Facility upgrades

[SWFLHurricane]

Nobody disagrees with this on a basic level.

Go back and pull any posts I've made over the years on the subject of Blake James. I consistently told people that Blake James was a terrible AD with no vision. Even when I had to deal with "But the IPF, tho, bro" bros, I still didn't buy Beta Blake's fake-smile-bullsh!te.

The point is, Dan is here now, and we have finally brought someone back from the Sam Jankovich AD-tree. And Tad Foote is no longer ****-blocking the Athletic Department. So there is hope.

But you'll forgive me, a bit, if I prioritize REPLACING A 50-YEAR OLD HECHT over improving an 8.5 year old locker room. I'm NOT saying that BOTH are not important, just that the "locker rooms" should never have been the first-and-only capital improvement that Beta Blake could rattle off when he was being offered a blank-check hypothetical.

I hope that makes sense. You've got @brock here saying "trust me" (and I'm not mad at Brock, I'm just saying he hasn't seen the full picture in person), but I would ask people to "trust me" (or @Brooklyndee or @SWFLHurricane or @Canesfreak ). There is a lot of work that needs to be done, and the locker rooms are not soooooo bad that we are losing recruits or contracting black mold. The locker rooms will be improved. They should be improved. But we ALSO need to build "capital improvements" into our annual budget, instead of making it an "every 5 or 10 years or whenever we have a big fundraiser" kind of a thing.

They think the Locker rooms are Bad now....they should've seen them back when we were Winning 5 NCs........Oh Wait, you mean we Won 5 NCs with substandard Locker Rooms and a Weight room that was reminiscent of a Poor High School's Weight room??....Can't be.....

 

[TheOriginalCane]

I watch Facilities improvements around the country closely

and no hard feelings on my end, I respect you. Everyone entitled to their own opinion but I’m just saying the big time programs have reworked their Locker rooms multiple times since 2013, uga, lsu , bama etc… even a poor program like fsu has had 2 locker room upgrades since that year in addition to uf

@brock , I ain't mad at ya. I'm just curious about the certainty you have about the state of our facilities, and what can actually be gleaned from watching a few videos.

Please note...Beta Blake never put out any splashy videos of any "old" Hecht walk-throughs...WITH GOOD REASON. I know you have good intentions, but I would just challenge you to do ONE THING. Travel down to UM...walk through the old Hecht building...and then walk through the locker rooms and IPF...and then give us your assessment on which facility requires renovations (or, ****, a total tear-down) first.

And, again, for the record, I DO WANT LOCKER ROOM RENOVATIONS. I just think that this issue has become a misleading red herring in the discussion.

That is all.

 

[TheOriginalCane]

They think the Locker rooms are Bad now....they should've seen them back when we were Winning 5 NCs........Oh Wait, you mean we Won 5 NCs with substandard Locker Rooms and a Weight room that was reminiscent of a Poor High School's Weight room??....Can't be.....

Yeah, a couple of months ago, that ESPN article had a "recreation" of the old UM locker room circa 2001...but you can't recreate the smells and the overall "non-shiny" nature of everything. And photos from 2001 are grainy as **** (thank God).

I completely understand the competitive nature of college sports facilities these days. I am not suggesting that we keep old locker rooms forever. And while the shiny new locker rooms are helpful during recruiting, the much more important ongoing issue is rebuilding the culture inside of the locker room.

 

[brock]

They think the Locker rooms are Bad now....they should've seen them back when we were Winning 5 NCs........Oh Wait, you mean we Won 5 NCs with substandard Locker Rooms and a Weight room that was reminiscent of a Poor High School's Weight room??....Can't be.....

Saban who wins more than anyone understand the importance of facilities, so does kirby and Dan radokovich who was at clemson which is why they constantly upgrade them frequently. It’s not the 80s anymore, if you want the top athletes you better believe they going to want the top amenities as well. Goes without saying pretty much

 

[brock]

@brock , I ain't mad at ya. I'm just curious about the certainty you have about the state of our facilities, and what can actually be gleaned from watching a few videos.

