I was cruising through Facebook today looking at fireworks photos posted by guys I went to high school with when all of a sudden a sponsored post for condos outside Bryant-Denny Stadium popped up and caught my attention for obvious reasons, specifically the location. When I saw right outside Bryant-Denny, I mean right outside the stadium. Turns out they plowed ancient apartment buildings where my dad and I partied a few years ago before our only stop at Alabama during our decade long father-son trips.
The people we were partying with at the old apartments told us the old dumps were going to be plowed, but you forget things and I definitely forgot until today when I saw what is rising in its place. The Westgate Alabama is now going up and it appears to be a seven-story luxury condo building where Bama fans who have huge money will be partying in style before games. The highest priced condo that I can find listed is this 5-bedroom, 3,600 sq. ft penthouse (including the 500 sq. ft balcony) with an asking price of $2,249,000.
This isn’t some sort of sponsored post. Bama real estate marketing departments don’t need my help spreading the word at all. This is me blogging — no fee to WestGate Alabama — about where things are headed for college football and real estate. I still can’t understand how college football stadiums haven’t started connecting hotel towers to their facility. This is about as close as it gets without and actual walkway going right into the side of Bryant-Denny.
Here’s where your new penthouse will be located:
Tired of tailgating with a bunch of idiots out the back of your SUV? This Westgate place will have a rooftop club and terrace, blah, blah, blah. If the website for this place turns out to be what the WestGate is like, you might as well just write the check right now and snag one of the penthouses — 5 bedroom, 5.5 bathrooms seems to be the biggest available.
That brings me to my next train of thought — at this point it’s pretty much imperative that Alabama stays great after Nick Saban leaves. Think of all the condo money being dropped in this building. Don’t think for a second Bama fans with money on the line are going to accept anything less than Final Four trips after Saban, turns 68 in October, hangs it up. You know who’s going to get paid, and I mean PAID, down the road? Dabo Swinney. He signed a 10-year, $92 million contract in April. Jimbo Fisher’s contract at Texas A&M is 10-years, $75 million guaranteed.
Bama fans/investors are out here dropping $500,000+ on 1 bedroom condos in this building. You think they’re going to accept off-year Sugar Bowl trips? Not happening. They’ll demand Dabo come home and it will set off a bidding war and all hell will break loose within college football.
Condo buildings worth over $100M will be the second-best thing to ever happen to college football coaches, second only to networks spending your cable dollars on live TV rights. So don’t be shocked when Alabama doesn’t slip like they did in the early to mid-2000s. The college football investors have too much money on the line. The same teams are going to keep on winning. Hope you didn’t think your team had a chance in this financial game.
