Football

UH receives concrete makeover

Before Robertson Stadium was demolished to give way to UH’s new $120 million football stadium, head coach Tony Levine would intentionally avoid the Cougars’ football facility when wooing recruits. He said the new stadium, which opens in August, has already helped UH in its recruiting endeavors.  |  Fernando Castaldi/The Daily Cougar

Before Robertson Stadium was demolished to give way to UH’s new $120 million football stadium, head coach Tony Levine would intentionally avoid the Cougars’ football facility when wooing recruits. He said the new stadium, which opens in August, has already helped UH in its recruiting endeavors. | Fernando Castaldi/The Daily Cougar

UH has a lot of renovation in its future.

At 45 years old, Hofheinz Pavilion is staged to undergo a $40 to $70 million renovation. Robertson Stadium, now reduced to rubble to make way for UH’s $120 million football stadium, boasted a rich history of catering to UH, the Oilers and Jack Yates High School. But Robertson, which stood for 70 years, didn’t have the capacity to house a football program that hopes to be taken seriously.

The aesthetically unappealing facilities affected the Cougars’ competitiveness on the field, said head football coach Tony Levine.

“When we had Robertson Stadium … and when we’d bring recruits in on visits, we’d tour our athletic facility, we’d tour the campus and we’d tour the city of Houston. We did not bring them to the stadium,” Levine said.

So UH has taken steps to make its facilities more competitive with its peers. By 2015, the majority of the University’s athletic facilities will have been either built or renovated within the previous three years.

UH makes a financial commitment
On top of Hofheinz’s renovation and the still-unnamed football stadium, the golf program enjoyed an upgrade when the Dave Williams Golf Academy at Redstone Golf Club opened in 2012. Women’s volleyball facilities will benefit from the $20 million basketball practice facility, and UH has partnered with the Zina Garrison Foundation to invest roughly $6 million into designing and building a new on-campus practice facility for the tennis team.

Aesthetic appeal aside, such construction is a massive undertaking for the University. With the commitment to improve its facilities, there have been many high-cost eggs placed in the basket of UH Athletics — hundreds of millions of dollars, in fact.

“From a University perspective, if we stay within our means, college sports can be an effective and efficient way to instill pride, expand recognition and support the overall objectives of the University,” said President Renu Khator.

Students chip in too
In February 2012, a referendum passed in a landslide to increase student fees by $90 annually per student, with the increase in fees being targeted specifically at improving UH’s athletics facilities. Almost 74 percent of the voting student body approved the amendment. A record 9,923 students participated in the poll — whether for or against the referendum, it struck a chord.

“There were so many people who said that it won’t happen — ‘You’ll never be able to build a brand new stadium,’ or ‘There’s no way you’ll be able to raise enough money to do that type of project,’” said Athletics Director Mack Rhoades.

The planned effects of renovations and improvements are increased national visibility, a surge of school pride and national respect.

Attracting talented players
These renovations also have had a dramatic effect on UH’s recruiting prospects, a needed investment in athletics after UH moved into the American Athletic Conference, which provides higher exposure to the program with more games on ESPN.

“Without question, (the improvement of athletics facilities) affects recruiting prospects. The new football stadium … not only has it helped recruiting for our football program, but it’s helped recruiting for the University of Houston in general,” Levine said.

A study conducted by Galain and published by Forbes measured the most important factors considered by a recruit when choosing a university. Recruits ranked the perception of athletics facilities as the fourth most important, mere fractions of a point behind the university’s academic reputation, the student’s parents’ perception about the school and the relationships with assistant coaches.

Aesthetics and functionality
As UH seeks to become a formidable opponent in athletics, Levine said he believes it’s critical for UH to invest in things that catch a student athlete’s eye — much of which, Levine said, is visually based.

“When you understand that a young man that’s coming to the University of Houston is also going to visit 10 or 12 other schools and seeing their facilities, you want to at least be able to compete in terms of facilities,” Levine said.

It’s not just the aesthetics of a facility that’ll keep student athletes coming back. An athletic program’s longevity also depends on the quality of the facility you’re showcasing.

Johnathan Dismuke, director of golf for UH’s men’s and women’s programs, testifies to both the visual and functional appeals of his “world-class facility” as having strengthened his world-renowned golf program.

“You have to have great facilities. If you want to have a great program, you have to be able to train and develop, and facilities are a huge part of that,” Dismuke said.

“College athletics is a cyclical business; you turn players over every four years, so the development aspect over that time is crucial.”

Given the ever-evolving nature of the business, athletics programs are faced with a critical task of keeping themselves visually and functionally competitive, all while remaining in a tightly constrained budget.

UH’s budget for athletics in 2013 was $43.5 million, according to the Fiscal Year 2013 Plan and Budget. Meanwhile, Louisville gained a $68.8 million athletics budget, and the University of Texas athletics budget skyrocketed to $153.5 million last year.

“Look at who we’re competing against … both in the state of Texas and also in our conference. We need to be on an equal playing field,” Rhoades said. “Right now, we’re not.”

“It’s not even a choice (to improve our facilities),” Rhoades said. “It’s a must.”

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2 Comments

  • Our athletic budget is just too low at $43.5 million. It needs to double for us to be a key player in the NCAA. But I have no idea where the money comes from.

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