Why are we going to spend $80 MILLION dollars to expand blue bell park? What, we play for our FIRST men's national championship since 1939, and we decide to invest as much money as we burned on Jimbo because we came in second place??

When are we going to care about sustained winning? A culture of consistent winning?

What that 80 million dollars of expansion money tells me is that they really aren't serious about winning. I don't care if we add another seat to Olsen, heck REMOVE 5,000 chairs from the stadium until we all see a PENNANT in the outfield that says NATIONAL CHAMPIONS.

We will be just like the stupid cowboys. Terrible management, a giant stadium with NOTHING to show for, and a lack luster outfield with no pennants. It's all about the money and revenue isn't it? I'd say pocket that 80 million and invest it elsewhere. Give students free tuition with if for all I care. "If you build it, they will come" has not and will not work at Texas A&M. We need a coach, a culture, and the big wigs who run things to care about one thing: WINNING.

Yea it's all about the money. It's a business at the end of the day. We follow the Dallas cowboys method.

I remember RC literally begging for minimal upgrades which he never got. Kyle Field at that time was embarrassing.

We didn't get the funding up front so they're stringing out the upgrades. But remember that everything about intercollegiate sports is in motion and no one knows what will happen next.

We expect the need to generate at least $20 million more in revenue/donations just to cover the forward looking House settlement internal NIL payouts:

Do I think the buildout of BBP will hinder baseball? I think it will not. It more likely creates an opportunity for especially locals on the waiting list to be able to have season tickets after years of growing the waiting list.

But the player development improvements should provide lift to recruiting and its most important outcome: coaching.

Will it work? Do you really want to risk becoming uncompetitive on player development so we are worse than minor league clubs?

Ag1188 said:

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Goofy analogy. Investing in new facilities is how you get recruits. Investing in a guaranteed-contract for a coach is totally different. The only reason we can be hopeful of returning to the College World Series Final is because we know we're upgrading facilities which attracts recruits.

A&M's football recruiting spiked after we upgraded facilities. But even if you want to say Manziel alone upgraded our recruiting, people largely say the reason our football program absolutely tanked in the late 90s/early-2000s is because we failed to upgrade facilities which cost us big time in recruiting.

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This is an outdated mindset.

If we build a stadium bigger than MS State and nicer than TD Ameritrade, it won't improve our recruiting more than a $7MM / Year NIL budget.

I still wan't an upgraded facility, but not because I think it'll win us recruits.

Capacity problem every few years here and there, really isn't a problem. Spending money make Aggies feel like champions.

Buford T. Justice said:

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Investing in NIL is how you get new recruits.
The stadium stuff is for the fans.

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That's about to change. Also the player performance center stuff is absolutely needed and needed immediately. If fans will be the tickets if you expand - then you expand. Continues to build on the home field advantage and creates a top notch facility for recruiting. Very short sighted approach to discount the player performance stuff and the stadium expansion. It's needed. NIL money alone is not going to turn us into a contender. We need long term stability and a multi faceted approach to reach the success we want.

I think we let the coaching world know that the next coach will have a major hand in designing his new ballpark. Blue Bell is already and icon. The kind of ego that would be attracted to this opportunity is probably the kind we need to be heading this program. Generally, I'm not in favor of hiring a-holes, but the last one worked out pretty well.