OU Builds Luxury Dorm for Athletes

[pringlelake]

If luxury residence halls are the next front in college sports’ arms race, Oklahoma may have topped Calipari’s standard. In July, the university opened Headington Hall, which is across from the Sooners’ Memorial Stadium. The $75 million, six-story structure houses 380 students, including 180 athletes, in two- and four-bedroom suites.

Among the amenities: a game room, a media lounge, a 75-seat theater and the Sam Bradford Training Table, named for the former Heisman Trophy-winning Sooners quarterback who donated $500,000 to the project.

Another former Oklahoma star, running back Adrian Peterson, kicked in the same amount for the hall as part of his $1 million gift to the university. The hall is named for Dallas billionaire Tim Headington, a former Oklahoma tennis letter winner who donated $10 million to the project.

Previously, Oklahoma athletes were spread across three dorms, including two that opened in the 1940s.

“This is not about largesse,†Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione said. “It was born out of need. We wanted to improve our situation, and I don’t think you wouldn’t do it in a first-class way if you had the chance.â€

It’s one thing to trick out a football or basketball facility, where players train and prepare for practice. Oregon’s new $68 million Casanova Center includes a barbershop. At Alabama’s football facility, a hydrotherapy room includes four waterfalls. Tennessee’s new $45 million center includes a mixed martial arts fighting cage.

It’s another thing to upgrade where players will put their heads on a pillow. Sooners wide receiver Sterling Shepard had considered living off campus his sophomore year. But he ended those thoughts when he saw Headington Hall.

“It doesn’t get much better than this,†Shepard said during a media tour last summer. “You have everything you could want in this building.â€

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2014/01/18/4761752/upscale-athlete-housing-is-the.html#storylink=cpy

 

[monarch]

...trust me pringlelake, this theme has definitely been touched upon...

upon my past threads, i have duly commented upon many of the outstanding newly updated as well as state of the art facilities, that many colleges vs universities are starting to unveil. i for one, simply can not understand... that how upon the mighty hand of deloss dodds, was texas allowed to fall so far behind the other major universities upon this construction boom aspect.

the university of texas is a collegiate behemoth. and yet many of our most notable and highly recognizable facilities seem dated and obscured, in lieu of other major universities.

trust me, as anyone knows... today's recruits are highly vulnerable and prone to "glamour" and "sensationalism". texas, simply has to stay abreast with the major player's, are else run the risk of falling short of major recruits. don't believe me... take a good look at alabama vs oregon's new facilities. awe inspiring. and then we have the audacity to sit back and wonder why they get the best recruits. simply not "rocket science".

 

[littlejon82]

Well yeah, but at the end of the day they're still living in Norman.

 

[lakeman74]

The Sam Bradford Training Table comes with a lifetime supply of shoulder slings too.

 

[aowells]

I'm surprised they haven't included a pistol shooting range and soundproof rape room.

 

[Sirhornsalot]

...trust me pringlelake, this theme has definitely been touched upon...
upon my past threads, i have duly commented upon many of the outstanding newly updated as well as state of the art facilities, that many colleges vs universities are starting to unveil. i for one, simply can not understand... that how upon the mighty hand of deloss dodds, was texas allowed to fall so far behind the other major universities upon this construction boom aspect.

the university of texas is a collegiate behemoth. and yet many of our most notable and highly recognizable facilities seem dated and obscured, in lieu of other major universities.

trust me, as anyone knows... today's recruits are highly vulnerable and prone to "glamour" and "sensationalism". texas, simply has to stay abreast with the major player's, are else run the risk of falling short of major recruits. don't believe me... take a good look at alabama vs oregon's new facilities. awe inspiring. and then we have the audacity to sit back and wonder why they get the best recruits. simply not "rocket science".

It would be interesting to see a run down of our facilities and how they compare elsewhere. Paging Randolph Duke . . .

 

[Davharjac]

Look..guys when I got a new coach he moved everyone on campus too, after a while the coaches moved all the aths into the nicest apt on campus. I trust that Coach Strong has addressed this issue and there will either be a new residence or some serious touch ups.

 

[pringlelake]

I am getting a bit concerned. I can't find the article now, but I recall that Aggie has done something similar for their athletes....perhaps not a dorm but apartments of some type?? Now Oklahoma building the luxury dorms. It would seem to me that those, like OU, that have such dorms can calculate monthly "rent" however they want, "charge" for it and then reimburse the players out of this new "cost of attendance" fund.

If Charlie is going to force all the players back into dorms...believe me....we better get off our ass and get something like this started. Having said that, I admit that I don't know squat about what our athletic dorms are really like. Have they done super renovations?

 

[Tulsahorn]

...trust me pringlelake, this theme has definitely been touched upon...
upon my past threads, i have duly commented upon many of the outstanding newly updated as well as state of the art facilities, that many colleges vs universities are starting to unveil. i for one, simply can not understand... that how upon the mighty hand of deloss dodds, was texas allowed to fall so far behind the other major universities upon this construction boom aspect.

the university of texas is a collegiate behemoth. and yet many of our most notable and highly recognizable facilities seem dated and obscured, in lieu of other major universities.

trust me, as anyone knows... today's recruits are highly vulnerable and prone to "glamour" and "sensationalism". texas, simply has to stay abreast with the major player's, are else run the risk of falling short of major recruits. don't believe me... take a good look at alabama vs oregon's new facilities. awe inspiring. and then we have the audacity to sit back and wonder why they get the best recruits. simply not "rocket science".

