November 21, 2000
Contact: Christian Clarke Casarez
Public Information Officer, University Communications
915/747-5526
UTEP President Diana Natalicio is keeping her eye on the goal - construction of a sports center that will give new vitality to the Sun Bowl Stadium - amid the controversy of the stadium's ownership.
"Once we get past this series of conversations, all of El Paso will celebrate the new Sun Bowl and the Larry K. Durham Sport Center, which will represent a new era," Natalicio said shortly after an early October news conference focusing on the University of Texas System's decision to acquire the stadium through eminent domain proceedings.
The move came after a series of meetings with the El Paso County Commissioners Court at which they refused to allow the university to move forward with the construction of the sports center unless the county was allowed use of the stadium several days a year.
UTEP then offered to purchase the stadium for the appraised value of the Sun Bowl lease - $1,600 - and a $250,000 scholarship endowment for residents of El Paso County, but the commissioners court refused the offer.
As a state agency, the UT System can pay only the appraised value - in this case, $1,600 is the county's value of the lease fee estate in the Sun Bowl property as determined by a Houston-based appraiser.
"That $1,600 obviously does not represent the replacement cost of the Sun Bowl," said Richard Adauto, assistant to the president. "It is the value of the Sun Bowl to a purchaser, considering that the property is under an exclusive $1 per year lease for the next 160 years."
To safeguard UTEP's investment in the Sun Bowl and to avoid unnecessary delays and impediments in the future, the UT Board of Regents then voted unanimously to have the Texas Attorney General's Office file an eminent domain action to bring the stadium under university ownership and thus make possible the construction of the sports center.
The new Durham Center, a $9 million, 60,000-square-foot facility, will feature a large strength and conditioning area, a sports medicine center, a kinesiology lab, a laundry facility, a student-athlete academic area, football and soccer locker rooms, and a "Hall of Champions."
It is named after former UTEP football player and mathematics alumnus Larry K. Durham, who as a student-athlete scored the first touchdown in the Sun Bowl in 1963. Last year, he presented the university with up to $5 million toward the construction of the center and challenged other alumni to support the university.
"This is an action we took only after trying to get authorization to build the Larry K. Durham Center," Natalicio said of the plan to acquire the stadium through eminent domain, adding that the university's interest is in building the center to enhance the stadium and, ultimately, the community and UTEP's future.
"I think we have a responsibility to proceed, so we reluctantly took these steps. We feel we had no other choice."
She said the university had serious concerns about the county's proposal to have control of the stadium for several days each year as a condition of the lease amendment.
"There are very few large events that can fill the Sun Bowl in any year," she said, adding that the county's proposal to schedule events in the stadium would not increase the number of such events in El Paso but only lead to the county and university competing against each other for the few that are available each year.
El Paso County built the Sun Bowl in 1961 on property donated by UTEP and gave the university a $1-per-year lease that extends well into the 21st century for the university to operate and maintain the stadium.
Since the original construction of the stadium in 1961, the Sun Bowl has been maintained and upgraded by UTEP alone. When television coverage of the game was threatened in 1981, and a county bond issue to expand the stadium failed, UTEP and the UT System stepped up and spent an additional $7 million to increase seating to 52,000.
"UTEP has not made a profit from the Sun Bowl facility. Through capital improvements, we have essentially re-invested every dollar that we have earned through its use," Natalicio said.
In addition to the routine maintenance of the facility, numerous other improvements - from replacing the turf and upgrading the sound system and lighting to providing access for the disabled as required by ADA. - have been made in the past 40 years, bringing the total invested by UTEP to $9 million.
"I think the lease has outlived its usefulness," Natalicio said at the October media conference. "For all practical purposes, most people in El Paso thought we (UTEP) already owned the Sun Bowl."
Natalicio said the bulk of construction of the sports center is expected to begin immediately after the 2000 Sun Bowl football game in December, so that the new center can be completed before next year's Sun Bowl game.
"The construction of the Larry K. Durham center is going to have a huge impact on the Sun Bowl and on the community. I think it's going to be a fabulous facility."
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