Don't know why I am replying - but what the hell.... You are trying to educate me on use of an apostrophe? Since when do you add an 's to a word that already ends in "s"? Timing's post should have been "Texas' Stadium seats...". Talk about poor instruction. I want my tuition back!!!!! As far as the "misleading" title of the article - don't care. I would have worded it differently, but I guess that's why I am not a journalist. By the way, "Texas" is being used as an adjective in this case - not a noun, so get over it people. And I will never hold UH to be a "beacon of education," just not the sh*t hole you make it out to be. Education is what you make of it - I had a couple of poor teachers myself, but they never stopped me from learning. That's all I'll say on the subject - reply all you want, I'm not listening. So there.
Do you even have a clue as to why UT did not specify another stadium? Because at the time, the Coogs were playing their home games at the Astrodome. Deloss Dodds just assumed this game would be played there as well (not a very smart move). He made sure and even your President Dr. Smith on tv agrees that UT is guaranteed 10,000 tickets. It was only a year later UH moved its games to Robertson. Texas has been insisting for years that this game should be moved, but your former AD Chet Gladchuk kept lying to us. He assured UT that we would have our allotment. So there was nothing Texas fans could do except whine. I guess Cougar High didn't fulfill their end of the contract. Hopefully, Dodds and Brown do the only classy thing by telling UH to shove it up your... You guys will lose more by us walking than you can imagine. This is UH's big game for recruiting. Bye. This is UH's big open campus showcase event. Bye. The sucky Coogs are on national tv cause of Texas. Bye. All day tailgating. Bye. Good press. Not a chance. For Texas, this is another scrimmage. We could get a better game by scheduling Westlake HS. The Longhorns will never play UH in another sport at least in the regular season again. You can count on it. We just signed a 6-8 game contract with Rice for the next decade. So have fun with your 3,000 diehard Coog fans. Keep dreaming of the days of Yeoman. UH will never be good again.
I went to both UT and UH, so I have some perspective. If UH isn't going to provide the 10,000 seat alotment that the contract called for, UH is screwing themselves down the line. UT (and A&M) will simply deal with Rice, SMU or TCU instead (keeps the alumni happy and good for recruiting to play in Hou or Dal Metro). I think one reason UH won't move it to the Dome or Rice Stadium is because they don't want it to seem like a home game for their opponent. Very shortsided in the long run though, UH needs all the cash they can get and they could seel twice the tickets. If it goes down like this UT will also have no reason not to run up the score on them in the 2nd half, embarrassing situation for UH all the way around.
Man there sure are alot of Texas fans with their panties in a bunch. This isn't about the quality of education at UH. The UH creative writing program is #2 in the nation. The law school is #2 in the state. It has one of few schools in the nation to offer a HRM program. The poly sci department is top-50. Edward Albee is a huge asset to the theatre program. Denigrating the quality of the education at UH just because you are unhappy with the arrangements for a football game is sad. Texas had no right to expect to play at the Dome. I don't care how many alums they have in town. College football should be played on campus, period. Houston did the right thing by bringing its games back to campus, and away from the sterile, stale, cavernous atmosphere at the Astrodome and its old, hazardous astroturf. It also doesn't make sense to move one game away from its (now) regular stadium on campus, when the rest of its games are played at home. And since UT didn't get in writing where the game would take place, they have no right to dictate to UH where it holds its home games. And I can't blame the administration for tearing down those old seats. Better to make that call now and suffer ridicule than risk injury to 4,000 fans. The only mistake made was bowing to UT pressure for more seats by bringing in temporary, substandard seating in the first place. Repay the money spent by those 4,000 fans on tickets, and let that be the end of it.
If a contract calls for 10,000 seats, and they can only deliver 6,000, that seems a breach of contract. Give UT 40% of their money back, move the game, or cancel it.
I haven't seen the contract, so I could be wrong. But I would bet that UT paid nothing. It is the HOME team that pays the VISITING team to play there, not vice versa. And since it was a home-and-home series (UH played in Austin last year) the swap of money would have been even. What good would canceling the game do?
