Oklahoma State’s $20M Trip To Omaha

I have been hearing seemingly since I was in college about the new baseball stadium Oklahoma State is getting. You likely have too. At this point, I would believe Gallagher-Iba is going to get re-built before I would believe that a baseball stadium is actually going to happen. But according to Bill Haisten of the Tulsa World, we could legitimately be on the precipice.

Mike Holder is hosting some big boy donors this week in Omaha in hopes that an inspirational run by the Cowboys will dip deep into somebody’s pockets for the $20M needed to get halfway home to the $40M total for the new park (and put somebody’s name on the side of the building).

“If someone would step up and make that big gift (of $20M), I think the momentum would be critical,” Holder told the Tulsa World. “I think others would want to get involved. But just because someone has the ability and loves OSU athletics, that doesn’t mean they’re going to write (the difference-making check). That’s a whole new stratosphere of commitment. It’s hard to raise that kind of money.”

Hedging and hoping. Holder is the best.

Of course we’ve been here before. We’ve been beyond here before. Remember when the stadium was supposed to have been completed by 2017. Yeah, I do. But nobody would fork over the dough to get the job done. I’m not sure why. OSU baseball has arguably been the second-most exciting sports team on OSU’s campus over the last five years (it certainly hasn’t been hoops!)

I suppose it’s not a sexy place to plaster your name all over, but you would think Holder could convince some oil or energy tycoon not named “Boone” to tap into his or her ego and bang this out. The plunge in oil as a resource likely hasn’t been all that helpful.

But maybe conquering Omaha — or at least getting to the championship series — will be enough to get the job done this time. Nothing lubricates a checkbook like alcohol in a private suite at a college athletics event winning titles. And if it’s not going to get done at this moment with Josh Holliday soaring and OSU athletics on the rise, then I question whether it will ever happen. I just hope they build a nice stall for Utropolis to hang out in.