......, but they declined. This got me thinking that UNL should set up a visiting university and recruit hotel. Visiting teams would pay a slightly discounted comparable rate to area hotel. Offer catering, a juice bar, large banquet hall, and lounge. It would stream line visiting teams gameday logistics. Also while not in use by visiting teams or recruits it could be rented to visiting media, boosters, speakers, prospective students, and etc. Streamlining the visiting teams logistics might be a negative, but I think it’d be a goldmine. Opinions?
UNL offered Akron dormitory housing and breakfast
- Thread starter red-one21
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What do you do in the off-season and away games? The idea is to have full occupancy. Don't really want to compete against the private sector. Don't think it would be good pr.
My opinion is everyone should move on.
Exactly. Nobody is really at fault. It was an act of god and it really sucks they didn't play, but it is what it is. Heck, even Frost said Monday that he didn't blame Akron for not wanting to use the dorms. Everyone just wants someone to be mad at. Were there mistakes made? Yeah, I'm sure there were things that could have been handled better. Moos said he should have gotten in front of the press instead of issuing a statement. It happened and it's time to move on. Let's go kick the crap out of Colorado.
While this is a valid point, is it much different than Memorial Stadium, which is only used a handful of times each year?
It I don't think it would pay off, but it is worthwhile to look at as an operational cost to the program provides the benefit of not having to worry about a team not having accommodations.
The flipside is would an opposing team want to stay at a university-run facility?
EDIT: I'm sure they could find offseason uses for such facility when other events are in town, just ostensibly make it off limits around football games.
Not many hotels have full occupancy except during events. It’s a great idea and wonderful goal, but it’s not a feasible expection. All visitin sports teams would be using it, so the off-season wouldn’t be as long as you are probably thinking. I think yearly overhead would easily be covered by the football home games. The point wouldn’t be to compete with the railyard hotels, it’d be to offer more affordable lodging in close proximity to the university for those visiting the university for university purposes. The rooms wouldn’t be offered to the public.
I swear I saw somewhere that a school is looking into building a hotel near their stadium and that boosters can pay a fee/donation and then have first rights to hotel rooms on game weekends. I thought I saw that the donation was $100,000, but I can't find the article.
I have moved on, the cancelled game and empty dormitories just make me think that those empty dormitories could be used for something. I was just seeing an opportunity, not dwelling on the past. Sorry you took it as whining about the cancelled game b/c that certainly wasn’t the intention.
I had a similar thought over the weekend. But I can tell you as a passive investor/owner of a couple hotels, I don’t think it’s worth the millions the University would need to invest to not only build it but maintain it. If it’s not a for profit hotel it’s just not going to pencil out from an ROI standpoint. And honestly we’ve had 1 canceled game in 75 years, I hardly think that’s worth a multi-million dollar investment
Additionally as someone else pointed out, do you really want to compete with the private sector here? Not to mention the tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars that go to the city of Lincoln in the form of room revenue tax that the city would lose by such a building. Not worth the negative PR or the initial and ongoing dollar investment.
I think a privately run entity with perhaps a contracted rate negotiated with the school for visiting teams (all sports) and boosters would be a good idea. Boosters and visiting teams get first room rights, and any unfilled rooms could probably be sold to the general public at a premium. Then the same rooms could be offered to the general public during the off season, or at lower occupancy seasons. It wouldn’t be able to have any direct ties to the university, but hotels negotiate lower contracted rates with businesses all the time. No reason it can’t happen with a University. The problem becomes locking other Universities into that contact. The negotiated rate would be with the University of Nebraska, who “recommend” the hotel and the reduced rate to an incoming team, but if that university chooses a different hotel... well. Free Market.
I think there would be plenty of demand ranging from boosters, visiting teams, members of the media, prospective students, athletic and academic recruits, job fair vendors, and university guest speakers. Making sure these people have a logistically positive experience while visiting will make them more likely to return. The media will be more likely to view the university/team in a positive light. They’d probably have to add a controlled access bar for boosters and media.
Plenty of room in the Bobfather arena, just break out the sleeping bags and order Runza's and pizza for breakfast!
I don’t understand what the negative PR would be. The city wouldn’t lose anything as every hotel that would fill would be filled regardless. Western Omaha hotels might take a hit. Lincoln already can’t meet demand for large events.
Not to burst your bubble but what you’re talking about is a full scale economic development project complete with lodging and entertainment for a niche market. Essentially you’re talking about a small scale Rail Yard for visiting teams boosters, media, etc. That’s exactly what places like the Rail Yard are for. It’s unfortunate that it’s not located closer to the stadium, but it is what it is. And the development cost on something like that is pretty huge. The university won’t do it, especially if you incorporate a bar. It would take private investment, and then you’re really no different than the Rail Yard because you’re not going to limit your investment to just boosters, visiting teams, and media.
