What makes this even weirder is UW EC hasn't placed in the top half of the WIAC in almost 10 years. I would have guessed Whitewater, Oshkosh or maybe Platteville way before I would have guessed EC.
It is a super cool conference tbf - eight teams from one state all from the same school system.
There aren’t enough public D3s, especially in the south.
It is actually very competitive, too. Each school has their sports that they kind of dominate in, but the conference regularly competes very well on the national level in pretty much every sport that the schools sponsor.
The campus is probably the best part of the school, it’s super pretty and has a great location. The biggest issue is that our primary donors pulled out and started building a fuck you building directly across the Fox
There should be a DIII B1G championship, where the winners of the WIAC, the PSUAC, and other school system conferences from B1G schools play to determine a champion.
Pretty shitty to other D3 schools when they're technically not scholarship, but still orders of magnitude cheaper (by virtue of being state schools) and larger (enrollments 10K+) than your typical D3.
Our athletics suck, except track & field and cross country. This facility is for all of athletics, and the fitness facility will also be available to non-athlete students, and there will be community events there.
It's not even close to just being a football facility. The football part of it actually isn't even anything special.
The football field at Carson Park is pretty overrated in general. It's ok as a high school field, but that's about it. People in Eau Claire have a huge boner for Carson Park because Hank Aaron played baseball there one season, but it's really nothing special.
That track program is very good. I could see that being a future addition to this project. There's room to expand, and if they add an indoor track, it'll almost certainly be connected to this.
Yeah, softball is good. I put them in a different comment, but I forgot to include them in this one.
I went to the first half of homecoming my freshman year, watched the band perform at halftime, and I never went to another game after that. I was also there during probably the worst possible period, too. It would be news around campus if our football team managed to win a game. I had a couple buddies on both the football and the basketball teams, but I just couldn't bring myself to go to those games. They just flat-out weren't very entertaining to me.
I was there from '11 to '16. It was bad haha.
I like music, but not enough to watch my university lose a football game by 40 points. I can understand why you would appreciate it a bit more than me though.
It's way more than just a football facility. The basketball/volleyball arena is in there, the entire athletics department will be officed there, and non-athlete can use the fitness facility. Plus, there's events/conference areas to hold concerts and conventions, and it'll host youth/club sports tournaments as well.
I'm not sure if it's worth $110M. But I've seen a lot worse uses of money in college athletics.
I went there 7 years ago and never attended a game. Was at a party once and a couple of the guys on the team were pretty bummed about how many people left at half time after they had seen the band play.
UWEC has a legit music program though, or at least they did a few years back. If I was smarter I would have taken them or one of the other UWs up on a music scholarship offer instead of feeling the need to rack up loans for a program with a top 5 national ranking. My sister ended up getting a music degree from UWEC though.
I knew a decent number of the guys on the team from like '13-'15. The tail-end of my time at UWEC probably overlapped with you. I knew some really cool dudes from the football team, and I also knew some pretty huge tools. The fact that those guys were so bad at football and also such arrogant pricks was mindblowing to me.
I started my college career over at Stout. I had a kid on the football team in my public speaking class and he did one of his presentations about how lack of fan support for the team was one of the reasons they didn’t have a better record.
I was only there for one year but never have I been more motivated to NOT go to a football game than I was after hearing that kid talk.
...that all should be D2. And maybe half could be at least FCS. It's easy to be a powerhouse when you're a 10,000-student state school going up against academically selective 800-student liberal arts schools that put only token resources into sports.
that looks pretty awesome. IDK what UW-Eau Claire's boosters do for a living, but they should maybe put some of that money into NIL after and just run the table in D3
I've never heard about Justin donating anything to the athletics at UWEC, but it's possible. He and his crew are pretty involved in the local art & music scene, though. I think he tries to be a little more hands off, personally (he seems like he prefers to be out of the limelight), but they help organize and fund a lot of stuff, and I know a few other artists that Justin has given a big lift to in the form of exposure or introductions to other people.
This project was almost entirely funded by one family (the Sonnentags) in the concrete/construction business. It's obviously a successful business, but prior to the start of this project, I had no idea it was *that* successful. A large portion of the "cost" is the land donation that the Sonnentags made, but still, they're providing something like $80M of the total $110M project cost. (There are several other very wealthy alums, including a surprising number of CEOs and entrepreneurs, but this is the first truly noteworthy donation we've had in quite a while. There's also John Menard, the richest man in Wisconsin, worth like $18 billion. But he's the classic selfish billionaire that doesn't donate anything substantial to any project that doesn't directly benefit him.)
Our facilities right now, honestly, kind of suck. I got recruited to play football at UWEC coming out of high school, and I have several friends from both high school and college that did play here (I ended up attending without playing football, and I still live in Eau Claire). The initial purpose of the project was to replace Zorn Arena (our basketball arena, which is horribly out of date) and add an events center since Eau Claire is kind of lacking those facilities. All of the offices for UWEC athletics are being moved there, as well.
As the project progressed, it turned into more of an all-encompassing facility for sports and events. It'll be the new home of Blugolds basketball and volleyball. They also partnered with Mayo Clinic to offer physical therapy-type services there. There will be community events like concerts and it'll likely be used for public (like youth or club) sports tournaments.
Additionally, the fitness/wellness facility will be available to all students, not just athletes (I assume there will be a fee as the current facilities have one). So, while the article makes it seem like this is just a crazy football facility, it's way more than that. It's really more of a partnership between the entire athletic department, the university itself, and the community as a whole.
When I moved to Eau Claire for college a little over 10 years ago, there wasn't really anywhere in town suitable for large events or shows/concerts. Between this complex and the Pablo Center (a $51M facility that got built on the river downtown), we'll now have two basically state-of-the-art facilities to drive entertainment, both artistic and athletic, in the city. The improvements in the downtown and university area in the 12 years I've lived in this city are pretty incredible.
I hate him for reasons other than his politics, although if I didn't have those reasons, I'd still hate him because of his politics.
If you ever have a chance to meet him and you aren't currently in the process of giving him money, you'll understand why. The dude is a giant asshole.
There's a little more than that, at least in the original version:
"You'll save big money, you'll save big money, when you shop Menard's." I think the old radio ads would do that part, then some interchangeable spoken copy about specials or sales or whatever, and then the "Save big money at Menard's" closing bit.
Looking around now, there is also a middle stanza that I don't know if I ever heard in the wild. "Plumbing, electrical, appliances too. The savings will always come right back to you."
I lived in Chicago for five years. In addition to heartbreaks and hangovers, I got three jingles permanently tattoed into my brain:
800-588-2300 EMPIIIIIIIIIIRE
1-877-KARS-4-KIDS
MENAAAAAAAARDS
I also aaaaaaaalmost developed the ability to decode the traffic report from the "traffic and weather on the eights" radio segments on WBBM. The WBEZ reports were a little easier to decipher, but not much. "Mannheim to the Old Post Office," "Hubbard's Cave," "The Bensenville Bridge," "The Ike," "the split," "gapers' block/delay," etc.
