I like Mike. I think he wants to win badly. I also think it is really difficult to win here with the systems and structures that are in place. I think Mike inherited a lot of that, and it is going to take a desire to change and prioritize athletics above Mike Hill’s head. I’ve heard the crazy stories about chartwells not wanting to open a restaurant for a recruiting event and things like that. I do think these things make it difficult for us.
Candidly, I am extremely surprised that Mike is getting to select another football coach. I think he is too. That said, UNC Charlotte does not get rid of athletic directors easily. It is in the best interest of everyone if Mike hires someone good here, and they win.
I’m a blue collar guy. I am not able to donate much. I am ready to see our athletic department go in a new direction where we are not regularly tapping the same 2,000-4,000 donors for more money.
I do think our ticket prices are out of control. I recognize that we sold out most of our football games, so I really can’t complain about that. Basketball tickets have skyrocketed, and attendance is down after the most successful season in a decade. I do not find that to be a coincidence. Respectfully to everyone in the athletic department, we can all get into Halton for free whenever we want to, because there is absolutely no demand for tickets. I’m sure they know that.
I abhor the model of making our fans donate extravagant amounts of money to be able to purchase sideline gear. We are the only school I’ve ever seen that operates on that model. I think we’ve all participated in it at some point, but it is genuinely insulting. I know the guys that started the Grand Slam Club at Baseball did not intend for it to end up quite like this with every single one of our sports. The other issue with this model is that if we ever do win in football or basketball, and nike or fanatics want to sell our stuff, this model will come crashing down overnight. It is short sighted at best.
On the note of gear, the Barnes and Noble deal is terrible. For those that don’t know, they give us a set fee to operate on our campus. The last time I looked it was about $900,000. If they make $700,000 dollars operating on our campus, they lose 200k. If they make 1.5 million, they profit. I’m sure we get some sort of percentage, but I don’t know the numbers, and it’s not a good deal for the AD. This deal was made above Mike’s head by Phil Dubois, and he then re-upped it on his way out the door. Chartwells has a similar deal with food operations on campus. So we are one of the only schools in existence that does not necessarily benefit from more butts in seats, other than the look on television, the recruiting boost, and the noise in the stadium. Those things are important, but dollar bills are more important.
Our fans got extremely used to the dynamic that the athletic department is and was the enemy for a very long time. I genuinely feel like that is no longer the case. I only pay attention to us, but I swear I have never experienced an athletics program that allows so many of it’s employees to regularly take public shots at stakeholders.
I know we need more money. I would like to see more effort go into capturing students while they are here, and showing them the donating process. $50 dollar donors turn into whales sometimes. We have a tremendous amount of alumni in the area that are not engaged with the University at all. We lost those people somewhere between the day they started school, and graduation day. If we don’t engage people before they leave campus, we likely won’t ever get them. I know that we have people that do post here, and have posted here in the past that have championed this effort. Something like “IPTAY” at Clemson. The current students have gotten used to selling out football. That’s wonderful. Even if we have to charge them 25 bucks, let’s get them signed up for season tickets next fall. One of them may be very rich in the near future. Lord knows we have empty seats on the home side. As people grow and mature one ticket quickly turns into two, and then three and then four or more. The guy with 50 bucks to donate this year may have 100 next year, and 200 the next. And even if he doesn’t , it’s 50 bucks we didn’t have. Even if we get 10 bucks and a current student’s email address on graduation, we have a way to contact him.
Winning solves a lot of our problems. Would like to see that happen. These are just some things that I would like to see operate differently if I was in the big chair.