Please note...Beta Blake never put out any splashy videos of any "old" Hecht walk-throughs...WITH GOOD REASON. I know you have good intentions, but I would just challenge you to do ONE THING. Travel down to UM...walk through the old Hecht building...and then walk through the locker rooms and IPF...and then give us your assessment on which facility requires renovations (or, ****, a total tear-down) first.

And, again, for the record, I DO WANT LOCKER ROOM RENOVATIONS. I just think that this issue has become a misleading red herring in the discussion.

That is all.

In the past since the ipf upgrade in addition to the new meeting rooms I’ve actually commented that the only thing at Miami that absolutely needs to be renovated that is behind other programs is the locker room/player lounge area and training/recovery Room, everything else is fine Imo. I know it’s coming though so I’m good honeslty

 

[Canedude08]

UM doesn’t have a stadium. Therefore the other facilities have to have a WOW factor at all times to counter the negativity from rival coaches in how they recruit UM. Those locker rooms are absolute garbage compared to others and look 20 years old already compared to the style being used everywhere now.

People really think that the stadium matters to kids. Most college stadiums are garbage, especially compared to pro facilities. Miami needs to keep pace with the larger factory schools with on campus facilities, but the Miami sales pitch has to center around the overall benefit of living in Miami and having access to world class stuff.

Miami may not ever have a facility like Clemson's, but you also don't have to live somewhere where people pine for the Confederacy. That matters, especially today as these kids are starting to realize that being at a place that merely tolerates your existence isn't worth it. Giving these young men a legit option where the facilities gap isn't as wide, while providing a significantly better quality of life and education is what makes Miami unique.

 

[skyman]

They think the Locker rooms are Bad now....they should've seen them back when we were Winning 5 NCs........Oh Wait, you mean we Won 5 NCs with substandard Locker Rooms and a Weight room that was reminiscent of a Poor High School's Weight room??....Can't be.....

This is the same attitude that has us dam near 20 years behind now.. Thank gawd we got rid of it this year.. The game has changed.. Time to invest in program

 

[skyman]

People really think that the stadium matters to kids. Most college stadiums are garbage, especially compared to pro facilities. Miami needs to keep pace with the larger factory schools with on campus facilities, but the Miami sales pitch has to center around the overall benefit of living in Miami and having access to world class stuff.

Miami may not ever have a facility like Clemson's, but you also don't have to live somewhere where people pine for the Confederacy. That matters, especially today as these kids are starting to realize that being at a place that merely tolerates your existence isn't worth it. Giving these young men a legit option where the facilities gap isn't as wide, while providing a significantly better quality of life and education is what makes Miami unique.

Obviously last 15 years have shown the top kids dont think that way.. time to invest in program.. Older guys have been saying this for decade plus while talent still went to those confederacy type places without even blinking an eye.. The game changed, we are finally getting with program, Mario wouldnt be here if we kept this mindset I guarantee you that.. he had HIGH DEMANDS

 

[SWFLHurricane]

This is the same attitude that has us dam near 20 years behind now.. Thank gawd we got rid of it this year.. The game has changed.. Time to invest in program

Nobody said we shouldn't....I'm more than well aware of the condition of yrs ago...God knows I spent enough time at Hecht and the other facilities at UM in the 90s...

 

[OriginalCanesCanesCanes]

Brock, simple question. Have you actually been to the UM campus? I'm just asking, because I was in President's 100 for nearly 4 years, we were the group that wore the white polo shirts (now orange) and led the campus tours every Monday, in addition to hosting prospective students (now outlawed) and appearing in all the UM promo videos that you saw during halftime of football games.

Those locker rooms were opened in late 2013 (thanks for correcting my typo, but it wasn't "2011-2013" as you claimed), and I'm sure that @Brooklyndee has actually been inside them far more frequently than you have been.

Can you tell us how locker rooms that are not even 9 years old are "****ty and outdated"?

Now, you have assured us that you "know What I'm talking about here" because you were "former teammates" with guys who play P5 football and you've been "just looking at different facilities videos". But what I'm missing here is whether you actually played P5 football or whether you've actually been inside of UM's locker rooms. Both of which questions @Brooklyndee can answer in the affirmative.

