UAB Discussion
 

UAB needs a thread for news and discussions about its future.
A Snapshot of UAB now:

UAB on Google Maps.

From UAB's Website:

Robust Economic Impact

Over four decades, UAB's strong partnership with its community has led to the economic revival of Birmingham, from a primarily steel and manufacturing-based economy to a thriving one based on healthcare, finance and other service industries. UAB's tremendous economic impact continues to grow, as the university works with Birmingham Business Alliance towards the aims of Blueprint Birmingham--and other organizations such as Operation New Birmingham, the Alabama Development Office, the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama-- to spur synchronous growth and development for the city, state and region.

UAB's economic impact on Alabama:

UAB currently has an annual economic impact exceeding $5 billion, which is projected grow within the decade to $6.6 billion,
As the largest single employer in Alabama, UAB supports 61,025 jobs state-wide—that’s one of every 33 jobs.
$1 in every $25 in the state’s budget is generated by UAB.
The ROI on Alabama's investment in UAB is better than 20 to 1.

Concept of Future Campus
Its a few years old, but it gives you the idea.
http://www.uab.edu/plan/images/Maste...nge-Vision.jpg
Concept of Campus. UAB.edu

Photo of the West end of campus (University side via UAB's FB page.)
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...73468816_n.jpg

Some stress on growing even more. Via Al.com
UA Chancellor wants "aggressive growth" in student enrollment at UAB
By: Charles J. Dean


http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2012/11/..._river_default


So lets talk about this University that ate Birmingham.

NPR ran a story about the University of Louisville athletic program after their basketball program won the men's NCAA championship. UofL reminded a lot of UAB by the way it was described by the report. Newer, urban university contrasted and competing with the older flagship university. I think the leaders of UAB would do well to study what UofL has done to get to the position it is in today.

would love to see all that continuous development from UAB to Railroad Park. certainly the new stadium (and subsequent apartment developments) should help.

Indeed. Many similarities. One step to promoting UAB and helping it realize greater gains would be the formation of a BOT with equal representation. I wouldn't recommend holding your breath.

The BOT's makeup is constituationally-mandated and controlled by the Legislature, which is too busy with more important things, such as micromanaging the state Board of Education to worry about strengthening our educational infrastructure.

Ha. That about sums it up.

UAB today kicked off a fundraising campaign to raise $1 Billion for the development of its campus. To hire new people, to fund research projects, educational programs and build new facilities. I will look forward to seeing a whole new and larger campus in 10 years.

$1 Billion?! I guess Dr. Witt was serious when he said that he wants UAB to see the growth that Alabama has. Good luck!

And they want to raise that $1 billion by 2018. Surely they plan on launching this campaign to the World.

According to the Birmingham Business Journal $424 Million has already been raised during the private portion of the campaign, they want to have the rest by 2018.

But do they really want to play football? UA doesnt seem to want them too and blocks them from having a stadium. Playing at Legion Field doesnt seem to inspire the team or the fans especially when a high school might draw more fans. Maybe they should just pack it up and focus on basketball?

I did like that "our city our team" commercial they ran though...

That is a good question. Look at the University of Central Florida and the University of South Florida they are thriving in such a very short time. They must of had a large amount of start up cash and a lot of support all around. UCF started building a very nice stadium, I was totally blown away by that. I don't know what the game plan was when our football founding fathers started talking about football. We need lots of money and fans, some quality wins and I think we could over come any negatives from the BOT. There is a place in this big fund raising effort where Athletics can be supported, I intend to do that, hopefully it could be applied to football, I don't know how much time the football team has to get better because this new University president is a no nonsense guy and will pull the plug on football without a second thought.

I doubt he would ever pull the plug on football. The University may spend more money than it earns in the team, but the advertising the team's existence does is priceless.

As far as schools like UCF go, they're in rapidly growing cities in rapidly populating states that are home to countless potential benefactors. Birmingham is big enough to potentially push the team forward, but there just isn't the momentum behind the support that fresh citizens can bring. Maybe that'll change in the coming years, but at the moment it's just not there.

