Vorel: Funding Journey

[Brew_Poke]

Wyoming as a whole doesn't really want a successful Division I-A Athletics program. Read the comments after any article in the Trib or Boomerang. Read the principals' own comments in the articles. There are a few of us who do, but oh well. I'm close to hanging it up (my fandom).

Judging the opinion of a community or state as a whole based on the comments section of a newspaper website isn't the smart way to go.

That's the place where trolling is taken to a whole 'nother level. Unless you are just a constant pessimist, then you might fit right in with the rest of them.

Lulz.

 

[Brew_Poke]

Lost in all the Burman Bashing is this:

The INTERIM president of the University of Wyoming is starting a strategic planning process.

The prior PERMANENT president of the University of Wyoming had not refreshed or started a new one since he took office how many years ago?

This problem and many others go straight back to the fubar'd presidential search that led us to Buchanan and his "good enough is good enough" caretaker adminstration.

So we'd better hope this presidential search works out a little better (sarcasm intended).

Fuck yeah. When people clamor for a Wyoming guy, they get a Wyoming guy. Provincialism is the hobgoblin we're facing.

 

[ragtimejoe1]

When you look at it that way, it's hard to argue. Burman may know Wyoming better than most, but I'd argue that can be viewed as a negative too.

But who am I kidding? We're talking about the administration that fired Sternberg less than a year into his job because he rattled the GOBC's nest.

Yeah, I don't know if it will change. You know, honestly, I think it is more lack of adaptation than anything. I think that WYO simply didn't change when it needed to. We didn't adapt to the changing climate in college athletics, specifically football.

If you think about it, what riled fans more: losing or changing some uniform colors? I get proud tradition but personally, I think the tradition of winning far exceeds some uniform color. Nonetheless, I think that example highlights our misguided focus.

 

[ragtimejoe1]

I'm close to hanging it up (my fandom).

I will say this:

It is easy to cheer for an underdog trying his guts out. It is hard to cheer for an underdog crying poor me.

 

[LawPoke]

I'm close to hanging it up (my fandom).

I will say this:

It is easy to cheer for an underdog trying his guts out. It is hard to cheer for an underdog crying poor me.

I wholeheartedly agree, but it is actually slightly worse than that, ragtime. It is, in fact, easy to cheer for an underdog trying his guts out and hard to cheer for an underdog crying poor me. But the more egregious issue, at least to me, is that they seem to cry "poor me" and don't do anything constructive to address their plight. It is sort of like the guys with cardboard signs begging for money, but that seem (I know, there are cases where there are other issues...) young, fit and otherwise OK. I say, put down the sign and get a job.

Frankly, the athletic strategic planning effort was the most recent example. It has been discussed with the saw dust even being thoroughly sawed over and over. PROBLEM: We have our grocery list for the steak dinner we would like to eat, but, alas, we don't have any money. SOLUTION: Give us some money so we can eat steak dinner tonight.

We may not have money, but we have passion. I wonder if we couldn't piece together a real strategic plan for a path forward and send it to the folks in control. It might be difficult, but we have to think out of the box and come up with something other than a tin cup to pass around Cheyenne during the Legilative Session. We have a good start on what we would like to see (from here and GWG). Could we pair that with some creative, innovative funding ideas?

I have always liked the IPTAY model from Clemson. It basically says that I am in for ten dollars (or whatever small amount) each year. It gives the smaller wallet a way to play and have the money go directly to fund what is a priority for the donors. We could call ours the "David Fund" - so we can fight Goliath - or whatever the hell you want to call it. (For every 15,000 donors x $10 = $150,000). We should be able to get at least 30,000 donors at that level - so $300,000.

I also wonder about a challenge pool of funds from private donors or CJC. Historically, the Legislature puts up "match dollars." What if the private donors put up the match for legislative or other funding (preferably the others)? Hell, use the IPTAY sort of fund as the private challenge pot. (Revenue???)

