Having grown up in Birmingham in the 1970s, and having family in that area going back over 100 years, I will give you my perspective. Bear in mind that UAB is an urban campus, a largely commuter school, and most local students already were Alabama or Auburn fans, and identified much more closely with those campuses. UAB was where they went to school, but athletically, their heart lay in Tuscaloosa or Auburn. You just cannot get the "warm fuzzies" about a campus in a concrete jungle like you can a campus located in Tuscaloosa, Auburn, Baton Rouge, etc.
UAB decided in the mid 1970s to start a Division 1 Basketball program, commencing in 1978. They scored a huge coup in luring Gene Bartow as Head Coach, who was the successor to John Wooden at UCLA. I believe Bartow envisioned being able to create a program like Memphis, one of his former coaching stops. They actually had a contest in local media to create the team nickname, which obviously became the Blazers (in large part, I think, due to the fact the Portland Trail BLAZERS had just won the NBA Championship). There was actually excitement and interest within the local community, and excitement about Basketball as a sport was at that time more prevalent than today.
And the program started with a bang. Good product, good crowds, even filling the 17, 654 seats of the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center. People like me were devout Alabama or Auburn folks, but still bought tickets and went to cheer the Blazers. All was well within the kingdom, and the subjects content.
But then, quickly, in the mid 1980s things began to sour a bit. There was a lot of TOP talent in Alabama, especially in the Birmingham area - and some intense recruiting battles for that talent occurred between Bama and the Blazers. Head Coaches Wimp Sanderson and of Alabama and Bartow began developing an enmity that would only increase over time. When UAB lost some of those recruiting battles, Bartow began contacting the ncaa, quietly, pointing fingers at UA for recruiting improprieties.
UAB began seeing the erosion of the fanbase - Alabama guy especially began to look less and less favorably at UAB as time passed. I can testify - I was one that used to enjoy attending UAB games, but by the mid 80s had far less inclination to spend my time and money at the BJCC.
The dominoes began to topple towards a further and crippling rift between Tuscaloosa and Birmingham in 1989, albeit in an innocuous fashion, when UAB announced the creation of a club football team. Here is a link to a good history of UAB origins, beginning on page 12.
https://www.uab.edu/cas/history/images/Documents/VHS/Vulcan_Historical_Review_V17_2013.pdf
Note that Pat Dye was in favor, and Bill Curry, Head Coach at Alabama, was not. In fact, I believe there was a belief at auburn, especially within power circles, that the rise of UAB football would only hamper Alabama. As such, no wonder Auburn was supportive - it was largely self-serving.
If you are able, remember the sports climate in the state at that time. Alabama was transitioning, and not very well, to like after Coach Bryant. Auburn was experiencing success, feeling their oats, and had won the battle over being able to host Alabama in Auburn. Alabama had put in the west upper deck to Bryant-Denny Stadium in 1988, and there were plans to further expand with an eye on eventually playing all games in Tuscaloosa. This possibility/eventuality was not lost on even the dim-witted, myopic Birmingham leadership. Eric Ramsey and Gene Jelks were on the horizon, as well as the Antonio Langham mess, and both Alabama and Auburn would experience severe sanctions within a 5 year period. The Wimp Sanderson and Nancy Watts saga was imminent.
It was a very unsettled time for State sports, especially for the University of Alabama.
So, UAB club football arrives in 1989, - and the fast track begins. In 1991, UAB announces they are moving upwards into Division III football, with DR. Jim Hilyer as Head Coach. Due to an NCAA ruling that Universities could not have athletics programs competing at multi-divisional levels, in 1993 UAB was "forced" to move to a Division 1-AA status. In 1994, UAB played Kansas, their first ever game against a D-1 program, and Hilyer resigned after the season, with Watson Brown being named Head Coach.
UAB applies for, and received, clearance in 1995 to move into D-1 football, and began competing at that level in 1996. Then, near the end of that same year, C-USA Commissioner Mike Slive (hmm) announced UAB would be admitted as a football playing member in 1999.