Have you looked at any of the football facilities at Belmont?

 

[Topstarr]

Build it and they will come.

 

[Lord Vader]

Id touched on this in another thread, but where do you build something like this in Austin? The University is landlocked. What goes down to put this up?

 

[Sirhornsalot]

Id touched on this in another thread, but where do you build something like this in Austin? The University is landlocked. What goes down to put this up?

Obviously, you'll have to build on top of something or move some things to accommodate such a new structure.

 

[alonghorn72]

It also comes with lifetime free test drives at Big Red Motors and free coats from Burlington.

 

[bbdude]

The days of building and renovation followed by stagnation are done for college football programs. You must always be building onward and upward because if you aren't, your competitor will be. Aggy has a megaplex being reconstructed, Baylor has a new piece of artwork being developed.... You must always be looking at ways to grow in every aspect.

 

[Dos Horns]

You could take down the San Jac garage and go vertical. Anyway, they need to do it somewhere close and do it right now, along with getting rid of that darn bubble. Cannot imagine what the hold up has been - surely Patterson has planning underway.

 

[Randolph Duke]

It would be interesting to see a run down of our facilities and how they compare elsewhere. Paging Randolph Duke . . .

The question is how do you compare various facilities? As I stated in an earlier post, the book value of UT athletics facilities is slightly above $290 million (Book value being construction cost, less debt, less depreciation). The value of the athletics facilities at OU are roughly $190 mil and those of aggy are roughly $105 mil. Texas has clearly outspent other programs we compete against for recruits, and we are about to spend a significant amount on a new basketball facility and it remains to be seen what we do with the south end of the stadium and if it will be integrated into the new medical school being built on campus.

As of our latest NCAA financial reports, the book value of the overall physical facilities and equipment at UT-Austin are just under $2.5 billion (Aggy is under $1.4B and OU is just under $900MM.This is just the value of buildings and equipment, not land value). The initial funding for the on-campus med school is $500 million, so the investments being made on campus these days are significant. Just the addition of the med school represents an addition equal to over half the value of the entire campus of OU and over one third of the value of the entire campus of aggy. Even with aggy building its new stadium, the book value of their athletic facilities will be less than OU and far less than Texas'. We are obviously spending a ton of money on keeping up our athletics facilities.

NCAA rules restrict athletes-only dorms. The grant-in-aid offered to athletes prohibits any benefits not available to the overall non-athlete student population. The way the schools are getting around this rule is to build plush dorms that are only 49% athlete occupied. These aren't dorms built just for athletes. They are dorms built for athletes where a bunch of lucky students get to live in also.

I have no concerns whether Texas will continue to have quality facilities. We have a couple of major facilities related issues to deal with at the moment, those being the basketball facility and the south end of DKR. Thankfully, Steve Patterson has dealt with a number of facilities issues (Including the Toyota Center and Reliant Stadium in Houston) so we are probably in good shape. We are running budget surpluses every year upwards of $20 mil and our debt coverage isn't an issue, so we still have plenty of borrowing capacity. If we wanted, we could probably spend upward of an additional $250 mil on facilities with no problem. This, in addition to the $62 million facilities upgrades that have already been approved (women's volleyball on the north end and other upgrades to Bellmont). We are carrying around $290 mil in debt that requires $17.6 million in debt service, so with our 2012-2013 surplus of $27.4 mil we could carry far more debt if we wanted to get aggressive.

We aren't falling behind. Far from it. In fact, we are widening the gap, just in ways that aren't obviously visible to most people. The article the OP posted mentioned Kentucky spending $7mil on a new basketball dorm and Kansas possibly spending $17.5. The article said OU was spending $74 mil on their new football dorm. If we wanted to, we could blow them out of the water and not even notice the difference on cash flow. This is a non-issue for us. I have no doubt Patterson will make sure our facilities are kept in good shape.

If you want a reference for the financial numbers for various schools, use this link. http://ope.ed.gov/athletics/GetOneInstitutionData.aspx

If you want a reference for the book value numbers you have to dig a little, but here is the easiest way to find the latest reports filed in Jan 2013. We will be getting new reports soon. the guy who wrote this article created a database you ban use to search for coaches contracts, shoe contracts and school financials filed with the NCAA. http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/blog/threads_and_laces/2013/12/database-nike-adidas-under-armour-ncaa.html

 

[CoachBobbyFinstock]

How Texas is behind on anything dealing with facilities is beyond me.

People should be chasing Texas.

Why have all this money if you never use it to your advantage?

 

[GetHooked]

Well yeah, but at the end of the day they're still living in Norman.

That one is hard to overcome.

 

[ATX89]

I thought we built new resident/dorm areas for the players at or near Jester recently along with the wide open pool area that we saw a few pics/videos on LHN when the coaches would take the team swimming there during the hot 2 a day practices.