0:00

Well, the old gal on tenth and Vine, now in her second century,

0:04

remains Nebraska's enduring debutante. Everybody wants to build her up, slim her

0:09

down, give her a new dress, put fresh makeup on her face.

0:12

She has nearly two million friends. We think about her all the time.

0:16

New Husker Athletics director Troy Dannins inherited her on the brink of an extreme makeover.

0:22

She was in the bututitian's chair when trev Alberts left for Texas. A

0:25

and M. Alberts had launched a six hundred million dollar Memorial Stadium renovation.

0:31

Price tag was so high even his eighty one million dollar projected net profit for

0:36

fiscal twenty twenty five was only good for a portion of the price tag.

0:41

He hired a lobbying firm to ask state senators for one hundred million forgetting Nebraskans,

0:47

already pump over one billion of their tax money a year into the U.

0:53

Albert's vision was far broader than wider leg room and bigger bathrooms, much

0:58

more than a gathering place on fire afternoons. His Memorial Stadium would be a

1:03

giant at m year around events there, bars and restaurants, on site,

1:08

high priced condos rising above the field, so the craziest of our fans would

1:14

never have to leave. He saw volleyball matches in there, tractor pulls,

1:19

AA conventions. The business of Big Red would go from sports to food and

1:23

beverage, entertainment, even a game room if you'd like to place a friendly

1:27

wager on football or anything else. Anticipating the day when the courts would force

1:33

the universities to share game day money with the players, which maybe this Thursday,

1:38

Alberts was planning on a revenue stream. He wouldn't have to share Dannin's

1:42

prefers. Somebody else be in the business of commercial real estate development. He's

1:47

sticking to sports. Thank you, announced a major redo of the redo,

1:53

the South Stadium will now not be imploded and rebuilt. Instead, Dannin's plan

1:57

is to upgrade her flanks, turn the East and West stadiums into rodeo drive

2:04

chair back seats, cup holders for beers, maybe some loge rows that include

2:09

a weight staff, better park in the hol Shmeir. What does that mean

2:13

for the current residence? Nothing? If you're willing to pay a lot more

2:16

to stay. No more Grandpa's seats at Grandpa's prices to sit there, you

2:23

or somebody else will pay, So why now? Why not wait until Husker

2:27

football is back to relevance. Dannin's, like Alberts, is planning on a

2:30

big new budget item called revenue share and this will cover that the revenue jump

2:37

should come with a new and improved Big ten, better games in there,

2:39

which makes us more inclined to keep the seats. Throw in a little hope,

2:44

I hope Nebraska gets back into the top ten, which will make my

2:47

seats golden. Really only about one big issue remains, and that is the

2:52

students. If you move them and the band out of the East Stadium to

2:55

make room for big checks, where do they Gobert's had a plan to put

3:00

them in a rebuilt South end zone. What about the folks sitting there now?

3:05

How many of them will fork over a lot to move. Somebody isn't

3:08

going to be happy with any decision. But student participation is extremely important,

3:14

and the students at Nebraska have been discouraged to attend Husker games for decades,

3:20

started with Bill Byrne who forced them to include a picture ID with the student

3:23

ticket, effectively ending the decades old practice of ticket profiteering saw student attendance drop

3:30

from a high eighteen thousand student season tickets in the early eighties to eight thousand

3:36

today, and exing out the students means you are risking the next generation of

3:39

donors. Remember, the single biggest tug at a purse string connects to the

3:45

heart sitting in the stands, transports us back to when we once did in

3:50

school. Burne's explanation at the time was we need the money. Funny,

3:53

that's exactly behind Danin's motivation thirty years later, and try as we might to

3:59

change the old lady. Money was the reason she was even born one hundred

4:02

and one years ago