Look, I cannot profess to having a library of "different facilities videos", so I'm just gonna have to trust you on that. But I do know that our locker rooms are not as bad as what you or Beta Blake would lead us to believe.

I'm happy for any and all improvements to facilities that UM makes during the celebration of our 100-year anniversary. But I would appreciate it if you would refrain from calling our 8.5-year-old Rock-funded locker rooms "****ty and outdated".

Thank you.

Signed, Peruche

You just basically have to ignore Brock on this, he’s obsessed with the locker rooms. Both you and @Brooklyndee are 200% correct. The people that are the most vocal about this being a “shltty“ locker room just either have not been in it or don’t know what it looks like from the inside.

They don’t even know when the last time that it was refurbished was, within the last like three years or four years.

Does it have the splash and flash of other locker rooms from a top 10 P5 programs? No. But it’s functional, and up to normal/average standards of what a decent locker room should be.

Are they planning on improving it and giving it that extra juice that the newer locker rooms have? That’s eventually going to happen, probably in the near term.

Is it going to stop any recruit that is serious about Miami being a contender for his services? Absolutely not.

Rght now, personally, I’m more concerned with the money going to go into improving our staff, which we are already deep into, snd just a general upgrading and bringing into the 21st-century the Hecht and athletic facilities - which is also happening and being mapped out. I’m sure the locker room is going to be part of that.

Just a word of warning there’s construction involved and all kinds of other logistical factors, it’s not going to happen overnight.

 

[Rellyrell]

Nobody disagrees with this on a basic level.

Go back and pull any posts I've made over the years on the subject of Blake James. I consistently told people that Blake James was a terrible AD with no vision. Even when I had to deal with "But the IPF, tho, bro" bros, I still didn't buy Beta Blake's fake-smile-bullsh!te.

The point is, Dan is here now, and we have finally brought someone back from the Sam Jankovich AD-tree. And Tad Foote is no longer ****-blocking the Athletic Department. So there is hope.

But you'll forgive me, a bit, if I prioritize REPLACING A 50-YEAR OLD HECHT over improving an 8.5 year old locker room. I'm NOT saying that BOTH are not important, just that the "locker rooms" should never have been the first-and-only capital improvement that Beta Blake could rattle off when he was being offered a blank-check hypothetical.

I hope that makes sense. You've got @brock here saying "trust me" (and I'm not mad at Brock, I'm just saying he hasn't seen the full picture in person), but I would ask people to "trust me" (or @Brooklyndee or @SWFLHurricane or @Canesfreak ). There is a lot of work that needs to be done, and the locker rooms are not soooooo bad that we are losing recruits or contracting black mold. The locker rooms will be improved. They should be improved. But we ALSO need to build "capital improvements" into our annual budget, instead of making it an "every 5 or 10 years or whenever we have a big fundraiser" kind of a thing.

Nobody disagrees with this on a basic level.

Go back and pull any posts I've made over the years on the subject of Blake James. I consistently told people that Blake James was a terrible AD with no vision. Even when I had to deal with "But the IPF, tho, bro" bros, I still didn't buy Beta Blake's fake-smile-bullsh!te.

The point is, Dan is here now, and we have finally brought someone back from the Sam Jankovich AD-tree. And Tad Foote is no longer ****-blocking the Athletic Department. So there is hope.

But you'll forgive me, a bit, if I prioritize REPLACING A 50-YEAR OLD HECHT over improving an 8.5 year old locker room. I'm NOT saying that BOTH are not important, just that the "locker rooms" should never have been the first-and-only capital improvement that Beta Blake could rattle off when he was being offered a blank-check hypothetical.

I hope that makes sense. You've got @brock here saying "trust me" (and I'm not mad at Brock, I'm just saying he hasn't seen the full picture in person), but I would ask people to "trust me" (or @Brooklyndee or @SWFLHurricane or @Canesfreak ). There is a lot of work that needs to be done, and the locker rooms are not soooooo bad that we are losing recruits or contracting black mold. The locker rooms will be improved. They should be improved. But we ALSO need to build "capital improvements" into our annual budget, instead of making it an "every 5 or 10 years or whenever we have a big fundraiser" kind of a thing.

