“Over there is the Casazza water fountain…”
June 5, 2008 by Mike Casazza(I probably won’t have time to devote a post to this before the press conference happens, but Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese will announce retirement plans today. No need to go into great detail here about what he’s done for and meant to the conference. It’s obvious and should be written with deservedly more detail. Replacements? I’ll throw a name out: Dan Gavitt. Going out on a limb, yes? Anyhow, this is likely the only post of a busy day, but I think we can have some fun. I know you won’t let me down.)
WVU’s life as a self-sustained athletic department can be tricky. Finances typically depend upon gifts and donations and those are frequently linked to success on the field/court. Imagine going through life when you have to generate your income.
That said, WVU has been very good at keeping things afloat. Oh, there’s been a little luck with massive donations from the Mike Puskars and Jo and Ben Statlers of the world willing to hand out millions, yet the WVU Foundation and the Mountaineer Athletic Club have been very creative and ambitious in getting out there and securing the gifts and donations needed to get projects going.
And so it is that we look at the new basketball practice facility, which is going to cost around $25 million. Donations and gifts are rolling in, but there is a pretty cool way to generate additional resources for the project. You.
Sharp said money would not come from other areas, like increased tickets sales.
“The intent all along has been to raise all the funds for the building,†he said. “We think there’s going to be a building at the end of our set of plans. We don’t want just a nice set of plans.â€
Of great benefit to the project is what Sharp called “endless opportunities†for naming rights within the practice facility. The building will have, among many things, a basketball court for both the men’s and women’s teams, offices for both sets of coaches, locker rooms for both teams, an equipment room, a weight room, a training room, an athletic training area and a doctor’s examination area.
Well, seeing as if WVU has accepted small tokens in the past — one of my all-time favorite pieces of propaganda — and Sharp did say endless opportunities, we could assume that any reasonable item may bear one’s name for a price. So let’s have some ideas. I’ll get it started…
> The Rich Rodriguez Rear Exit (double entendre!)