What do you want to hear from pres. Kaler?

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Doogie

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I am sitting down with pres. Kaler on Monday morning.

Will do my best to get in as much as possible.

Glad to solicit the GH audience for ideas, so fire away.
 

Ask him if he has come closer to a decision if he will fire Maturi/not give him an extension.
 

Thanks for posting Doogie - and thanks for asking for our opinion! We're not a quiet group!!

A few Q's I have:

- How difficult is the athletic department fundraising environment at the U with Maturi's reputation?

- Speaking of fundraising, what is the status of the baseball stadium and basketball practice facility?

- I met President Kaler along with a few other GHers at the USC game in the middle of campus. He and his wife were strolling through campus at that time and told us how amazed they were at the school spirit, collective University pride and incredible atmosphere. What changes will he implement to bring our game day atmosphere towards what we all saw that day?

- What are his opinions of Williams Arena? Maturi has gone on record as saying some very difficult decisions will have to be made about The Barn in the coming years - what are his initial thoughts? Dramatic over-haul of it or has the historic venue run its course and time for a new arena? It has to be one or the other in the next 5-10 years, right?

- What are his impressions on why our football and basketball programs are so behind Wisconsin's?

- Whether he renews Maturi or goes in a different direction, what are his most important criteria in an AD?

Go Gophers!!
 

How are you going to develop relationships with the local community leaders and the city, in particular?

Also tell him to tell the city to go fist itself for being anti-fun.
 

-Will Maturi's 'retirement' be June 30, or can we move it up to 12/31?

-Any real hope of a basketball practice facility or do we just have to wait until they re-build the Barn? Either way let's get real. Either build it or admit it won't happen.
 


Note that any questions about Maturi will be answered with a "I will review all senior management etc." so I won't even go there.

- Do you feel additional monetary investment (on top of already allocated resources) is necessary to our major sports programs, in order to field more competitive teams on a consistent basis?

- Fiscally, how can we (or how do you plan to) justify to the regents, and the voters, why substantial investment in our major sports programs, including football, is critical to ensuring the University meets its goal of outreach to the community?
 

Will he revisit the plan to drop some sports? Last time Harvey Mackay lead a rebellion to keep them but isn't it time to try again?

That or just ask him when Maturi is going then just close it down.
 

Ask him if Maturi plans on returning to his home planet anytime soon. Also when he does decide to return, what does he plan on returning in, since his spacecraft was destroyed in the crash?
 

I want to hear him say he's going to raise admission standards, eliminate half of the college of liberal arts, and instruct a new AD to get rid of three or four non-revenue sports. Then he will start funding the band through the athletic department and destroy the light rail. Afterwards, I expect him to kill and eat a cobra, get bit in the process, and then wake up after a brief snooze and continue eating the cobra.
 



Ask him about the tailgate donations requirement for lot passes around TCF stadium

1. Will they reduce the total number of seats set aside for the Students as season tickets? It is clear almost that whole upper deck section should be sold as regualr or single game tickets.

2. Why does the "U" require such a high level of support for "donations" to tailgate or tailgate passes per game for the right to grill some meat and have a few beers on the campus. Maturi put cart before horse on this original concept. Why charge so much when you are offering a much cheaper alternative at $10.00 per game at the state fair grounds lot. This whole tailgate process never seemed to make much sense to me with the high donation levels they set.
Doesn't it make more sense to charge $50.00 per game for those same tailgate spots on a game by game basis then actually push for the donation request and not sell any especially when the football program has been in a downward spiral in attendance and on field competitiveness. You would expect a little on field success before requiring this kind of support.

3. How competitive does the football team have to be in the next 2-3 years for you to consider progress is being made, in the on field product, and the classroom stuff by the current coaching staff?

4. Will there be other events planned for TCF other then the U2 concert at the stadium in the future?

5. Will Joel Maturi ever hire another coach at the University of Minnesota? Please say "No".
 

BleedGopher said:
Thanks for posting Doogie - and thanks for asking for our opinion! We're not a quiet group!!

A few Q's I have:

- How difficult is the athletic department fundraising environment at the U with Maturi's reputation?

- Speaking of fundraising, what is the status of the baseball stadium and basketball practice facility?

- I met President Kaler along with a few other GHers at the USC game in the middle of campus. He and his wife were strolling through campus at that time and told us how amazed they were at the school spirit, collective University pride and incredible atmosphere. What changes will he implement to bring our game day atmosphere towards what we all saw that day?

- What are his opinions of Williams Arena? Maturi has gone on record as saying some very difficult decisions will have to be made about The Barn in the coming years - what are his initial thoughts? Dramatic over-haul of it or has the historic venue run its course and time for a new arena? It has to be one or the other in the next 5-10 years, right?

- What are his impressions on why our football and basketball programs are so behind Wisconsin's?

- Whether he renews Maturi or goes in a different direction, what are his most important criteria in an AD?

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...

I can sort of answer No. 2. Shameless plug: Tonight after Gophers hockey on 1500, I debut 'This Week in Golden Gopher Sports'... it's taped, so chatted w/ Maturi for 15 min. as a part of it. We got into the baseball stadium and practice facility.

