Photo Attribution: US Presswire
The way we got here, the price that has been paid, well it’s not as pretty or as square as we might like it to be1.
There was an article in the Wall Street Journal over the weekend about Boone and about Stillwater and about the $275 million that was lost and about the $33 million that was lost after that. It’s all pretty grotesque, yet as you’re reading it, you kind of, I don’t know….maybe it’s just because we’ve lived this story…you understand it.
I can’t link to the story because you’d have to pay for it, but if you Google “Boone WSJ” it’s the first thing that pops up and for some reason it’s free that way. You should read it, the details are recycled from various corners of the internet but the author does a pretty good job of piecing everything together.
Here were the main points I took away…
- Basically the entire operation (both the stadium money and the life insurance policies2) hinged on Boone being able to house a 20% ROI every year. There was no diversification, there was no contingency plan. I’m not an economist but that seems absurd.
- If it wasn’t clear before that Mike Holder is a pawn in somebody else’s game3 it is now. “Heads will roll.”
- I’m not a big “taking out life insurance policies on people is creepy!” guy but I will say when you’re dealing with that many millions, it seems like the line between “betting on life expectancy tables” and “wow, this person really needs to die” is a lot blurrier than it should be.
- I don’t know all the dynamics in the hierarchy of leadership in Stillwater, but it would take a pretty strong argument for somebody to talk me out of thinking Burns is the only person there that will go toe-to-toe with Boone-daddy.
Again, none of this is new4 but as an OSU fan it’s worth knowing every side to the story, grisly as they might be.
- Or as many of the Twitter feeds emanating from the OSU athletic department would have you believe. ↩
- Again, go read the article to know what I’m talking about ↩
- And it very very very much was clear ↩
- And in terms of bigger pictures, these details are probably not tremendously consequential, though a lot of questions can and should probably be asked about the long-term viability and ethicalness of an 84-year old oil man essentially steering a transformative athletic program… ↩
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=boone%20wsj&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CEsQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304782404577488592793245510.html&ei=gZD8T4eWGceA2gXwrf3yBg&usg=AFQjCNE7qzVUgJvt9WSmagldKL7-LvJOeg
This link will go to it directly and work correctly.
Thanks for this. Actually, athletic village or not, imminent domain just plain sucks.
Great article, but again it’s too negative. As well-informed people, we have to remember that OSU’s ascension to the elite would have been nearly impossible without Boone Pickens. And if it weren’t for his fearless approach to risk, he’d still be stuck in an office at Phillips Petroleum and not taking OSU to the next level.
I doubt anyone is losing sleep over bull dozing a bunch a beer-soaked apartments and run-down homes.
Well, maybe the people living in the beer-soaked apartments and run-down homes. Or do we only care when it’s our home?
Kyle, How do you think Burns became president? The regents run around wonder what Boone would like.
Remember that dust up with Mrs Pickens over the vacines tested on animals? I admit I know nothing about it, but rejecting NIH grants seems like a good way to damage the universities research reputation, especially after we built the facility to house the animals. Yet he did it, cause a Pickens didn’t like it.
Jadecy – There’s a lot of ignorance in that comment. I lost my place to the non-existent Athletic Village, and it was a horrible experience. That many people displaced allowed landlords across Stillwater to jack up the cost of rent, so I not only had 30 days to find a new place and move a few miles away from campus (as opposed to being across the street), but I had to pay more each month because of it. My experience likely means nothing to you, but what should are the people who lived in their homes for decades, some folks who even built their own houses, and had nothing to meet the legal caliber of the university.
That being said, that kind of growth was necessary for the university to reach its goals. It was just sad to see it cause such discord between the strong connections that existed between OSU and the Stillwater community. It’s also sad to see, every time I visit Stillwater, that where my (apparently) “beer-soaked” apartment once stood is still a dingy parking lot.