Pollard Details Recommended Cuts

IcSyU

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The proposed entertainment district with a hotel would do wonders for Stephens. Their biggest issue is that they can’t compete with Des Moines venues for acts. I think that making that area of town could make it a “destination” for concert and show goers and that could help attract more acts. Plus, with Scheman, a hotel entertainment district would make more events come to Ames.
Why? Promoters are still going to go to DSM. Much larger area. Significantly more disposable income.
 
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jcisuclones

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Why? Promoters are still going to go to DSM. Much larger area. Significantly more disposable income.
People go to Ames for the show, then go home because there’s nothing nearby for them to go to. People go to Des Moines, go out to eat, go to the show and then grab a cocktail or two after. If you build it, they will come.
 
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Cyclone06

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I'll also note he gambled big and lost. Had he gone with 25% like most of the rest of the big 12 had gone with there probably would have been a lot less pushback headed Wendy's way that forced her hand in canceling all fans for the first game. Instead he went full steam ahead and released a plan that if you looked at the seating chart did not allow for an adequate amount of distancing.
Lol yep, pats on the back and thumbs up all around if only it was 15k. That’s asinine.
 

KnappShack

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I guess I don't know what your expecting is it new no, is it structurally ok? I believe so I haven't heard otherwise.

I think JP has your answer. That's a significant amount of money for a mediocre and aging venue

" In addition, the facility has significant deferred maintenance issues which would require another $25M to $50M to bring the building up to today’s standards. "
 

Cyclone06

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This letter was nothing more than a call to action. Are you donating more? Did you defer your tickets to next year or request a refund? The reality is committed outflow is now 30M greater than projected inflow for the predictable future. One or both are going to have to change.
For the record I deferred fb tickets until next year. No that does not feel the best, but it’s hard to justify paying 2k for tickets and chair backs and not getting an actual ticket. Hopefully I can donate more next year with tickets already “covered”.
For all the more than 10% of fan capacity will kill people crowd, what coaches are you willing to see move on?
 

OnlyCyclones

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He's playing a dangerous game with his wording, setting himself up as the one who tried to find a way, and then putting consequences as a result of "the decision," while separating himself from that decision.

He's pretty petty and thin-skinned, and everyone knew that decreased revenues would have effects. His game of dumping this upward is one that can get a guy fired quickly, and guys who get fired like that deserve it.
When Wintersteen will have the final say over everything (which is how the original fan announcement was overturned) Jamie is powerless. The President has all the power. Just look at the Big 10.
 
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OnlyCyclones

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This is why you don't have an athletic department run a performing arts venue.
They only did it this way because the university itself didn't want to take it out of their budget.

It's probably right this way, but all decisions at schools around the country this fall point to the university budget being much more important than the athletics budgets. These schools have taken the PR hits for letting the schools reopen normally because they need the tuition and housing money, but the presidents don't feel nearly as strongly about the relative chump change of college athletics.
 

Clone83

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We saw the Kinks in CY Stephens Auditorium and the acoustics there are great. You heard them throughout the 1960s and 1970s on AM radio, but (because of that?, this was oldies then), I wouldn’t even had known they were still performing (I think this was 1980). They had a new album; very clear sound in CY.

Maybe we just imagined this, but outside on the north side, it seemed very acoustic also. At night it was probably even more quiet in that area then, but it was as if it picked up sounds like from Lincoln Way, any little thing from across the horizon, and channeled it towards the middle, the fins on the corner, like a giant ear. o_O:D
 

MustardTiger

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They wouldn't have had to close Stephen's if Pollard hadn't been greedy and took if over. He must've really hated it when people parked in his parking lots to go to a show at Stephen's. I guess he will have his way now.
You cannot be ******* serious? Pollard took over an outdated auditorium bleeding a million dollars per year because of his greed? The athletic department is the only thing able to fund that dump and keep it alive. Regents weren’t going to allow state dollars or student tuition to.
 

MustardTiger

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Jamie Pollard is the only reason ISU athletics are even remotely relevant at all right now. Coaches have come and gone. Jamie Pollard stays. And ISU athletics continue to climb.

Pick your fight with whoever brought students back to campus with literally no plan whatsoever. Pollard didn’t do that. And if you think he’s the one calling the shots on athletics? Look at the BIG. Presidents are deciding what goes and what doesn’t. Gotta have students to get those tuition dollars. Anyone that condemns fans in the stands but doesn’t students on campus is the worst kind of hypocrite.

