Deb Farris: WSU To Look into Bringing Football Back in Next 3-4 Years

[_kai_]

He's said before that it would be looked into after he dealt with higher priorities. Even if he didn't say it at that event, 3-5 years seems to make sense even with what he's said in the past.

Nobody said that he did. But he has been quoted as saying he wanted a number of student housing units grouped together to bring a better student atmosphere to campus. Where else would that be? Like I said, the golf course, or they're going to have to buy up surrounding land and build there. Golf course makes more sense.

I don't understand why you're arguing points with me. I'm not here to debate anything. I'm here to give you facts about what has happened. You're speculating on locations. I'm telling you he has never said anything of the sort about the golf course. You can take my factual information with a grain of salt if you want.

And I was reporting to you all, that the report given by that journalist was false. As much as 3-5 years seems like a logical thing to start talking about football. HE NEVER SAID IT. That is what I'm here to tell you. I'm not debating anything. I'm giving facts, straight from Dr. Bardo's mouth.

[SubGod22]

You made it sounds like someone said he'd given a location. I didn't even make it sound like that. That is why I responded. There are really only two options and I listed them both. Again, I never said it came from anyone else so there was really no need for "facts" as nothing was presented as fact. The only fact I mentioned regarding housing is that he has been quoted as saying he wants student housing to be grouped together for the reasons I said. You can check out the Wichita Business Journal and the Wichita Eagle for those quotes.

[KraRam]

Leave it to Mr. Sullentrop to set the record straight.

A brief flurry of football at Wichita State

Read more here: http://blogs.kansas.com/shockwaves/#storylink=cpy

Here is what we know about Wichita State president John Bardo: He will talk about football. Dr. Don Beggs, his predecessor, preferred not to talk about football. He knew that no matter what he said, people would interpret him as saying either “Football is coming back!” or “I hate football and it’s never coming back.”

Bardo appears to be different.

Read more here: http://blogs.kansas.com/shockwaves/#storylink=cpy

[WstateU]

Myabe one of those white disk thingies in the urinal

Yummmmmm!

[1972Shocker]

There are really only two options and I listed them both.

Actually there are more than two otions you propose, but a lot depends on exactly what it is that your want to accomplish as to which direction you take.

[SubGod22]

Actually there are more than two otions you propose, but a lot depends on exactly what it is that your want to accomplish as to which direction you take.

What other options are there at this point? Is there any land, currently owned, that could be used for this purpose on or near campus?

[1972Shocker]

What other options are there at this point? Is there any land, currently owned, that could be used for this purpose on or near campus?

At this point I will have to leave that up to your imagination and/or research, however, there are approaches being used today to develop campus "villages" that involve public/private arrangements that may are may not require the University to actually acquire any land. However, these arrangements do require a financial commitment by the University. Now whether any private developers would have any interest in working with WSU in such a venture is something I do not know. Does Dr. Bardo want to just add more beds or does he want to develop a more complete living environment? Of course, what you want and what makes sense or what you can afford does not always match up. But getting private sector risk capital involved is a possibility. We'll just have to see how this develops. And, of course, this does not rule out using the golf course for this purpose and it also doesn't rule out using other property for this purpose. I'm sure they will spend at least two year's studying their options.

[SubGod22]

At this point I will have to leave that up to your imagination and/or research, however, there are approaches being used today to develop campus "villages" that involve public/private arrangements that may are may not require the University to actually acquire any land. However, these arrangements do require a financial commitment by the University. Now whether any private developers would have any interest in working with WSU in such a venture is something I do not know. Does Dr. Bardo want to just add more beds or does he want to develop a more complete living environment? Of course, what you want and what makes sense or what you can afford does not always match up. But getting private sector risk capital involved is a possibility. We'll just have to see how this develops. And, of course, this does not rule out using the golf course for this purpose and it also doesn't rule out using other property for this purpose. I'm sure they will spend at least two year's studying their options.

Fair enough, but I'm not sure if Bardo wants to study his options for two years before acting considering the quote I read not too long ago about wanting a first building finished before fall of '14. Maybe he'll back off of those comments or maybe the WBJ misquoted him. But I have a feeling we'll have a strong idea before this academic year is up in which direction they're going to go.

[1972Shocker]

Fair enough, but I'm not sure if Bardo wants to study his options for two years before acting considering the quote I read not too long ago about wanting a first building finished before fall of '14.

That's very possible because from what I hear (not know, but hear) some of our existing student housing stock is in pretty bad shape. Now whether building a dorm in the short-run will tell us what the long-term plans are I do not know. They might, they might not.

