a 10 rating
a 9 rating
an 8 rating
a 7 rating
a 6 rating
a 5 rating
a 4 rating
a 3 rating
a 2 rating
a 1 rating
I'll say 7.5. He should have done better in getting us out of the suck belt, when the realignment happened. He did hire Hud...., best thing that has happened to UL athletics in recent history.
So he should have told you that it wasn't going to happen, when he wasn't 100% sure, so you could come on the message boards and cause a meltdown? I would have lied to you too.
He's got to politic just like anyone else. He is fighting a battle that none of us could imagine. It would be nice to have a T-Boone come in and drop 150mil in his lap, but doesn't look like that's going to happen. This athletic department was a graveyard for 100 years. We had ESPN in our backyard for 4 straight weeks raving about our fanbase, atmosphere, athletes, city, etc. We are making progress. No university built their athletic program in 10 years.
We also waited 2-3 years from the time the original offer was made without doing anything until he "renegged". That seems to be a recurring thought was that rather than having a vision of what you want accomplished and having an actual plan on how to get it done we wait for success to happen and try to leverage that action.
I know I've heard them talk about speaking to large donors for the phase II projects, but I always thought it was easier to get lots of folks to donate smaller amounts and get to the same end point. That was the same thought I had when he spoke at the Diamond Club meeting a couple of years ago, when after talking about large donors and construction for 2-3 years he said they didn't have the funding. When challenged about why they delayed, he said if someone had the 8 million to donate they would start on the now. We'd all like to have huge donors donate all the things we need, but realistically, we don't have them right now. You need a fundraising plan, visible and verifiable. Fans of the university for too long have heard folks say "just give us the money and trust us to use it properly" and it never coming to pass. Make a plan with an actual final drawing of the structure showing exactly what we'll get. Give folks a method of one-time or yearly donations to the plan. Since construction usually doesn't wait for all moneys to be collected as they are done though foundations and repaid with new seat/suite/box moneys, list what percentage of money will be needed for us to begin moving forward and actually do it. Have press releases to let folks know where we are in the process which will also help generate momentum. And hire someone who understands our area, our alumni, our business community, and how to generate funding while keeping all those folks involved in the process. Sorry about the rant.
If he flat out lied to you, I do not defend him for that. Too many people hear what they want to hear, though. If you have the exact question and exact answer to show, I can give you a 100% answer on my stance.
You also have to see the other aspects of that situation. It was not public, but people knew who the donor was. Do you throw him under the bus by letting someone know that the money wasn't there? Do you lose that donor? How do you think this donor feels about getting scammed. Then he tells his buddies (because rich people have rich buddies) and they decide they aren't going to risk that type of thing and stop donating as well. It was a bad situation all around and telling you what was going down behind closed doors could have made it much worse.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)