_ OK. Here is what I sent to Mr. Farmer with a copy to Gerald Hebert and John T. Landry. I know T-Joe personally and will send this to our new President as well.
Mr. Farmer,
It is my understanding that you are working on a plan for UL Athletics. As a UL alumnus, former head of the UL Alumni Association Membership Drive and former President of the UL Houston Alumni Chapter, I would like to offer the following as a suggested approach. Given the current state of our programs, facilities, etc. and the dire need for greater funding, in the absence of a defined Plan, it will be difficult to garner the right kind of support, both financially and otherwise, to turn this thing around. As a concerned alum who has supported UL since 1970, I have seen little change over the years and when we should minimally be at the level of a Boise State, Southern Miss, or Memphis (for example), we are instead at the lowest level of 1A competition and continue to struggle to compete and gain stature for our name and athletic programs. Many positive things have occurred more recently that are very encouraging like the Indoor Practice Facility and all of the great things that Gerald has accomplished. And, we have a new President, Dr. Savoie, who will bring new leadership to UL and hopefully a shared vision for UL athletics.
In my opinion, what needs to come forth is a 5 Year or even 10 Year Plan identifying ALL things needed for each sport and the overall Athletic Department, regardless of costs involved. Take Football, for example. List all the things that are needed to move this program to its highest level. This might include things such as an enlarged 2 story administrative office building that overlooks Cajun Field, improved coaches offices and player meeting rooms, improved Hall of Fame room, improved and enlarged locker rooms and weight room, Box Suites on student side of stadium, fill in both end zones to bowl the stadium and increase seating capacity to 50,000, pressure washing the entire stadium and doing necessary stadium improvements to the concession stands,rest rooms and Press Box, new enhanced video scoreboard, new artificial playing surface, improved landscaping and better overall maintenance of the facilities, etc., etc. Identify the costs associated with each improvement, then prioritize those improvements and set a timetable for achieving them. Then, discuss the formation of a private Athletics Fund to develop private funding to help achieve these enhancements and a ticket drive to generate more season ticket sales that will generate more revenue. Address how football will be marketed to the general public and how we will get the community to embrace UL football and possibly get the city/parish government to assist with some of the enhancements as it will benefit from the tax revenue generated from greater game day attendance. Address getting more business and community support. Seek better media coverage, particularly with The Advertiser, which should support UL first and foremost as its hometown university, much as the Advocate does in Baton Rouge. And, announce a plan to get more student involvement and attendance at football games, develop things that will turn into a tradition, and bring back former athletes to participate in all of this. State that our goal is to minimally average over 30,000 a game and that is why the stadium enlargement is listed and how we are going to achieve that. Announce that we have greater expectations, that we expect to be in a bowl game every year and that we expect to be competing for a conference championship year in and year out. And, get out and sell this message to the public.
A better job of branding Ragin Cajuns (voted the #1 moniker in the country by ESPN) needs to be done, develop a better and more marketable logo, get a mascot for UL in addition to its moniker such as a Bullgator (Fideaux) or State Dog (CatahoULa) in lieu of the pepper, seek an identity for UL and Louisiana and eliminate the Lafayette reference for athletics. Build a University Co-op store at the athletic complex where alumni and fans can shop for UL gear on a daily basis and especially on game days. Have marketable UL approved gear and clothing that people want to buy that don't contain "Lafayette". Develop a consistency in reference to our name as there is a very mixed message as to what to call us. Outside of Lafayette, we are known as Louisiana Lafayette because of that mixed message from the SID's office. Use Louisiana and UL exclusively in referring to us athletically by stating something like "We are the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Athletically, please refer to us as Louisiana or UL." In addition to Louisiana's Ragin Cajuns, use "We are the Ragin Cajuns of Louisiana" (like the Crimson Tide of Alabama). Create an air of expectancy and believability that will excite the average fan and win them over. Get all of Acadiana to embrace UL and to better support ITS university. Give us all something to be excited about and a true Plan on how we will get to the next level.
I am less familiar with the needs of other sports, but am aware that there are serious needs similar to football. I would suggest simply discussing with the coaches and with fans close to each program and inquire as to what they perceive as short and long term needs, with hopeful feedback much as I am doing, and identify and address those similarly. Then present a comprehensive Athletic Department review and Plan.
Regardless of the total cost of everything that is identified which will run into the millions of dollars, we need to comprehensively lay it all out and discuss a timetable and format for achieving it. It has been said for years now that UL is a sleeping giant. We raised over $150,000,000 for academics. Let's see what we can now do for athletics. $50,000,000 may be what is needed for athletics, which is why the formation of a private Athletics Fund is critical and is what other major universities have done. People will buy into it and, I suspect, big dollar sponsors and contributors will emerge in support of such a Plan. We want a winning, first class, 1A program in Lafayette and don't want our people to have to go to Baton Rouge to find it. I think everyone is hungry for that kind of program and is willing to contribute to get it to that level, with the right kind of leadership and direction from UL. However, in the absence of a formalized Plan, people will hesitate to commit to anything because of how things were handled/mis-handled in the past leaving us in our current situation.
In my mind, anything short of something along those lines is business as usual and little if any change will take place if a Plan is not put forth identifying a vision for moving this university to the next level. I think you have an extraordinary opportunity to transform UL athletics and to galvanize students, alumni and the Lafayette and Acadiana community in support of it. This is the first time in many, many years that I am encouraged and excited about UL athletics because what you are bringing to the table for UL. I am happy to lend my support to that effort here in Houston. I certainly hope you will take these recommendations constructively and hope to receive your response.
Regards,
Wayne
Wayne Dauterive CIC, CRM, ARM, RF, CRIS
Director of Risk Management
Metro National Corporation
800 Gessner, Suite 101
Houston, TX 77024
713-973-6400 (Main)
713-586-6281 (Direct)
713-586-6284 (Fax)
713-907-2730 (Cell)
WayneD@MetroNational.com _
Time for a 5-Year Plan for UL Athletics
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Originally Posted by zephyr
Re: Time for a 5 Year Plan for UL Athletics
