BleedGopher
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U says preferred seating won’t change, blames confusion on “clerical error”
Posted on June 10th, 2009 – 2:39 PM
By Myron Medcalf
I’ve received emails from angry season-ticket holders who were told by Minnesota officials, via mailing, that they would have to give the school a $700-$1,000 private donation per seat in order to renew their season tickets. As you can imagine, some of them were upset, especially since no one anticipated the sudden change.
Minnesota sports info director Garry Bowman, however, cleared up the confusion with this recent email:
Myron,
We have not instituted a new preferred seating for men’s basketball. The ticket and seating system for 2009-10 will be the same as it was for last season, which does include a small number of season ticket holders who do pay a preferred seating fee that requires an additional donation above the face value of the ticket. Apparently what has caused some confusion is that there was a clerical error in the ticket office that caused … some of our regular season ticket holders to receive preferred seating donation information along with their invoices. As a result, though the invoices were correct, the additional preferred seating information included in the mailing was confusing.
With the Gophers bringing in a very talented recruiting class and hoping to build a $12 million-plus practice facility in the coming years, the university will have to find new ways to increase revenue.
-Gophers men’s basketball coach Tubby Smith spent Monday afternoon at Cass Lake-Bena High School, where he conducted a coaching clinic and participated in other activities, including an honor song and gift presentation. Smith is the first Minnesota head coach to appear at the school since Bill Musselman 35 years ago.
-Former Gophers small forward Jamal Abu-Shamala is preparing to compete with the Jordanian national team for the second year in a row. Abu-Shamala left for Jordan last week and will participate in a tournament in Italy next week.
-Former Gopher Dusty Rychart became an Australian citizen Tuesday, according to his blog.
-I’m not surprised Tim Floyd resigned from his former post at USC. He was in some serious hot water. But what did he expect? Floyd didn’t “recruit” O.J. Mayo. The latter sent a posse member to Floyd’s office, where he told Floyd that he could “get” Mayo for him. If money was involved, I’m sure Floyd knew that was part of the deal before he even signed Mayo.
As I learned during my stint in New York City, any time a random guy walks up to you and tells you that he can “get” you anything, you can be pretty sure that there’s some kind of improper/illegal activity involved. “I can get you a BMW … that was owned by someone else up until a few minutes ago … ”
I tried to contact Floyd for a story I wrote about the recruitment of young basketball players a few weeks ago. His sports info guy’s response: “I think he wants to lay low,” after I presented my interview request last month.
When I covered the 2004 Reebok ABCD camp, Mayo, a soon-to-be sophomore at the time, had an entourage. His high school coach at the time swore to me that Mayo never dealt with any of the under-the-table nonsense. But I don’t just blame Mayo for what transpired throughout his amateur … um … semi-professional career.
This is what happens when the NCAA forces future millionaires to stay in “school” for a year. These high-profile guys are professionals in many ways even when they’re in high school. Keeping them away from the prestige and wealth of the NBA only encourages them to pursue a slice of the pie before they get there. Then, Captain Sanctions runs in to save the day and slap a school for harming the imaginary world of amateurism that the NCAA pretends to promote.
http://blogs2.startribune.com/blogs.../?location_refer=Homepage:PromoScroller:Blogs
Go Gophers!!
Posted on June 10th, 2009 – 2:39 PM
By Myron Medcalf
I’ve received emails from angry season-ticket holders who were told by Minnesota officials, via mailing, that they would have to give the school a $700-$1,000 private donation per seat in order to renew their season tickets. As you can imagine, some of them were upset, especially since no one anticipated the sudden change.
Minnesota sports info director Garry Bowman, however, cleared up the confusion with this recent email:
Myron,
We have not instituted a new preferred seating for men’s basketball. The ticket and seating system for 2009-10 will be the same as it was for last season, which does include a small number of season ticket holders who do pay a preferred seating fee that requires an additional donation above the face value of the ticket. Apparently what has caused some confusion is that there was a clerical error in the ticket office that caused … some of our regular season ticket holders to receive preferred seating donation information along with their invoices. As a result, though the invoices were correct, the additional preferred seating information included in the mailing was confusing.
With the Gophers bringing in a very talented recruiting class and hoping to build a $12 million-plus practice facility in the coming years, the university will have to find new ways to increase revenue.
-Gophers men’s basketball coach Tubby Smith spent Monday afternoon at Cass Lake-Bena High School, where he conducted a coaching clinic and participated in other activities, including an honor song and gift presentation. Smith is the first Minnesota head coach to appear at the school since Bill Musselman 35 years ago.
-Former Gophers small forward Jamal Abu-Shamala is preparing to compete with the Jordanian national team for the second year in a row. Abu-Shamala left for Jordan last week and will participate in a tournament in Italy next week.
-Former Gopher Dusty Rychart became an Australian citizen Tuesday, according to his blog.
-I’m not surprised Tim Floyd resigned from his former post at USC. He was in some serious hot water. But what did he expect? Floyd didn’t “recruit” O.J. Mayo. The latter sent a posse member to Floyd’s office, where he told Floyd that he could “get” Mayo for him. If money was involved, I’m sure Floyd knew that was part of the deal before he even signed Mayo.
As I learned during my stint in New York City, any time a random guy walks up to you and tells you that he can “get” you anything, you can be pretty sure that there’s some kind of improper/illegal activity involved. “I can get you a BMW … that was owned by someone else up until a few minutes ago … ”
I tried to contact Floyd for a story I wrote about the recruitment of young basketball players a few weeks ago. His sports info guy’s response: “I think he wants to lay low,” after I presented my interview request last month.
When I covered the 2004 Reebok ABCD camp, Mayo, a soon-to-be sophomore at the time, had an entourage. His high school coach at the time swore to me that Mayo never dealt with any of the under-the-table nonsense. But I don’t just blame Mayo for what transpired throughout his amateur … um … semi-professional career.
This is what happens when the NCAA forces future millionaires to stay in “school” for a year. These high-profile guys are professionals in many ways even when they’re in high school. Keeping them away from the prestige and wealth of the NBA only encourages them to pursue a slice of the pie before they get there. Then, Captain Sanctions runs in to save the day and slap a school for harming the imaginary world of amateurism that the NCAA pretends to promote.
http://blogs2.startribune.com/blogs.../?location_refer=Homepage:PromoScroller:Blogs
Go Gophers!!
