[University of New Mexico] Athletic Director Paul Krebs said the business model for the rebuild of The Pit two years ago, which cost about $45 million, was “predicated on a naming gift for The Pit.”
Apparently the Pit, UNM’s basketball arena, actually cost 60 rather than 45 million, but I guess the cost was predicated on being 45 million… Just like the renovation itself was predicated on a rich person offering 10 million dollars so that this person’s family or business name would be on the stadium…
Unlike Florida Atlantic University, which did score a rich namer (a local prison company) for its stadium (whoops – FAU had to turn down the gift because of outrage over the perceived sleaziness of that prison business… FAU’s disgraced president resigned… and since then, no other namer has come forward, so the school is hemorrhaging money…), UNM hasn’t gotten one bite. Even though it spent 60 million dollars on the basis of a promise – a predication – that a naming gift would be forthcoming.
No problem, however. Tuition and fees will rise, and faculty salaries will remain flat, so that this unpredicated outcome can be handled.
Luckily, UNM students and faculty are accustomed to the peculiarly expensive nothingness of la vie UNM. They’re already paying for an empty baseball stadium. There are all sorts of ongoing monetary and other costs related to the latest batch of unpleasant coaching departures (Alford, Locksley). Everyone at UNM seems willing to remain eternally poor and stupid — predicated on sports.
July 16th, 2013 at 2:38PM
Hey! UNM provides the useful service of a football game that Texas Tech can be sure to win, so let’s don’t be too critical of them just yet.
July 16th, 2013 at 3:21PM
JND: Yes, UNM does fulfill that function admirably.