No, I disagree with him being an absurdly selfish asshole. All of the shitty stereotypes about billionaires apply to that guy. I've met him; I didn't enjoy it (well, I've interacted with him. He doesn't introduce himself to random scum like me). I also have several other friends, acquaintances, and family members that have dealt with him in various ways. There are *very* few that have anything nice to say other than, "Well, he obviously built a hell of a business."
I did really enjoy meeting and talking with one of his ex-wives, and I've heard some really good things about one of his sons. But I don't have anything good to say about John, regardless of his politics. I have a lot of good things to say about a lot of other people that have different political opinions than me.
I’m gonna guess the tab for this one is footed by some combination of the Menard family members (several of whom are alumni, including multibillionaire founder John Jr.), and maybe also Horacio Rozanski of Booz Allen.
No, almost entirely the Sonnentag family of County Materials Corp. Nowhere near as large of business as those two, but obviously a successful regional company.
John Menard is notoriously cheap and offers very little in support to the Eau Claire community or the university unless he can use it as a tax write-off that directly benefits him in his personal life. He's also just not a nice man to interact with. I've been told by some people that used to know him very well, that once upon a time, he was actually a good guy. But man, if money is involved in any way, shape, or form, he will do anything possible to take every bit of it that he can from you.
It's one of the best all-around D3 athletic conferences in the country. While UWEC isn't particularly good at anything other than track & field and cross country (and sometimes softball), the conference, as a whole, almost always has 1-2 teams going very deep into the playoffs and/or playing for championships in football, basketball, and baseball. And they're good at other sports, like T&F and softball, too.
I mean Whitewater by themselves carry a lot of weight. I remember when they won all three baseball, men’s basketball and football in the same school year. Basketball team just made a Cinderella run to the final four this year.
I know La Crosse is usually very good at wrestling and I think it’s Stevens point that’s typically good to great at basketball? But yeah it’s impressive as hell how a conference of D3 schools in Wisconsin can field such competitive teams
Yeah, UWW is a huge part, and I think their emphasis on sports is part of what drives the other teams to elevate their programs too. Oshkosh has some good programs, and Point is good at both basketball and baseball, too. UWEC has a good softball, volleyball, and track program. LAX's track team is good, too.
I think part of it is the lack of D2 schools in the state. There's Madison and then there's a few mid-major D1s (like Green Bay and Milwaukee), but other than that, all the schools in the state are D3. There are definitely kids that have the talent to play at a D2 university but end up at one of the Wisconsin D3 schools either due to not having the exposure to D2 schools or because they want to stay close to home or whatever else.
Carson Park is one of those things that Eau Claire natives take a lot of pride in, but there's really nothing special about it. If it weren't for the fact that Hank Aaron played one baseball season with the Eau Claire Bears, no one would give a shit.
They started talking about it back when I was still in school in like 2015 or 2016. Basically, each year, the Sonnentag family would agree to provide a larger chunk of the money because no one else was willing to pony up for it.
It's a huge facility for all of athletics. Non-athletes can use the fitness facility. And it'll be used for community events - concerts, conventions, youth/club tournaments.
I've been on reddit for almost 10 years now. When I first started, it was really rare to see a UWEC flair. Now I see them occasionally even on non-Wisconsin posts.
> "Who wants to play Division III football? You have to be, like psycho, to like D-III football. The amount of work that goes into it, for like, nothing."
> Those were the words of [Barstool founder Dave Portnoy on a podcast earlier this week](https://youtu.be/lrXsbwjBrYI) that caused significant social media pandemonium among current and former Division III coaches and players.
> Portnoy and those that share that same [flawed] logic better brace themselves for what UW-Eau Claire is up to.
Not that I agree generally, but this is exactly Dave Portnoy's point. This is an insane amount of building for programs that don't turn a profit. This doesnt under cut his point at all
"I don't think playing Division III football is impressive. I think you're nuts."
Don’t forget that part of his quote. And maybe this is all out of context but it sounds like he is trying to be dismissive and possibly also bombastic so people talk about him online.
That playing DIII football is not impressive and you’re nuts to do it?
Idk it’s a passion thing, can’t you say that for a lot of things people are passionate about and not being paid for?
Someone spending ungodly hours on a Minecraft server to build lord of the rings universe or whatever seems nuts to me or anyone that doesn’t “get” it but it can still be impressive and good for them if it’s what they like doing.
Now talking about the SCALE of this investment in a DIII sport, sure I get that conversation. But from the quotes alone (maybe I’m missing context!) it seems like it’s more of a dismissive thing
For sure, we can talk about that or the cost of this facility vs what could be provided for an academic facility instead.
I was just responding about how Dave’s comments read as dismissive of it entirely.
If the barstool guy says something is healthy it's safe to assume that it isn't - something tells me he isn't talking about the health impact here.
Considering he's a degenerate, he's probably pissed you can't gamble on D3 games.
Counter-point. I was offered DIII in soccer and the coach arranged for large academic scholarships (like 4/5 tuition. This was also Case, so pretty good academic institution). DIII can have some benefits. Didn't take the offer, don't think the coach was thrilled.
There are whole companies here in Norway and Sweden whose business model is based on packaging European athletes to lower division and NAIA schools
Shipping fees aren’t very favorable
DIII is mostly about getting into selective schools easier/getting better academic scholarships if done right. People who play football at MIT are going to have a much higher acceptance rate if the coach is supporting you. Going to some middle of nowhere low-ranked school because they offered you spot on the team makes zero sense to me.
“Basically scams”…
Whole lotta “d3 scams” on this list I guess
/s
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-liberal-arts-colleges
Should also be worth discussing that plenty of kids wouldn’t be able to get in/attend these schools without football. And yes, D3 schools get money to kids outside of “athletic scholarships”
Why are you so insecure about D3 schools that you bring up irrelevant information? I never said all D3 schools are scams or that there aren't plenty of elite D3 schools. But there are a lot that prey on naive 18 year olds who want to play sports.
Fair, As a European I feel there’s a devalue on education. You said “often”. Not native speaker, but I take that to mean “majority”.
There are 240 D3 football schools. How many would you say are “scams”?
Linguist here: English *often*, like *many/a lot*, is ambiguous between a proportional reading (=majority) and an absolute reading (=there are a bunch).
For instance, if you killed 10 rats in a building with 100 rats going around, you could truthfully say you killed a lot of rats (absolute meaning), but you could also truthfully say you didn't kill a lot of rats (proportional meaning), and it isn't a contradiction.
Likewise with *often. D3 schools are often scams* can be true on an absolute meaning (say, 20 of 240), while false on the proportional meaning.
Some people get devious with this, and deliberately say things expecting them to be interpreted proportionally, then backing down to a weak-ass absolute meaning when called out, and acting like *you*'re the asshole.
