 2004, officials held a groundbreaking ceremony just past the north end zone, with Jackson saying the financing was all in place and that construction would begin in the spring, no later than the summer, of 2005.
That timetable — and the plan to sell state bonds — fell by the wayside as well.
All of this brings us to here, late June 2006, and optimism again. Guarded optimism, of course.
Southern needs to get this project done, needs to get this done right and needs to get this done soon.
http://www.2theadvocate.com/sports/3222056.html?showAll=y