Damn, I was looking forward to your thoughts on today's Rosenberg article in the freep.
Will you prorate our monthly bills for the fact that we'll have three days without updates?
Brian,
Ever thought about allowing "guest" ("wannabe") bloggers to post on the days you're off? I'm sure there's a way to work out temporary security rights for something like that. Just don't ever allow Tom to be a guest host... he'd use the power to create 'War of the Worlds' Orson Wells-type pandemonium.
ok it's panic time for the pistons, this is unbelievable.
Holy cow, if the Rosenberg article is true, there are going to be some unhappy people. I doubt that will fly.
The Pistons are disgracing the fans. Where are the 'goin to work' Pistons?
Just don't ever allow Tom to be a guest host... he'd use the power to create 'War of the Worlds' Orson Wells-type pandemonium.
Oh come on now. I would do no such thing.
In an unrelated note, a friend of a friend who works inside Schembechler Hall said Mike DeBord spent all of yesterday trying to figure out how to lay out his furniture to ensure feng shui when he moves into the head coach's office next winter.
The Pistons have officially gotten Laker-itis (circa 2004). They believe they can turn it off and on when they want. They didn't take Cleveland seriously, they thought they could mail in Game 3 and easily win Games 4 and 5.
They are doing to the Cavaliers exactly what the Lakers did to them in 2004 and its going to bite them in the ass as well.
Tom, I'd like to send you a bill for my funeral next year when that happens.
The rosenberg article sounds like the exact same crap Pollack was peddling in the Times and Detroit News. Martin's not the moron Rosenberg makes him out to be.
The regents are meeting today and tomorrow to go over the plans and make decisions on whether or not to proceed with the boxes.
I don't know where he comes up with his visuals. There is no way in hell anyone proposed an eight story building towering over the east end of the stadium.
These guys are as bored during the offseason as we are, so they throw this crap out there to stir up something to write about.
I'm guessing it has less to do with offseason boredom and more to do with selling papers and making a name for himself.
Agreed regarding Martin. Whatever you think about his AD skills (I tend to think he is a very good AD) he definitely is a smart business man and will not make foolish financial decisions as Rosie seems to imply.
According to an AP article this morning:
"The athletic department rejected three compromise plans to transform college football’s largest venue. The favored plan, revealed to The Ann Arbor News on Thursday in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, includes 83 luxury suites and other premium seating in two structures that would dominate the east and west sidelines of the bowl-shaped stadium.
"The two structures would rise to a height of 82 feet above the concourse, 7 feet higher than the scoreboards in either end zone. The changes would also boost seating capacity slightly, from 107,501 to 108,335."
You might not like the plans as reported by Rosenberg and elsewhere. That doesn't mean they're fabricated or exaggerated. Whether it's the final plan is another question.
I don't think Bill Martin is either a bad businessman or AD, but separate and apart from the luxury box situation, he doesn't strike me as a savvy politician with either the administration or alumni. Recall how quick the SBC endorsement deal was nixed by Mary Sue. He was essentially freelancing on that one, and got blown out of the water.
The fact that this vote was 5-3 is also very very rare. It's unusual for the regents not to vote 8-0, especially on something this big. I'm still agnostic about this whole project and don't understand why people feel so energized either way, but given the huge expense, the massive new Bursley-esque infrastructure, and the 5-3 vote (with three of the smarter regents voting against) I think Martin could benefit from a PR offensive.
CN-
You're right, a PR offensive would be a great move on Martin's part to deflect the crap that's going to come flying his way as a result of this. Still, part of me wants to believe that the 5-3 vote might be more along traditionalist/pragmatist lines rather than dumb/smart.
We'll see how it all breaks done once the plans are unveiled.
In other news, Sweatervest is sticking around Columbus for a looooong time. 17+ mil over 7 years. Improving elementary education is apparently not a concern in Ohio.
scottie reynolds is taking an official visit to michigan this weekend and committing somewhere this coming week... this could be huge for the basketball team if we pull him in
Nice pick up Coop.
I knew the decision was coming, but didn't think he was going to make the visit.
"In other news, Sweatervest is sticking around Columbus for a looooong time. 17+ mil over 7 years. Improving elementary education is apparently not a concern in Ohio."
I doubt taxpayer funds are used for Tressel's salary. (They are not used to cover any of the UM athletic department's costs.)
They're not. It was a joke
This brings up an interesting question. If athletic departments have become profit centers for the universities, shouldn't some of the money they bring in be sent back to the univeersity they represent? They are being allowed to profit from the university name (to the extent that they can afford $227 million dollar expansions and seven figure coaching salaries). Isn't it fair that some of that money go to fund the univerity's primary mission of education?
I like big stadiums. good football teams, and high-profile coaches, but I'm just thinking from the viewpoint of someone that may have to pay for a kid's college tuition someday.
Since the athletic department operates on a budget independent than the universities, why should any money go back to the university?
In fact, the 'revenue' sports provide the education (in the form of athletic scholarships) to athletes in 'non-revenue' sports.