I really only have an issue with it if they get/got paid the full $1.7 mil or whatever the number was. If not, then whatever, but if you get paid $1,700,000 and the host university is willing to bend over backwards to make the game happen, play the darn game.
I think it would be just as wise to just put a roof over the stadium and call it good, no need to worry about sold rooms or competing with the public or the elements... win win I say
Every person that stays there takes money out off the economy. It will lose money. That makes a lot of sense when we're cutting budgets.
Good idea. I’m actually surprised that it’s not already done that way. Although the hotel would probably have to be an outlier of downtown b/c no privately run entity would pass up high demand rates when they would fill regardless. Another problem there is they’d still have to load up for travel if they aren’t already on campus.
Not if it’s a university hotel. You’re original post said that UNL should build a hotel for visiting teams and recruits. Essentially that’s not a hotel. It’s a glorified dormitory. They could charge a room rate to the visiting teams, but by doing that you’re taking away from local privately owned hotels. And again, I don’t think the limited market you’d be building said hotel for would justify the cost. You would at some point have to open to a wider market and the question becomes can Lincoln support such a hotel? Sure Lincoln sells out rooms every Friday and Saturday during football season. But that’s 8-9 weekends a year. What do you do for the other 43-44 weeks a year? That’s a big investment for a building that is going to sit with more open rooms than not for 8-9 months a year.
I knew they shouldn't have demolished Cather/Pound...
I live in KC so I don’t know the Lincoln economy or tax revenues, but they wouldn’t a hit to room revenue tax on the chin. They will make the money somewhere either in the form of increased property tax or sales tax, or both.
There used to be a hotel run by the university on East campus. The football team stayed there the night before games and then they rented it out kinda like the op has suggested. There's a reason why we don't do that anymore.
And that's fair to the taxpayer how? That's why I said it's bad PR. Let the private sector handle it. This was a freak case.
It would not lose money and city tax revenue wouldn’t change much as demand is already not filled. What budgets are you referring to, city or university? Which hotels revenue do you believe stays in the city? Corporate hotels would be the only one to take a descent hit and that’d be in the former of slightly lower rates. No other market would take a hit.
My only comment on the matter is that while Terry Bowden and the team elected not to play, Bobby Bowden would have quickly accepted the offer and they would’ve been playing on Sunday. And he would have publicly said they wanted to play and were willing to do whatever to get that game in.
Exactly. You can collect your revenue from visiting teams, boosters, media, etc in the form of room tax or you’re formed to raise taxes on locals. No one is going for the latter so charge your out of town guests. Every city does it and it’s a major revenue boost for cities and counties.
If you are going to build a hotel as you originally stated and at a discounted rate for visiting teams etc and not a hotel for the public, I guarantee you will lose money. If plan to not lose money you will need higher occupancy which you are now competing against the private sector. BAD idea.
University is and has to cut costs. If you are to have a big banquet hall, that's pretty expensive real estate if you don't have weddings and conventions.
Bobby was a man and if he was coaching Florida St, I’d agree. However, Idk if he would’ve played it if he was coaching Akron. I would’ve done the same if Akron is or thought they were getting payed regardless if they played. They’re just here for the check.
Not yet. From line #9 in the contract it appears we’re only liable for Akron’s incurred costs from the trip. However, I think that’s only if the game hadn’t started and there was a kickoff. So maybe they try to use that in negotiations, but I’d counter that if it was postponed then have to finish it.
I count 90 days filled just between football, track, baseball, vball, softball, and wrestling tournaments. There conferences, job fairs, large scale recruiting weekends, and etc that would bring heavy travelers as well. It wouldn’t just be sitting vacant 44 weeks out of the year.
Agreed. If there is no 12th game with akron you can go either way. Pay them and deduct the$1M penalty netting them 170,000, or not pay them and reimburse their expenses..... which would probably be in the 170000 neighborhood. 6 one half a dozen the other.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that railyard wasn’t built with visiting teams in mind. I doubt a coach wants a bar district surrounding the hotel. That district is for the fans and the sole reason I hypothesized about such a project. My suggestion wasn’t to do some big developement to compete with the railyard. It was to remodel an empty dormitory that already exists and to utilize this empty space. 1-2 million for the remodel.
This will never happen again...planning for this is a huge waste of time. It is like me planning for my threesome...you can't plan it...you just gotta hope it happens.
There is a reason that most every team visiting stays in Omaha. That would not change even if the university did have a unit like the one talked about in this thread!
