More details on the massive waste of money by the UW on Husky Stadium.

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For the first time since I was commissioned back in 81, I attended a football game in Husky Stadium this season... two to be precise, a loss to one of the Arizona schools and a win over UCLA.

I will be going to see their first game next season, against my other alma mater, Eastern Washington on Sept. 3.

And that will be the last game I ever see at Husky Stadium.

The University of Washington is going to waste $250 million on turning Husky Stadium into a professional football venue that isn't needed. And then, they are going to stick it to the students with horrific ticket price increases that many will not be able to afford.

The result?

Husky track will be relegated to 3rd world status as the track is removed. I've heard nothing about where they will move to... or if there will even be Husky track in the future.

There is another allegedly public-owned stadium just down the street, so to speak, known as Qwest Field. There is no reason why the Huskies can't move their entire football game operation to that already paid-for facility and play there permanently like they will be playing there for a third of next season and all of 2012.

It already has all the crap these rich aristocracy wants. It's state of the stadium art. When, for example, the Apple Cup is played there, UW/WSU will be splitting $2.4 million in profits...

For one game.

As a one season walkon who never rose above tackling dummy status in Spring Ball back in the day, I have an affinity for Washington Football. Born in Seattle, I heard about it all of my life... watched Jim Owens-led teams, reveled through Don James, Jim Lambright and pondered the fascinating tenure of Trickey Rick.

I bled through the recent 0-12 season, making the Huskies statistically the worst team in the United States.

And over the past few years, I watched the greediest members of the Tyee Club try and stiff the taxpayers to built their luxury suites at a horrific cost... only to finally admit they had the money laying around and they they could write a check for the whole works, more or less.

But they are not paying for it. They are making, among others, the students pay for it... when it's already been paid for.

Apparently, the rich who view Huskyville as their own personal fiefdom aren't really paying for this: they're lending out money to get it built and then forcing the students to pay that money back if they want to go to a game.

Obviously, they are fine with that. And some reading this will be fine with that as well. They'll indicate that students don't HAVE to go to a game. And that's true, as far as it goes. Except for one thing:

So get past the idea that we need to renovate Husky stadium. We don't.

Because in all of this, we can never lose sight of why we have college football in the first place.

It is first for the students; second for the student athletes, third for the community and fourth for the jock sniffers, aka the big shot Alum. And that duty to the students comes long before the "cold, hard business" nonsense the rag babbles about.

Football finances the rest of the athletic program there. I get that.

But what the rag is advocating is a move from a college athletic program to a huge, semi-pro level program, where the actual justification of college football... the students and the student athletes... are completely forgotten in a cloud of cash.

As it is now, Student season tickets average around $125... which seems like a reasonable cost. When this pig has completed it's non-student-focused lipsticking transplant, that cost goes up to as much as $900.

Is this where I point out that season ticket prices for the National Champion Eastern Washington University Eagles range from $25 per season... PER SEASON... for kids, to $90... PER SEASON.

This should not be about the Alumni.

This should be about the students. And imagine how many kids could be put through the UW if that $250 million was applied to tuition for the next several years.

As for the ticket projections, I'm reminded of another increase in a cost by the great State of Washington that seems to have provided $10,000,000 per month LESS revenue then they planned on... as people voted with their feet on the cigarette tax.... since they jacked that up as well.
In short, moving ticket prices to the stratosphere doesn't mean they'll get nearly the revenue they believe they will.

Huskyville's priorities are all screwed up. Add this to Romar's bizarre idea about wasting additional 10's of millions of dollars for a practice facility (What... the THREE basketball courts at Hec-Ed ain't enough?) and you have some serious reasoning that shows the UW should not be allowed to have their own tuition setting authority and more than an Oxy addict should have their own keys to a pharmacy.

Just sayin.
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