Larry Gies Makes Transformational $100 Million Gift to Illinois Athletics
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This money will help keep the Memorial standing for another 100 years. If the price Larry Legend requests for that is adding his name to the marquee, I’m OK with that.
I am good with the naming right b/c $100M is a fond memory. My only question is what happens when somebody else donates $200M?
“Looks like Khan University of Illinois!”
This is free money for the most part unless they are improving the game experience like adding cell towers throughout the stadium. I barely had a signal against Western.
One way to think about this is it'll fund improvements that would have come from football revenue, and that football revenue will now go to the revenue share players get.
To all those who complained about the budget post revenue share, this is one of the ways schools will adjust to the new reality.
Great point.
It should be better wifi by the USC game. Apparently the concourse was scheduled to be done week 1.
They already have the signs changed??? Wow!
Ransom Stoddard
Ordained Dudeist Priest
- Bloomington, IL
Fixing the cell bandwidth is, unfortunately, up to the wireless carriers to upgrade their infrastructure. I think this is why the University invested so much in WiFi infrastructure in MS. FWIW, there's always kind of been University guest WiFi in MS, but there wasn't enough infra to carry much. It was waaaay better for a while at the WIU game, I'm looking forward to full implementation by the SC game.
RabidDawgClassic
- Los Angeles, CA
I don’t have a beef, really, with any of this, other than we’ve sold 100 years of tribute to the soldiers of World War One. But… it was sold for a hefty price tag and everything has a price. In this era of NIL “pay for play,” $100 million is nothing to sneeze at.
My biggest gripe is calling this a “gift.” It’s not a gift, it’s a transaction of sale. The UI sold the name of the stadium in exchange for $100 million. Seems like a fair deal, doughboys be damned! But don’t pi$$ on my leg and tell me it’s raining. A “gift” is something offered with no return expected in exchange.
So really… my only issue is semantics. Let’s take that hundy-mill and go get us some five stars!!
My biggest gripe is calling this a “gift.” It’s not a gift, it’s a transaction of sale. The UI sold the name of the stadium in exchange for $100 million. Seems like a fair deal, doughboys be damned! But don’t pi$$ on my leg and tell me it’s raining. A “gift” is something offered with no return expected in exchange.
So really… my only issue is semantics. Let’s take that hundy-mill and go get us some five stars!!
RabidDawgClassic
- Los Angeles, CA
That’s “press release speak.” Buzz words. He might be the greatest philanthropist in the state, but there’s still a cost to the University. A “gift” it is not.
And that’s after a $150M previously for business school. Illinois will continue to nurture this relationship and likely see at least one more large gift in future.
Lol.
So no transaction that involves naming is a "gift"? So if i appear on a plaque, it's not a gift?
Of course, the IRS will have a say in this and they will call it a gift.
So from the timing of this can I assume Gies was one of the two power ball winners this past weekend?
Shad Khan, the ball is in your court...
Agree this is a massively awesome donation and don't mind the name change. I will say I have said Willis Tower thousands of times, but in fairness I worked in the Tower for Wills.
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