Sid Hartman: Kaler says no concerns over fundraising for Gophers facilities project

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University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler said Sunday that the $150 million athletic fundraising project to improve facilities and build new football and basketball practice facilities is going fine, and there is no concern that the school will be unable to complete the project. He also said that anyone complaining about a lack of fundraising on the project needs to look at things differently.

“It is by no means in jeopardy, whatsoever,” Kaler said. “I think you need to put a little perspective on this. We have raised about $70 million in less than a year. Most places I know would be jumping up and down with a great story, instead we get rumors that we’re slowing down and we’re not committed. We are 100 percent committed to this project. Our donors have been wonderful in stepping up and they’ll continue to do that. I have complete confidence in [athletic director] Norwood Teague and his team, which includes me, that we’ll raise the money and get this building built.”
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http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/291222471.html?page=all&prepage=1&c=y#continue

HEY, Bleed can't do everything.
 

Couldn't agree more. This town's negativeness needs to stop. The fact that a new facility is even a reality should be good enough for us.
 

'13Gopher said:
Couldn't agree more. This town's negativeness needs to stop. The fact that a new facility is even a reality should be good enough for us.
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While I don't disagree on the town's negativity towards Gopher football I don't consider a facility that has not broken ground yet to be a "reality". Virtual maybe.
 

Here's the deal. First, the U comes out with the $190-million athletic facilities plan. Then, they come back with a $150-million plan, after apparently/allegedly "finding" $40 in savings.

Then, On January 20th, the Strib runs a story announcing that the facility plan was being "fast-tracked." U of M officials said they planned to start construction "as soon as possible."

Then, on February 7th, we get a new story with the University CFO announcing that construction will not start until they have raised at least 80% of the total needed.

It seems fairly obvious that the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing.

That's why I'm skeptical about the entire process. On the one hand, we get Nanne and Kaler saying that fundraising is going well. Then, on the other hand, the CFO says they don't have enough money on hand to start construction, and says "it's a big hill to climb." Who do you believe? Do these people talk to each other?"

I am NOT trying to be negative here - I'm just reacting to what is being reported in the media. We are getting two extremely contradictory stories here from different U of M officials. From where I sit, it looks like amateur hour at the U.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
Here's the deal. First, the U comes out with the $190-million athletic facilities plan. Then, they come back with a $150-million plan, after apparently/allegedly "finding" $40 in savings.

Then, On January 20th, the Strib runs a story announcing that the facility plan was being "fast-tracked." U of M officials said they planned to start construction "as soon as possible."

Then, on February 7th, we get a new story with the University CFO announcing that construction will not start until they have raised at least 80% of the total needed.

It seems fairly obvious that the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing.

That's why I'm skeptical about the entire process. On the one hand, we get Nanne and Kaler saying that fundraising is going well. Then, on the other hand, the CFO says they don't have enough money on hand to start construction, and says "it's a big hill to climb." Who do you believe? Do these people talk to each other?"

I am NOT trying to be negative here - I'm just reacting to what is being reported in the media. We are getting two extremely contradictory stories here from different U of M officials. From where I sit, it looks like amateur hour at the U.
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It is fairly easy to understand if you understand human nature. I will use your analogy of the right and left hands. The right hand gets excited that they've raised 70 mil, and wants to let everyone know, so that all the negative people out there will maybe not be so negative, so that some will be encouraged hearing of the progress. But the left hand gets worried that some might think they do not need to chip in and help by donating themselves if they get the impression all the donations have come in and its all been taken care of. So one hand wants people to think, "oh my, the U needs my help to get this done", and the other hand wants people to think, "yeah, things are going great, now that I know such a large amount has been donated and this is actually going to happen, I want to be apart of this and donate my $100 or $250 or $1000 or $1,000,000.00".


It seems to me that both hands are trying to speak to, touch the hearts of, two different types of people, they are coming at the situation from different angles is all.


Thats my take on it. For what that is worth.
 


$190MM x 80% = $152MM

$150MM x 80% = $120MM A significantly lower hurdle to clear.

They can be $32MM short of the original "goal" to put shovels in the ground. Now, what the final numbers are after construction won't be known for quite some time, but the facility should be close to finished by that time. And they can worry about raising the additional $32MM during construction.

