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Golf proposal aims to build golf course for alumni, athletes

Diane Dietz has the story in the RG. UO currently spends about $1.2M subsidizing the men’s and women’s golf teams. I thought the idea to build them a special golf course had died, but it’s back, still without any faculty review of the budget etc.

Presumably the developers’ business model is to use UO’s non-profit status to keep the ~$25M course off the county tax rolls, while cashing in by selling nearby real-estate to alumni for McMansions. Just a guess.

13 Comments

  1. Nobody 09/01/2014

    Will there be job openings with PERS benefits for a caddy or two? Tips! Both monetary and insider! I sense intrigue could be afoot.

  2. anon 09/02/2014

    Sure wish they would partner with Laurel Wood or the one out Delta instead to get those existing golf courses in great shape. What a waste of money not to mention environmental impact (pesticides, water) to build a new facility.

    • ScienceDuck 09/02/2014

      I’ve recently seen a spate of articles talking about how golf courses all over are desperately trying to stop the decline of players but to no avail. Hard to imagine anybody proposing to build a new one when courses are failing.

  3. anon 09/02/2014

    No kidding. The mileage alone to and from the proposed site is going to be considerable.

  4. Old Grey Mare 09/02/2014

    Nothing says “sustainable campus” like a golf course ten miles away.

  5. double duck 09/02/2014

    Where else will Frohn golf with King Nike? this is for the power elite, sucking off the public teat to get a taxpayer subsidized golf course where the Oregon One Percent can play.

    • anonymous again 09/02/2014

      Right, and what other UO facility is open to alumni? Stadiums? research labs? I mean you can use the library (but not have a card) or the track when it’s open (more and more rare), but why would alumni get to use THIS exclusive facility?

  6. Anonymous UO Alum 09/02/2014

    Golf, along with Tiger Woods, is in decline nationwide. Last year there were 14 new golf courses in the US (18 hole equivalent), there were 157.5 closed for a net loss of 143.5 golf courses (18 hole equivalents).
    There are golf courses around here for sale and/or otherwise trying to get out of the declining golfing business. The old duffers are dying off and golf is not on the radar screen of the younger generation since Tiger Woods imploded about five years ago.

    • Laocoon 09/02/2014

      I fear the golfers, even bearing gifts.

      This will come with covenants that will lock UO into years of subsidies. I hope our new board is smart and honest enough to make sure there is some offsetting benefit for the academic side.

      • RW 09/02/2014

        Or just smart and honest enough to say “no” to the plan, and to whatever donor(s) are ready to throw money at it.

  7. here we go again 09/03/2014

    Speaking of donors and boosters, check this new, very in-depth article on Colt Lyerla:
    http://www.sbnation.com/longform/2014/9/3/6096841/colt-lyerla-profile-oregon-football

    “There was a point where me and my mom and everyone in my family was like ‘Yeah, like, go to USC,'” he says. “‘We can’t wait for you to go to USC.'” For once, everything was lining up exactly how he’d planned….. Their enthusiasm dampened when an unofficial adviser weighed in. Lyerla declines publicly to identify the man, a powerful University of Oregon booster known to the family. The adviser made the benefits of that decision clear. If Lyerla went to Oregon, “I was promised a house, a car, all these things.”

    • uomatters Post author | 09/03/2014

      This is shocking. I hope Jim O’Fallon’s NCAA infractions committee will investigate and make sure Mr. Lyerla receives any and all compensation he was promised in exchange for his valuable service to the Duck football program. That is the NCAA’s job, right? To make sure the players get fair compensation for their big-time college sports work?

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