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Is the Big News related to the East Club?

On April 17th, still two-plus weeks away, UB Football will hold a "Spring BBQ Bash." Most of the accompanying details are predictable and not unexpected; it's a fundraising/community outreach dinner and "evening of fun."

We have been beating the bushes in an attempt to figure out what Danny White's big news is going to be. And over the next week or so Bull Run will have a series of speculative articles which constitute our own S.W.A.G as to what will be revealed on the 17th.

Several months ago on of the editors was working on an article about the East Club. It was going to be something of a "Where's the beef" article. I put out some feelers to the department and was told that I might want to wait on publishing because there were a lot of pieces on the board and the truth of that January day might not be the truth later on.

Now we receive word that there will be a big announcement this April 17th and the spring BBQ bash. Kinda makes me wonder if we will get a fixed date on the East Club.

What is the East Club?

The project takes of the upper east concourse of the stadium and re-engineers it to be luxury seating for people who want to watch football under heat lamps and with a climate controlled club behind them. The top hat and monocle set is typically made up of companies that buy blocks of seats, at least that's the way many sports venues target their sales.

The concourse will be closed except to East Club members and will feature "Upscale Food and Beverage Service". Such wording indicated were talking about alcohol and quality food.

The East Club will also have private Bathrooms and TV's throughout showing the UB Game and other MAC games of interest.

The end goal is to collect about 1,000 dollars per member per year of the East club and use that money to finance other big projects. The overall cost of the improvement to the stadium were estimated to be 10 million dollars when UB released their Athletics Facility Improvement plan.

When going full speed, and if sold out, the East club will well over a million per season to UB's bottom line. That money makes paying for other big project possible.

It was also initially speculated that the club would be completed at the beginning of the 2015 football season which would be this coming season. The Blue and White fund has been busy selling seats for a couple of years, now maybe we will see people sitting in them.