They are a special elite among American universities – schools so indifferent to education and so sports-obsessed and so lame that the only news we hear out of them is big talk about – or investigative reports about – their stupid and/or corrupt athletic programs. The University of Louisville is the trend-setter here, but consider that perennial UD favorite, the University of Nevada Las Vegas.
Although sports at UNLV is hemorrhaging money (Scold, scold, scold, say the regents, except they’re the group that cheered the school on and made it possible for it to lose all that money), its loser coach is peeing his pants over the prospect of a new immense $1.9 billion football stadium to accommodate all the people who don’t go to his team’s games.
UNLV would share the stadium with the soon-to-be-relocated Oakland Raiders, see, and excellent local characters like Sheldon Adelson will put up most of the money, see?… Are you getting as excited as I am? This vast structure will have the world’s largest Adzillatron spanning its entire length, so none of the twelve thousand people in attendance (and what amazing optics those numbers in that huge space will be for UNLV) will miss one millisecond of constant shrieking gargantuan commercials. The markings on the field will of course say RAIDERS rather than Rebels, and in general UNLV’s status in all of this will be that of a poor overlooked orphan cousin but it will have to put up I dunno around $200 million. BUT what’s $200 million when you already have a five million dollar budget deficit? Just add it to the fucking deficit! Big deal!
Oooh, but speaking of deal – Sheldon’s feelings got hurt in some way and he has pulled all of his money out. BUT Goldman Sachs will pick up the slack!
BUT Goldman Sachs has pulled out of the deal too!
I mean, it looks as though sharing a hot sweaty bed with casino gambling was too much even for the obscene NFL… But poor UNLV! It has no problem with the lower depths, but it might lose that big new stadium anyway…
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Yeah and now that the deal’s falling through you got all these local naysayers…
It is high time lawmakers, now meeting in regular session, reconsider the state’s commitment of room tax money to this harebrained, half-baked scheme to enrich billionaires.
Instead of sticking tourists with a 0.88 percent hike in the room tax, lawmakers should let them keep that money to spend on food, drink and gambling, which net nearly 10 times as much in tax revenue.
… Lawmakers should note that there is no stadium price tag in the bill they passed, and the stadium backers flatly refused to consider capping public funding at 39 percent of the cost of construction. It was $750 million or no deal. The cost of the stadium when first proposed was a mere $1 billion. It ratcheted up from there. What is to stop the Raiders from building a $1 billion stadium, tapping the taxpayers for three-quarters of the tab and getting the state to make the estimated $900 million in road improvements needed to access the stadium?
Besides, does UNLV really need a new football stadium, when it can’t fill the one it has? One that has adequate traffic access off a major freeway and abundant parking. Why is there a need for a stadium on or near the campus, when 93 percent of students live off campus?
Oh shaddap.
February 27th, 2017 at 9:45AM
if i’m reading this correctly, stadium backers want far more public backing for this nonsense because they know it will be a financial disaster. at some point, idiotic prospective unlv admits will come to realize the stupidity of going into debt to attend that institution.
when that day arrives, the stadium will be fully loaded onto taxpayer’s backs, and goodbye increased funding for k-12….
February 27th, 2017 at 12:24PM
charlie: I think you’re right that the backers must know this is a major financial loser…
February 28th, 2017 at 10:52PM
ud, most of these athletic venues have no financial efficacy without public support. stadiums and basketball arenas are empty after the season and the novelty dissipates quickly. the only cash flows that will guarantee debt service fulfillment are public taxes or student loan payments, primarily because the .gov is the leg breaker that will make sure the money shows up. it’s a hell of a scam….
March 1st, 2017 at 4:03AM
charlie: But maybe – in the very heart of scam city – one of these schemes will fail…
March 1st, 2017 at 10:01PM
ud, you nailed it. yup, the heart of scam city is seeing one of its schemes coming apart, and oh, does that fact belong on this here blog. apparently, the federal department of education has been lying for the past decade regsrding student loan default rates, claiming that they were far lower than the actual numbers.
‘us government caught massively fabricating student loan default rates.’ http://www.zerohedge.com/…/us-government-caught-massively-fabricating-student-loan-default-rates
the op references an article from last month’s wall street journal, which is hidden behind a paywall. according to the wsj, the doe claims that a glitch in their statistical analysis caused the numbers to be skewed downward. oh yeah, the ubiquitous glitch. fact is, that according to an analysis of the revised data at more than 1,000 colleges and trade schools, or about a quarter of the total, at least half of students defaulted or failed to pay at least one dollar on their debt within seven year.
the worst offender isn’t going to be a surprise, it’s the university of memphis. instead of 67 percent of students repaying their loans within seven years of entering the repayment period, the actual number is 47 per cent. so not only are u of memphis students receiving a degraded education, they’re not able to pay for it, as well.
what this indicates is that half of student loans are either in default or on the verge of doing so. of course the feds nor the unis were going to reveal that fact. if they did, their pigeon drop grift would end.
all this means is that the student loan bubble is bursting, and with it, the puffy blister of inflated admin salaries, ridiculous athletic buildouts and budgets will collapse as well. can’t say i’m sad to see it go….