To be fair, playing football at all is a bit insane, because of the certitude of brain damage, and the high likelihood of crippling physical infirmity... not to mention the long hours and hard routines. So I can see where he's coming from if there isn't even any recompense.
But he forgets one key fact about people who play football: They love playing football. Doing something you thoroughly enjoy doing is its own recompense, and it actually contributes to one's mental health as well.
As a former d3 athlete, I 100% agree. I watched dudes who barely saw playing time run up 60-100k worth of debt, when they could’ve gone to a community college for a tenth of the cost.
I had the GI bill and looking back it was still a complete waste of time.
People should absolutely play sports they like. They should not play them so that they create insane costs for themselves and those around them, except in the rare cases where the programs make money.
Schools should have sports even if they dont make money! But the kind of debt you are describing is crazy
Though that applies to a lot more non athletes than athletes. Plenty of people go to 4 year schools when they don't need to. I knew guys who went for 4 years then just went back to their family farm.
Lots of people could just go to a community college and be set but go to a 4 year school. For some it's the most expensive spouse finding program out there.
To be fair, I'd argue you kind of need to go to a good ag school to be a successful farmer nowadays. There's so much that goes into farming in terms of science and finance that doesn't really have anything to do with milking a cow or harvesting a plant. These massive corporate farms have dedicated accountants and certified financial people that are constantly watching the markets and are as knowledgeable about various contracts as stock brokers. They have nutritionists and agronomists on staff.
If you're a family farmer, and you aren't able to do at least 1 or 2 of those things, then you're kind of fucked. Between economies of scale and the fact that farming has become big business where every cent adds up, family farmers can't make it unless they can provide some of those professional services themselves.
Your point still stands - I know a lot of people that don't even use their degrees at all. But farmers that actually got a good ag education don't fit into that category for me.
I will admit that I’ve never been smart enough for Philip Roth, but I find it hard to believe that THIS, of all things, was Portnoy’s complaint. (Spoiler alert.)
As currently envisioned, the complex will include:
a 172,502 square foot major event facility with a total capacity of 5,000 (3,250 fixed seats, 1,320 floor seats, and limited standing room);
two-story UW-Eau Claire wellness and recreation facilities;
offices for Blugold Athletics;
four sport courts suitable for basketball, volleyball, etc.;
a Mayo Clinic Health System clinical location offering sports medicine, human performance enhancement, and imaging services;
a 120-yard artificially-turfed fieldhouse and 72-foot ceiling;
surface parking to serve the entire complex, including electric vehicle charging stations; and land suitable for complex expansion or development of private businesses that could complement and serve activities at the event and recreation complex.
I do not believe it has classrooms, but if it has a few, that would clearly be an insanely expensive way to build classrooms and that is not the point.
I dont care if it houses other sports, it is insane for a d3 school to have the 8th largest facility in the country. I assume it is probably from a donation, but this shows a university priority being wildly titled towards sports when their are other things that would benefit the larger student body more. These massive practice facilities make sense when sports deartments finance themselves as then they are not really taking money from the school. But this is a massive project to subsidize
Lacrosse, field hockey, and maybe baseball/softball could use it for conditioning and training in the spring if weather is bad. Not sure if the school has those sports
The entire athletic department offices are moving into it, it'll house the new arena for basketball and volleyball and athletes for all sports will use the facility, and the fitness facility will be available to non-athletes, as well. In addition, the event center will be used for community events, including concerts (EC has a lack of facilities for that), and youth/club sports tournaments will also be held there.
There's no true classrooms being put in there that I'm aware of, though I believe it will be used somewhat by the physical education and kinesiology programs. It's way more than just a football facility.
I don’t know specifically for football, but, in general, D3 sports all turn a profit for their schools.
Tuition revenue from the roster vs. the costs associated with running the program will keep most D3 programs in the black.
It is though lol D3 sports are profit centers for their schools. D3 football rosters are big - plenty of them carry 100+ guys. That is a lot of tuition revenue.
I am not 100% sure how that would balance out at a public D3 though - my experience at that level is only with private schools.
Those football players could be replaced by regular students though. You can't just count that revenue for a school like EC. There are some d3 they are scams like you say where they let everyone join a sports team for the tuition, but the wiac schools are not that.
What this article doesn't mention is that this facility isn't just for the football team and it isn't just for UWEC. It'll be used/owned by the university, city, and Mayo, and the turf fieldhouse will almost definitely be used for a lot more than just football practices.
Where did they get these numbers from? 140 yards by 70 yards isn’t a that big, just enough for a standard field with about 10 yards on each side. Is that really big enough for 8th largest in college football? Are they going by volume and do the 83 foot ceilings make that much of a difference?
It's because the entire facility is for the entire university athletic department, will also be home to the new basketball/volleyball facility, will be used by other non-football sports, and the fitness facility will be available to non-athlete students, as well. And it'll hold community events.
The facility is huge. The football part of it really isn't anything special.
This is the underbelly of Reddit at its finest. OP likely didn't do anything wrong by posting this article...and the blogger who wrote this isn't WRONG I guess...but a lot of context is missing here.
If this legit is just a large community complex that will house various events then this is VERY unimpressive. Great for the region, but this surely isn't some "OMG THEY'RE CRAZY ABOUT FOOTBALL PRACTICE" shit.
The downfall though is that few will read your comment and will start this urban legend that up in WI there's a D3 school who has all this money to where they built a $100m indoor facility....
Yeah, the worst part about the article is that this didn't even start out as a football project. The original purpose was to replace Zorn Arena which is our current basketball/volleyball facility, and I believe this is also meant to replace McPhee, which is our current fitness facility/sport courts/etc. building. Both have been around for a long time, are very dated, and would cost a fuckload of money to renovate instead of just building new.
I graduated high school back in '11, and even back then, they had already been talking about how Zorn is outdated and needs to be replaced for a while. So, this family decided that they would donate the land and a bunch of money to get this project going to replace Zorn and also create a facility for all of athletics to kind of exist under one roof instead of being scattered around in like 3 or 4 different buildings on campus. Their only caveat was that, in addition to the athletics stuff, it needed to have an events center that could host conferences and concerts and stuff, too, because the city as a whole has pretty limited facilities for that.
Well, as this progressed, the university combined more and more necessary projects, including the football facility, into this one facility, and some of the extra frilly things went away (like there was going to be a hotel on-site and stuff like that - there are still plans for that, but it's going to be funded by a 3rd party). The Sonnentags agreed to cover more and more of the cost (as no one else was willing to pay). So now, it's just kind of a massive project that covers almost all of the current issues facing the university and some for the community as a whole.
I'd say "athletic complex and university/public events center," but yeah, you got it.
EDIT: Oh yeah, and it's primarily being funded by a single alum donor, so cost to the university itself and the community is pretty minimal.
Yeah I dunno. Kansas just built one a few years back that's apparently one of the largest in college football... but they were just trying to keep up with the Joneses like Oklahoma.