I think u & @brock are saying the same thing, but in different ways.

Brock is strictly focusing on upgrading the locker rooms, while u’re saying the whole AD needs to be upgraded.

I agree; but like u said, The Hecht needs first priority & allow it bleed over to other things. Fact is, both Mario & Rad know what & how we should look from an AD standpoint. No doubt in my mind that locker room is getting a major face lift, but the entire AD needs an overhaul.

 

[1murhurricane]

I was told today that the TOTAL budget for the football facility would be up to 150 million Rad looking to spend an additional 50-60 mil on basketball upgrades. We break ground on locker room upgrades Monday and the plan is to break ground on the new football facility in the Spring of 23.

 

[TheOriginalCane]

You just basically have to ignore Brock on this, he’s obsessed with the locker rooms. Both you and @Brooklyndee are 200% correct. The people that are the most vocal about this being a “shltty“ locker room just either have not been in it or don’t know what it looks like from the inside.

They don’t even know when the last time that it was refurbished was, within the last like three years or four years.

Does it have the splash and flash of other locker rooms from a top 10 P5 programs? No. But it’s functional, and up to normal/average standards of what a decent locker room should be.

Are they planning on improving it and giving it that extra juice that the newer locker rooms have? That’s eventually going to happen, probably in the near term.

Is it going to stop any recruit that is serious about Miami being a contender for his services? Absolutely not.

Rght now, personally, I’m more concerned with the money going to go into improving our staff, which we are already deep into, snd just a general upgrading and bringing into the 21st-century the Hecht and athletic facilities - which is also happening and being mapped out. I’m sure the locker room is going to be part of that.

Just a word of warning there’s construction involved and all kinds of other logistical factors, it’s not going to happen overnight.

I hear ya on the construction issues, that's why I was projecting a faster "one-building-replaces-another-building" timeline like we did when the Wellness Center replaced the old CSR building. The dorms are different, though, as they are all being built in new footprints. Sure, we'll eventually get around to the Towers teardowns, but I'd imagine that when it comes to the Athletic Center, UM will emphasize speed to minimize the time that everyone's offices are displaced.

 

[OriginalCanesCanesCanes]

I hear ya on the construction issues, that's why I was projecting a faster "one-building-replaces-another-building" timeline like we did when the Wellness Center replaced the old CSR building. The dorms are different, though, as they are all being built in new footprints. Sure, we'll eventually get around to the Towers teardowns, but I'd imagine that when it comes to the Athletic Center, UM will emphasize speed to minimize the time that everyone's offices are displaced.

I’m not a construction expert, but that tower teardown is going to be a mess. I wonder if they’re going to use controlled explosives, or if there’s just too much stuff nearby

 

[TheOriginalCane]

I was told today that the TOTAL budget for the football facility would be up to 150 million Rad looking to spend an additional 50-60 mil on basketball upgrades. We break ground on locker room upgrades Monday and the plan is to break ground on the new football facility in the Spring of 23.

Very nice.

I was trying to allude to the basketball upgrades in an earlier post without spoiling the reveal. I wasn't sure how close we were, or if a final number had been arrived at, but this has been rumored for a bit of time now.

I knew the locker rooms were on the "this year" agenda, and once I heard that the new Hecht architectural plans and renderings were still changing, I figured we wouldn't be able to replace the old Hecht in 2022 after all. 2023 makes a lot of sense, gives everyone time to find temporary offices around campus, and then you can pay the construction company a premium to finish the job in 12-15 months.

 

[Baba Yaga]

I was told today that the TOTAL budget for the football facility would be up to 150 million Rad looking to spend an additional 50-60 mil on basketball upgrades. We break ground on locker room upgrades Monday and the plan is to break ground on the new football facility in the Spring of 23.

