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Post by A Clock Tower Purple on Apr 27, 2017 20:13:11 GMT -5
Npine@holycross.edu. Why don't you bust him an email and ask him why video boards weren't included rather than asking us every day. Maybe he'll give you an answer so you don't loose any more sleep over it.
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Post by KY Crusader 75 on Apr 27, 2017 20:14:03 GMT -5
0.005% of the total cost of the project 0.005% of $95,000,000= $4,750. If that's all the video boards cost I'll fund them tomorrow
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Post by sarasota on Apr 27, 2017 22:16:58 GMT -5
KY- Correct. I should have said "0.005" or "one-half percent." My point remains.
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Post by JoeHC on Apr 28, 2017 0:52:39 GMT -5
A drop in the bucket!! I tell you what - you go halvsies and I'll pick up the other .0025. Deal?
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Post by sarasota on Apr 28, 2017 4:30:20 GMT -5
JoeHC- I don't have a $700Million bank account like HC does.
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Post by sader1970 on Apr 28, 2017 6:16:54 GMT -5
And you continue not to understand how the endowment works, or in this case, doesn't. Also, FWIW, the endowment as of 6/30/2016 was $681 million per information given at the Aspire Volunteer Summit 4/21-22.
The definition of the "endowment" per the materials passed out: "a permanently restricted net asset, the principal of which is protected and the income from which may be spent and is controlled by either the donor's restrictions or the organization's governing board." [emphasis mine]
So, HC cannot just dip into the $681 million principal to pay for these things, only the income. Further, much of the endowment income is restricted by the donor for things other than jumbotrons, or artificial turfing of Fitton Field. And much of the endowment income is used for operating expenses including to help fund the needs blind admissions policy so poor kids graduating from St. Benedict's can attend Holy Cross (should we divert those funds for athletic perks?) and to help pay for professor salaries, which are less than most of our peer schools.
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Post by hc6774 on Apr 28, 2017 7:17:25 GMT -5
more from V Summit...
due to activity since June 2016 endowment is now up about $100M; spending rule is based on June 30 valuations
Fr B said Luth/Hart would be 'fully functional' by next March... tour guide said opening ceremony would be next April...
apparently the video boards will not be part of the ceremonies
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Post by CHC8485 on Apr 28, 2017 8:42:29 GMT -5
And if you don't want to e-mail Nate Pine, I'll re-iterate the point I've made before based on what I've read about the project and what I've heard said about it in public. Here's the thumbnail from the Become More website (emphasis is mine) which will give you a clue as to how decisions for what to include (meeting rooms, locker roomes, sports medicce space) and what may have been left out (chair back seats, video boards, lights on Fitton Filed, etc.) may have played out ... www.holycross.edu/becomemore/campaign-priorities/empowering-athletics-health-and-wellness/hart-center-and-field-houseThe primary focus of the Luth Athletic Center is to improve the Student athlete experience. I have no inside knowledge of the decision making process in this project but having been on many major capital improvement/construction projects in my career ... You start the design with everything you want in the facility to determine the cost and then figure out what you can afford. At some point in every job you reach the time when you have to make decisions/choices/compromises to your "everything-we-want" list to what's most important. For example, I believe Pakachoag Phreek has opined that a center video scoreboard in the Hart center would have required the roof to be raised/reinforced at substantial cost, so that may have fallen off the table fairly early. At some later point, more nuanced decisions had to be made. If the guiding principle of the project is to improve the facilities for the student athlete experience the choice may have come down to something like ... We have to cut $1 million from the budget. Here are the options (numbers are my creation for illustration purposes only): - Eliminate Video Boards at ends of the Hart Center court - Save $500,000
- Eliminate Chairback seats throughout the Hart Center - save $500,000 by going with just new bleachers
- Cut # head coaches offices by 20% so some coaches will be sharing offices - save $750,000 vs. every head coach has his or her own office
- Cut the number of whirlpools in sports medicine area from 5 to 4 - save $250,000
Things like video board and chairbacks might help the student athlete experience on game days with a more vibrant crowd, they are much more beneficial to the fans than to the everyday experience of the student athletes and so MAY have been cut to ensure other things that benefit the student athlete more directly and more frequently remained. In the case of video boards, adding them using "normal" capital improvement budgets in 2 years, may have also been seen as a short term sacrifice for the sake of the rest of the project. The choices are always difficult and unless or until you can say what was kept in favor of video boards or chair back seats or anything else, trashing someone for that decision is not exactly fair. It is the inability of Sarasota's much loved bureaucrats to make such decisions, that often cause government projects like the Big Dig to go from a $ 3 billion estimate at origin to $14+ billion final cost.