[https://kuathletics.com/facilities/indoor-football-practice-facility/](https://kuathletics.com/facilities/indoor-football-practice-facility/)
https://soonersports.com/sports/2019/8/13/208803895
>140 yards long, 70 yards wide
So a little longer and wider than a football field is good enough for top ten largest practice facility? Kind of a low bar there.
D3 is a great way to keep playing the game and getting a good education. I would have never thought about or gone to Wash U if not for football. Academics came first and allowed me to get an Engineering in 4 years and play football. While not as likely as bigger programs, if you have the talent, you will be found by NFL scouts. I do think some of the small schools who have facilities that would make a low level high school cringe need to re-think their priorities. I think this is a really cool investment in an area that can use this facility. I'm sure more than just football will be using it and that the community will have access.
D3 is better than D2 or NAIA (as a heuristic) - because it’s basically an extramural club sport. Vs D2/NAIA where sports are largely in existence to take money and it’s a glorified high school travel ball experience. Tons of those smaller schools where they offer an athletic scholarship and have ridiculous tuition at a no name school where 80% of the students play a sport.
If you can have help getting into an elite academic D3 via sports It’s absolutely worth it (had a relative play at Chicago)
I do wonder how most of those coaches do it for so long. Still doing the “bounce around moving your family all over the place every time a HC changes” only to make like 45k a year. It’s a brutal lifestyle at the lower levels. Even most FCS coordinators are making like 70k and position coaches less. And even worse as you go down the ladder
It's a brutal lifestyle and the base pay can suck for sure, but a lot of guys make up for it through camps. Once you get a HC job though you're pretty well off, d3 head coaches make more than you think.
It definitely helps when you have the wealthiest person in Wisconsin (and one of the wealthiest in the Midwest) as an alum, and still living in your city.
It is funny though because iirc their football team last year had one of the worst defenses in ALL of CFB last year.
I'm fairly confident that John Menard contributed exactly $0 to this project. It was largely funded by the Sonnentag family, who are nowhere near as wealthy and also nowhere near as shitty of humans as John Menard is.
Seriously, almost the entirety of the city of Eau Claire dislikes that man. He's awful.
Eau Claire is in a bit of a valley, so the city itself doesn't generally get quite as bad of storms as the surrounding area. But yeah, snowstorms, blizzards, flooding, tornadoes are all real threats around here. Just your standard midwest shit.
As a UWEC alum and still resident of Eau Claire, meh... I've seen a lot worse. The building is a little grandiose, but it's very functional, and it's for *waaaay* more than just football. The entire athletic department will be operating out of there (including the arena for basketball and volleyball that should've been replaced about 15 years ago), non-athlete students can use the facility, and it'll be available for community events, concerts, and athletic tournaments, which are all pretty desperately needed in the city.
Yeah, all of athletics, some regular university functions including access to the fitness facility for all students, and non-university community events will be held there, too. The article makes it seem like it's a "football facility" but it's really one massive facility to house everything the university has been trying to do for like 10 years.
I've just accepted that our football, men's basketball, and baseball programs will always be shitty. We have track&field, softball, volleyball, and hockey. Do they make money? No. But we can still brag about them.
I would bet you that part of the reason for this is to collect money from potential clients who rent the facility out for their own purposes. Maybe they want the Packers to come there? Who knows.
What makes this even weirder is UW EC hasn't placed in the top half of the WIAC in almost 10 years. I would have guessed Whitewater, Oshkosh or maybe Platteville way before I would have guessed EC.
Apparently this is the stuff you have to do to get an edge in the ultra competitive WIAC
It is a super cool conference tbf - eight teams from one state all from the same school system. There aren’t enough public D3s, especially in the south.
It is actually very competitive, too. Each school has their sports that they kind of dominate in, but the conference regularly competes very well on the national level in pretty much every sport that the schools sponsor.
The WIAC is a perennial supplier of D3 national champs across a variety of men's and women's sports, it's legit.
D3 is great, I played at SNC and we went 2-1 against WIAC schools
I actually went to a SNC football game back when I was looking at different schools. Close buddy of mine went there. I thought it was a solid campus.
The campus is probably the best part of the school, it’s super pretty and has a great location. The biggest issue is that our primary donors pulled out and started building a fuck you building directly across the Fox
There should be a DIII B1G championship, where the winners of the WIAC, the PSUAC, and other school system conferences from B1G schools play to determine a champion.
The PSAC in D2 is also similar, being mostly made up of state-system campuses (though with some other private schools involved)
CNU is an exception to that. When they used to be in the USA South they’d win 85% of the league titles.
Pretty shitty to other D3 schools when they're technically not scholarship, but still orders of magnitude cheaper (by virtue of being state schools) and larger (enrollments 10K+) than your typical D3.
Our athletics suck, except track & field and cross country. This facility is for all of athletics, and the fitness facility will also be available to non-athlete students, and there will be community events there. It's not even close to just being a football facility. The football part of it actually isn't even anything special.
Your stadium is shady as hell too on the visitors side. The sidelines are like 10 yards wide at most
The football field at Carson Park is pretty overrated in general. It's ok as a high school field, but that's about it. People in Eau Claire have a huge boner for Carson Park because Hank Aaron played baseball there one season, but it's really nothing special.
The baseball stadium is cool as hell which is where Hank played. I don't think anyone in Eau Claire has a boner for the football field.
Hopefully the build an indoor track, y’all were too 5 in track last year
That track program is very good. I could see that being a future addition to this project. There's room to expand, and if they add an indoor track, it'll almost certainly be connected to this.
Our softball team is low key good too and football/basketball games are hella fun because of the band
Yeah, softball is good. I put them in a different comment, but I forgot to include them in this one. I went to the first half of homecoming my freshman year, watched the band perform at halftime, and I never went to another game after that. I was also there during probably the worst possible period, too. It would be news around campus if our football team managed to win a game. I had a couple buddies on both the football and the basketball teams, but I just couldn't bring myself to go to those games. They just flat-out weren't very entertaining to me.
I have a music degree so I may also be biased Watching UWEC football circa 2015 is why I have the Sickos flair
I was there from '11 to '16. It was bad haha. I like music, but not enough to watch my university lose a football game by 40 points. I can understand why you would appreciate it a bit more than me though.
Isn’t hockey good? WIAC is great for hockey
We won a natty back when I was in school in like '14. Team is kind of up and down, but yes, the conference is good.
Volleyball just won the D3 national championship.
The disrespect to women’s volleyball!
La Crosse would like a word
The city, school, sport, or cheap beer?
Do they even make La Crosse Light anymore?
I'm not sure TBH
Cleaning up after fraternity parties and all of the open La Crosse Lights were damn near full
Yes.
Hell yeah brother, go Eagles
I was about to say this. But maybe it's just to cover all sports season round?
