UTA Sports

[Go_UTA]

I thought some of you guys might be interested in reading this. (I saw where the topic came up on your board.) Personally, I am very excited about his prioritizations: good-bye Texas Hall as a Division I sports venue!


THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON

Office of the Psident

January 20, 2005

STATEMENT BY UTA PRESIDENT ON SPORTS EXPANSION

University of Texas at Arlington President James D. Spaniolo has issued the following statement regarding sports expansion:

For the past few months, we have been considering a proposal to add three intercollegiate sports (football, women's golf, and women's soccer) to our current offerings. During this process, I have received valuable advice from many people. I thank the Athletics Alumni Chapter of the Alumni Association for their thoughtful suggestions and advocacy in support of efforts to bring greater pride and spirit to campus. I also thank our students for taking the initiative in supporting sports expansion.

This has been an open and thorough process, which began with a referendum last April in which students voted to increase their fees by $2 per credit-hour to fund sports expansion. The increase would generate about $1.25 million earmarked for sports expansion but could be collected only when enough external funds had been raised to cover start-up costs. We then contracted with Neinas Sports Services to conduct a cost and feasibility study, which concluded that such an expansion would cost $13.7 million-$17.5 million over five years and require major private fund-raising efforts to raise at least $5 million to finance football start-up costs. Armed with this information and my own personal research, I have consulted with Student Congress, the Athletics Alumni Chapter, and many others in careful study, listening, and learning. Now, we must act and move forward.

The idea of re-instituting football and adding women's golf and soccer is intriguing and attractive and requires careful planning and consideration in order to be successful. But adding new sports, particularly football, is also expensive and complex. To do so would be a major undertaking requiring extensive time and resources of many people inside and outside the university.

I have concluded that there is an even more compelling way than sports expansion to create a sense of community and pride in UTA, a way that will better serve a broader range of interests within the university. A Special Events Center on campus will enrich our student life experience sooner by providing a better venue for our current sports, including volleyball and men's and women's basketball games, as well as commencements, convocations, and cultural and community events. (In December 2004, our Student Congress unanimously supported a resolution calling for the construction of a Special Events Center on campus.) We are engaged in preliminary planning for a Special Events Center and expect to announce more specific plans, including a rendering of the building, within the next few weeks.

We are also studying the possibility of expanding our current Activities Building to better accommodate growing student demand for campus recreation facilities. With an increasing enrollment and strong interest in fitness and recreational sports, our Activities Building has become overcrowded, and expansion is sorely needed. We are developing the building expansion plan in consultation with student leaders.

This spring, I will work closely with Student Congress in seeking support for these exciting projects. The truth is that we cannot pursue these building projects simultaneously with proposed sports expansion. It's a matter of timing and priority. UTA will have sports expansion in a way that will not diminish the quality or level of support for our outstanding, existing fourteen-sport NCAA Division I Intercollegiate Athletics Program.

My hope is that we can add women's golf and women's soccer in the next two or three years. We will begin exploring those possibilities in the next few months. I am asking Athletic Director Pete Carlon to prepare a report by the end of the semester that will include several options for accomplishing this goal. With respect to football, by far the most expensive and complex of any intercollegiate sport, I will defer any decision for now; however, I am committed to taking a fresh and comprehensive look at football for UTA within five years. This will allow us to have completed the Special Events Center and Activities Building expansion and will coincide with the arrival of the Dallas Cowboys in Arlington, which will influence the football question in ways we cannot yet know.



James D. Spaniolo

President

[Go_UTA]

The rest of it. I don't know why the whole thing didn't appear the first time.


My hope is that we can add women's golf and women's soccer in the next two or three years. We will begin exploring those possibilities in the next few months. I am asking Athletic Director Pete Carlon to prepare a report by the end of the semester that will include several options for accomplishing this goal. With respect to football, by far the most expensive and complex of any intercollegiate sport, I will defer any decision for now; however, I am committed to taking a fresh and comprehensive look at football for UTA within five years. This will allow us to have completed the Special Events Center and Activities Building expansion and will coincide with the arrival of the Dallas Cowboys in Arlington, which will influence the football question in ways we cannot yet know.



James D. Spaniolo

President

[Stallion]

I personally feel that was a wise decision considering the student body has never really identified with the athletic program at UTA. Assuming a tradition of fan support developed in BB with a new BB arena which is long past due- football would be an option

[MrMustang1965]

There's also heavy discussion at the Univ. of Teasips at San Antonio about getting into Div. 1-AA by the end of this decade.

[MrMustang1965]

Here's a student editorial on the subject...and he disses SMU & Baylor at the end! GTH, UTA!

"UTA students and administration are sending the wrong signals on the sports expansion

As I chew on my bowl of parsley, I wonder, “Where is the steak I ordered?”

When the student body cast its vote concerning the promise or fate of the sports expansion at UTA, it cast a vote on whether to have football. Dare I say, 90 percent voted with football in mind, not the fate of women’s soccer and golf.

When Americans think about Texas, do they think women’s soccer and golf? No, they think, oil fields, 10-gallon hats, long-horned Cadillacs and football.

The vote the student body cast has been hijacked. In return, after a “fact finding mission,” — whatever that means — we will have a new athletic complex — whatever that means. What is wrong with the old athletic complex? The grass is still green, is it not?

Why should we allow this new, bigger, better deal that still does not give the student vote the time of day? The vote was over football, not an athletic complex. The vote was over football, not an expansion into sports that have little notoriety. I know that will make a few of you angry, but think on this: When television covers a college event, which sport gets put on ESPN, and which sport gets tucked away on ESPN2? Football gets all the coverage on Saturdays.

This whole shooting match is overblown. Getting soccer and golf now and waiting five years for football does nothing for the students who cast the vote! In five years, the students who cast their votes — for football as well as against football — will be long gone and toiling away to pay off their college loans. In five years, this issue will be forgotten. I can’t recall what the students were talking about on this campus five years ago, mainly because I wasn’t here. The $2-per-semester-hour increase won’t even touch us. The new crop of students will have to foot the bill for what we wanted, if President James Spaniolo continues with his plan.

I find this decision to give us only half of the desired petition a pitiful and tired effort. This idea of “let’s wait and see until the Cowboys come” is not a plan of action I expect from my leaders.

When the votes were cast, everyone was having the same thoughts: A Saturday afternoon grilling on a hibachi on the back of your buddy’s pickup truck. A marching band rumbling through its version of the “Imperial Death March.” The stadium boiling with anticipation of one thing — kickoff.

With the administration’s plan, and the vapid response I’ve seen around campus, what does this tell the Metroplex when UTA chooses soccer and golf over football? Even Arlington High has a football team — and UTA’s stadium is silent.

We have the top high school football team in America, just a few miles to the north — and UTA’s stadium is silent.

Even in our first year, we couldn’t get much worse than Baylor University or Southern Methodist University, could we? Even if we did not fare well, a sense of pride would still be a good shot in the arm. It is awkward going to a four-year university where there isn’t a football team. Junior colleges in Louisiana have football programs and we don’t.

Another five years of waiting does nothing for the votes already counted."