 

[Brooklyndee]

Man that locker room was built in like 2011-2013 not 16 or 17 and yes it’s sh*tty and outdated, I kid You not most group of 5 teams have better looking locker rooms than Miami, not even speak on power 5 schools like that because that goes without saying. I know What I’m talking about here because I’ve had several former teammates play power 5 ball(like 7-8 different schools), group of 5 ball etc plus just looking at different facilities videos

There's y'all's problems. Maybe in y'all's life's you feel the need to eat well done steaks and live this lavish life. When you're speaking you believe you know what's what because you don't know how other people view the topic. It's not relevant to me when exactly they were redone or what other people's look like at any level. I said what I said because I KNOW WHAT A ****** LOCKER ROOM LOOKS LIKE... Ask anyone who's ever been in our locker room prior to the renovation what a **** locker room looks like and only comparison would be our weight room at the time. I've been in high schools that were better off. So to hear people complain about our current situation is irrelevant to me because they have no context beyond some stupid you tube videos. I've been in a locker room or two in my life but thanks

 

[TheOriginalCane]

I’m not a construction expert, but that tower teardown is going to be a mess. I wonder if they’re going to use controlled explosives, or if there’s just too much stuff nearby

Or we could just go really slow and let the black mold in the showers take down the Towers...

Kidding, of course.

The two pairs of Towers each have a "front desk" building between them. If you tear those down first, you have plenty of room for a debris field.

Even though the Towers were built to very high standards for hurricanes, you'll probably just see a controlled implosion during the summer months when most of the faculty and students are gone.

 

[Brooklyndee]

Brock, simple question. Have you actually been to the UM campus? I'm just asking, because I was in President's 100 for nearly 4 years, we were the group that wore the white polo shirts (now orange) and led the campus tours every Monday, in addition to hosting prospective students (now outlawed) and appearing in all the UM promo videos that you saw during halftime of football games.

Those locker rooms were opened in late 2013 (thanks for correcting my typo, but it wasn't "2011-2013" as you claimed), and I'm sure that @Brooklyndee has actually been inside them far more frequently than you have been.

Can you tell us how locker rooms that are not even 9 years old are "****ty and outdated"?

Now, you have assured us that you "know What I'm talking about here" because you were "former teammates" with guys who play P5 football and you've been "just looking at different facilities videos". But what I'm missing here is whether you actually played P5 football or whether you've actually been inside of UM's locker rooms. Both of which questions @Brooklyndee can answer in the affirmative.

Look, I cannot profess to having a library of "different facilities videos", so I'm just gonna have to trust you on that. But I do know that our locker rooms are not as bad as what you or Beta Blake would lead us to believe.

I'm happy for any and all improvements to facilities that UM makes during the celebration of our 100-year anniversary. But I would appreciate it if you would refrain from calling our 8.5-year-old Rock-funded locker rooms "****ty and outdated".

Thank you.

Signed, Peruche

My point exactly. I get what he's saying when he says they're outdated only because I know the context he's using is a comparison throughout the country. If that is the only measurable than I have no issue. But regardless they aren't ****** and even calling them outdated without the context being applied isn't accurate. They are basic because it's simply a locker room with a few lil amenities added. It's not the players lounge or any of that. My only comparison for them and why I take issue is because of the state of our facilities when I played. It's a huge upgrade from that. Also I'm pretty sure we did have an upgrade in 16 or 17 because I remember showing my nephew them while it was being done.

 

[JamesQuall]

There's y'all's problems. Maybe in y'all's life's you feel the need to eat well done steaks and live this lavish life. When you're speaking you believe you know what's what because you don't know how other people view the topic. It's not relevant to me when exactly they were redone or what other people's look like at any level. I said what I said because I KNOW WHAT A ****** LOCKER ROOM LOOKS LIKE... Ask anyone who's ever been in our locker room prior to the renovation what a **** locker room looks like and only comparison would be our weight room at the time. I've been in high schools that were better off. So to hear people complain about our current situation is irrelevant to me because they have no context beyond some stupid you tube videos. I've been in a locker room or two in my life but thanks