The unofficial online home for fans of the UAB Blazers. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

actually the open container law goes will with not being on campus. at least we should be able to drink at the game and while tailgating.

(09-05-2015 11:49 PM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  The city needs to construct the MPF where it has always been planned and built to a size that serves its purpose as a large/major convention center. If built with the capacity for a major football event, then UAB should consider using it so its sparse funds can be used for on campus football facilities (like FBHC Clark has demanded and our contemporary competitors have had for years).

WHEN UAB can get those new on campus facilities built, it can then turn its attention to an OCS if it so desires. It is my belief that UAB cannot be successful in 2017 if it still has only the facilities it had in 2006.

+1 This is the best summary of exactly where we stand and what we need to do in the short and medium term

(09-06-2015 09:00 AM)Blazer85 Wrote:  I think there are many considerations at play with this decision. I do think the convention space and opportunity to host larger NCAA events is part of this. I also think the coming World Games in several years are also part of this. I think those are some of the issues pushing much of the thinking towards a BJCC-associated complex.

While that option is not maybe the first choice for most UAB folks, I think most would say this is a far better option than playing at Legion Field. You would have hotels and restaurants nearby and that adds a nice element to the game day atmosphere especially with the open container law going into effect around the Uptown area.

It would give significant momentum to our cause, though admittedly not as much as an OCS. I think if this more of a convention space where football could be played rather than a stadium, I don't think it necessarily precludes a future OCS. I think it gives us a better game day experience in the short term and allows us to get our house in order so to speak so that we can look towards an actual on campus stadium a few years down the road.

Having said that, if they opted to build an OCS right now that would be ideal. But given our current situation, I will take a BJCC facility for the short term if that is all that the business community can get behind.

Completely agree with all of this. A new convention center benefits Birmingham as a whole and honestly it's needed. The BJCC is isn't on par with many of the facilities in cities we compete for conventions and events with. Playing home football games at a brand new facility downtown would be an exponentially better gameday experience than playing at Legion Field. Obviously it would be ideal to play on campus but that's not happening right now. This is going to be the best opportunity for us to get out of Legion Field.

If we play at a BJCC, an OCS won't be built.

(09-06-2015 04:23 PM)Smaug Wrote:  If we play at a BJCC, an OCS won't be built.

If we postpone building a UAB stadium to wait for the mythical downtown facility, it also will never be built.

(09-06-2015 04:23 PM)Smaug Wrote:  If we play at a BJCC, an OCS won't be built.

When (IF) an MPF is built for the future good of the city in this century, UAB would then have a choice of whether to play in an MPF or - with available funds - play in an OCS of a size and location it chooses to build.

An MPF would eliminate an OCS only if UAB must make a choice driven by a shortage of funding. Right now our football facilities "shopping list" is so long that we have a lot to build before the OCS comes to the top.

One additional consideration would be that under NCAA rules, if UAB builds an OCS, no recruits can make official visits to any games played at the MPF (or Legion Field). That rule, new in the 80s, was one reason Bama moved major OOC and conference games from Legion Field to campus leaving only a couple of "cupcake" games in B'ham.

The upcoming special session next week could become a major "game changer" for UAB if the legislature decides to grab the only existing funds at its disposal - the SETF - and thereby threatens the level of state finding from that SETF. The medical side gets sizable grants, but the undergrad side doesn't. The only source of additional funding is tuition hikes (up about 50% since 2008 so far) or shifting costs by cutting curriculum offer

(09-06-2015 04:23 PM)Smaug Wrote:  If we play at a BJCC, an OCS won't be built.

Don't agree with this especially if the facility the BJCC builds is not a stadium first. Eventually, as UAB rebuilds in quality and in size and economic success, we would be able to pursue an open air oncampus stadium that would be solely ours. Sharing an indoor facility not primarily designed for football with the BJCC/city of Birmingham does not preclude an oncampus stadium down the road.

An oncampus stadium is ideal. But the question is whether there is currently a palate for this with the BOT, president Watts, etc. Right or wrong, we may have to wait for some deaths and changes in leadership before a true oncampus stadium is allowed. Would love to be wrong though and see ground broken on an OCS tomorrow.

Financially, I'll take a brand new facility at the BJCC for the short-term. It means we can focus fundraising on first-class on-campus facilities for all sports and gets us out of Legion Field ASAP. Anything with more than 20k seats in B'ham will be better than Legion Field.

Once we have all the other facilities, then we can focus all fundraising on a first-class OCS. But this is all predicated by the BJCC facility being built in the next 3 years.

(09-06-2015 05:23 PM)UABslant Wrote:  Financially, I'll take a brand new facility at the BJCC for the short-term. It means we can focus fundraising on first-class on-campus facilities for all sports and gets us out of Legion Field ASAP. Anything with more than 20k seats in B'ham will be better than Legion Field.

Once we have all the other facilities, then we can focus all fundraising on a first-class OCS. But this is all predicated by the BJCC facility being built in the next 3 years.

In order for the MPF to be built, the state will have to change its attitude about helping B'ham instead of hobbling it. Right now the state leadership has the same view point toward helping the growth of B'ham as the system BOT has toward helping the growth of UAB athletics. Both are after all, part of the same political power group that has run this state into the ground since WWII.

Next week they will try to write a General Fund Budget that does not have federal stimulus money to cover the gaps in state revenues. Will UAB survive to see the end of the decade as a comprehensive university? We face two powerful groups (state lege & the BOT) that are not ready to help it be sustained and to grow.

We play and we win. Bottom line. Right now we have won nothing. Keep bringing in the money. let's worry where we will play after Clark has a contract and we schedule some games. It will all take care of itself after that.

(09-08-2015 09:02 AM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote:  We play and we win. Bottom line. Right now we have won nothing. Keep bringing in the money. let's worry where we will play after Clark has a contract and we schedule some games. It will all take care of itself after that.

Honestly Attalla, hows it looking with Clark and his contract. You don't have to give details just are they BSing him around or not? Is Ingram towing the line or actually got his hands tied?

We were supposed to get an agreement in principal between Sept 1 and the 15th. (After the AD was dishonest when negotiations began and the progress as well as being pushed back a couple of times )and I say if we don't hear anything by the 5th we start nuclear melt down.

The SGA vote has delayed any contract signing until after the vote.

That's what I'm thinking. The BOT can use this to delay the contract. Then before you know it our next fundraising deadline is due. They keep creating situations to say "well let's wait and see." If no contract by BOT meeting, we need to take some of our funds and load 2 or 3 buses again.

I agree. That's why we need to raise hell after the 15th.

As in on the 16th and 17th in T-Town.