Think about all that for a moment. In the space of six - SIX - years, UAB started a club football squad and transitioned into full Division 1 status. This at a commuter campus, without a solid "UAB First" fanbase to count on, and with no time to create one. This was a shotgun wedding of UAB and D-1 Football, and came about quicker than an Elizabeth Taylor whirlwind romance/marriage.
Now, back to the Bartow factor. Coach Bartow was not idle during all this - he would coach UAB Basketball till 1996, and serve as AD till 2000. He was of course highly involved in the creation and transition of UAB Football. But that was not all, as came out in 1993 in the LA Times, regarding a letter Bartow wrote to David Berst, NCAA enforcement director, back to 1991. The focus in LA was a perceived fear Bartow had of UCLA Super Booster Sam Gilbert, an hombre some thought had "mafia ties" - but this resonated with folks in Alabama...
http://articles.latimes.com/1993-08-04/sports/sp-20220_1_sam-gilbert
However, Bartow went further, had he not, damage would have been mitigated to a degree. But Bartow committed the cardinal sin where the University of Alabama was concerned - he slandered the name of Coach Bryant...
From The New York Times...
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/05/s...w-accused-alabama-in-1991-letter.html?mcubz=0
Interesting that we now have both the LA Times and New York Times, involved at least to some degree, in the escalating Tusclaoosa-Birmingham feud. Big City coming to the country, in a way.:biggrin2:
So Bartow sends this letter in 1991, it gets, for some reason, leaked to an LA Times reporter in 93 who publishes a story about it on August 4th, 1993. The very NEXT DAY Bartow issued an apology...
http://articles.latimes.com/1993-08-05/sports/sp-20797_1_gene-bartow
A lot of Alabama fans saw the situation as this - Bartow attacked THE MAN, The Legend, Coach Bryant, in his letter to Berst and the NCAA. He also did this years AFTER Coach Bryant's death, and would never have dared confront Bryant himself. Bartow is now in the process of fast-tracking the UAB football venture, with the full support and endorsement of Auburn officials.
Alabama fans were DONE with supporting UAB athletics, in anything, at this point.
Time marches on, UAB wins some football games, loses more, and plays to paltry crowd in a declining venue on Graymont Avenue. The strange union of UAB officials, a few boosters, and City of Birmingham officials (not much chance of dirty dealings and self-serving decisions here) keeps UAB Football afloat, partly because the City buys some 5000 tickets per year that will count as "attendance" when NCAA crowd requirements are analyzed. But the program bleeds money, cannot develop a dedicated fanbase, especially in a blossoming technological age where entertainment options are increasing by the boatloads.
All the while, UAB folks are constantly whining about a perceived lack of fair treatment from The University of Alabama Board of Trustees. They cannot draw consistently fair crowds to the games - yet espouse the notion that "If we can just have someone build us a new, state of the art, 40,000 or so seat stadium, fans will suddenly stream in." IE, they are BEGGING for investments, with no history to convince anyone with sense that such an investment would be a good idea. As regards the stadium, UAB tried to organize a big time rally, to meet on Campus and bus to Tuscaloosa to demonstrate outside a UA BOT meeting. These "UAB Freedom Riders" were gonna save the Blazer day.
They wanted thousands to ride - they took 2 buses with empty seats.
In 2014, UAB President Ray Watts decided to take a good look at UAB Athletics, and plot the best course of future direction. UAB employed outside resources, including CarrSports Consulting, and came to teh conclusion that it would be in the best interest of UAB to drop football. It was determined that to be "competitive" UAB would have to increase the football budget by 49 million, and that money would be better spent elsewhere.
“In order to invest at least another $49 million, UAB would have to redirect funds away from other critical areas of importance, like education, research, patient care and student services, which are core to UAB’s mission, and our priority athletic programs would suffer competitively.” ― President Ray L. Watts
For the uab dude - facts and links, plus personal perspective
You still never address the fact that scholarly gents, after a long and frankly overdue consideration period, decided monies that would be thrown in the uab football sewer could best be used elsewhere within the university.
You are starting to come across as a paid lobbyist - or someone who has something to gain by the existence of the football farse. And really none of the monies you mention, even if accurate, or somewhat, none really are self-generated. The existence of uab football can, in urban terms, be equated to a "baby mama"