Anyone that thinks Jamie Pollard is part of the problem, and not the solution, can P..I..S..S OFF
 

WFBClone

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We attended a Beach Boys concert at Stephens in 2019 and Mike Love commented on what a beautiful facility the auditorium is, not just once, but twice. He words, in effect were, "I cannot believe this facility is 50 years old. I would have guessed it was five years old." To call it a dump is hyperbole and deplorable.

I have visited over 90 universities and very few have a facility the quality of Stephens. President Hilton demonstrated exceptional vision when the Iowa State Center was built. I'd be interested in learning more about the campus-based performing arts facilities Mustard Tiger has visited that surpass Stephens.
 

MustardTiger

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We attended a Beach Boys concert at Stephens in 2019 and Mike Love commented on what a beautiful facility the auditorium is, not just once, but twice. He words, in effect were, "I cannot believe this facility is 50 years old. I would have guessed it was five years old." To call it a dump is hyperbole and deplorable.

I have visited over 90 universities and very few have a facility the quality of Stephens. President Hilton demonstrated exceptional vision when the Iowa State Center was built. I'd be interested in learning more about the campus-based performing arts facilities Mustard Tiger has visited that surpass Stephens.
You did not seriously just type “campus based performing arts facilities” without taking a second to realize what that really means did you?

I’m not comparing Stephens to anything it isn’t. If it’s a glorified college auditorium that hosts old timey surfer shows once every decade than I’m sure it’s near the top of the list in that category. However the surf ballroom in clear lake may give it a run for its money (it also doesn’t bleed a million dollars a year like Stephens does).

A quick list of outdated things that people prop up for nostalgia purposes:

Movie theaters
Libraries
Malls
Campus based performing arts facilities.
 

jcisuclones

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They wouldn't have had to close Stephen's if Pollard hadn't been greedy and took if over. He must've really hated it when people parked in his parking lots to go to a show at Stephen's. I guess he will have his way now.
Honestly, this might be the dumbest comment of the night, and the comment below it says that we should tear the building down.
 

IcSyU

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People go to Ames for the show, then go home because there’s nothing nearby for them to go to. People go to Des Moines, go out to eat, go to the show and then grab a cocktail or two after. If you build it, they will come.
The same people who would go to Ames are happy to go to DSM therefore Ames has to be better than DSM. Hilton needs to be better than WFA. CY Stephens has to be better than the civic theater. Scheman has to be better than the convention center and HyVee Hall.

Build it and you will lose your ass making the payments because you are the Municipal Auditorium to Des Moines' Sprint Center.

Ames doesn't need to be Des Moines and its a pipe dream to ask it to be. You can't take a town where literally half the inhabitants are college students with no money and expect it to compete with a metropolitan area 10x its size with a much higher percentage of the population with disposable income.
 
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jcisuclones

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The same people who would go to Ames are happy to go to DSM therefore Ames has to be better than DSM. Hilton needs to be better than WFA. CY Stephens has to be better than the civic theater. Scheman has to be better than the convention center and HyVee Hall.

Build it and you will lose your ass making the payments because you are the Municipal Auditorium to Des Moines' Sprint Center.

Ames doesn't need to be Des Moines and its a pipe dream to ask it to be. You can't take a town where literally half the inhabitants are college students with no money and expect it to compete with a metropolitan area 10x its size with a much higher percentage of the population with disposable income.
Ames can’t compete with Des Moines for acts. That’s nearly 100% impossible. But the goal should be to at least be to compete.

Large scale concerts will go to WFA over Hilton, big ticket Broadway shows will go to the Civic Center over Stevens. That’s a given. But I know Jamie wants to be at least somewhat competitive in that market, compared to previous years.
 

3rdCoastClone

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This should bring unbridled euphoria to the same five or six morons that continually mark everything as dumb.

 

CYEATHAWK

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No.... Covid is going to affect millions of lives for years to come..... not just not having fans at sporting events. Wake up! Millions of people are already suffering in their lives.... or dead...... from this virus. None of this is new folks. Did you really think universities and sports teams would be exempt from all of this??
No.........why don't you wake up. The "millions" of people who are suffering are not from the virus.....but from the reaction! And where are the "millions" dead. I'm still waiting for the 2020 spring breakers to hit the morgue. How about all the Memorial Day parties we were told would doom the country? July 4th.......the riots.....Sturgess Moto rally.....VMA awards? Take your pick of events where people gathered....and all there were........were.........CASES!!! And a case doesn't mean death and destruction.
 

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