Ludicrous Spending at UW

[rocket city poke]

Here is a nice article on the ludicrous spending at UW: https://cowboystatedaily.com/2025/0...ming-projects-over-past-10-years-nearly-900m/

Great thing is we will have this new upgraded stadium for these huge matchups with UTEP, Nevada and San Jose State!

They don't even mention that the "high school pool" that poor UW swimming is having to use is the nicest pool in the state:

Why the administrators at UW could not work with the City and school district to just make that pool a joint pool for everybody is an insult to the Wyoming taxpayers. Here are some pictures of the Laramie High pool that UW swimmers are having to make such a huge sacrifice to use: https://www.athleticbusiness.com/pr...laramie-high-school-aquatic-center-laramie-wy

 

[Bryoming]

Wyoming is a division 1 school. Sharing a pool with a local high school is fine for NAIA, but not for D1.

I knew someone would come out of the woodwork to bitch about the spending at UW. The article breaks it down, but I wouldn't expect someone with a straw man to beat to read all of it.

For those that did read, you'll find that out of the $900MM spent in the last 10 years, $700MM of that was spent on academic facilities.

 

[LanderPoke]

It’s time for UW to make good use of these buildings by investing in top tier people

 

[OrediggerPoke]

Here is a nice article on the ludicrous spending at UW: https://cowboystatedaily.com/2025/0...ming-projects-over-past-10-years-nearly-900m/

Great thing is we will have this new upgraded stadium for these huge matchups with UTEP, Nevada and San Jose State!

They don't even mention that the "high school pool" that poor UW swimming is having to use is the nicest pool in the state:

Why the administrators at UW could not work with the City and school district to just make that pool a joint pool for everybody is an insult to the Wyoming taxpayers. Here are some pictures of the Laramie High pool that UW swimmers are having to make such a huge sacrifice to use: https://www.athleticbusiness.com/pr...laramie-high-school-aquatic-center-laramie-wy

The only capital projects that I am aware of that I could realistically consider ludicrous spending is athletics projects (swimming facility, stadium upgrade and HAPC).

The dorms, parking garage, science building, engineering building, high bay research building, energy plant and law school were all necessary. The old dorms l, old engineering building and law school were barely standing. Major renovation of the existing dorms would have been a colossal waste of money versus the new dorms being constructed. The parking garage became a necessity as the new dorms required the removal of half the parking spots on campus.

I personally agree that a new swimming pool is a waste. But so was the equally costly stadium upgrade under that same microscope.

 

[ragtimejoe1]

I aways dislike requests for money that center on "we need to keep up" as well as complaints of "we waste too much on x or y".

I much prefer roi discussions. Athletics would struggle with those discussions but I would guess academics have some level of roi. Graduated x students who now earn more money in the state and pay more taxes or whatever the roi is.

 

[rocket city poke]

If they had sat down with the architect and contractor teamed up with the City of Laramie and the School District for $10 to $20 million additional they could have made a 50 meter pool AND had a 25 meter pool in the school / city facility. THere is a LOT of infrastructure that would have been in place. It still would have been state of the art and the best in the region. That effort was not made and it speaks volumes as to the lack of fiscal responsibility that the UW administration has and arrogance that they show to the everyday citizen who owns a business or makes $20 an hour and is trying to make ends meet.

Same with the football stadium upgrades. UW is going to have fancy skyboxes and chairback seating for these 5 big home games they have a year with the likes of UTEP, Hawaii, Nevada, San Jose and New Mexico. I think a lot of these seats will sit empty for the price they think they are going to charge or else they will have to charge a lot less and just sell them to fill them up. It appears to be headed toward a complete boondoggle with the split of the MWC / Pac12.