Per Shama- Big time athletic donors considering cutting ties

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The article is titled "LOYALISTS TROUBLED BY GOPHER ATHLETICS. The thread title is "Big time athletic donors".

There's the problem in a nutshell. A Minnesotan reads an article about 1 guy who gives $100,000, 1 guy who gives $10K, another $20k and thinks they are "big time"donors. That's a major problem that surprisingly is never mentioned in the litany of troubles over at the U. The cheapness of their fan base.
 

Yeah... Because most fans have 10-100k laying around burning a hole in their pockets...

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MDGopherFan said:
Yeah... Because most fans have 10-100k laying around burning a hole in their pockets...

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Click to expand...

Thanks. Yep, that's a perfect example of many Gopher fans thinking that 10K is a example of a "big time" donor.

Athletic donor contributions

1. Wisconsin - $38,456,619

2. Michigan - $35,267,267

3. Iowa - $30,356,325

4. Michigan State - $29,724,939

5. Ohio State - $28,201,658

6. Illinois - $16,909,059

7. Indiana - $16,792,186

8. Purdue - $15,281,636

9. Nebraska - $11,833,760

10. Maryland - $11,225,922

11. Minnesota - $10,332,287

12. Rutgers - $8,113,992
 

Perhaps if the university wasn't a complete dumpster fire for close to 6 decades people's pockets would be a little looser.
 


Iceland12 said:
Thanks. Yep, that's a perfect example of many Gopher fans thinking that 10K is a example of a "big time" donor.

Athletic donor contributions

1. Wisconsin - $38,456,619

2. Michigan - $35,267,267

3. Iowa - $30,356,325

4. Michigan State - $29,724,939

5. Ohio State - $28,201,658

6. Illinois - $16,909,059

7. Indiana - $16,792,186

8. Purdue - $15,281,636

9. Nebraska - $11,833,760

10. Maryland - $11,225,922

11. Minnesota - $10,332,287

12. Rutgers - $8,113,992
Click to expand...
You clearly missed my point....

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theTurning said:
Perhaps if the university wasn't a complete dumpster fire for close to 6 decades people's pockets would be a little looser.
Click to expand...

Which raises the question: Why now?

I know that things aren't exactly rosy in the athletic department, and I criticize them, too. But this is really just about bruised egos, isn’t it? I would guess they’re seeking influence in the AD search.

The article goes on about how awful things are in the athletic department. I mean, the football team had a disappointing season last year, but that was one step back in an otherwise positive trajectory over the past few years. The article noted that the Gophers have only been to one New Year's Day bowl game since 1962 but conveniently left out the fact that the one NYD bowl was 15 months ago. Yes, much of the mountain remains to be climbed, but it seems like progress is being made. There have been dozens of more appropriate seasons over the past 45 years to be angry about football. I feel like football is in a fairly good spot right now, looking back over 45 years. These football guys have to see that. Am I wrong?

That leaves basketball and hockey in terms of struggling, high profile sports. (Frankly, the minor sports have mostly been good for six decades.) How much do these guys care about hockey? The hockey fans have been complaining about Lucia and the hockey program for six or seven years, but we haven’t heard boo from these guys until now, just two years after an appearance in the national championship game.

I have to think that the brutal basketball season has given these guys an opening to criticize. But this is about ego and their attempt to influence. I doubt that we would hear anything about this if the AD position was not open.
 

theTurning said:
Perhaps if the university wasn't a complete dumpster fire for close to 6 decades people's pockets would be a little looser.
Click to expand...

Very good point and it's a great excuse not to donate too. The counter is, if the U had the money over the last 20 years to pay for top flight facilities, first string assistant coaches and marketing they wouldn't have such a dumpster fire over there. It is worth noting that in the Women's sports and the Olympic sports, where there isn't such an "arms race" of spending on coaches and facilities, the U does very well.

It's in basketball and football, where 17 and 18 year olds are courted by schools all over the country, where the lack of money was most glaring. Those recruit may not have been too impressed by practicing in a hallway, or the 8-track players that were in the football building just a few years ago.That's where a competent athletic department became a dumpster fire.

Big time donation money could have helped fix that.

The problem may be we just don't have many big time donors.
 

MDGopherFan said:
You clearly missed my point....

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Click to expand...

No, in relation to the post, your point was clearly b.s., but it was a perfect example of the small time thinking surrounding donations that many "fans" of the U certainly have.
 



Shama got one fact wrong.

Michigan did not hire their AD in a shorter time than Minnesota.