Don't get me wrong, I really really want UAB football to succeed, though I don't think an on campus stadium that has little to no partnership with the city is the best idea. I don't like the idea of potential redundancy if UAB gets a stadium and the BJCC builds the "multipurpose facility."

Thank you for the positive insight, I am surrounded at my job by Negative Nancys and I sometime reflect that, but I am hopeful for the future of UAB football.
I do hear bits and pieces about the BJCC's dome I have seen the rendering of it, but I have no idea how close or how far they are in getting it started, with ALDOT proposal to build a temporary alternative route for the bridge at I59-I20 right through the Dome site, it is at least 2-3 years away.
Hopefully the billion dollar fund raiser will yield some positive results for the Football team.

I don't see a UAB OCS and the BJCC MPF as linked/competing venues. Bartow Arena and the BJCC aren't competing and UAB needs control over the venues it uses. UCF played in a bowl-level stadium and decided to move on-campus. An OCS, by itself, won't be a panacea for UAB's football problems, but it will kill a few birds with one stone.

Birmingham needs the MPF for convention, bowl, and MC and Labor Day Classic events. While UAB just needs a venue closer to campus where the University can control it's scheduling and use.

More to the point of UCF is that they have over 60,000 students and are able to cover costs of most university programs through tuition increases.

Bottom line it will be all about the revenue, whats ours is ours and there's is there's. The city will no longer buy $900,000 worth of UAB tickets and UAB does not have to give up the concessions and parking revenue to the city.

I just don't think that cooperation between the city and UAB to build a stadium is contingent on the city receiving a lion's share of the revenue. If UAB's portion of the cost to build the facility is substantial enough, it would automatically have an important seat at the table. Also, it's not as if the revenue sharing, operations, ownership, etc... situation would automatically be the same with a new shared facility as it is currently with Legion Field. I just don't see how it would be impossible for UAB to successfully win priority scheduling, favorable concession revenues (for their home games if nothing else), and other things. Sure, at face value, it might look like an uneasy relationship with the city and the school bargaining for favorable revenue sharing, but these are the relationships the city and school have to be able to maintain if the city wants to continue the region's economic dominance in the state. UAB is an economic powerhouse, and Birmingham (BJCC, or whoever) would be be crazy if they allowed something as trivial as concession revenue or scheduling to taint a mutually beneficial relationship.

Of course, all of the above isn't even to mention the fact that support for the BJCC MPF (which is already pretty low among the public) would be diminished if UAB were to build an OCS by itself. Nothing will bring out an Alabama naysayer more than something they perceive to be redundant.

I just don't see why a partnership in this respect can't be an option (I say can't because I've heard no one mention it).

Hell, I think it'd be great if the facility were built in the same location UAB proposed for their OCS. The BJCC could just use the land set aside now for the MPF for additional convention space, the city needs more of it anyway. The gap created between this theoretical on-campus MPF would create an excellent spine for the first phase of a streetcar or light rail system that connects the BJCC, CBD, 20th St corridor, Railroad Park, Regions Field, and UAB without having to go out of the way at all.

Wow! you would make a great City Planner. And speaking on a partnership, the city could rebate about half of the occupation tax it now collects from UAB, which I think is substantial, to help with the fund raiser and lets get some that you stated started.

Well, that's what I've been hoping for.

I just don't see why any entity in the Birmingham area has to act on its own. Partnerships aren't always the answer, but some of them should be considered.

Well there is a history here that is partly or mostly to blame, but with good smart people like yourself we just may overcome it and take our place among the great cities we belong with.
Did you by any chance see the video of the UAB President's State of the University address? the one thing in particular that stood out to me was the rendering of the new dorm. I've seen a picture of it, it is suppose to be L shaped with a 8 story wing with about 700 beds and a smaller 4 story wing for office and multipurpose space, it sat right at the corner of 9th Avenue and 17th Street. But on his slide show, it showed a much larger foot print than the L shaped building. It stretched from 16th Avenue to 17th Avenue with a lot more landscaping. Perhaps it was just for effect or they are redesigning a larger building for the anticipated growth. I was under the impression they were going to start construction at the same time they started tearing down Hill center.