Hello BeBold Supporters! A quick update:

Texas A&M has announced a stunning renovation at Kyle Field. They plan to put $450 million into their stadium creating a probably the best college football facility in the country.  http://kylefield.com/
The difference CSU and Texas A&M is that they are planning a $90 million dollar increase in student fees to pay for 17% of the stadium renovation cost, while we are very proud to say that CSU is not asking for one penny of student fees to help pay for our new stadium.

CSU is not going to the extreme of a 102K person stadium but as CSU has entered the “Design Phase” of its on-campus facility and we expect similar videos and pictures to be introduced in the near future. The new CSU stadium will itself be a stunning addition to our campus.

Due to the university’s restrictions in providing detailed info on philanthropic campaigns, we wanted to take the time to inform our supporters of some of the work that we know is being done and the progress that is being made. We understand that private donations for CSU’s on-campus stadium are going incredibly well and well ahead of schedule. We would personally like to thank all those individuals and corporation who are making a difference in helping us build this stadium. As the athletic department is focused solely on those willing to donate 7 & 8 figure donations, we expect the athletic department to open up donations of lower quantities to the public in about 6 months or so. In the meantime, if you are willing and able to give a 7 to 8 figure donation, we encourage you to contact the Athletic Department directly or contact Be Bold and we can help you get in contact with the appropriate people.

Those that cannot, the work of our support is not yet complete. Despite the unanimous vote to move forward with stadium fundraising, the Board of Governors has not yet given their final approval of the project. Knowing this, members of the stadium opposition are very actively trying to block the building of this stadium by any means necessary and trying to convince our Board of Governors to be against moving forward. We encourage every stadium supporter to be actively involved and show just how strong our support is.

Continue to write/email letters the Board of Governors (csu_board@mail.colostate.edu) and get your voice heard with op-ed letters to the Coloradoan. Every voice counts, every voice makes a difference.

Show up to the Board of Governors meetings (next one is May 3rd at 8am) ;the stadium opposition is planning a “presentation” there to fight against the stadium) to voice your support of the on-campus stadium. Until shovels are in the ground we must continue to fight for our opportunity to be great and improve our university!

Please take the time to help us do that by making the sound of our support echo through the halls of Corbett, Edwards, The Yates Building, the Oval, and yes even Hughes Stadium. The time is now to get a stadium built and the only way it doesn’t happen is by doing nothing.

So please join us in making sure it does. Being proud to be CSU Ram means not being afraid to respectfully express that pride. In the same way the 12th man at Kyle Field can effect a football game, let’s be the 12th man of this stadium effort and make sure it happens.

Thank you for your continued efforts and your support.
Go Rams! Be Bold & Build It!

We know this is a CSU On-Campus Stadium support site but when good things happen at CSU we want to brag about it.  Last night as most of you know, the Rams played an amazing basketball game and beat Mizzou 84-72.  Led by Dorian Green who scored a season high 26 points the Rams pretty much dominated the entire game.  Up Next is the #1 seed Louisville Cardinals at 5:30 on Saturday.  Dorian Green looks to be dealing with his ankle issues pretty well and the team will need their A game to beat Louisville on Saturday.  If they do, we’ll all be talking about the little glass slippers that CSU will be putting on!  GO RAMS!

Let’s not forget the impact CSU winning has on the overall university.  When George Mason went to the Final Four in 2006 here is what happened:  The campus bookstore sold more than $800,000 worth of George Mason clothing, compared with $625,000 worth in all of 2004–05.  During the tournament more than 1,000 alums registered on the school’s website, increasing the size of the database by 10%.   The quality of students applying increase by 10 SAT points.  In 2006, a George Mason professor conducted a study on the Patriots’ Final Four trip and concluded that George Mason had netted around $677 million worth of free advertising for the school during that run. According to Miller, when Butler went to the Final Four,  the school estimated it was worth about $450 million in exposure.  Admissions inquiries increased 350 percent. Out-of-state applications increased 40 percent.

This is more evidence that athletics does play a larger role in positive exposure for the university overall.  You can’t buy this type of publicity and every moment CSU is all over national television is pure gold!

It’s official, Tony Frank will recommend to the Board of Governors that the project move into a fund-raising phase.  He’s asked that private donations cover at least 50% of the total cost before any groundbreaking occurs.  You can reach his full statement here!  This is a great day to be a RAM, one we all should be proud of!  http://president.colostate.edu/campus-messages/2012-10-1-stadium.aspx

Rumors are swirling, newspapers are reporting, and fans are speculating that today is the day that Tony Frank publically makes his decision with regards to moving forward with a new on-campus stadium.  Reports are indicating that he will agree to move forward assuming that a certain $ amount of money is committed and in the bank.  No word on what the magic dollar amount is but one could reasonable assume it’s in the $130M-150M range.  I think this is a fair amount as all along we’ve been saying that this stadium would primarily be financed through donations.

There is a press conference at 1:30 MST where Dr. Frank will make his announcement.  No word on if this announcement is public or private and we’ll keep you posted.

GO RAMS!

