Take a Xanax or indulge in some cannabis.
The basketball arena culminated in a $25M loan that the Athletic department just recently paid off. This unanticipated loan added $5M in annual expenditures to the budget (due to principal and interest payments), and took over a decade to pay off.
UM will NOT throw away $400M on a venue that they will use 6x per annum.
The Soffer (sic) IPF barely reached its funding objective, despite the lead donor spotting us 50% of the cost. Mark Light's funding objective for the most recent renovations were $45M and they capped out at $23M.....
You really think UM can raise $400M for stadium.....
As an alum, I know **** well that we can raise the money, or cut a check, or anything else we want to do.
The basketball arena was LONG-delayed, from back in the days when Ryder was the name-sponsor. It was built, and opened, when we were in the Big Least and had very little conference revenue. Now, if Foote and/or Shalala put the full $25 million burden on the Athletic Department, then I would go back and call bullsh!t, as the University uses the facility for Orientation, graduation, concerts, and other non-athletic purposes. Thus, the Athletic Department should never have had to pay off a loan paid for solely out of athletic department revenues.
Regardless, the world has changed. We are in the ACC now, and the ACC Network starts next year. With over 15 years more success, exposure, and growth for most Miami-based teams (excluding the Panthers), there would be plenty of sponsorship revenue available for a new football stadium, though that does not have to represent the main source of funding.
As I stated earlier, there are myriad ways in which you could harness other aspects to the stadium, from external (bowl games, concerts) to academic (attaching a Med School mini-campus). And, as per usual, everyone likes to overlook the importance of having motivated alums (down the road) who are willing to give back to the University. If a person just goes to UM, doesn't pledge a fraternity/sorority, never makes the trip to Hard Rock, and graduates without doing much at UM, that person is very unlikely to respond to fund-raising efforts 10, 20, 30 years from now.
And UM wants to vault back up the rankings of the best colleges. For that, we need more applicants, we need a better selectivity index. Many other schools have proven that one of the best ways to do that is by fielding successful athletic teams.
So, yeah, let's just whine about the price-tag, when it's half of what we are going to spend on Millenial Village.
Hey, does that pedestrian bridge over US 1 pay for itself?
Some things are just worth doing, even if they don't run a profit.