I will say improving the campus living environment should help all of our athletic programs, irrespective of whether we bring football back or not. It's a little bit akin to letting the basketball arena atrophy before our eyes before the Roundhouse Rennaissance. I think the re-making of Koch Arena has been a huge boost to our athletic programs and I feel great that I was able to support that endeavor. Unfortunately, I think our stock of student housing is kind in that same pre-Rennaissance state now. Being able to show athletes a clean, vibrant, socially active and fun living environment sure can't hurt in the recruiting wars. And obviously, this applies to attracting students at-large also and maybe more so.

[_kai_]

The last dormitory built was in 1964 if my memory serves me correctly.

There will be a firm coming in a few weeks, that will work with a local architecture firm, to decide what ground will be used on campus to build a 600 bed residence hall in the heart of the campus. Slated to be finished in 2014.

[1972Shocker]

Here is something to consider, which is, of course, totally hypothetical. If you are the decision maker and you had the choice of either building student residences on the golf course with taxpayer money and leaving an increasingly dilapidated area adjacent to the Universtiy inplace or you could partner with a private developer to assist you in getting the student housing you need and in re-developing that dilapidated area into something new and attractive to students, faculty, alumni and guests which way would you go. I have no idea for sure if that is even a remote possibility but I always thought having our own Shockerville, somehwat like Aggieville at K-State, would be cool. Maybe something like that just doesn't make sense for a school like WSU without big-time football.

Again this may just be a crazy dream. I have no idea whether something like this could fly or not at WSU.

[WstateU]

A little birdie recently ‘tweeted’ something in my ear. “There are private developers purchasing land near the university." Hmmmmm!

See this:

“This project began with an analysis and study of housing on the Washburn Campus. As Washburn completed a new 400 person residential Living Learning Center, the University realized the true impact and saw an opportunity to change the residence life profile of their campus.”

http://www.treanorarchitects.com/treanor-student-life/village/

As Shock Ref would say, "That is all!" :wink-new:

[Kung Wu]

The last dormitory built was in 1964 if my memory serves me correctly.

There will be a firm coming in a few weeks, that will work with a local architecture firm, to decide what ground will be used on campus to build a 600 bed residence hall in the heart of the campus. Slated to be finished in 2014.

I recommend they blow up the stinky-as-hell engineering building to clear some land. That sucker can be smelt from two counties away, and some of those counties have their own stench problems in the form of agriculture. And while they are at it, drop a nuke on Neff Hall.

[RoyalShock]

I just discovered this topic and it's already on page 3!

I've done a fair bit of looking at the athletic revenue sources of MVC football schools. And as I've said many times before, the key is additional student fees to subsidize operations. That poses a problem at WSU. Yes, a recent student survey showed some support for such fees to bring back football. Without any demographics on that survey I will speculate anyway that much of that support is coming from traditional, full-time students, which we all know is a lower percentage of the WSU student body than at our football-playing conference brethren. That is to say, unless a student vote is weighted by credit-hour, good luck getting the part-timers to support it.

That said, Bardo's 5-year enrollment goals (assuming they've been accurately reported), if accomplished, could set up a favorable environment for getting the support needed.

I'm not a proponent of bringing back football for the sake of football. But if it becomes increasingly clear that football or major-conference affiliation will become a threshold for competing at the highest level (ie, Division I) in the major sports, then the choice will have to be made: Does WSU try join the ranks of top-tier college athletics or be satisfied to relegate itself to what is essentially Division II.

[SubGod22]

I just discovered this topic and it's already on page 3!

I've done a fair bit of looking at the athletic revenue sources of MVC football schools. And as I've said many times before, the key is additional student fees to subsidize operations. That poses a problem at WSU. Yes, a recent student survey showed some support for such fees to bring back football. Without any demographics on that survey I will speculate anyway that much of that support is coming from traditional, full-time students, which we all know is a lower percentage of the WSU student body than at our football-playing conference brethren. That is to say, unless a student vote is weighted by credit-hour, good luck getting the part-timers to support it.

That said, Bardo's 5-year enrollment goals (assuming they've been accurately reported), if accomplished, could set up a favorable environment for getting the support needed.

I'm not a proponent of bringing back football for the sake of football. But if it becomes increasingly clear that football or major-conference affiliation will become a threshold for competing at the highest level (ie, Division I) in the major sports, then the choice will have to be made: Does WSU try join the ranks of top-tier college athletics or be satisfied to relegate itself to what is essentially Division II.

That's why I think his student growth goals are crucial to this topic. I like his aggressive attitude towards pushing this University forward and making it even better as a whole. And I don't think we're going to see a decrease in non-traditional students, but if we can pick up more traditional types, a lot more options open up.

And when it comes to conferences in the future. Having football and 20k+ could look more attractive. We'd no longer be a "small" university.

As I've said before, I don't want football back just to have football. I think if done correctly, it can be a huge boost to the University and I really look forward to the direction Bardo is going as a whole. Not just with athletics.