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$20 Million for the RAC and $4 Million for Competitiveness

L

LawPoke

Well-known member
I am very pleased to see that Governor Mead has announced support, through his budget, for $20 million to expand the RAC and build the Training Center that Bohl has been pressing to build. I was also pleased to see that an additional $4 million (on top of the existing $1 million from the supplemental budget) was requested, which is only available with a 1:1 match, to enhance our competitiveness (full cost of attendance, recruiting, etc.) with other MWC and P5 conferences. The actual language from the Governor's budget is set forth below:

"Last year the Legislature set aside $1 million for athletic competitiveness and established a 2 to 1 match requirement. This initiative is important. The matching requirement departs from the more traditional 1 to 1 requirement. It is, in my view, too great a burden on our private partners. I recommend $20 million for the High Altitude Sports Performance Training Center (Rochelle Athletic Center)... and an additional $4 million to be added to the existing $1 million for athletic competitiveness all to be matched on a dollar for dollar basis."

Folks, this is a big deal (which is fairly obvious). The $20 million High Altitude Sports Performance Training Center is going to be STATE OF THE FREAKING ART based on discussions with some profile folks at UW. Top tier coaches - think Hall of Fame coaches that are tied to Bohl - have consulted on the project and it will provide a huge boost to recruiting and our competitiveness over the long haul. Add in $10 million to the budget ($5 mil from the state and $5 mil from donors) and you balloon the athletics budget quite a bit and in the right places. But beyond that, it reflects that the leadership in the state is coming around to the idea that athletics are the front porch of any university.

Kudos to Governor Mead (a former football player in college by the way). Now it is on all of us to call our legislators and tell them to support the Governor's budget recommendation, starting with the members of the Joint Appropriations Committee.
 
What I can't tell is whether the $20 million is to be matched (meaning the facility will be a $40 million facility, which seems unlikely) or whether it is just the $20 million and the other $5 million for competitiveness is all that has to be matched. In the article in the CST, Mead notes that "we believe we can match $20 million if we have $20 million from the Legislature." In other discussions, I have heard the all in cost for the RAC is $16 or so million. Maybe I misheard.
 
By the way, there is also $1 million to retain quality faculty at UW, $20 million to research EOR in Wyoming at UW and likely a bucketload of money for the new labs (not STEM or Engineering by the way).
 
VisorHair said:
The RAC is a $40M project. Could go upwards towards $50M.
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Thanks for the intel. I have heard some details on the design of the project, but never anything about the cost, other than they were going to ask for $20 million from the Legislature.
 
A 10 mill increase in athletic budget would be go a long ways. Glad to see the State stepping up. Time for Burman to earn his money with a statewide campaign in support of the Governor's proposal.
 
VisorHair said:
SnowyRange said:
Time for Burman to earn his money with a statewide campaign in support of the Governor's proposal.
Click to expand...

Who did you think was putting this all together? The Governor?
Click to expand...

I was going to say something very similar.. lol :lol:
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Burman is certainly the named big player, but Bohl and Blalock have figured very prominently in all of this.

I knew DC was toast when the emails from Blalock started to come out that he was embarrassed by him and questioned how he could raise money for him. That dude is absolutely critical to big deals getting done. Having Bohl and Blalock on the same page...LOOK OUT BOYS!
 
Honestly, I think times like these are where you will really see Bohl's worth to the program and to the state. And this is why I've always been so passionate that Bohl will be successful in Laramie.

I think this puts it best:

Coach Bohl has never hidden the fact that he approaches coaching college football like the CEO of an organization. Bohl is not afraid to admit that a coach is responsible for a great deal of time off the field and that the time a coach spends actually coaching is diminishing every year. He actually means it when he compliments his coaching staff, because he is busy with fund raising duties, driving ticket sales, cultivating scholarships and other incidentals unrelated to traditional coaching duties. This trend continues to increase and coaches everywhere must continue to time manage and make difficult political decisions at every turn.

http://www.buildingthebakken.com/north-dakota-should-take-notice-of-bohls-wyoming-decision-2/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 
I read a letter regarding all this when we played CSU. Their athletic dream budget is closer to $70 million. I seem to recall that many of these same comments were made when they first constructed the RAC, made some improvements to the War, indoor practice field, etc
While we sports junkies may think that investing in special facilities for the 350 =/- student athletes at the cost of another 70 million is just what the university needs, but I know that isn't the case among those who do not spend a great deal of time invested in sports.

I suspect it won't be long before there s some public griping about this. We spend 70 million without tangible results and there will be hell to pay.
 
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