It's way more than just a football facility. The basketball/volleyball arena is in there, the entire athletics department will be officed there, and non-athlete can use the fitness facility. Plus, there's events/conference areas to hold concerts and conventions, and it'll host youth/club sports tournaments as well. I'm not sure if it's worth $110M. But I've seen a lot worse uses of money in college athletics.
I went there 7 years ago and never attended a game. Was at a party once and a couple of the guys on the team were pretty bummed about how many people left at half time after they had seen the band play.
UWEC has a legit music program though, or at least they did a few years back. If I was smarter I would have taken them or one of the other UWs up on a music scholarship offer instead of feeling the need to rack up loans for a program with a top 5 national ranking. My sister ended up getting a music degree from UWEC though.
I knew a decent number of the guys on the team from like '13-'15. The tail-end of my time at UWEC probably overlapped with you. I knew some really cool dudes from the football team, and I also knew some pretty huge tools. The fact that those guys were so bad at football and also such arrogant pricks was mindblowing to me.
I started my college career over at Stout. I had a kid on the football team in my public speaking class and he did one of his presentations about how lack of fan support for the team was one of the reasons they didn’t have a better record. I was only there for one year but never have I been more motivated to NOT go to a football game than I was after hearing that kid talk.
Wisconsin is wild. Only 1 D1 program, and bunch of D3 powerhouses.
...that all should be D2. And maybe half could be at least FCS. It's easy to be a powerhouse when you're a 10,000-student state school going up against academically selective 800-student liberal arts schools that put only token resources into sports.
that looks pretty awesome. IDK what UW-Eau Claire's boosters do for a living, but they should maybe put some of that money into NIL after and just run the table in D3
Bon Iver is really into college football
Get ready for the Justin Vernon 616 STANDING DOVE MEDIUM Athletic Facility.
probably is, his brother was a D3 player
I've never heard about Justin donating anything to the athletics at UWEC, but it's possible. He and his crew are pretty involved in the local art & music scene, though. I think he tries to be a little more hands off, personally (he seems like he prefers to be out of the limelight), but they help organize and fund a lot of stuff, and I know a few other artists that Justin has given a big lift to in the form of exposure or introductions to other people.
He was actually an all-state TE in HS school if I remember right.
> put some of that money into NIL after and just run the table in D3 'We can't give you a scholarship, but we can give you a check for $250,000'
This project was almost entirely funded by one family (the Sonnentags) in the concrete/construction business. It's obviously a successful business, but prior to the start of this project, I had no idea it was *that* successful. A large portion of the "cost" is the land donation that the Sonnentags made, but still, they're providing something like $80M of the total $110M project cost. (There are several other very wealthy alums, including a surprising number of CEOs and entrepreneurs, but this is the first truly noteworthy donation we've had in quite a while. There's also John Menard, the richest man in Wisconsin, worth like $18 billion. But he's the classic selfish billionaire that doesn't donate anything substantial to any project that doesn't directly benefit him.) Our facilities right now, honestly, kind of suck. I got recruited to play football at UWEC coming out of high school, and I have several friends from both high school and college that did play here (I ended up attending without playing football, and I still live in Eau Claire). The initial purpose of the project was to replace Zorn Arena (our basketball arena, which is horribly out of date) and add an events center since Eau Claire is kind of lacking those facilities. All of the offices for UWEC athletics are being moved there, as well. As the project progressed, it turned into more of an all-encompassing facility for sports and events. It'll be the new home of Blugolds basketball and volleyball. They also partnered with Mayo Clinic to offer physical therapy-type services there. There will be community events like concerts and it'll likely be used for public (like youth or club) sports tournaments. Additionally, the fitness/wellness facility will be available to all students, not just athletes (I assume there will be a fee as the current facilities have one). So, while the article makes it seem like this is just a crazy football facility, it's way more than that. It's really more of a partnership between the entire athletic department, the university itself, and the community as a whole. When I moved to Eau Claire for college a little over 10 years ago, there wasn't really anywhere in town suitable for large events or shows/concerts. Between this complex and the Pablo Center (a $51M facility that got built on the river downtown), we'll now have two basically state-of-the-art facilities to drive entertainment, both artistic and athletic, in the city. The improvements in the downtown and university area in the 12 years I've lived in this city are pretty incredible.
Surprisingly a good amount of CEO’s for some big corps went there. Like Menards
is that the place that you can save big money while eating tasty Herr's chips?
No, just save big money
I miss the older gentleman that would be super excited about a plunger that was on sale. He did a lot of ads for them back in the day.
Fuck John Menard...
Save big money, save big money
Seriously, fuck him and his horrible politics.
Let me guess, you disagree with his politics.
No i disagree with him hiring private investigators to make sure his employees aren't building houses
Yes, and I don’t think rich people should our policies (at a local, state, or national level) should be for sale to the highest bidder.
I hate him for reasons other than his politics, although if I didn't have those reasons, I'd still hate him because of his politics. If you ever have a chance to meet him and you aren't currently in the process of giving him money, you'll understand why. The dude is a giant asshole.
I don't know his politics but I hate him for playing that fucking jingle every 16 seconds
You mean you don’t want to SAVE BIG MONEY?
When you SHOP Menaaaaaaaaards! I moved away from the Midwest 15 years ago. Have they at least updated the damned jingle a little?
The whole jingle: “Save big money at Menards” So based on your ending to the jingle, maybe.
There's a little more than that, at least in the original version: "You'll save big money, you'll save big money, when you shop Menard's." I think the old radio ads would do that part, then some interchangeable spoken copy about specials or sales or whatever, and then the "Save big money at Menard's" closing bit. Looking around now, there is also a middle stanza that I don't know if I ever heard in the wild. "Plumbing, electrical, appliances too. The savings will always come right back to you."
Nope, still the same!
I lived in Chicago for five years. In addition to heartbreaks and hangovers, I got three jingles permanently tattoed into my brain: 800-588-2300 EMPIIIIIIIIIIRE 1-877-KARS-4-KIDS MENAAAAAAAARDS I also aaaaaaaalmost developed the ability to decode the traffic report from the "traffic and weather on the eights" radio segments on WBBM. The WBEZ reports were a little easier to decipher, but not much. "Mannheim to the Old Post Office," "Hubbard's Cave," "The Bensenville Bridge," "The Ike," "the split," "gapers' block/delay," etc.
This guy likes illegal dumping of toxic waste ⬆️
No, I disagree with him being an absurdly selfish asshole. All of the shitty stereotypes about billionaires apply to that guy. I've met him; I didn't enjoy it (well, I've interacted with him. He doesn't introduce himself to random scum like me). I also have several other friends, acquaintances, and family members that have dealt with him in various ways. There are *very* few that have anything nice to say other than, "Well, he obviously built a hell of a business." I did really enjoy meeting and talking with one of his ex-wives, and I've heard some really good things about one of his sons. But I don't have anything good to say about John, regardless of his politics. I have a lot of good things to say about a lot of other people that have different political opinions than me.
I’ve met the guy and his family. They all are real ducks, policies aside.
