Cougar pride over the opening of UH’s new football stadium has turned sour.  UH administration, long known for taking a bad situation and making it worse, continues that tradition with a disastrous roll out of TDECU Stadium.  The Houston Chronicle reports that numerous problems have plagued the supposed show piece in UH’s attempt to return to intercollegiate athletic relevance.

Five months after Cougars fans cheered its first kickoff, the University of Houston’s $128 million football stadium has drummed up as much anger and recriminations as school spirit. Students are calling for the resignation of a top UH official they contend hired an unqualified contractor to run events there. Audits are underway to investigate stadium funding and the bidding process for the contract in question. And emails  . . . show that the companies responsible for running events have butted heads with administrators.

The disclosures in the emails, which shed light on the contracting process in question, are the latest in a series of concerns that have arisen about TDECU Stadium, which opened last August with great fanfare.  A top UH administrator,  Carl Carlucci, did not heed warnings from a UH attorney and a top athletics official when he signed a five-year contract with the companies last year, the emails show. Carlucci, the executive vice president for administration and finance, runs day-to-day operations at the flagship campus as a key aide to Renu Khator, the president and system chancellor.

Much of the problem centers around  Aramark and VenuWorks, which operate at UH as Sports & Entertainment and now control food and services at the stadium.  Those companies submitted a bid that did not conform with the university’s request for proposals.  This was pointed out by a UH assistant general counsel and an assistant athletics director who both complained that about the VenuWorks proposal.  UH awarded Sports & Entertainment the contract despite the fact that it had never operated a facility larger than 22,000 seats even though TDECU seats more than 45,0000.  The issue boiled over when the UH Band classrooms at the new stadium were vandalized putting Sports & Entertainment on the hot seat as to its management of the $150 million facility.