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Update on construction....

Yeah heaven forbid a program has their logo and banners all over the place. Even the principals in Middle TN realize how big a deal an indoor facility is, but not McPhee. I'd take any of them over the current administration
Oh, I'm not against that. Sorry if it came across that way. Not knocking Oakland at all.

I just meant from an outside perspective for videos posted online by MT. It looks bad to show indoor videos and it be obvious it isn't our facility. I felt the same way when you'd see clips of pro day. I just meant Seigel looks more generic on film and presents a better view to the general public.
 
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No doubt the Murphy Center will look beautiful once the upper section of bleachers are removed, & a handful of privacy suites are put in their place. No disagreement.
But let's not fool ourselves, with or without the bleachers in place the lower bowl of the Center hasn't been fully occupied outside of the Rutherford County school day game or graduation ceremonies in years. Even Kermit's top teams had trouble filling the lower bowl.
A revamped Murphy Center will not magically put 8,500-9,000 fans in the seats until the product on the floor is revamped as well.
Being said, meant no disrespect to the ladies program. They're doing everything they can to get fans in the seats. In fact wouldn't be surprised to see us pushing 5,000 fans in some games this year. But if memory serves right the lower bowl seats 6,000-7,000 anyway.
Money would have been better served ripping out the bleachers 1st, & just making due with the lower bowl for a couple years. From that point build the IPF. Then lastly come back & finish fine tuning the Murphy Center.
 
Oh, I'm not against that. Sorry if it came across that way. Not knocking Oakland at all.

I just meant from an outside perspective for videos posted online by MT. It looks bad to show indoor videos and it be obvious it isn't our facility. I felt the same way when you'd see clips of pro day. I just meant Seigel looks more generic on film and presents a better view to the general public.
I'd be more embarrassed by having to use the facilities of a high school period. It's shameful to be a FBS program for 25 years and still run it like we're in the OVC
 
I’m in the same boat, I think both are desperately needed. I’m just glad they are working to address our issues from a facility standpoint. The SAPC is huge, the Murphy Center and IPF are also big.

They’ve done quite a bit in a short amount of time to really try and make things better. New windows and court for the Murphy center. Working on the SAPC and the video board for Floyd, new tennis courts. That’s a really good run and hopefully they keep up the momentum without a gap between phase one and two and eventually phase three.
 
I’m in the same boat, I think both are desperately needed. I’m just glad they are working to address our issues from a facility standpoint. The SAPC is huge, the Murphy Center and IPF are also big.

They’ve done quite a bit in a short amount of time to really try and make things better. New windows and court for the Murphy center. Working on the SAPC and the video board for Floyd, new tennis courts. That’s a really good run and hopefully they keep up the momentum without a gap between phase one and two and eventually phase three.
The administration as a whole had been so negative about facility upgrades for the past 15-20 years. What do you feel caused the about face by McPhee & company to finally get on board with Build Blue?
Despite the delay I am glad to see things developing as they are, but I do wonder why the change from total apathy to the "let's get this done" approach now. I could be wrong, but IMO never felt the president had a reason to fear for his job concerning the athletic department succeeding or failing.
 
The administration as a whole had been so negative about facility upgrades for the past 15-20 years. What do you feel caused the about face by McPhee & company to finally get on board with Build Blue?
Despite the delay I am glad to see things developing as they are, but I do wonder why the change from total apathy to the "let's get this done" approach now. I could be wrong, but IMO never felt the president had a reason to fear for his job concerning the athletic department succeeding or failing.
I don't think he's ever felt for his job.

I honestly think realignment did it. We made the jump to CUSA (debatable if it was a "jump" but at the time perception wise it was) with no real upgrades. From things McP has said it seems he assumed we could continue to do that.

Once the great exodus happened with 9 schools leaving, it happened for him. He mentioned at the SAPC announcement that he didn't realize facilities mattered, and I believe him. He is an academic and I've seen zero from him that shows he understood if you grow athletics, you grow the university. He wanted us to grow on academic merit, which is great, but why not have both?

