A Sea Of Red

JJr was on this morning and was just talking about the future of the school. He mentioned a large donation coming in the next few weeks. And that it was real estate oriented. And when they asked him if it was about River Ridge Mall, he said no (dang it). Is this something we've already talked about? Does stadium expansion count as a real estate donation?

Whatever the coming donation is, it's larger than the $2.5m real estate donation we just got in the last few weeks. Go go gadget endowment.

He also echoed what a VERY intelligent poster said on here earlier. That is now that the university is debt free, more and more people are coming forward to dontate money. Why? Because it is very difficult to convince people to give to reduce already existing debt. THAT is the good news for the University

LUconn wrote:JJr was on this morning and was just talking about the future of the school. He mentioned a large donation coming in the next few weeks. And that it was real estate oriented. And when they asked him if it was about River Ridge Mall, he said no (dang it). Is this something we've already talked about? Does stadium expansion count as a real estate donation?

Hope it has to do with the new wrestling facilities.

or at least, hoping we get an update on that SOON.

PAmedic wrote:

LUconn wrote:JJr was on this morning and was just talking about the future of the school. He mentioned a large donation coming in the next few weeks. And that it was real estate oriented. And when they asked him if it was about River Ridge Mall, he said no (dang it). Is this something we've already talked about? Does stadium expansion count as a real estate donation?

Hope it has to do with the new wrestling facilities.

or at least, hoping we get an update on that SOON.

C'mon Medic, you know it's Anschutz; AEG is gonna build and own the new stadium on LU land so that LU can lease the first run dates for its sports teams, thus allowing LU to bypass the issue of alcohol sales and Entertainment acts that LU cannot officially endorse under the LU umbrella but are still permissible for its students...all of which seem to be necessary for the economics of a convention center or stadium of that size to be profitable.

Did you see where your buddy Anschutz went into business with the casinos in Vegas to build a new arena there?

That's so he can float the bill for the new LU stadium ...c'mon, Sly, keep up here. (j/k)

(Really, the Anschutz thing is simply for amusement from the research dug up on him in that one thread...but I wouldn't turn away a stadium gift or endowment deposit. )


However, Modern day Robin Hood, I say ...no really, building the arena is one thing (although, with the recent NBA ref thing, Vegas and a sports franchise are strange befellows in that regard...but from a demo perspective you've got a ton of people ready to spend their money on entertainment in a rapidly growing city--albeit a city that may take a hit with the housing downturn...nonetheless, it should be interesting to see how that convoluted situation works out--that is, can they really lure a Major League professional team with those two conditionals.)

Now, as I understand it, AEG does stadiums for entertainment and entertainment management...as far as I know, not into the gambling business. The partnership for this specific project may make some uneasy, but I wouldn't necessarily castigate the brand or the conservative leanings of its founder...wouldn't the structure of this deal be a (private/private) setup similar to what LU was trying to structure with the city (a private/public setup) concerning a new arena...in that LU would enter into a partnership of sorts with the city, and there would be the presence of alcohol served on the premises as the building would be city owned...

In the Vegas arena case, as I understand it, the Arena will be built on the strip between two casinos, but won't have gambling on the Arena premises, nor will AEG receive revenue from the gambling activity at the Harrah's owned casinos.


All of that said, if Anschutz offered to foot the bill for a new stadium or new arena, I surmise LU would be hard pressed to say no. Would we want them too?

PAmedic wrote:Hope it has to do with the new wrestling facilities.

or at least, hoping we get an update on that SOON.

Wrestling facilities? They just got a nice new room last year. Why do they need a new one now?
(I would think baseball would be the priority...but my bet for "real estate" would be CANDLERS STATION)

Didn't we own that land at one point and sell it to the developers of Candler's station?

LUconn wrote:Didn't we own that land at one point and sell it to the developers of Candler's station?

Yea i had the same question, i think we did at one point.

Yes, we did.

Who's to say buying up a strip mall might not be in our future though?

I will post a two-part interview I did last week with Jerry.Jr and we covered the next five years....Good news on floors 3 and 4 of Demoss too...

Great point--now that LU is debt-free, it's a lot easier to get doners to drop some coin. I hadn't even thought of that.