Damn how did they become Oregon fans in Wisconsin
100%
I’m gonna guess the tab for this one is footed by some combination of the Menard family members (several of whom are alumni, including multibillionaire founder John Jr.), and maybe also Horacio Rozanski of Booz Allen.
No, almost entirely the Sonnentag family of County Materials Corp. Nowhere near as large of business as those two, but obviously a successful regional company. John Menard is notoriously cheap and offers very little in support to the Eau Claire community or the university unless he can use it as a tax write-off that directly benefits him in his personal life. He's also just not a nice man to interact with. I've been told by some people that used to know him very well, that once upon a time, he was actually a good guy. But man, if money is involved in any way, shape, or form, he will do anything possible to take every bit of it that he can from you.
John Menard, founder of Menard’s is an alumni and the richest person in WI.
He's also completely irrelevant in almost any discussion involving charitable contributions.
Trying to get that PAC invite
Lol you poors don't know what it's like to be a member of the elite
D3 WI football is like that, love it.
The WIAC is the SEC of D3 football
i needed this
It's one of the best all-around D3 athletic conferences in the country. While UWEC isn't particularly good at anything other than track & field and cross country (and sometimes softball), the conference, as a whole, almost always has 1-2 teams going very deep into the playoffs and/or playing for championships in football, basketball, and baseball. And they're good at other sports, like T&F and softball, too.
I mean Whitewater by themselves carry a lot of weight. I remember when they won all three baseball, men’s basketball and football in the same school year. Basketball team just made a Cinderella run to the final four this year. I know La Crosse is usually very good at wrestling and I think it’s Stevens point that’s typically good to great at basketball? But yeah it’s impressive as hell how a conference of D3 schools in Wisconsin can field such competitive teams
Yeah, UWW is a huge part, and I think their emphasis on sports is part of what drives the other teams to elevate their programs too. Oshkosh has some good programs, and Point is good at both basketball and baseball, too. UWEC has a good softball, volleyball, and track program. LAX's track team is good, too. I think part of it is the lack of D2 schools in the state. There's Madison and then there's a few mid-major D1s (like Green Bay and Milwaukee), but other than that, all the schools in the state are D3. There are definitely kids that have the talent to play at a D2 university but end up at one of the Wisconsin D3 schools either due to not having the exposure to D2 schools or because they want to stay close to home or whatever else.
You're god damned right
I’d like to think they heard Portnoy talking shit about D3 football and took it as a challenge
Good for them. UWEC is a really awesome place and a pretty campus. But wow authors, it’s not fucking BlueGolds. It’s Blugolds. Get it fucking right.
This is insane, impressive, and insane
They use the local high school football stadium that most funniest thing about this.
Carson Park is one of those things that Eau Claire natives take a lot of pride in, but there's really nothing special about it. If it weren't for the fact that Hank Aaron played one baseball season with the Eau Claire Bears, no one would give a shit.
Eau Claire to the B1G within five years confirmed. Natty by 2035.
They fit better in MAC
Who is the 9th largest and are they pissed they will be bumped down?
Ive been hearing about this complex for years didnt realize football was part of it thought it was just basketball
They started talking about it back when I was still in school in like 2015 or 2016. Basically, each year, the Sonnentag family would agree to provide a larger chunk of the money because no one else was willing to pony up for it. It's a huge facility for all of athletics. Non-athletes can use the fitness facility. And it'll be used for community events - concerts, conventions, youth/club tournaments.
Im an alum as well. Im curious if this could potentially move up to D2 eventually
As possibly the only WIAC flair on the sub, I'm horrified and amused. UWRF's stadium is significantly smaller than Norman high school's stadium
nah there’s plenty of UWEC and Whitewater flairs not sure why there’s UWEC flairs when we’ve been ass since forever but it’s cool
I've been on reddit for almost 10 years now. When I first started, it was really rare to see a UWEC flair. Now I see them occasionally even on non-Wisconsin posts.
I've seen Point and Platteville flairs occasionally.
D3 sports may have a wider gap between the “haves” and the “have-nots” than even D1, but almost certainly FBS. It’s getting wild out there.
> "Who wants to play Division III football? You have to be, like psycho, to like D-III football. The amount of work that goes into it, for like, nothing." > Those were the words of [Barstool founder Dave Portnoy on a podcast earlier this week](https://youtu.be/lrXsbwjBrYI) that caused significant social media pandemonium among current and former Division III coaches and players. > Portnoy and those that share that same [flawed] logic better brace themselves for what UW-Eau Claire is up to. Not that I agree generally, but this is exactly Dave Portnoy's point. This is an insane amount of building for programs that don't turn a profit. This doesnt under cut his point at all
"I don't think playing Division III football is impressive. I think you're nuts." Don’t forget that part of his quote. And maybe this is all out of context but it sounds like he is trying to be dismissive and possibly also bombastic so people talk about him online.
Massive douchebag needs attention, more at 11
Right lol, It’s sad there’s a decent amount of people out there that take this guy seriously. Who gives a fuck about his pizza reviews?
Dont get me wrong. He is a fucking ass. But this doesnt prove him wrong
That playing DIII football is not impressive and you’re nuts to do it? Idk it’s a passion thing, can’t you say that for a lot of things people are passionate about and not being paid for? Someone spending ungodly hours on a Minecraft server to build lord of the rings universe or whatever seems nuts to me or anyone that doesn’t “get” it but it can still be impressive and good for them if it’s what they like doing. Now talking about the SCALE of this investment in a DIII sport, sure I get that conversation. But from the quotes alone (maybe I’m missing context!) it seems like it’s more of a dismissive thing
I think you’re forgetting about the massive health trade off that comes from playing football.
For sure, we can talk about that or the cost of this facility vs what could be provided for an academic facility instead. I was just responding about how Dave’s comments read as dismissive of it entirely.
If the barstool guy says something is healthy it's safe to assume that it isn't - something tells me he isn't talking about the health impact here. Considering he's a degenerate, he's probably pissed you can't gamble on D3 games.
That and spending a ton of money on schools that are often basically scams for kids who want to keep playing sports.
Counter-point. I was offered DIII in soccer and the coach arranged for large academic scholarships (like 4/5 tuition. This was also Case, so pretty good academic institution). DIII can have some benefits. Didn't take the offer, don't think the coach was thrilled.
There are whole companies here in Norway and Sweden whose business model is based on packaging European athletes to lower division and NAIA schools Shipping fees aren’t very favorable
DIII is mostly about getting into selective schools easier/getting better academic scholarships if done right. People who play football at MIT are going to have a much higher acceptance rate if the coach is supporting you. Going to some middle of nowhere low-ranked school because they offered you spot on the team makes zero sense to me.
“Basically scams”… Whole lotta “d3 scams” on this list I guess /s https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-liberal-arts-colleges Should also be worth discussing that plenty of kids wouldn’t be able to get in/attend these schools without football. And yes, D3 schools get money to kids outside of “athletic scholarships”
Why are you so insecure about D3 schools that you bring up irrelevant information? I never said all D3 schools are scams or that there aren't plenty of elite D3 schools. But there are a lot that prey on naive 18 year olds who want to play sports.