I've said before I think that is why we kept Stock so long. McP saw we weren't losing and going to bowls and thought it was hunky dory. I think CM finally was able to show him the apathy combined with realignment that multiple changes needed to happen. Budget differences, ticket sales, facilities, fundraising, etc compared to our peers. Hiring Lee and him being in CM's corner and proving what a good fundraising person can do probably helped as well.

That's all just my absolutely could be wrong opinion though.
 
The fully functional Holiday Inn on campus at Memphis is also the Kemmons Wilson School of Hospitality and Resort Management.


MT desperately needed new science building for years before we got it. When I was in school, there was a recommendation to the old state board of reagents that MT gets funding for it. Somehow the new MT science building wasn’t funded that year, but money went to the UM hospitality school and that hotel deal. We were told the UM hotel and hospitality school was not supposed to be fully funded to start building that year.
So ignore the recommendation for MT, but give to UM something early.

That hotel is a reminder of that screw job.
 
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I don't think he's ever felt for his job.

I honestly think realignment did it. We made the jump to CUSA (debatable if it was a "jump" but at the time perception wise it was) with no real upgrades. From things McP has said it seems he assumed we could continue to do that.

Once the great exodus happened with 9 schools leaving, it happened for him. He mentioned at the SAPC announcement that he didn't realize facilities mattered, and I believe him. He is an academic and I've seen zero from him that shows he understood if you grow athletics, you grow the university. He wanted us to grow on academic merit, which is great, but why not have both?

I've said before I think that is why we kept Stock so long. McP saw we weren't losing and going to bowls and thought it was hunky dory. I think CM finally was able to show him the apathy combined with realignment that multiple changes needed to happen. Budget differences, ticket sales, facilities, fundraising, etc compared to our peers. Hiring Lee and him being in CM's corner and proving what a good fundraising person can do probably helped as well.

That's all just my absolutely could be wrong opinion though.

I think you are probably closer to the truth.

Look at the resume of UTK’s president versus McPhee.

Provost can handle the academic side. The president at a school like ours needs business sense, vision, dynamic leadership and hopefully is excellent at politics and fundraising.

I don’t see any of that in McPhee. He’s an academic and administrative bureaucrat. Then he stayed entirely too long. Add in the Seven wood fiasco and you have someone that doesn’t have the correct drive or priorities.
 
I don't think he's ever felt for his job.

I honestly think realignment did it. We made the jump to CUSA (debatable if it was a "jump" but at the time perception wise it was) with no real upgrades. From things McP has said it seems he assumed we could continue to do that.

Once the great exodus happened with 9 schools leaving, it happened for him. He mentioned at the SAPC announcement that he didn't realize facilities mattered, and I believe him. He is an academic and I've seen zero from him that shows he understood if you grow athletics, you grow the university. He wanted us to grow on academic merit, which is great, but why not have both?

I've said before I think that is why we kept Stock so long. McP saw we weren't losing and going to bowls and thought it was hunky dory. I think CM finally was able to show him the apathy combined with realignment that multiple changes needed to happen. Budget differences, ticket sales, facilities, fundraising, etc compared to our peers. Hiring Lee and him being in CM's corner and proving what a good fundraising person can do probably helped as well.

That's all just my absolutely could be wrong opinion though.
I just don't believe he was that clueless about the role of the athletic department as it pertains to growing a university. They are plenty of academic types like him running universities that understand the quickest way to grow an institution is through its athletic department, which is essentially the public face of the university.

McPhee has been on enough NCAA committee's that he'd have to bury his head in the sand not to understand it's importance, hes just chose not to until people started asking why Middle is left holding the bag when several universities were able to improve their situation, both in perception and money
 
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32' x 60' is a sizable upgrade. That's pretty awesome. I also saw that the concrete guys are pouring and working on the SAPC. We are moving forward and it feels great!
Yep. It seems to be about the same size as the old one, but this will be all LED! One day we need one on the other side of the stadium.
 
