Documenting Another Huge Lie by OU President David Boren

[bkgmon]

In the interest of full disclosure, Mr. Wright, will you please affirm that your funding for these videos is not paid for by the taxpayers of the United States? And, in order to provide integrity to the numbers you provide about OU expenditures, will you please assure your viewers that not one cent of your exposure comes from taxpayers of the state of Oklahoma, or the government of the United States? Always better to be clear about these things, right?

[MichaelPhillipWright]

You Boren-lovers are such presumptuous jerks. Here you are, a coward who won't even disclose your name, and you are demanding that I disclose matters to you that are really none of your business. Intelligent readers may look at my text box for a link to documentation proving that the 2002 stadium expansion was financed with borrowed money in the form of a bond issue. The Boren-lover bkgmon is obviously so stupid that he doesn't even know what a bond issue is.

[luddite333]

Glad someone is researching these sport pork projects. I have lots about that subject at my channel. Stop by if you are interested.

[MichaelPhillipWright]

OK thanks. I'll do that. In the meantime, just for laughs, check out the video "Texas Comforts Oklahoma." To make sense out of it, you first have to see "Crying Sorority Girl."

[MrDePace]

It actually says "whose generosity made this stadium possible" he doesn't say he was the only one to donate he just gave the most money... On the other hand you probably were not a business major but taking on small debt with low interest rate to complete a project is sometimes required ... If you were to do that project today with steel and oil prices going up the project would cost well over 200 million dollars so he actually saved us a ton of money... thank you for being not informed mpwright

[MichaelPhillipWright]

Like most Boren-lovers, you're full of it. The stadium was originally built in 1925, when Ed Gaylord was a small child. The 2002 expansion was financed by a bond. issue. The principal and obligated interest on this will be $137 million. Gaylord gave $12 million toward the end of the project, for the new front facade which bears his name. Boren wasted $137 million in public funds for this unnecessary narcissistic project, and, in your twisted mind, you congratulate him for "saving" money.

[sooner9659]

Yes, Boren spent a lot of money for the improvements for the stadium, but it is not disproportionate to the amount of money the football program makes for the Big 12 conference and this university. OU is a great school, but it is also host to a world class football program. The school doesn't suffer because of it. It benefits from it.

It's no secret that the Gaylord family didn't pay for the stadium. No one is trying to cover it up.

[MichaelPhillipWright]

It's amazing how you Boren-lovers deny what's in front of your eyes. You say that "no one is trying to cover up" the fact that Gaylord didn't pay for the stadium. The video shows the lying plaque Boren put in front of the stadium which says that it was "made possible" by the "generosity of Edward Gaylord." It's also a myth that the athletic department is "self-supporting." An Open Records Act disclosure has confirmed that funds have been transferred to that department from the general budget.

[sooner9659]

Every building, bench, lounge and monument on campus bears the name of someone who didn't foot the entire bill. If that was necessary, then nothing would be named after a family. It is no different for the "Ford Center" in Oklahoma City. The Ford Motor Company doesn't own that stadium. They didn't pay for it. They paid name rights for the stadium that can be bought.

[MichaelPhillipWright]

The stadium was originally built in 1925 and named the Memorial Stadium to honor people who had died in World War I. Boren trampled on the memories of the war dead when he renamed it to honor his slave-masters in the Gaylord family. You disgrace yourself by excusing this atrocity. No wonder you remain anonymous while hiding your face in shame.

[mbrndt]

Hello, Mr. Wright. I would like to point out that the sign still reads "Oklahoma Memorial Stadium", and the Gaylord family name is in smaller text above. I believe if you would take viewers around the stadium grounds, they would see a large memorial to veterans, who have certainly not been forgotten. Also, whether or not Mr. Gaylord made the stadium possible, he did make a significant donation, for which a small plaque is a very minor gesture of thanks.

[MichaelPhillipWright]

I approved your post to allow rational viewers to observe that a fantastic culture of lies and twisted minds has emerged here during the Boren years. You completely ignore these realities which I describe and document: (1) the stadium was first built in 1925, when Ed Gaylord was a child, (2) Boren's plaque lies when it says that the stadium was "made possible" by Gaylord's generosity, (3) the 2002 expansion was financed by revenue bonds which created a debt of $137 million, and more.

[thisisdakotaaa]

These realities that you describe and document are indeed true, but (1)in 1925 Ed Gaylord was a child. Okay, so, he was a child when the stadium was FIRST built. The plaque is stating that Ed Gaylord did make a huge donation in '02 to help make the expansion possible, (2,3) whether or not the university went in debt to pay the rest off. It seems to me you are playing with your facts and twisting them to make somebody look like a liar.

[MichaelPhillipWright]

You deny what is right in front of your eyes. The plaque does NOT say that Gaylord made a "huge donation" in '02. It says that his "generosity" made the stadium possible. That is a LIE. In my narration I point out that Gaylord donated $12 million in '02 (pocket change) to complete the front facade. You say "whether or not" OU went into debt to pay for it. Goofball, click on the link to my text and then on the link to the proof that OU acquired a new debt of $137 million for the expansion.

[rtheuer1]

It's misleading to list the total cost of a 35 year bond without listing it's Net Present Value. At a conservative inflation rate of 3% annualized the bond comes out to $85M. Over the same time the NPV just of bowl games averaging $5M (we're getting $17M this year), is about $107M. When you add in all the other direct and indirect benefits, like the $22M Journalism building the Gaylords donated at the same time they donated the $12M to the stadium, the stadium becomes a good investment.

[MichaelPhillipWright]

You are stumbling all over yourself in your pathetic attempt to sound educated. You might start with the fact that the pay-out period for the bond is 30 years, not 35. The total debt burden, including obligated interest, is $137 million, and all your goobledegook about "NPV" doesn't change that. Your suggestion that somehow the expanded stadium gives OU opportunity to compete in bowl games is laughable. OU went to plenty of bowl games before Boren's ridiculous narcissistic stadium expansion.