Baseball = only about $1.5M short ($5M raised)
Basketball = still can't find that chief donor
 

please ask him when the university, regents and university lobbyists/boosters plan to put the hard press on at the capitol to get the stupid 2009 "all or nothing alcohol sales" bill repealed. and control of on-campus alcohol sales policy returned to the U of M regents, where it should be.

ask him if he plans to start going more overtly public with the fact that some fools in the MN legislature are costing the U of M athletic department and the U of M as a whole, $1.5-$2 million per year because of their pandering and meddling in the matter back in 2009.
 

Ask him this question: How can you generate $100MM in annual revenue from the athletic department?

The answer is: Start with a $500MM annual revenue stream and put Maturi in charge.

See if he gets it right.
 




Doogie said:
I can sort of answer No. 2. Shameless plug: Tonight after Gophers hockey on 1500, I debut 'This Week in Golden Gopher Sports'... it's taped, so chatted w/ Maturi for 15 min. as a part of it. We got into the baseball stadium and practice facility.

Baseball = only about $1.5M short ($5M raised)
Basketball = still can't find that chief donor
Click to expand...

Thanks Doogie. Looking forward to the show!!

Go Gophers!!
 

I'd like to know if he's very much fully aware of how the fanbase regards Maturi. Is he aware of the venom and the hate Maturi's leadership brings to the table?
 

Ask him how he plans to improve the academic and research missions of the University, since those issues are FAR more important than any athletics nonsense.
 

I would also like to hear his battle cry.
 

Ole! Great question. Ski U Master it is a proven fact that a winning athletic program brings in more donations and money for the whole university.

Doogie, ask him if he understands that Coach Kill IS doing what is necessary to turn this program around! It is going to hurt for awhile, but until the mentality and attitude changes we cannot expect the results to change. If you continually lose with Srs. you will never get where you have to be. We have to get to the point where when you lose a Sr. you put in a good experienced 3rd or 4th yr. player, not a RS Fr.
 

Ask him how many minutes of a head start is he going to give Maturi to shag his sorry azz out of town before he releases the hounds?!?
 

MNGoldenGophers1 said:
Ask him how many minutes of a head start is he going to give Maturi to shag his sorry azz out of town before he releases the hounds?!?
Click to expand...

My daughter loves your Homer icon. Love the imagery of your comment on Mac.
 

I would ask Pres. Kaler how he values the performance of the hockey program compared to BB and FB. It's the one sport we should consistently compete at the highest levels, and we've been in the doldrums for a while. Hockey is a second-tier (or lower) sport at a lot of colleges and I'm curious to hear his view of where it is currently compared to where it should be.
 

I think Bleed covered all the most important questions.

If I could add one it would be to ask President Kaler if he considers the current state of the revenue sports embarrassing?
 



Why do all the sports people actually watch and buy tickets for have to suck? Is it mandatory? Is it part of a plan?
 

I am curious, since I am certain Prexy K did his homework before taking the job, if the under performance of our major sports programs over the last 40 years has contributed to the U of M falling behind other Big Ten Schools like Michigan and tOSU in both stature and academic significance and has allowed schools like Wiscy and Iowa to close the gap on us. If you look at on field performance and academic/research excellence...I assert that there is a correlation between the two in the Big Ten. In other words, Big Ten schools that win football games get more research money and have higher student application rates and therefore can have higher enrollment standards.
 

Please ask him how the academic problems in the football program that Coach Kill has discovered, inherrited, and is very fortunately working to eleminate could have possibly been allowed to become so far-spread and out of control prior to Coach Kill's arrival on campus. How could the athletic director not have been aware of these problems and why did the athlitic director NOT take adequate steps to have interviened on these academic problems at the time he fired brewster? Didn't the athletic director inventory the strength and weakness of the overall condition of the football program at the time he fired brewster and before he hired a new coach? Is the athletic director not responsible for insuring that academic standards are maintained within a department during the time that department is without a coach? Who is responsible for the players from the time a coach is fired until the time a new coach is hired? WHY didn't the people who administered the football program for the athletic department care what happened with the student athletes in between coaches? Does the University of Minnesota not care that for four years, coach brewster ran so many coordiantors and assistant coaches through the program? Did the athletic director REALLY not see how harmful that constant stream of coaches coming to the program and leaving the program was to the young student athletes on the team?

WHY is badger joel macturi still employed by the University of Minnesota?

; 0 )
 

imthewalrus said:
Please ask him how the academic problems in the football program that Coach Kill has discovered, inherrited, and is very fortunately working to eleminate could have possibly been allowed to become so far-spread and out of control prior to Coach Kill's arrival on campus. How could the athletic director not have been aware of these problems and why did the athlitic director NOT take adequate steps to interviene on these academic problems at the time he fired brewster? Didn't the athletic director inventory the strength and weakness of the overall condition of the football program at the time he fired brewster and before he hired a new coach? Is the athletic director not responsible for insuring that academic standards are maintained within a department during the time that department is without a coach? Who is responsible for the players from the time a coach is fired until the time a new coach is hired?

WHY is badger joel macturi still employed by the University of Minnesota?

; 0 )
Click to expand...

I think this rambling is really a very coyly disguised way to bring into question the employment of Joel Maturi. But maybe I'm reading too much into this.
 

#1: Does he have a hidden allegience to the U of WI? JK

#2: Chances of cutting some sports?

#3: How hot do you like your daggum chili?
 

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