Their search took 15 months. Minnesota's will be 12 months, tops.

The interim AD fired Hoke and Hired Harbaugh.
 

Iceland12 said:
Thanks. Yep, that's a perfect example of many Gopher fans thinking that 10K is a example of a "big time" donor.

Athletic donor contributions

1. Wisconsin - $38,456,619

2. Michigan - $35,267,267

3. Iowa - $30,356,325

4. Michigan State - $29,724,939

5. Ohio State - $28,201,658

6. Illinois - $16,909,059

7. Indiana - $16,792,186

8. Purdue - $15,281,636

9. Nebraska - $11,833,760

10. Maryland - $11,225,922

11. Minnesota - $10,332,287

12. Rutgers - $8,113,992
Click to expand...

Wow this says a lot. And would the scholarship donations for football season tickets help with this number?
 

WorkingMyTailOff said:
Wow this says a lot. And would the scholarship donations for football season tickets help with this number?
Click to expand...

It should, but the numbers are a couple of years old, so the donations for the other schools could've gone up too.
 

a lot of U alumni have a lot of money and donate generously to the U - just not specifically for athletics. I think the U has the 5th largest endowment in the bigten, and in 2015 about 78,000 peope gave over $350M in gifts to the U.
 



Carter really bothers me. Such a Gopher backer, but he is pretty much trying to burn the place down because he's not getting his way. Of course, he likes Beth. What a chicksh*t.
 

Iceland12 said:
They may not have been too impressed by...the 8-track players that were in the football building just a few years ago, where that competent athletic department becomes a dumpster fire.
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IALTO! Man, what a dumb thing to write.
 

$10M, if accurate, is pretty pathetic. Look at it from a crowd-sourcing angle. If you could somehow get 100,000 people to contribute $10 per month, that would be $12M per year.
 

Mulligan said:
Carter really bothers me. Such a Gopher backer, but he is pretty much trying to burn the place down because he's not getting his way. Of course, he likes Beth. What a chicksh*t.
Click to expand...

Spot on. I have been saying here for months the dude is a loon. That is usually followed with someone posting that he is more plugged in than any of us here, blah, blah, blah. Doesn't change the fact he is a loon.... with an agenda.
 

So deep-pocketed boosters are taking directions from Carter? Right... Many wealthy people are the cheapest I know. Throwing money around in badly negotiated deals is a bad look for the U and tends to turn people off.

Winning would solve a lot of problems, obviously.
 

harrys ghost said:
$10M, if accurate, is pretty pathetic. Look at it from a crowd-sourcing angle. If you could somehow get 100,000 people to contribute $10 per month, that would be $12M per year.
Click to expand...

Aka seat donations?
 

Iceland12 said:
Thanks. Yep, that's a perfect example of many Gopher fans thinking that 10K is a example of a "big time" donor.

Athletic donor contributions

1. Wisconsin - $38,456,619

2. Michigan - $35,267,267

3. Iowa - $30,356,325

4. Michigan State - $29,724,939

5. Ohio State - $28,201,658

6. Illinois - $16,909,059

7. Indiana - $16,792,186

8. Purdue - $15,281,636

9. Nebraska - $11,833,760

10. Maryland - $11,225,922

11. Minnesota - $10,332,287

12. Rutgers - $8,113,992
Click to expand...

I'm more surprised by Nebraska's ranking on this list than Minnesota's. However since pretty much everything at Nebraska is already brand new, maybe they have just run out of the need for more money.
 

I guess we could sell ourselves to some local Red McCombs ... or red himself, but sometimes it is a bad idea to let these guys call the shots. There's nothing here to indicate any of their ideas or what they want make sense. Sid has money too..... I don't think we need 8 ADs....
 

theTurning said:
Perhaps if the university wasn't a complete dumpster fire for close to 6 decades people's pockets would be a little looser.
Click to expand...

Correct. And if you turn a lot of players into professional athletes, they turn around and donate back to the University. All 4 of our former pro football players likely give, and so we've got that 100 bucks going for us. I love this University, but they are a dumpster fire for athletics.
 

Al Nuness jumping ship would be troubling. Has always been a good supporter of Gopher basketball. Those are the kind of people you don't want to lose.
 