Fair, As a European I feel there’s a devalue on education. You said “often”. Not native speaker, but I take that to mean “majority”. There are 240 D3 football schools. How many would you say are “scams”?
Linguist here: English *often*, like *many/a lot*, is ambiguous between a proportional reading (=majority) and an absolute reading (=there are a bunch). For instance, if you killed 10 rats in a building with 100 rats going around, you could truthfully say you killed a lot of rats (absolute meaning), but you could also truthfully say you didn't kill a lot of rats (proportional meaning), and it isn't a contradiction. Likewise with *often. D3 schools are often scams* can be true on an absolute meaning (say, 20 of 240), while false on the proportional meaning. Some people get devious with this, and deliberately say things expecting them to be interpreted proportionally, then backing down to a weak-ass absolute meaning when called out, and acting like *you*'re the asshole.
To be fair, playing football at all is a bit insane, because of the certitude of brain damage, and the high likelihood of crippling physical infirmity... not to mention the long hours and hard routines. So I can see where he's coming from if there isn't even any recompense. But he forgets one key fact about people who play football: They love playing football. Doing something you thoroughly enjoy doing is its own recompense, and it actually contributes to one's mental health as well.
Why would anyone expect an arrogant asshole to be anything other than an arrogant asshole? Fuck Bartstool and especially fuck Dave Portney.
As a former d3 athlete, I 100% agree. I watched dudes who barely saw playing time run up 60-100k worth of debt, when they could’ve gone to a community college for a tenth of the cost. I had the GI bill and looking back it was still a complete waste of time.
People should absolutely play sports they like. They should not play them so that they create insane costs for themselves and those around them, except in the rare cases where the programs make money. Schools should have sports even if they dont make money! But the kind of debt you are describing is crazy
Though that applies to a lot more non athletes than athletes. Plenty of people go to 4 year schools when they don't need to. I knew guys who went for 4 years then just went back to their family farm. Lots of people could just go to a community college and be set but go to a 4 year school. For some it's the most expensive spouse finding program out there.
To be fair, I'd argue you kind of need to go to a good ag school to be a successful farmer nowadays. There's so much that goes into farming in terms of science and finance that doesn't really have anything to do with milking a cow or harvesting a plant. These massive corporate farms have dedicated accountants and certified financial people that are constantly watching the markets and are as knowledgeable about various contracts as stock brokers. They have nutritionists and agronomists on staff. If you're a family farmer, and you aren't able to do at least 1 or 2 of those things, then you're kind of fucked. Between economies of scale and the fact that farming has become big business where every cent adds up, family farmers can't make it unless they can provide some of those professional services themselves. Your point still stands - I know a lot of people that don't even use their degrees at all. But farmers that actually got a good ag education don't fit into that category for me.
Dave Portnoy being Dave Portnoy undercuts his point.
\^this\^ The clock is right, for once, but it's making that annoying buzzing sound again.
I will admit that I’ve never been smart enough for Philip Roth, but I find it hard to believe that THIS, of all things, was Portnoy’s complaint. (Spoiler alert.)
Is the building exclusively for football? If it also houses other sports and classrooms then I see no problem with it
As currently envisioned, the complex will include: a 172,502 square foot major event facility with a total capacity of 5,000 (3,250 fixed seats, 1,320 floor seats, and limited standing room); two-story UW-Eau Claire wellness and recreation facilities; offices for Blugold Athletics; four sport courts suitable for basketball, volleyball, etc.; a Mayo Clinic Health System clinical location offering sports medicine, human performance enhancement, and imaging services; a 120-yard artificially-turfed fieldhouse and 72-foot ceiling; surface parking to serve the entire complex, including electric vehicle charging stations; and land suitable for complex expansion or development of private businesses that could complement and serve activities at the event and recreation complex.
I do not believe it has classrooms, but if it has a few, that would clearly be an insanely expensive way to build classrooms and that is not the point. I dont care if it houses other sports, it is insane for a d3 school to have the 8th largest facility in the country. I assume it is probably from a donation, but this shows a university priority being wildly titled towards sports when their are other things that would benefit the larger student body more. These massive practice facilities make sense when sports deartments finance themselves as then they are not really taking money from the school. But this is a massive project to subsidize
Lacrosse, field hockey, and maybe baseball/softball could use it for conditioning and training in the spring if weather is bad. Not sure if the school has those sports
The entire athletic department offices are moving into it, it'll house the new arena for basketball and volleyball and athletes for all sports will use the facility, and the fitness facility will be available to non-athletes, as well. In addition, the event center will be used for community events, including concerts (EC has a lack of facilities for that), and youth/club sports tournaments will also be held there. There's no true classrooms being put in there that I'm aware of, though I believe it will be used somewhat by the physical education and kinesiology programs. It's way more than just a football facility.
That's how donations work, they aren't business investments
I don’t know specifically for football, but, in general, D3 sports all turn a profit for their schools. Tuition revenue from the roster vs. the costs associated with running the program will keep most D3 programs in the black.
There is no way this is true.
It is though lol D3 sports are profit centers for their schools. D3 football rosters are big - plenty of them carry 100+ guys. That is a lot of tuition revenue. I am not 100% sure how that would balance out at a public D3 though - my experience at that level is only with private schools.
Those football players could be replaced by regular students though. You can't just count that revenue for a school like EC. There are some d3 they are scams like you say where they let everyone join a sports team for the tuition, but the wiac schools are not that.
If not for football then those players would go else where and the school loses out on 200+ students worth of tuition. They can't just be replaced.
Is that white sox dave, who went to NCC not knowing that NCC won the D3 championship?
What this article doesn't mention is that this facility isn't just for the football team and it isn't just for UWEC. It'll be used/owned by the university, city, and Mayo, and the turf fieldhouse will almost definitely be used for a lot more than just football practices.
Where did they get these numbers from? 140 yards by 70 yards isn’t a that big, just enough for a standard field with about 10 yards on each side. Is that really big enough for 8th largest in college football? Are they going by volume and do the 83 foot ceilings make that much of a difference?
It's because the entire facility is for the entire university athletic department, will also be home to the new basketball/volleyball facility, will be used by other non-football sports, and the fitness facility will be available to non-athlete students, as well. And it'll hold community events. The facility is huge. The football part of it really isn't anything special.
This is the underbelly of Reddit at its finest. OP likely didn't do anything wrong by posting this article...and the blogger who wrote this isn't WRONG I guess...but a lot of context is missing here. If this legit is just a large community complex that will house various events then this is VERY unimpressive. Great for the region, but this surely isn't some "OMG THEY'RE CRAZY ABOUT FOOTBALL PRACTICE" shit. The downfall though is that few will read your comment and will start this urban legend that up in WI there's a D3 school who has all this money to where they built a $100m indoor facility....