I think the right and left hands know exactly what the other is doing.
 

The CFO will be reminded he is not a spokesperson.
 


Unregistered User said:
$190MM x 80% = $152MM

$150MM x 80% = $120MM A significantly lower hurdle to clear.

They can be $32MM short of the original "goal" to put shovels in the ground. Now, what the final numbers are after construction won't be known for quite some time, but the facility should be close to finished by that time. And they can worry about raising the additional $32MM during construction.

I think the right and left hands know exactly what the other is doing.
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However Nanne said they need $96M. 80% of $120M to get started.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 



At the end of the day, we will be able to see who is full of it when we either do or do not break ground when we said we would.
 

I think, when it all comes down to it, they need 80% of whatever phase they start first. [emoji6]
 


90 million in 3 years for TCF.

65-70 million in less than a year for practice facilities.

Plenty of reason to panic I guess.
 




Maximus said:
90 million in 3 years for TCF.

65-70 million in less than a year for practice facilities.

Plenty of reason to panic I guess.
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We're in the Twitter era where we want everything NOW NOW NOW.
 

I think the bottom-line (and this is why Kaler is still optimistic about this getting done) is that we don't know Kaler and the Ath Dept plan-B on the fundraising. I'm sure they are prepared to come-up with at least $30 mil if not more like $50 mil of the total through their future and on-going added revenue generation via seat donations, BTN pay-outs projected to be doubling within 3 years, and whatever other discretionary "loans" the U could potentially extend to the Ath Dept (just like when we bought-out coaches and had other projects where the Ath Dept was financed by the U for extraordinary one-time expenses). They just don't want to announce any amount the U and Ath Dept could come-up with as their own contribution because ideally they would like to fund this 100% through donations. I'm sure some future date has been set to put shovels in the ground for Kill, at which time the U will magically have a plan (if needed) to be fully funded if donations fall short of 100%.
 

On KFAN last night Lou Nanne sounded pretty confident that the fundraising was where it needed to be and the start date for this fall would happen. The radio host (can't remember his name now for the life of me) kept commenting how Lou had a look on his face like there was something he wasn't telling them calling it a "smirk". Sounds positive to me.
 

bottlebass said:
On KFAN last night Lou Nanne sounded pretty confident that the fundraising was where it needed to be and the start date for this fall would happen. The radio host (can't remember his name now for the life of me) kept commenting how Lou had a look on his face like there was something he wasn't telling them calling it a "smirk". Sounds positive to me.
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I won't speculate, but it would be very nice if they had some kind of wild card that they are just waiting for the right time to play?!

Maybe all the people on the Fundraising Committee pooled together and bought a bunch of Powerball tickets???

Lets all hope a die-hard Gopher fan wins the 500 mil(335 lump sum I guess?)
 

bottlebass said:
On KFAN last night Lou Nanne sounded pretty confident that the fundraising was where it needed to be and the start date for this fall would happen. The radio host (can't remember his name now for the life of me) kept commenting how Lou had a look on his face like there was something he wasn't telling them calling it a "smirk". Sounds positive to me.
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If it was Tuesday on KFAN, it had to be Barreiro.
 

#1nHkyCfbBsbDncSolarDebat said:
I won't speculate, but it would be very nice if they had some kind of wild card that they are just waiting for the right time to play?!

Maybe all the people on the Fundraising Committee pooled together and bought a bunch of Powerball tickets???

Lets all hope a die-hard Gopher fan wins the 500 mil(335 lump sum I guess?)
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The do. It's T. Denny Sanford. He will give, but when and how much is the question. I'm sure there are others on the brink.
 



Maximus said:
90 million in 3 years for TCF.

65-70 million in less than a year for practice facilities.

Plenty of reason to panic I guess.
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It took 3 years to raise the 90 million because they had 3 years.

The capital plan says raise x by y then you make a fundraising plan to make it happen.
 

Ski U Mah Gopher said:
It took 3 years to raise the 90 million because they had 3 years.

The capital plan says raise x by y then you make a fundraising plan to make it happen.
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Not raising 90 million in three years would've had financial consequences.

Not raising 150 million means keep fundraising to raise 150 million. It took Ohio State over 4 years to raise less than half of Minnesota's 70 million for its facilities project.
 

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