The summer is rapidly coming to an end and BeBold needs your help.  Tuesday July 31st 5pm at the East Ballroom of  the Lory Student Center
is the public stadium discussion hosted by Tony Frank.  Members of the public will be allowed to ask questions, comment, and engage in conversation with Tony regarding the on-campus stadium.  We need a lot of supporters there to show Tony just how much support there is for the stadium and we’ll also hand out the remaining BeBold yard signs.

Then on Thursday August 9th at 7pm in the Lory Student Center will be the final Stadium Advisory Committee Meeting.  Tony Frank will be there as well.  The committee will be presenting their final findings and then the decision will lie solely in his hands.  We don’t have a timetable for him to make his decision but we expect it to to come relatively quickly.

We can count on many stadium opposition members to be at the July 31st event so it’s imperative that BeBold have a big showing.  We’d like everyone who attends (either event) to wear yellow and show that we are united in our support.  This is it folks, we’ve done just about everything we could do, so let’s finish strong and make very effort to attend at least one of these events if not both.  We feel the July 31st event is probably more important than the August 9th event but we suspect that Tony Frank knows he’ll be hammered by the SOS’ers.  We’re confident that Tony will make the best decision for CSU and that means making the unprecedented decision that will elevate the entire university to a level of national prominence that we have never seen.   Regardless of the decision we can be proud that that the entire RamNation came together to rally around a cause that we all truly believe in.

BeBold!

Great article in the Denver Post today about why there is no turning back on the stadium now.  We have to build it!  BeBold!

FORT COLLINS — They’re building it.

Realistically, they now have no choice.

While discussing whether to move forward with construction of an on-campus football stadium, Colorado State president Tony Frank and athletic director Jack Graham have been blunt about the deficiencies of Hughes Stadium. They have so criticized the 44-year-old off-campus stadium, they have dealt death blows to its already suspect long-term viability.

With Frank expected to announce in August a “go” or “no-go” decision on the on-campus project, debates over whether Hughes Stadium is redeemable now are pointless. In the wake of this very public discussion, new CSU football coach Jim McElwain will have no credibility recruiting to Hughes as anything other than the place where the Rams could gloriously set the stage for a new stadium’s opening.

When I spoke with him recently in his office, andwrote about his views, Frank labeled the open talk about the existing stadium the “genie out of the bottle” element.

When I also met with Graham recently, he was even more decisive about Hughes’ inadequacies, primarily its off-campus location but also the likely staggering cost of maintaining and upgrading it to the first-class facility he and Frank covet. None of that is shocking, considering Graham’s hiring as AD in late 2011 came after he visited Frank as an alumnus and retired successful businessman, offering to lead the fundraising campaign for an on-campus facility, now estimated to cost $246 million.

This also isn’t a case of Frank and Graham letting their guards down and then wishing they hadn’t said what they’ve said. I’m convinced they know they won’t be believed if they later attempt to spin it as forgettable campaign rhetoric. Most important, though, and to their considerable credit, they’re telling us what they think.

“I think it’s really difficult to achieve this kind of excellence we’re talking about with the kind of facility we have 4 miles off campus,” Graham said.

I pointed out that Hughes Stadium didn’t scare off a young recruit quarterback named Jack Graham in 1973.

“It was 5 years old,” he said. “It had a press box. I wasn’t able to connect the dots between on-campus vs. off-campus. I thought it was a cool facility. But that was 40 years ago. … For me to pull punches and say, ‘It’s OK, having an on-campus stadium is not an indispensable component to solving our problems’? I can’t say that. I think it’s at the core of solving our problems.”

The new stadium would include an alumni welcome center and other attractions. It would be funded through private donations and borrowing against predictable future revenues. The on- or off-campus stadium discussion dates back many years, including when CSU president William Morgan was the major voice in the decision to build Hughes to the west of campus. It moved to the forefront again after then-AD Paul Kowalczyk last year asked the retired Graham, then a Boulder resident, to donate additional money for renovation of the Hall of Fame room in Moby Arena.

“I’m kind of a people pleaser. I’m not good at saying no,” Graham said. “I said no. I said no because I had this strong feeling that we were playing around the edges. Why are we going to fix up a Hall of Fame room when we were on our way to our third successive 3-9 football season? I was just flat-out grumpy. … We all hate to lose. That’s a given. I don’t like to lose any more than anybody else does. It was more my view that the athletic department and more specifically our football program was taking down the reputation of our university.”

Graham told me that he and friends had a “boys football weekend” tradition, making visits for golf and college games across the country. Each on-campus experience reminded him that attending CSU games involved no reconnection with his alma mater’s campus. Explaining his refusal to contribute to the Hall of Fame project, he told Kowalczyk that an on-campus stadium would be “a difference maker.”

When he told Frank the same thing, and said he would lead the fundraising campaign, the school president pondered and came back to Graham with a question: How would you like to be athletic director? They shared the view that a successful football program ultimately can help CSU — which recently completed a $500 million general fundraising campaign — draw out-of-state students, combating the disappearing funding for higher education from the state of Colorado.

They can’t take back what they’ve said. They can’t turn back.

Read more:Terry Frei: CSU has no good choice but to build new football stadium – The Denver Posthttp://www.denverpost.com/frei/ci_21033791/terry-frei-csu-has-no-good-choice-but#ixzz208ZaeClX
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