Memorial Stadium Vs. Stanford Stadium (Public vs. Private) Issues Beyond Palo Alto, posted by Jim H., a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood, on Aug 28, 2012 at 11:50 am
The renovation of the UC Berkeley Memorial Stadium renovation cost $321M and took about 21 months. Stanford Stadium was torn down and rebuilt for $90M in 9 months.
Just a small example of what's wrong with the state and the UC system.
Posted by Anon., a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, on Aug 28, 2012 at 12:21 pm
This is a fairly clueless and unfounded conclusion used to attack the whole UC system.
I think the UC system should be attacked for the way it has managed both its responsibilities and the huge salaries it has continued to give and raise to those managers. Where can I sign up for a job where the worse job I go the more I get paid?
But no rational argument is given here to attack the UC system based on anything measurable, no realistic comparison is done to account for the differences between the two venues and the cost differential. Just a biased attack on something the poster doesn't show that he knows anything about.
All in all not a very thought out comment, or conclusion.
Posted by Gary, a resident of the Downtown North neighborhood, on Aug 28, 2012 at 3:26 pm
>The renovation of the UC Berkeley Memorial Stadium renovation cost $321M and took about 21 months. Stanford Stadium was torn down and rebuilt for $90M in 9 months.
Jim H. - Good post. You nailed a specific example that is both practical and emblematic of the problem. UC Berkely is committed to and paralyzed by the public unions; Stanford is not. This tells me that the UC Berkely budget can and should be cut in half, as a starting point. It will then be forced to abrogate its public union contracts...a very good thing for most of California citizens!
Posted by Gary, a resident of the Downtown North neighborhood, on Aug 28, 2012 at 5:54 pm
>Stanford Stadium's cost and speed = John Arrillaga.
True enough. Arrillaga is dynamic, determined and generous. However, he would never survive in the UC system, becasue it doesn't recognize, or celebrate guys like him. Stanford still does.
Just cut the UC budget in half, and make them earn what is left, which is still too much. Maybe they will end up giving Arrillaga a phone call, asking for his kind of help. They could learn a lot!
However, entrenched leftists are not about to do that, and we all know it.
Posted by Samuel, a resident of the Downtown North neighborhood, on Aug 29, 2012 at 12:04 pm
@ Anon: Are you looking for a complete breakdown of the numbers? The comparison is fairly basic. Two bay area football stadiums. One university decided to rebuild from scratch and spend $90, another university decided to retrofit and spent 3.5X the cost. Doesn't matter if the stadium was built on a fault line, or a volcano, or the moon, for that matter, there's no way the cost are that far out of whack.
Posted by Crescent Park Dad, a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, on Aug 30, 2012 at 12:32 pm
While a state monitored project, it should be noted that both the UC remodel/expansion and the Stanford Stadium projects are/were privately funded.
Mixing your funding/management criticisms with the other issues surrounding UCB isn't exactly a straight line.
Further - as pointed out above, the UC project was remodel/retrofit project, which also included the construction of a new athletic center...including new offices, weight rooms, locker rooms, classrooms, computer labs, etc.
Posted by Samuel, a resident of the Downtown North neighborhood, on Aug 31, 2012 at 8:53 am
Actually, "Crescent Park Dad", the money for the athletic center, which cost $150M, is ON TOP of the $321M for the stadium. So, Memorial Stadium vs. Stanford Stadium is $321M vs. $90M.
While the Cal project might have been planned to be privately funded, they have yet to reach their financial goal. That still puts public monies at risk.
The criticism is fairly straight. If the UC Regents are making poor financial decisions in one area, it's pretty certain that they're making them in other areas as well.
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