The profit from the department is used to improve facilities that could either 1) improve the academic experience of all athletes and/or 2) attract better athletes that will win more game thus producing an repeating pattern -- where winning attracts more fans that spend more money that increases revenue and profits to be used for the enhancement of academics by all athletes
Also, there is probably some correlation to donations by alums and others to a university's general fund with winning sports programs, so all students (faculty and staff as well) at the university benefit from an athletic deparment that creates a profit (by winning).
Alas, this is all speculation, so I could be completely wrong and they should give some of the profit to the university's department of financial aid or general fund.
By the way, I'm going to be upset at 6pm tonight when the Pistons win game 7.
Dave, I think you're entirely correct.
They buy their scholarships from the university - that's true. My point was that they get essentially free use of the brand name "University of Michigan". Does the athletic department owe the university a financial obligation for the use of that brand name?
Also, since the university is the "parent company" of that athletic department, does it have the authority to use profits from the AD's operation however it sees fit? Do the profits belong solely to the AD or to the university as a whole?
I'd agree that contributions to the university's general fund probably increase with winning football and basketball programs, but winning football and basketball pprograms do not necessarily make a profitable AD. In fact, if you accept the notion that we have to have improved and updated facilities to convince the best athletes to attend, it may be directly opposed to having a profitable AD. Contributions to the AD should stay with the AD - just as contributions to the individual colleges should stay with those colleges. I was just hypotyhesising that the profits from the AD could be used to offset the ever increasing tuition fees.
Softball beats Oklahoma 5-2 in 8 innings, advances to Super-Regional.
Yeah Baby!
Michael Carr is a bitch.
Scott, you're making the assumption that the sports teams benefit more from the "University of Michigan" brand name than the U benefits from said sports teams. I think that's questionable. Suppose we were like SUNY and had small-time sports. How many applications would we get? Would we be anywhere near as well-known of an institution? I highly doubt it.
Universities unquestionably reap benefits, both directly and indirectly, financial and otherwise, from being affiliated with successful sports teams.
Northwestern University, which has always provided a quality private school education, saw a tremendous boost in applications and in national media attention following the Wildcats' 1995 Big Ten championship in football.
At the University of Georgia, longtime football coach and athletic director Vince Dooley began a library endowment campaign that produced millions in donations to improve the campus libraries. Two of the first large donations came from the members of the 1966 and 1968 football teams . . . Coach Dooley's first two S.E.C. championship squads.
More recently, current Georgia athletic director Damon Evans pledged a $2 million donation from the athletic association's profits to fund the endowment of several new professorships and the furtherance of diversity initiatives.
Finally, I doubt you'd be able to find too many benefactors of Pennsylvania State University who have contributed more to the financial health and public reputation of the school than Joe Paterno.
Yes, collegiate athletics programs benefit from the names of the universities with which they are affiliated. However, the relationship is reciprocal and (speaking as someone whose wardrobe contains numerous articles of clothing paying homage to the academic and athletic aspects of the University of Georgia) I can assure you that athletics do far more to augment the merchandising of academics than the other way around.
The University of Chicago is a fine academic institution and the school of economics sells a lot of neckties. Had Chicago not dropped its football program many moons ago, though, I daresay there'd be a lot more folks sporting U.C. attire.
Just curious, do you think they will build a structure similar to the one Rosenberg wrote about? I can't imagine two full-size buildings attached to Michigan stadium, and people being OK with it. Throughout all of the talk of luxury boxes, I just assumed they were going to be less obtrusive. This seems really gaudy.
It's pretty much a given it will be structures on both sides of the stadium. If you notice, the last time they added rows to the stadium, they left a sizeable notch on the tunnel sideline, as if preparing in advance to put something in...
"More recently, current Georgia athletic director Damon Evans pledged a $2 million donation from the athletic association's profits to fund the endowment of several new professorships and the furtherance of diversity initiatives. "
Kyle, this is exactly what I was talking about. Don't the athletic departments have some obligation to their parent university? Shouldn't they be committed to the same academic mission as the university? Kudos to the Georgia AD for giving back, but shouldn't this be more the rule than the exception?
If the university were a business, the only reason to keep the AD on a separarte budget would be to make it look more attractive to investors in a potential spin-off. Otherwise, its profits would be diverted to help cover the expenses incurred while running the rest of the business. Perhaps not including the AD's profit as projected income allows the University to go back to the state and ask for more money. Maybe including a healthy financial outlook is detrimental to government contributions. I don't know. I'm just trying to understand why AD budgets are (or should be) separate from the university as a whole.
I just snagged the last seat on the Pistons' bandwagon and thusly executed my time-honored tradition of visiting the hometown newspaper of a vanquished foe the day after a big game. And so it was that I clicked on The Cleveland Plain-Dealer's Web site.
Brian, I know you you're well-armed to fight in the coming battle between mainstream media and blogs, but please stock this little number in your utility belt: Never, ever allow a newspaper reporter to claim that his peers possess a greater sense of perspective bloggers without demanding that he account for the following:
Watching LeBron grow from a high-school hotshot in Akron into an NBA powerhouse in Cleveland must be akin to watching a young Einstein begin to unravel the mysteries of the universe.
http://www.cleveland.com/cavs/pl...6840.xml&
coll=2
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Hyperbole Gone Wild. Someone has to lock this guy up before he hurts himself or someone else.
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