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Post by matunuck on Apr 28, 2017 10:00:32 GMT -5
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Post by sarasota on Apr 28, 2017 11:42:22 GMT -5
8485- My comments about the priority of videos are just my opinions.
sader1970- Having spent most of my career in the financial industry, I certainly understand how endowments operate. When I allude to the fact that HC has a large endowment I'm simply taking that as a general measure of HC's overall financial strength. I'm not assuming one could simply dip into the endowment for video. There are a variety of ways HC can pay for something it desires.
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Apr 28, 2017 11:52:41 GMT -5
When the contract went out to bid, the responding bidders were asked to price several options. Video boards were not one of them. (For example, one option was to replace the main 12 KV line that runs from Hart to Wheeler to Kimball to the east edge of Fitton football field. It is my belief that replacing that feeder line would be a first step in installing permanent lights at Fitton. Replacing that line however, requires the campus to be powered by generators for several days. If HC did pick up that option, I assume they would do it over this summer.)
For now, Luth, a new student recreation center replacing the OFH, and a new building with locker rooms for several sports near Fitton Field are part of the near-term capital program. Left unfunded are expansion of the rink, an indoor track (unless this will be incorporated into the student rec center (which will be larger than the existing OFH)), and a rebuild of Fitton's stands, restrooms, concessions along with a 800 sq ft video screen.. The rink and a rejuvenated Fitton would easily cost minimum $30-40 million in today's dollars, without the screen..
Ten years ago at the DCU Center The DCU Center bonded for it, and they've imposed a ticket surcharge to pay off the bonds ever since.
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Post by CHC8485 on Apr 28, 2017 12:50:43 GMT -5
8485- My comments about the priority of videos are just my opinions. I get that. I think what most of us are responding to is the missing part of your opinion ... what should have been cut instead of video boards, especially in light of the priority of the project. As I said $500K here and $500K there adds up in a hurry. I don't recall the original price floated for the Hart renovation/addition but seem to recall it being well under $95 million - maybe in the $75 million range. So an awful lot of additional cost came into the project as it developed and some things had to be cut. Pakachoag Phreek has posted lots of detail on what's in the project. What goes if the video boards stay?
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Post by sarasota on Apr 28, 2017 13:19:41 GMT -5
Nothing. Come up with the extra dough any way you can. Borrow if you have to. Go down to a local bank and get a commercial loan that the bank would be happy to lend. The amortization costs would be peanuts. Chicken feed for HC. You just have to WANT to do it.
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Post by CHC8485 on Apr 28, 2017 14:20:22 GMT -5
Geeez. You sound like a bureaucrat. We can aford it. Just come up with the extra dough. Borrow it if you have to. Raise taxes if you have to. You just have to WANT to do it. :
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Post by sader1970 on Apr 28, 2017 14:34:31 GMT -5
You realize that Holy Cross does not have the full $95 million for LAC yet, right? Not sure if they went downtown to the local bank to get a commercial loan but think they are floating bonds (I defer to PP). During my hiatus, I forgot - perhaps on purpose - that you are the guy with the "champagne taste and the beer pocketbook" or "all hat and no cattle," if you prefer.
Understandably, unlike you because you live in Florida, I find myself in the Hart Center and Fitton Field frequently year in and year out, the advantage of living relatively close to Worcester (an hour each way). I would love to see a nice, flashy electronic scoreboard in the Hart Center and permanent lights for Fitton for more night games. But until I win the Powerball and make a donation large enough to cover all or most of those costs, I choose not to assume a position that I know better than the people located on Mt. St. James as to how they will spend the money they have.
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Apr 28, 2017 15:29:59 GMT -5
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Post by sarasota on Apr 28, 2017 15:57:16 GMT -5
sader1970- I lived in MA & NH most years from '59 to '10, never more than an hour away from campus. While it is true I haven't been able to get up there since '10, I'm pretty sure that in my lifetime I have attended at least as many home & away athletic events as you. Also, do you really think two video wall boards represent "champagne taste?" Also, after 58 years of following HC sports, I cannot agree with you that the Administration has always known how best to spent their athletics money.
