Post by aggiejazz on Apr 3, 2009 11:48:39 GMT -5
49ers reveal football Plan B
By Ron Green Jr.
rgreen@charlotteobserver.com (get the rest of the story online)
Posted: Friday, Apr. 03, 2009
Turning commitments into payments for Charlotte 49ers football seat licenses is off to a sluggish start while school officials are reconsidering the scope of the football initiative.
The difficult economy led chancellor Philip Dubois to present a scaled-back ‘Plan B' for the start-up program to board of trustees during a February meeting.
The new plan would require approximately $20 million rather than the $45 million called for in the original plan, but would still allow the program to begin play in 2013.
The new plan would include a sports complex using a pre-engineered structure. The plan would also add approximately 11,000 bleacher seats to the 4,000 seats around the Belk track complex to create a football stadium. The original plan includes an on-campus expandable football stadium.
“(The new plan) gets you started,” Dubois said Thursday.
No vote was taken on Dubois's Plan B proposal. A vote is expected at a later date.
“When I made the original recommendation, we weren't looking at the conditions we're looking at today. Obviously, the ground has shifted. We needed a Plan B,” Dubois said.
Should trustees choose to stick with the original $45 million plan – created before economic conditions deteriorated – the start date for the program would likely be pushed back.
Dubois said the critical element is the sports complex, which would house coaches' offices, locker rooms and academic support areas.
“We don't need to build a 50-year structure,” Dubois said. “It will be brick-clad and it will look like all the other buildings on campus. It will serve us nicely.”
The larger question is whether the school can raise the money needed to fund the program.
“That's a daunting challenge,” Dubois said.
With a deadline today for would-be ticket buyers to secure their future seats, money had been received Thursday for 1,304 seats, according to a school spokesman, far below the pledged total of more than 5,400 seats.
Today's deadline doesn't mean those who pledged to buy 49ers Seat Licenses have lost the opportunity. It just takes them off the initial list guaranteeing future seats.
“Am I shocked by the numbers that have come in? I'm not,” Charlotte athletic director Judy Rose said.
“I am a little disappointed.”
Both Rose and Gene Johnson, chairman of the school's football fund-raising committee, said the current economic climate accounts for the slow response.
By Ron Green Jr.
rgreen@charlotteobserver.com (get the rest of the story online)
Posted: Friday, Apr. 03, 2009
Turning commitments into payments for Charlotte 49ers football seat licenses is off to a sluggish start while school officials are reconsidering the scope of the football initiative.
The difficult economy led chancellor Philip Dubois to present a scaled-back ‘Plan B' for the start-up program to board of trustees during a February meeting.
The new plan would require approximately $20 million rather than the $45 million called for in the original plan, but would still allow the program to begin play in 2013.
The new plan would include a sports complex using a pre-engineered structure. The plan would also add approximately 11,000 bleacher seats to the 4,000 seats around the Belk track complex to create a football stadium. The original plan includes an on-campus expandable football stadium.
“(The new plan) gets you started,” Dubois said Thursday.
No vote was taken on Dubois's Plan B proposal. A vote is expected at a later date.
“When I made the original recommendation, we weren't looking at the conditions we're looking at today. Obviously, the ground has shifted. We needed a Plan B,” Dubois said.
Should trustees choose to stick with the original $45 million plan – created before economic conditions deteriorated – the start date for the program would likely be pushed back.
Dubois said the critical element is the sports complex, which would house coaches' offices, locker rooms and academic support areas.
“We don't need to build a 50-year structure,” Dubois said. “It will be brick-clad and it will look like all the other buildings on campus. It will serve us nicely.”
The larger question is whether the school can raise the money needed to fund the program.
“That's a daunting challenge,” Dubois said.
With a deadline today for would-be ticket buyers to secure their future seats, money had been received Thursday for 1,304 seats, according to a school spokesman, far below the pledged total of more than 5,400 seats.
Today's deadline doesn't mean those who pledged to buy 49ers Seat Licenses have lost the opportunity. It just takes them off the initial list guaranteeing future seats.
“Am I shocked by the numbers that have come in? I'm not,” Charlotte athletic director Judy Rose said.
“I am a little disappointed.”
Both Rose and Gene Johnson, chairman of the school's football fund-raising committee, said the current economic climate accounts for the slow response.
