Again, I have nothing against the well-intentioned people who were willing to put their money and energy where their mouths were to revive the program. More power to them.
My issue with the those people (mostly in the media) who refused to tell the full story of why UAB was in such a precarious place to begin with. They were eager to tell the story of the big, bad BOT and Ray Watts scheming and conspiring to doom the program, as if that was the root cause. We heard nothing about the hideously poor attendance (even AFTER artificial inflation with free tickets) or the condition of the stadium.
The solution to long-time stability is more paying customers moving through the turnstiles on home gamedays. Maybe with that, your donors' funds can go to build new facilities (such as a better, downsized stadium) rather than to fund so many of the ongoing costs. But I don't hear anybody in Birmingham wanting to talk turkey about attendance.
Perhaps the BOT has been more focused on the core missions of the university and its revenue generating entities.
And comparing UAB football to UA basketball is apples to oranges. A 70% or even 50%-filled Coleman Coliseum--drab as it may be--is light-years different than a 15%-filled Legion Field.
My stadium solution would be a 40,000 seat on-campus stadium with modern amenities that could be expanded with temporary seating to 55,000 for bowl games. But the problem I see is that with so much donor money going to fund ongoing operations, where will the dollars to build it come from? I don't see local or state government footing the bill.
But I wish them no ill at all.
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