What about a "win fund" - coming from parking? Currently, CJC gets the run of parking spots to give away as perks for certain memberships in CJC. My bet is that donors would continue to donate to CJC, irrespective of whether parking is thrown in or not. Perhaps you still give them (CJC) the ability to give priority for the parking spot, but give them a per game charge for the spot (yes, I am currently a person that would be charged, but I might be ok with that). Now, most people will get pissed about having to pay more, but what if the money DOES NOT go to the general CJC pot, but instead goes to a "win fund" that is used to pay for specifically identified projects on the strategic planning list (and a real one, not the one they have been rolling out for the past umpteen years). If I know that I am not paying salaries of CJC members and my parking charge is going toward funding a party deck in the South endzone of the War, I am in. (660 spots or so in the Ford Lot x $10 x 5 games = $33,000 per year for Ford Lot alone). Add in the other lots and I would guess you could get to $50k per year for football alone For basketball, add in maybe $20,000 additional?

Just a couple of thoughts - but it is a start and focuses on the smaller donor to get the ball rolling. It may not bring in millions like the craptastic strategic plan suggests we need, but we have to start somewhere. I don't control the naming rights to the AA or TV revenues or otherwise, but I do control (if my wife says so) $10 -$20 per year or a couple of hundred bucks for parking - and would be willing to give it if it meant that we were building EXCELLENCE. If we aren't heading there and there is no vision to get there, they can forget about the several grand they currently get from me - no less any additional money.

 

[WestWYOPoke]

Great Ideas there LawPoke...while I'm not financially solvent enough to donate $100+ to UW on a regular basis, I would definitely be on board to throw in $10 knowing that several thousands others would be doing the same thing and that it would be put to good use.

 

[Brew_Poke]

I've donated $750 per year to CJC and bought 3 season tickets for football for about the last 6 years. This year, I've decided that I've had enough. I'm tired of spending upwards of a thousand dollars per year on an organization that doesn't care about me. I cut back my CJC donation to $100, just to keep my priority point place in line, as I'm sort of high on the list, and if the wife wants to go to an away game, or god forbid, we make a bowl game or the Big Dance, I can get tickets. I did not renew my season tickets. The joker at the ticket office who called me was shocked when I said that I wouldn't be renewing. He was genuinely not expecting it, and we sat through about 3 minutes of uncomfortable silence. He didn't even know what to say. Bunch of assclowns at UW athletics, it's embarrassing.

 

[LawPoke]

Hey Brew, here's a WAAYY out of the box idea:

We start a regime change fund. Folks like you (and me in a year), put the difference in what you would have paid to CJC and in season tickets in a pot. It is invested, with the earnings being dumped back into the same pot (not spent). It is held outside of UW and the athletic department. We hold it off to the side, maybe with the IPTAY fund above, and note that it can only be spent after we see changes (and not just deck chairs on the Titanic changes) in the personnel, management, vision and operations of the athletic department.

While I don't know how much money would actually be generated, the thought of this competing with CJC and the athletic department for revenues may just trigger some action. Who knows - but unless and until there is a counterpoint to the crapshow and something at stake, I just don't see much changing.

 

[ragtimejoe1]

I wholeheartedly agree, but it is actually slightly worse than that, ragtime. It is, in fact, easy to cheer for an underdog trying his guts out and hard to cheer for an underdog crying poor me. But the more egregious issue, at least to me, is that they seem to cry "poor me" and don't do anything constructive to address their plight. It is sort of like the guys with cardboard signs begging for money, but that seem (I know, there are cases where there are other issues...) young, fit and otherwise OK. I say, put down the sign and get a job.

Much better description and I like your ideas. The sad thing is that they (the AD) doesn't realize that they are branding the athletic department as "losers" so to speak. Their attitude is very detrimental to the UW image.

When recruits read "it is challenging to recruit to UW" or similar, I wonder what they think. All the poor me talk led to an article about Bohl and the toughest job in CFB.

I guess what I'm getting at is these guys not only need to get out of the box for funding but also branding of our product. They are failing miserably in that department and it only compounds our funding problem.