UAB Blazers Continue Deliberate Growth Towards More Sustainable Athletics

No matter what anyone tells you, everything is always in flux. Opinions are fickle, support comes and goes, and you have to time it just right if you want to go from nobody to somebody.

If you are UAB Blazer football, or UAB athletics at large, you have significant recent experience with this concept, after having support for your football, bowling and rifle programs removed completely (on an administrative level). And then brought back conditionally. And then given more conditions. And then more.

One good way to hit a shifting target is to buy better ammunition. When that target is a benchmark and timelines for raising funds, the ammunition is fundraising techniques. And the Blazers appear as though they are about to buy themselves a damned bazooka.

Nothing is set in stone yet, but we are procedural steps away from UAB athletics having the same dedicated fundraising foundation that Alabama, Auburn, or just about any other Division I NCAA athletics program has. Not only that, but UAB's could be both slightly different and slightly better than many others.

This foundation will seek to raise money not only for things like facility developments and upgrades, but also for sports-related research (which is useful for things like concussion/helmet research) and other global sports performance type work.

This could be a huge boost for the entire university, not just athletics. They are talking about a cutting edge facility that will run the gamut for their athletes, with performance and safety research, performance training for all sports, a really big vision that could make Birmingham a desirable destination for not just athletes, but those who work in athletics research and all its associated fields.

The potential foundation is going about it smartly as well. They've introduced a laundry list of renovations and new construction that will benefit pretty much every sport as well as the overall aesthetic of the athletics complex and that entire end of campus.

A lot of this is just ground work that is speculative and not quite yet reality, but it is still extremely exciting and a great move in the right direction for UAB Athletics. You can place obstacles in the way if you want, Dr. Watts, and we'll keep stepping right around them.