SerpApi.Org
The Syracuse real estate market has been heating up with the anticipation of Micron’s move to the area and people will tell you that houses are going quickly and for prices above listing.
Which is why it wasn’t that shocking when we learned that the McNamara family would be moving into the former home of outgoing AD John Wildhack. In this market, you have to sometimes have an in and well what better in than getting a home from the person who hired you.
So McNamara was handed the keys to the Syracuse men’s basketball program (and the Melo Center), and then he was handed the keys to another Orange home. We’ll leave it up to you to decide which place GMac will spend more time in during his first year as Head Coach, but at least the commute isn’t that daunting.
Back to the real estate transaction, do we think that this was part of the contract negotiations in March? Like McNamara really wanted the job but Wildhack was adamant that he had to agree to buy the house? Or was it the other way around- Wildhack desperate for some kind of basketball win on his way out throws the house into the deal to get the Orange legend home?
You might scoff at the insinuation but let’s not pretend that Syracuse fans weren’t calling Wildhack’s entire tenure a failure because of the state of the basketball program, but let’s be honest.
Was this real estate just McNamara wanting to avoid going to open houses? It’s not hard to imagine that Gerry would hate the task of going through open houses every weekend when he could be in the gym or on the golf course. You wonder if his first move was to try and buy back his former home and this was option number two?
Or has Gerry been scoping this house for the last few years? Picture Gerry walking around during the annual cookout checking the faucets in all seven bathrooms, asking “Hey John, what’s it cost to heat this thing in the winter?”, or casually dropping some “so when the kids are out of college, you’re probably going to downsize right?” into conversations with Wildhack.
Perhaps will get some answers when the media opportunities open up this Fall. Until then we can speculate on how this all went down.
In the end, McNamara is back in an old home and in a new home, and at least we avoided the real awkwardness of having him be the person buying Adrian Autry’s house…..but think of the content we could have had there.
