https://www.cleveland.com/datacentral/2017/03/ohio_state_buckeyes_sports_mon.html Ohio State, again in 2015-16, was the only Division I sports program among Ohio's public universities to pay all its bills with athletic money. All others depend on student fees, tax dollars or other non-athletic sources to make up the difference. https://www.cleveland.com/datacentral/2015/07/ohio_states_giant_athletic_dep_1.html Maybe there's some sort of buried/hidden "money trail" like general utility work to the outside of the buildings or something, but in terms of general expenses, no tax dollars go to fund the department. In terms of salaries, renovation and construction, that's all private funds.
If I'm a betting man, I don't think he pulled it down on his, but was directed to take them down. I agree with @hungariansteven that the fairgrounds board was notified in some way (but prolly not in a way Bret had his ego stroked.) The plans were announced back early December, was this guy under a rock for the last 4 months?
I think the Schott and other buildings had some support--when built. The renovation did not. And, of course, there's infrastructure. The new Lane Ave bridge for one (sure it was needed--but not as much before the Schott was there). But tOSU does do a good job (and should given the money they take in).
Yeah, but considering the bridge is publicly available 24/7, tax dollars wouldn't be surprise there. Lane Avenue is also a city street. A little-known fact is that the red street signs around the university are "state" streets (state property) as opposed to the green/white ones which are city streets. Here's more I just found...you got me interested: http://blog.cleveland.com/buckeye-banter/2010/01/was_building_the_schottenstein.html While no major public funding was used in the construction of the Schottensten Center, private support came from alumni and local businesses like the Schottenstein Stores Corp., Huntington Banks, and Nationwide Insurance. While the University received $15 million from the state for an initial design study, no student fees or University General Funds were used. Of course, OSU went against the state legislators when the sale of Personal Seat Licenses (PSLs) and luxury suites.
Any chance the Dispatch reporters are following his shenanigans and decide he probably isn't a good source for their stories? Guy has literally fallen from the pinnacle of his career and what do people do when they fall hard and fast - lash out, stump for attention while yearning for legitimacy. Dude is a has been and needs to just retire. But he probably can't because his money train got cut off..... https://www.forbes.com/sites/darren...gent-over-10000-monthly-stipend/#7dd47874a314
And to call Bret Adams a "Save the Crew" supporter is, well, it's a lie. There's no other word for it. As noted above, Kneepads had him on speed dial. He's the guy who was quoted as saying that MLS and Precourt had "made it clear" to Columbus what they needed from them and if Fischer and Ginther didn't get their shit together the team was going to Austin. He whined on about how the problem was that the leaders in Columbus weren't "paying attention" Turns out he was dead wrong on all counts. And who was it who told him this do we suppose? Fischer? Garber? Ginther? Where would he get this information? He was just making it up. He seems to do that a lot. Every step of the way he wavered between totally negative and utterly dismissive. He acted like he hated Columbus, hated the Crew, thought Fischer was a moron and he, the Great Bret Adams, had all the answers. Obetz is "world class"? Well, it once was the best in the US - Bruce Arena said so. But now it's inadequateand without a plan to replace it MLS would not have sold the rights to Columbus. In any case, Obetz had already announced that they don't want a new lease, they want the land back, but they were willing to go month-to-month until the team could find someplace else or leave town. Adams knows nothing. Zero. He just makes it up but because he's "a lawyer" some lazyassed writers quote him because he's happy to return your call and he'll say anything you want. He deserves to be ignored.
Apparently Obetz is pretty upset with how the whole thing went down. I think part of the issue is that the team didn't really have anyone running the ship for all of last season, so they were pretty much kept in the dark.
Wait Anthony Precourt and his minions didn't communicate with anyone in Obetz? Shit they didn't communicate with ANYONE, not even their own employees. They are unethical disgusting creeps - eventually Karma is going to bite them in the ass.
Except that Obetz has known about this since 2006. There's a plethora of articles from then that quote McCullers about the need to find a new training ground, that the club had outgrown Obetz and there was nowhere to grow a facility there. Obetz officials are quoted in these articles restating these facts. To state what I assume everyone in here knows. When the Crew created MLS's first training ground at Obetz, club rosters were under 20. They're now much larger for the first team, but clubs also run academies and affiliated USL sides, all out of their training facilities. To say we outgrew Obetz is a huge understatement, and has been a big problem for over a decade.
Yeah, back before the great recession, McCullers spent a lot of time trying to gin up a bidding war among suburbs for a new Crew training center.
I agree with most of this. My guess is that Adams sold the story to the Dispatch though. The way it was structured and written made it clear that no one had even tried to research or properly write it outside of talking to Strickler, Adams, and Walker. If I had to wager money I would say either Obetz or someone else hired them. Then Adams put the story together himself and called the Dispatch who ran it without any due diligence not realizing (or not caring) that he was being paid. Just look at the services they list on their website: https://adamspartnersltd.com/services/
I'm probably making this up but wasn't their a player that mentioned he would not come to Columbus because of the poor training facility? This was probably something I heard on here or social media at some point.
I am starting a GoFundMe to purchase Adams a one way ticket on Allegiant https://www.bizjournals.com/columbu...t-flights-to-austin-from-rickenbacker-to.html
When you tell him to "pack his things" to take with him, make sure he has extra cash set aside to pay for the fees.
I know that at the Land Grant event, the presenting architect talked about steep stands, the fans as close to the pitch as possible. Watching last weekend's games at LAFC and Kansas City, in stadiums that were built in that fashion, it makes such a huge difference in stadium atmosphere and how the match comes across on TV.
They have some advantages, but they can be a bit tougher to get around for older fans or for fans who do not have a head for heights.
The lady conducting the focus group I was in for the stadium last month kept bringing up the LAFC stadium about how close the fans would be to the pitch. Seems like they are pretty set on this idea and I'm good with that.
It does make the footprint smaller, which we may need, given that the space available is challenging.
The HNTB architect who presented at Land Grant was at the game yesterday with his family: Our family had a fun experience at our first @ColumbusCrewSC match. Looking forward to coming back soon! Now, time to fly back to Kansas City. #Crew96 pic.twitter.com/RgPKk6qWlM— Gerardo Prado (@gerardo_prado1) March 17, 2019 Excited to experience our first @ColumbusCrewSC match today! Meeting up with @DavidMiller0789 and some of the outstanding #SavedTheCrew supporters! pic.twitter.com/BmxzC5MsMO— Gerardo Prado (@gerardo_prado1) March 16, 2019
Good. Hopefully he walked away with a solid understand of just how crucial it is to protect patrons from the elements, especially in the concourse areas. Now we just need him to attend a mid summer game with a bad storm and see how miserable that experience is to really hammer that notion home.
Then he could clearly see that rain and wind protection will give fans one less excuse for not attending. There are so many faux roofs in this league it drives me nuts. Our stadium looks like it resembles a real European stadium! The roof sort of covers some seats! Why not build actual protection so actual fans show up and watch your actual product? Works for Atlanta.