It would mean one less 'W' for UT. UH messed up big time, but the decision to not use those seats were a correct one, we don't need another potential disaster. So a bunch of people don't get to see a live football game (a real meaningless one too), BIG DEAL. It wasn't that long ago that we were talking about how this WTC thing will bring people closer together... yeah right.
<B>The only mistake made was bowing to UT pressure for more seats by bringing in temporary, substandard seating in the first place.</B> No, the only mistake was putting in substandard seating. Plenty of schools add temporary bleachers -- UT used to do it all the time for the A&M games. The difference is that those schools don't install unsafe seats and then ignore multiple requests over several weeks to have the safety reviewed, and instead promise that the unsafe seating is safe. This was a series of stupid decisions by a number of different people. <B>Repay the money spent by those 4,000 fans on tickets, and let that be the end of it.</B> What about plane tickets? Hotel reservations? If may be the end of it for the schools, but certainly not the fans who got screwed.
<B>Ticketholders who don't want to watch the game at the pavilion can get refunds, officials said. </B> The sad thing is that they are still charging people full price to go watch the game on the big screen. They should be refunding the tickets no matter what.
Sam, This isn't about the quality of education at UH. UH has every right to play the game at Robertson with 10,000 seats alloted for UT fans. If not, UT has the right to cancel the game or demand it be played elsewhere. In 1995, UT and UH agreed to a 2-1 deal meaning UH would play in Austin twice (2000 and 2002) and host once (2001). In 1995, UH's home stadium was the Astrodome. I haven't seen the contract either, but I bet UT wrote one big fat check to UH for the extra home game as well as the privilege to play in Houston. UH is not playing this game for the money though. If they were, the game would have been moved. UH is using this game as big advertisement for their school. It's not about having more orange fans in the seats, it's about playing on campus. And UH should play at Robertson with 10,000 UT fans. Cancelling the game would show UH that we mean business. How can you explain the seats being declared unsafe days before the game? UH had all summer to put up those bleachers. In fact, they had a year to plan for this. Moving the game would allow everyone an opportunity to see the game. Also, this would not inconvenience fans on both sides who are going to miss out, some are flying in and have hotel reservations. It's a small price to pay now cause I see legal problems arising out of this mess. And how dare Dr. Smith tell our fans to wear burnt orange and cheer on our team at Hofheinz Pavillion? He is got to be joking. Texas football is life unlike at UH. I believe UT is going to play this game at Robertson minus 4,000 fans. UH ticket allotment next season is gonna be screwed. And UT is a power player in the Big XII. No Big XII team is gonna deal with this bush league crap. Coogs keep bragging about Notre Dame and Miami coming to Robertson...that's a joke too. No BCS school will ever play at a 32,000 seat stadium. I bet those contracts state an expanded Robertson (52,000) or Reliant Stadium. If you guys can't put up temp bleachers, how are you gonna add 20,000 permanent seats? Have fun tailgating at Reliant Stadium in 2010 whatever if you still have a football team. UH might want to call up SMU to see how a 90 point arse kicking feels like.
