Univ. Of Memphis On-Campus Football Stadium Shot Down
The Univ. of Memphis (UM) Board of Visitors athletic subcommittee yesterday concluded that "now is not the time to build an on-campus football stadium," according to Phil Stukenborg of the Memphis COMMERCIAL APPEAL. The subcommittee said that it would make that recommendation to UM President Shirley Raines, who last fall "approved a stadium feasibility study but also stressed that the school's priority should be on academically oriented construction." UM AD R.C. Johnson said subcommittee members had a "real feeling this is something the university needs." But Johnson added, "There also was a concern, in this (economic) time, from a financial standpoint, of being able to generate the type of dollars that needed to be generated." A report on the stadium showed that a 40,000-seat on-campus facility "could be built for roughly $120[M], with stadium revenues producing about $100[M]." But Johnson indicated that there was "concern about being able to raise the almost $25[M] the feasibility study suggested for naming rights" (Memphis COMMERCIAL APPEAL, 3/12).
HONEST EFFORT? In Memphis, Geoff Calkins writes, "Here's all you need to know about the decision by the University of Memphis to kill the on-campus stadium project: ... A member of the Highland Hundred, a football booster club, got ahold of [the resolution to kill the stadium plan] Tuesday morning. He e-mailed the substance of the resolution to friends before the subcommittee convened at the U of M athletic office building at noon.'' Calkins notes the subcommittee was "supposed to carefully consider" the feasibility study, but "to nobody's surprise, the fix was in." Calkins writes, "It's easier to pass a resolution in favor of greatness than to pursue it for real" (Memphis COMMERCIAL APPEAL, 3/12).
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