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Post by sader1970 on Apr 28, 2017 16:23:35 GMT -5
You didn't address the questions that I or others have asked. If you don't attend games, visit the campus or write a check to support Holy Cross and/or its athletics, why should anyone care what you think? You claim to support Holy Cross and years ago I asked you how - which you ignored. Just because you are alum does not mean you "care." While you have a legitimate reason for not attending events on campus, since you don't financially support Holy Cross, just how do you support the College? Are you active in the local regional HC Club? Are you a Class Agent? Do you mentor HC students? Your posts must conservatively run 90% negative about anything to do with Holy Cross. It's too Catholic, a seminary; they don't spend their money on important things; coaches should be fired; too much Jesuit influence; etc., etc.
You claim to be "rational." Keep kidding yourself.
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Apr 28, 2017 18:29:00 GMT -5
Someone who has spent decades in finance ought to be able to readily calculate a ROI on $500K worth of videoboards. Surely, these are of little matter to the students, the athletes, or the coaches, though I concede these may draw more paid attendees. But I am curious how much attendance could be expected to increase solely due to the presence of video boards. (Solely meaning exclude factors such as team record, quality of the opponent, calendar schedule, etc.)
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Post by CHC8485 on Apr 28, 2017 19:41:35 GMT -5
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Post by sarasota on Apr 28, 2017 19:57:19 GMT -5
sader1970- In the past I was 1st VP of the HC Club of Boston and was Editor of their substantial club newspaper, "Crossroads," which including driving copy to the printers. I also used to donate money. Over the years I supported the mens and womens bball teams and the fball team by my attendance at hundreds of games, including traveling to games in NY, NH, PA, VA and FL. Since retiring to FL I have attended womens bball games in Gainesville and Daytona. I also attended the recent reunion event in Ft Myers (RedSox at JetBlue) and rounded up five other guys to attend (none of whom were HC alums, and with the help of ChuChu). This is the last time I'm going to state my bona fides for you. What makes you think you have the right to tell another alum what he can and cannot do?
PP- If you observe how certain other schools cleverly exploit their video boards in their indoor arenas, you will see that they can have a major impact on the game experience--especially for families. E.g., pay attention to what Navy does during their bball games and all the families in attendance. I'm getting tired of wasting billions of electrons on matters that are so freakin obvious.
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Apr 29, 2017 7:45:41 GMT -5
I wasn't on the tour but as a sidewalk superintendent,...... The top picture with the Bond label shows the west wall of Luth NFH, with center windows and balcony proximate to the AD's office. The windows to the right may be in the reception area of the AD suite. Next photo down on the left, with what looks to be a ladder and a hatch on top. That may be in the SE corner of strength and conditioning. There is a hatch to the roof above strength and conditioning there. Next photo down, looking NW, west wall and part of north wall. Strength and conditioning is where the purple insulation board is being covered up. Windows overlook the indoor field. Next photo are stormwater detention cells (detain rainwater and snow melt so sewers aren't overloaded). These are buried below ground. All the new roof area creates a runoff problem. Next photo of east facade, caption is self explanatory. It appears they may be installing windows at the lower level. The rectangle to the right of the orange hoist. Windows were not in the renderings. Next photo is new sidewalk to main entrance Next photo is installation of final piece of the upper part of the north and west walls of Blaney practice court (From the webcam, this is now complete.). Last photo, of football locker room, don't quite understand. as sports medicine is in the addition to the east of the addition where football locker room is. But they know better than a sidewalk superintendent. .
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Apr 29, 2017 7:49:26 GMT -5
'sota, you are making an emotional argument, not an economic one. If insurance companies developed ratings based on their actuaries' emotions, they's probably be bankrupt.
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Post by sader1970 on Apr 29, 2017 9:25:49 GMT -5
Uh, actuaries have no emotions.
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Post by sarasota on Apr 29, 2017 9:56:07 GMT -5
PP- greater attendance by families -> increase in sales of tickets -> increase in revenue for HC -> an economic result. I have no idea what your "emotional" could mean.
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