I'm not a "you guys", Smokey. I'm an alum of both schools and a UT football fan first. Maybe I would have been a bigger Cougar fan when I went there, but (1) our team was terrible, (2) fans were apathetic at best, and (3) the games weren't on campus. I don't know that I would have been to more UH games if they played at Robertson at the time, but I do know I went to several Cougar hoops games while I lived on campus because they were so accessible. Since UT got 2 home dates in the contract it makes sense that they would have paid for that - that doesn't mean that they paid anything for the game in Houston itself. UH was playing its home games at the dome in 1995, but that was a long time ago. Things change. A school can't change its home stadium in 6 years time? I do know that as far back as my sophomore year (1994) they were talking about moving some of the football games back on campus. Cancelling the game unilaterally doesn't show anyone that UT "means business." It would just make a bad situation worse. Now thousands more ticket holders are out of luck, who bought plane tickets and hotel rooms for nothing. I guarantee you 75%+ of the fans are going to be Longhorns anyway - do you do that to your own fans in Houston? It is also national exposure for UT, another easy win to pad the total, and a great recruiting opportunity in the city of Houston. College Station is much closer to Houston than Austin is. Also if you cancel you have lost another guaranteed date in Austin next year, which you will have to fill at the last minute. I will agree, shanna, that those 4,000 fans got screwed. Refund them their ticket price. Refund their expenses too, if feasible. The whole watch the game at Hofheinz is very rinky-dink. And if UT used to bring in metal bleachers for A&M games, fine. But to me it seems like a safety concern, first and foremost. Blame the contractors if you like. Blame the UH administration for failing to act before now. But also blame UT for not checking it out themselves (like Jeff said, all you had to do was drive by and look to see they were structually unsound). One more thing. Football, whether at Texas or Houston, is not life. It is a game played between college kids. It is lots of fun to root for your favorite team, fun to tailgate, fun to go to DKR Memorial Stadium with 80,000 of your closest friends and cheer. But in the end its not life and death. Protecting the safety of the fans in this case was the only right thing to do.
Being on campus at the moment, I can say that having games on campus does increase student interest in the games. Not a day goes by that I don't hear people talking about going to the UH game. I think U of H is also a fine school, home of one of the top HRM programs in the country. If UT cared so much about the stadium situation, they could have easily checked it all out themselves. I see those stands everyday, and I know I wouldn't be caught dead on those bleachers, you think maybe a UT fanatic would have noticed that as well and maybe brought it to the attention of the parties involved?
As an alum of both schools I don't think UT should cancel the game. But the whole situation will be a huge black mark on the UH athletic program and football program in particular, that is point (not the jacked around 4000 some UT fans). I can tell you I would not give a red cent to UH if the athletic dept would get a cut (the academic programs deserve more support anyway). Not only will UH lose a bunch of money, but they will be shunned by the allies they need (e.g., UT and A&M). It puts Rice in a much better situation though. Basically this was not a smart move at all, or perhaps even completely incompetent is how I would characterize those responsible for it.
<B>If UT cared so much about the stadium situation, they could have easily checked it all out themselves.</B> So its now the away team's responsibility to go inspect other people's stadiums? By the way, the parties WERE informed. From UH's President: <I>"<B>I've been pushing very hard for three weeks</B> to come up with solutions to my uneasiness about this, which go well beyond what any contractor or engineer will say is required," he said. "What I've been hearing is, `It will be fine. It will be fine. It will be fine.' "As of (Monday), I hadn't received anything in writing, officially stamped, that dealt with even the minimal concerns I had." </I> This is incompetence on the part of whoever's in charge of the stadium. It's not UH's President's fault. It wasn't a bad decision 3 days ago. It was a bad decision to ignore the requests and inquiries from the President on down.