A fish rots from the head.
No U President in decades valued athletics.
WI is the best example of a new boss coming in from a purely academic school who had the brains to understand that yes academics comes first but alumni enthusiasm and donations and national recognition often depends on athletics.
The rest is history.
 

olddoc said:
A fish rots from the head.
No U President in decades valued athletics.
WI is the best example of a new boss coming in from a purely academic school who had the brains to understand that yes academics comes first but alumni enthusiasm and donations and national recognition often depends on athletics.
The rest is history.
Click to expand...

That was Donna Shalala. With all the whining around here because Beth Goetz is just being considered for A.D., what would happen if a female President from Hunter College was brought in to run the U? :cool:
 

SelectionSunday said:
Al Nuness jumping ship would be troubling. Has always been a good supporter of Gopher basketball. Those are the kind of people you don't want to lose.
Click to expand...

Dick Ames (Ames Construction) is a big time booster also. These are not people to scoff at.
 

This article was clearly written with an agenda. Take the Ames suite question, why would any serious supporter of the U that has lived through all the down years pull his support just as the program is making the move to a higher level? We all know that we have not been able to compete for B1G titles in football or basketball for a long time. If you constantly hold that against a group that is trying to improve they will never seem worthy. Take the last four years of the football program. It has shown significant improvements, but if you constantly lump it together with the last 40 years then it means nothing. The current administration has shown a much greater understanding of how to run big time athletics. And of course, most fans can't but be hypocritical about specific big program moves. For example, any big time program would lock down their hot young coaches and prevent other programs from poaching them with large buyout clauses. But when the U does it for Pitino it gets hammered for wasting money or tying their hands. Many may not agree that Pitino is a hot young coach, but ESPN, coaching circles and many schools kept showing interest in him after his first year. The U was going to give him 5 years no matter what, so the huge buyout is only intended to keep him here.

People that claim the U is a dumpster fire are superficial fans that don't really understand what it takes to build a top level program. It is not easy and it takes time and patience.


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The boosters are making their voices heard, which is their right. Many of these guys have been fans longer than many on here have been alive. That doesn't mean they are always right, but maybe they don't want Goetz cutting her teeth with "their" program and that's a legitimate concern, no matter how you feel about her as a person. There is something to be said for having people that have been around very successful revenue programs, or have a clear track record of success. It sounds like they want a change agent that promotes revenue sports, rather than a good administrator. She could be viewed by some as a "Pitino-type" hire.

Some boosters may feel they can't keep throwing good money after bad, and the only way to be heard is to cut off support. Do you think the athletic department is full of shrinking violets that don't make their voices heard to Kaler and/or Goetz? This is all part of the process and politics.
 

Iceland12 said:
Thanks. Yep, that's a perfect example of many Gopher fans thinking that 10K is a example of a "big time" donor.

Athletic donor contributions

1. Wisconsin - $38,456,619

2. Michigan - $35,267,267

3. Iowa - $30,356,325

4. Michigan State - $29,724,939

5. Ohio State - $28,201,658

6. Illinois - $16,909,059

7. Indiana - $16,792,186

8. Purdue - $15,281,636

9. Nebraska - $11,833,760

10. Maryland - $11,225,922

11. Minnesota - $10,332,287

12. Rutgers - $8,113,992
Click to expand...

Those cheap bastards from Northwestern and Penn State didn't even make the list!
 

Pompous Elitist said:
The boosters are making their voices heard, which is their right. Many of these guys have been fans longer than many on here have been alive. That doesn't mean they are always right, but maybe they don't want Goetz cutting her teeth with "their" program and that's a legitimate concern, no matter how you feel about her as a person. There is something to be said for having people that have been around very successful revenue programs, or have a clear track record of success. It sounds like they want a change agent that promotes revenue sports, rather than a good administrator. She could be viewed by some as a "Pitino-type" hire.

Some boosters may feel they can't keep throwing good money after bad, and the only way to be heard is to cut off support. Do you think the athletic department is full of shrinking violets that don't make their voices heard to Kaler and/or Goetz? This is all part of the process and politics.
Click to expand...

Yep, good analysis. However, this public campaign is stupid. Not sure if Ames and Nuness talked to Shama. More likely Carter relayed it to him and he ran with it. I don't doubt there's a lot of voices trying to be heard, but these people (minus the idiot from South St. Paul) have been real Gopher boosters. Makes no sense trying to scuttle the two main programs that do have some promise. Claeys and Pitino have a lot to prove but they're who we have and should be backed. The new facilities are going to be built. State your opinion strongly; withhold your money if you feel you must; see who is chosen; then decide what you're going to do. Don't be publicly trying to f*ck things up like a kid trashing his room because he didn't get his way.
 

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