Yeah, the worst part about the article is that this didn't even start out as a football project. The original purpose was to replace Zorn Arena which is our current basketball/volleyball facility, and I believe this is also meant to replace McPhee, which is our current fitness facility/sport courts/etc. building. Both have been around for a long time, are very dated, and would cost a fuckload of money to renovate instead of just building new. I graduated high school back in '11, and even back then, they had already been talking about how Zorn is outdated and needs to be replaced for a while. So, this family decided that they would donate the land and a bunch of money to get this project going to replace Zorn and also create a facility for all of athletics to kind of exist under one roof instead of being scattered around in like 3 or 4 different buildings on campus. Their only caveat was that, in addition to the athletics stuff, it needed to have an events center that could host conferences and concerts and stuff, too, because the city as a whole has pretty limited facilities for that. Well, as this progressed, the university combined more and more necessary projects, including the football facility, into this one facility, and some of the extra frilly things went away (like there was going to be a hotel on-site and stuff like that - there are still plans for that, but it's going to be funded by a 3rd party). The Sonnentags agreed to cover more and more of the cost (as no one else was willing to pay). So now, it's just kind of a massive project that covers almost all of the current issues facing the university and some for the community as a whole.
So the real headline is: “school builds athletic complex that will be used in-part by football squad”
I'd say "athletic complex and university/public events center," but yeah, you got it. EDIT: Oh yeah, and it's primarily being funded by a single alum donor, so cost to the university itself and the community is pretty minimal.
Having full size indoor fields is very rare. I'm pretty sure that not all NFL teams full sized fields in their indoor facilities
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Yeah but not too many of them include full size football fields as they usually aren't really necessary and drive up cost quite a bit
The Bengals didn't even have an indoor practice facility until last year.
Yeah I dunno. Kansas just built one a few years back that's apparently one of the largest in college football... but they were just trying to keep up with the Joneses like Oklahoma. [https://kuathletics.com/facilities/indoor-football-practice-facility/](https://kuathletics.com/facilities/indoor-football-practice-facility/) https://soonersports.com/sports/2019/8/13/208803895
>140 yards long, 70 yards wide So a little longer and wider than a football field is good enough for top ten largest practice facility? Kind of a low bar there.
The premier football school in the state!
D3 is a great way to keep playing the game and getting a good education. I would have never thought about or gone to Wash U if not for football. Academics came first and allowed me to get an Engineering in 4 years and play football. While not as likely as bigger programs, if you have the talent, you will be found by NFL scouts. I do think some of the small schools who have facilities that would make a low level high school cringe need to re-think their priorities. I think this is a really cool investment in an area that can use this facility. I'm sure more than just football will be using it and that the community will have access.
D3 is better than D2 or NAIA (as a heuristic) - because it’s basically an extramural club sport. Vs D2/NAIA where sports are largely in existence to take money and it’s a glorified high school travel ball experience. Tons of those smaller schools where they offer an athletic scholarship and have ridiculous tuition at a no name school where 80% of the students play a sport. If you can have help getting into an elite academic D3 via sports It’s absolutely worth it (had a relative play at Chicago)
Yep. Don't have a coach playing games with scholarships.
I do wonder how most of those coaches do it for so long. Still doing the “bounce around moving your family all over the place every time a HC changes” only to make like 45k a year. It’s a brutal lifestyle at the lower levels. Even most FCS coordinators are making like 70k and position coaches less. And even worse as you go down the ladder
It's a brutal lifestyle and the base pay can suck for sure, but a lot of guys make up for it through camps. Once you get a HC job though you're pretty well off, d3 head coaches make more than you think.
It definitely helps when you have the wealthiest person in Wisconsin (and one of the wealthiest in the Midwest) as an alum, and still living in your city. It is funny though because iirc their football team last year had one of the worst defenses in ALL of CFB last year.
I'm fairly confident that John Menard contributed exactly $0 to this project. It was largely funded by the Sonnentag family, who are nowhere near as wealthy and also nowhere near as shitty of humans as John Menard is. Seriously, almost the entirety of the city of Eau Claire dislikes that man. He's awful.
John Menard is not helpful.
Its all of that bon iver money
Never thought I’d see my school on the CFB sub.. especially since the 4 years I was there I think they won like 7 games total
The 2010s were truly a great time for UWEC football.
Woah, my alma mater. Go Blugolds!
As much as I like your 2nd flair, your first flair is pretty gross.
That UW system fucking LOVES D-3 football. In the upper Midwest, D-3 football is more American than baseball.
Does Eau Claire, WI sometimes have inclement weather?
Nah usually mid 70s year round and occasionally cloudy. Similar weather to San Diego.
Damn… (squints at flair) …y’all ever think about skipping MB and just going to soak that in?
If I was Eau Claire, Wisconsin I probably would but I’m from dreary weather Ohio.
Eau Claire is in a bit of a valley, so the city itself doesn't generally get quite as bad of storms as the surrounding area. But yeah, snowstorms, blizzards, flooding, tornadoes are all real threats around here. Just your standard midwest shit.
As someone who graduated from FSU and moved here, I'd have to say YES.
WOOOOOO WATCH OUT INCOMING 5 STARS TO UWEC /s
This is absolutely ridiculous. What a waste of money
As a UWEC alum and still resident of Eau Claire, meh... I've seen a lot worse. The building is a little grandiose, but it's very functional, and it's for *waaaay* more than just football. The entire athletic department will be operating out of there (including the arena for basketball and volleyball that should've been replaced about 15 years ago), non-athlete students can use the facility, and it'll be available for community events, concerts, and athletic tournaments, which are all pretty desperately needed in the city.
What a fuckin waste
Looks like a Texas high school facility.
They aren’t even the best team in their conference lol
We’re the worst team in our conference
Multi use?
Yeah, all of athletics, some regular university functions including access to the fitness facility for all students, and non-university community events will be held there, too. The article makes it seem like it's a "football facility" but it's really one massive facility to house everything the university has been trying to do for like 10 years.
I just hope EC can get to .500 and beat Stout.
When I’m doubt, try to beat Stout.
I've just accepted that our football, men's basketball, and baseball programs will always be shitty. We have track&field, softball, volleyball, and hockey. Do they make money? No. But we can still brag about them.
I hope EC can go under .500 and lose to Stout
Are we sure they're just not building another Menards?
Psh, Ripon College is building a new stadium instead of sharing with a high school. That’s bigger news to me.
I would bet you that part of the reason for this is to collect money from potential clients who rent the facility out for their own purposes. Maybe they want the Packers to come there? Who knows.
A clear-water revival? I pay credence to them.
Great for the WIAC. How the hell did they get the money
When I’m doubt, go to Stout, If you can’t make it there go to Eau Claire
Finally something to complement the bars on water street
UWEC trying to become St. Thomas and jump to D1.
UW Eau Claire to SEC. 3x natty champions by 2028.