Renderings of 2026 stadium
- Thread starter phatcat
- Start date
My thoughts exactly. My twin girls will turn five when that happens. Maybe when they reach seven, I can see taking a trip to do those things and hit a Mens's BB game at night .
After Taj Fitz and the new WRA, one thing you can conclude is that when Mr. Ryan is involved, the outcome will be first class. Dude doesn't do anything half-assed.
I can't wait to see a game there!!!!!!!!!! What is the capacity going to be though? If the rendition of the inside of the stadium is accurate in scale, it doesn't look that much smaller than its predecessor. Gorgeous stadium!
Something I don't get: We'll soon have some of the priciest, splashiest facilities in all of college football (pretty great for basketball too). Unlike a lot of universities, we financed it privately. Why then are we not more competitive on the NIL front? I'm sure I'm missing an obvious point but when I look at the cost of these facilities, I don't get why we can't compete in NIL terms with (for example) a school like Indiana. Why not roll truckloads of cash in and get some one and done prospects?
Because the bulk of our football/athletic funding comes from one guy, who’s been spending his money on large capital-intensive stadiums.
And instead of cultivating the next tier of donors to support NIL, NU will be selling them luxury boxes in the concert space.
The Contractor has an Instagram page with photos of construction.....
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Then we'll see the return of the SEC bag-men to give their schools an extra advantage beyond what is allowed.
Pat likes to have his name on buildings. And I get it: the building is there for decades but no one remembers who paid for our starting QB. Junior may have a different philosophy.
OK I get that. On the off chance he is reading this, a suggestion: Putting great players and winning teams in those buildings will ensure more people actually see the name on the building.
Thanks - a second question then. As not-very-young NU alum I admit to participating in the "you'll work for us someday" chant, back in the days before we started winning. And anecdotally, our grads end up making good money, becoming captains of industry, finding fame in media and entertainment, etc. Have to wonder why - with our rich/famous alumni base we're reliant on one guy. Meanwhile, state schools where the main economy is corn farming beat us at NIL. I cast no aspersions on corn farming, but it isn't known to be lucrative.
So what's the deal with us? Are we bad fans, cheaper than other alums, or both? I for one am cheap so I'm not judging - just wondering why we lag on NIL and presume we can't compete.
I think it’s cultural. At NU “winning” has not really been the priority for decades back to when it was much easier to do. Our NIL effort is raising money by auctioning off the detritus of our old stadium which we tore down to build a smaller - if shinier - one. So we don’t have the tradition of reaching for the stars but rather to revel in our elite excellence and athletic mediocrity.
And we’re bad at corn farming.
Same reason we are reducing capacity — we simply do not have the same alumni/donor base as most B1G or SEC schools.
In addition to caring less about sports on average and a smaller alumni base than others, I suspect professional class vs. small business owner class has a lot to do with it. It’s a lot easier to throw in big bucks when it’s your own money. I don’t have data on this but big sports donors tend to be entrepreneurs versus, say, a top lawyer at Kirkland. We have a ton of alumni that fall into the latter but don’t have multi location car dealership owner fans and alumni… and we don’t have a lot of non alumni fans. And because we have fewer fans overall, there’s not a grassroots booster option for us with thousands of smaller donors.
The mega donors are of course almost always entrepreneurs because that’s how you get mega rich. And we have the biggest mega donor.
I think the University needs to realign with the Methodist Church and become the Fighting Methodists again, and do the ND with with the Methodists. Then the fans will be clamoring for overpriced tickets in droves. LOL
I mean, I am a Methodist, so I am already in that camp.
I mean, I am a Methodist, so I am already in that camp.
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One of the issues about NIL that some Athletic Director's have voiced is that it will siphen away money from donations needed for facilities and expenses of running the department.
NIL is new, while we were raising $1.4-1.5 billion for the facilities over a 10-15 year period.
Now that the facilities are finished, I expect us to start seeing NIL work here at NU. A big question is whether the Ryans will support it, we can't answer that now obviously.
Keep in mind also that donors are probably hesitant to trust outside 3rd parties without the blessing of NU (which can basically now be given in some manner). With NU directly supporting NIL post-2025 due to the legal settlement requirements, that will help direct donor $ alongside. All depends on the 10-15 families along with the Ryans that give big money to the school/athletics.
Just give it time, I expect us to have a decent presence in NIL once the stadium fundraising is finished.
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I have to believe there is a lot of people that even though they give to the athletics program generally, don't like the idea of giving to pay athletes directly. I don't make a dent in anything with what I give, but I have questions if I will even be a supporter at all in the future once player are getting paid directly by the school. I think I would rather see college athletics go in the opposite direction where there are no scholarships, and only people that want to school there actually play for the school.