32' x 60' is a sizable upgrade. That's pretty awesome. I also saw that the concrete guys are pouring and working on the SAPC. We are moving forward and it feels great!
Yeah it will make a major difference for the fans. I could never actually see the replays on the old one (which they need to do more of in big play situations imo). I did find this part of the post interesting and a good call.

“We made the decision to move high endzone cameras to the new videoboard so that we didn’t have to have a camera platform on the roof of the new endzone facility.”
 
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I'm not a fan of McPhee either, but what does this even mean?
Undergraduates at tsu attend classes to hang out. This has been the case for decades. MT and tsu became sister schools in the 1980s, IMO, because the state wants to eliminate tsu-Nashville undergrad classes.
 
Undergraduates at tsu attend classes to hang out. This has been the case for decades. MT and tsu became sister schools in the 1980s, IMO, because the state wants to eliminate tsu-Nashville undergrad classes.
This isn't true at all. MTSU has progressed academically steadily through the years, and has become known as a respectable American University.
 
How old is our turf? It looks like it is aging.
It is. Very much so.

Was installed for the '14 season, so this will be the 11th season.

In theory replacing it should cost less as the track removal happened last time, but with inflation and all it'll probably be the same.

 
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This isn't true at all. MTSU has progressed academically steadily through the years, and has become known as a respectable American University.
When were we a non-respectable university? Because I attended during the era of Dr Walker and things were pretty good. What’s drastically better?!
 
It is. Very much so.

Was installed for the '14 season, so this will be the 11th season.

In theory replacing it should cost less as the track removal happened last time, but with inflation and all it'll probably be the same.

We’re due for a replacement it seems. The old turf was 8 years old when it was replaced. This one is 10 years old now.
 
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It is. Very much so.

Was installed for the '14 season, so this will be the 11th season.

In theory replacing it should cost less as the track removal happened last time, but with inflation and all it'll probably be the same.

The track was ripped out when we went D1 in the late 90’s. I’ll never forget that, I was on the track team when Lee Fowler came to talk to us about it. I was a freshman and was saddened to know I’d be spending my college career training on the president’s lawn.
 
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The track was ripped out when we went D1 in the late 90’s. I’ll never forget that, I was on the track team when Lee Fowler came to talk to us about it. I was a freshman and was saddened to know I’d be spending my college career training on the president’s lawn.
The true track you are right. I was thinking it was still there before but I was wrong. Was just the concrete base that they pulled up a decade ago. Had to go look at an old picture to clarify what I was thinking in my head. Key word...old.
What about moving to natural grass?
As a football parent, I prefer grass. I've seen many injuries from turf even in the Smurf and Pee-Wee levels. And holy crap does that stuff get hot.
Honestly though, the upkeep cost for irrigation piping, water bills, mowing, regular painting, etc is probably a bit more over time as a single turf install. But grass looks soooo much better, especially with some landscaping around it.
 
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Jax just sold their stadium naming rights to a local credit union. Something I really think we should shoot for. No mention on $ yet.

Would definitely work here with Ascend
 
Would definitely work here with Ascend
Ascend is an excellent idea. With close to a quarter million members, & around $4 billion in assets Ascend is the largest credit union in Middle Tennessee. They certainly would have the funding. Ascend Stadium has a great sound.
A perfect tie in for MT & Ascend would be to somehow coordinate both logos. The Ascend logo has a (jet/plane) ascending into the air. As we all know MT has one of the nation's top aviation programs. Ascend already has MT debit/credit cards available. Last time I was at a branch office I was going to get one, but the finance assistant said they were completely out & waiting for new shipment to arrive.
Their MT logo cards should have the Ascend jet logo combined in the font signifying our aviation department as well.
 
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