SF Chron: Cal scrambling to cover stadium bill
Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2013 10:34 amBy Nanette Asimov
June 17, 2013
UC Berkeley's plan to sell special football seats to pay off nearly half a billion dollars in stadium debt has long inspired skepticism, as if Cal were setting up a lemonade stand to finance a home mortgage.
True, each of those chairs at the newly renovated Memorial Stadium costs $40,000 to $250,000 and is yours for 40 or 50 years. But even Cal officials, who had said they would sell all 2,902 pricey seats by this month, grew skeptical of their own claims last fall.
The latest figures show sales have stagnated at 1,857 seats. Declined, in fact. Sixteen buyers gave their seats back this winter, stopping payments and cutting short their ownership deal.
None of that surprises longtime critics of the stadium renovation, like computer science Professor Brian Barsky.
"We said it wouldn't work out. They never should have done this," Barsky said. "The prices are too high. It was doomed to failure."
It's not as if Cal can unbuild the stadium. So campus officials are finding other ways they hope will pay the huge bill. Cal analysts, using numbers supplied by the athletics department, call the effort encouraging, while a Stanford University sports economist says it won't be enough.
Notable excerpts re: the Stanford economist's take:
Taking a grimmer view is Roger Noll, an emeritus professor at Stanford and an expert in stadium financing.
He pointed to less ambitious efforts to finance new stadiums in Michigan and Texas, which aren't going well.
"If Texas can't raise the money, how the hell do you think Cal can?" Noll said with a rueful laugh.
"I hope they succeed, but the chances are not very high," he said. "My guess is the incremental revenue from the stadium is not going to be even close to paying off the structural deficit."
http://www.sfchronicle.com/collegesport ... ac47b02379
June 17, 2013
UC Berkeley's plan to sell special football seats to pay off nearly half a billion dollars in stadium debt has long inspired skepticism, as if Cal were setting up a lemonade stand to finance a home mortgage.
True, each of those chairs at the newly renovated Memorial Stadium costs $40,000 to $250,000 and is yours for 40 or 50 years. But even Cal officials, who had said they would sell all 2,902 pricey seats by this month, grew skeptical of their own claims last fall.
The latest figures show sales have stagnated at 1,857 seats. Declined, in fact. Sixteen buyers gave their seats back this winter, stopping payments and cutting short their ownership deal.
None of that surprises longtime critics of the stadium renovation, like computer science Professor Brian Barsky.
"We said it wouldn't work out. They never should have done this," Barsky said. "The prices are too high. It was doomed to failure."
It's not as if Cal can unbuild the stadium. So campus officials are finding other ways they hope will pay the huge bill. Cal analysts, using numbers supplied by the athletics department, call the effort encouraging, while a Stanford University sports economist says it won't be enough.
Notable excerpts re: the Stanford economist's take:
Taking a grimmer view is Roger Noll, an emeritus professor at Stanford and an expert in stadium financing.
He pointed to less ambitious efforts to finance new stadiums in Michigan and Texas, which aren't going well.
"If Texas can't raise the money, how the hell do you think Cal can?" Noll said with a rueful laugh.
"I hope they succeed, but the chances are not very high," he said. "My guess is the incremental revenue from the stadium is not going to be even close to paying off the structural deficit."
http://www.sfchronicle.com/collegesport ... ac47b02379
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