Alot of this seating BS is former AD Chet Gladchuk's fault. Here's an article that Travis wrote in this morning's Texan. UH condemns seats, displaces UT fans 4,150 tickets to game now invalid By Travis Richmond (Daily Texan Staff) September 19, 2001 The University of Houston on Tuesday condemned the temporary bleacher seats where 4,150 Texas fans would have sat during this Saturday's Texas-Houston football game at Robertson Stadium in Houston. The seats failed to meet a university inspection Monday and will be dismantled later this week, said UH President Arthur K. Smith. Sections 308 to 310 and 315 to 317 were set aside for many of the 10,000 tickets allotted for Texas fans. Instead, less than 6,000 of the stadium's 32,000 seats will hold Texas fans, representing a breach of contract, said UT Athletic Director DeLoss Dodds. "It's in the contract that there are 10,000 seats," Dodds said. "I am appalled, but I am not going to do anything to impact our football team, coaches or the 6,000 fans who have tickets." Dodds said possible legal action will not be considered until a later date. Smith made the decision to dismantle the seats after personally walking through the additional north end-zone bleachers Monday afternoon. "After I inspected the structure yesterday and climbed to its very top row, I asked myself if I would feel comfortable sitting there with my wife and daughter and granddaughter," Smith said. "The answer was no." Seating for Saturday's game has long been an issue of concern. Texas agreed to play Houston during the 2000-2002 seasons when the Cougars were still playing their home games at the larger Houston Astrodome, which has 62,439 capacity. However, Houston began playing its home games on campus at Robertson Stadium in 1998. "A year ago, because of the ticket requests we had in the Houston area, we asked them to move the game back to the Astrodome because that is where it was scheduled, and they told us there was absolutely no way they would do that," Texas head coach Mack Brown said. "DeLoss had to fight tooth and nail to get those 10,000 seats for our fans, and to have 4,000 jerked away right now is just atrocious." Further angering Dodds and Brown was the fact that Houston made the decision to dismantle the seats Monday but failed to notify anyone in Austin. The UT Athletic Department found out about the seat condemnation on Tuesday through a press release on the UH Web site. Dodds said he began inquiring about the safety of the new bleachers more than a month ago to former UH Athletic Director Chet Gladchuk. Gladchuk resigned Sept. 3 to take the same position at the U.S. Naval Academy. "I talked four weeks ago to Chet Gladchuk about the safety of the bleachers and was assured that university people and state engineers had looked at the bleachers. He told me they were fine," Dodds said. But Dodds said he continued to worry and last week asked the UT Physical Plant to contact the University of Houston to get more answers. Dodds said he was told Tuesday by the Physical Plant that the UH Athletic Department had not worked with university officials in inspecting the bleachers. "Somebody at Houston is not quite telling the truth on whether those bleachers were or were not inspected by engineers until this week," Dodds said. The UH release quoted Smith as saying the bleachers do not meet the safety standards he has been seeking "over the past four weeks." Fans with tickets in the condemned sections can get a refund through the UT ticket office, which will be reimbursed by the UH Athletic Department for all 4,150 tickets. Those fans will also be able to watch a broadcast of the game at Hofheinz Pavilion, the basketball arena on the UH campus. Dodds and Brown said they want the game moved to either the Astrodome or nearby Rice Stadium, which seats 70,000. That field is available because Rice plays at Nebraska on Thursday. "That is the only classy thing to do," Brown said. "To promise 10,000 tickets and not be able to deliver ... Hopefully, they will understand that is not right and that is not fair." But Michael Cinelli, a spokesman for the UH Office of External Communications, said the game would "absolutely not" be moved. "Robertson Stadium is the home field of the Houston Cougars," Cinelli said. "And that is where the game will be played." Screw Cougar High. They will continue to suck in all sports, especially football. Have fun playing the rest of your home games in a sparsely crowded dump known as Robertson Stadium. Last year we whooped UH 48-0, this year we will not call off the dogs. Give em hell Horns.
All I got out of that whole passage was that the 10,000 seats was not a promise made in the initial contract. Rather, it was a later given concession by UH, due to UT's realization that the games were going to be at Robertson. (Stupid on Texas's part if you ask me, since the move back to campus was a good thing for UH and was in the planning stages back in 94). The game was absolutely not scheduled for the Astrodome, so I guess Mack Brown reads contracts about as well as he prepared for last year's Oklahoma game. BTW, how do you think Hawaii felt a few years ago when Texas pulled out of that series when they had promised to play in Honolulu? I would think that Hawaii season ticket holders who were promised a Texas game would have been pissed, as well.
There is a difference, UT can find 200 Hawaii's, but UH has only 2 potential cash cows that would agree to play them in Houston and give them the exposure they want. The Aggies I am sure will want no part of them now either. Just a bad move from a program trying to establish itself nationally. The big losers from this mess is the current Cougar football players and future players. Sounds like one guy in part responsible has moved on, no doubt the other administartors involved will find decent jobs elsewhere. Very sad.
