What would you like to see President Cabrera implement to raise our athletic excellence?

Techster

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Posting due to his comments today.

Couple of starting points for me.

1. Structured fundraising for athletics
2. Demand a growth plan from the new AD
3. Public pushing for majors and new sports (soccer and lax)

Here's a good example of an AD that came in with a good vision and implemented it with amazing success. I also heard he got rid of UT's activist donor issues. Ironically, he's the guy that replaced Stansbury at UCF.

 

TheJuiceIsLoose404

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Here's a good example of an AD that came in with a good vision and implemented it with amazing success. I also heard he got rid of UT's activist donor issues. Ironically, he's the guy that replaced Stansbury at UCF.

Also ironically, Neville directly referenced UT as an AA that has had success with a quick turnaround that we should try to emulate.
 

RonJohn

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We have billions in endowment. Breaking off 30 million to jump start the program would be a start. Then pay it back when we are selling out games and joining a new conference. But now I’ll be told how that’s impossible because of …….. nothing. Where there is a will there is always a way.
It isn't impossible to break off 30 million, we just have to increase the athletic revenue by 300 million first to keep under 10%.

How about we start raising money with the hard stuff like buying tickets and donating instead of waiting for a unicorn to appear and solve everything.
The Interim AD said that the athletic department is doing to look into different ideas for raising revenue. I am interested in what they can come up with. However, I am not going to relax myself and wait for other people to fix the issue.
 

1979jacket

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We have billions in endowment. Breaking off 30 million to jump start the program would be a start. Then pay it back when we are selling out games and joining a new conference. But now I’ll be told how that’s impossible because of …….. nothing. Where there is a will there is always a way.
I agree - be creative. There is a strong argument that a successful athletic program is good for the institute and recruiting of students. Don't totally seaparate the foundations.
 

Augusta_Jacket

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We have billions in endowment. Breaking off 30 million to jump start the program would be a start. Then pay it back when we are selling out games and joining a new conference. But now I’ll be told how that’s impossible because of …….. nothing. Where there is a will there is always a way.

Tell me you don't know a thing about how the laws dealing with designated funds work without telling me you don't know a thing about...

Nevermind
 

RonJohn

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I agree - be creative. There is a strong argument that a successful athletic program is good for the institute and recruiting of students. Don't totally seaparate the foundations.
If that is what you want, then you need to petition the Georgia Legislature and the Georgia Board of Regents, because it isn't legal at the moment.
 

bke1984

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How about we start raising money with the hard stuff like buying tickets and donating instead of waiting for a unicorn to appear and solve everything.
What about the University buying tickets from the GTAA and donating them to local charities? Maybe ensure sellouts for all games in a season. Seems like a way they could get around the fund allocation stuff
 

bigrabbit

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We have billions in endowment. Breaking off 30 million to jump start the program would be a start. Then pay it back when we are selling out games and joining a new conference. But now I’ll be told how that’s impossible because of …….. nothing. Where there is a will there is always a way.
You have to get endowment contracts modified, so the donors have to be convinced to direct their money away from whatever they originally designated to the AA.

I’ve done that before on a much more minor scale that kept the money within the same department, just fine tuned how the money was used.

Sending money to AA means it goes away from somewhere else and you’ll have the original beneficiaries fighting like grim death to hold onto the money - and they likely had incredibly strong relationships with the donors to get the money in the first place. If you think that’s nothing, you’ve obviously never worked in academia.
 

takethepoints

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Sending money to AA means it goes away from somewhere else and you’ll have the original beneficiaries fighting like grim death to hold onto the money - and they likely had incredibly strong relationships with the donors to get the money in the first place. If you think that’s nothing, you’ve obviously never worked in academia.
I bet this is especially the case in STEM schools. The Feds won't pay for all that equipment.

As for suggestions, I got nothin'. Yet.
 

forensicbuzz

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It isn't impossible to break off 30 million, we just have to increase the athletic revenue by 300 million first to keep under 10%.

How about we start raising money with the hard stuff like buying tickets and donating instead of waiting for a unicorn to appear and solve everything.
The Interim AD said that the athletic department is doing to look into different ideas for raising revenue. I am interested in what they can come up with. However, I am not going to relax myself and wait for other people to fix the issue.
Money from the GT Foundation is not money from GT (Hill). So, your snark is ill-targeted.

That being said, the GTAA is not getting Foundation money. The roll-call list that the GTAA (Alumni) has never shared with the GTAA (Athletic) will still never be shared.

However, the GTAA (Athletic) has access to the rolls of GT grads and could do the footwork to boost the giving. They currently don’t put that effort in.
 

bigrabbit

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I bet this is especially the case in STEM schools. The Feds won't pay for all that equipment.

As for suggestions, I got nothin'. Yet.
Yes, but other schools too. Endowments are not expendable (although universities also try to raise expendable funds). Some lab or department would lose about $1.2M (4% of $30M roughly) of annual revenue, big hole their annual budget and they’d fight like hell.

As hard as it might be to just raise $30M of new funds, I think that’s easier. My one experience tweaking an endowment contract was for academic scholarships to attract top students, just to get some flexibility to properly execute the donors intent, but was still a legal process.

Back to topic: Someone wrote earlier about Bama professionalizing their AA when Saban came in. Not sure about details, but it sounds good, update practices. I think you could raise money on that theme and it would make folks like me (who are afraid of donating money that’s pissed away on dumb contracts etc) more comfortable donating in general.
 

GTNavyNuke

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Is the Alumni Association list of Gt Alumni still not shared with Gtaa.

I found this out about 8 years Go and stopped giving to AA and gave directed Donations to gtaa.

So petty

Same with me other than Roll Call (which helps with USN&WR ratings). Used to give $1000 a year to Alumni Assn about 10 years ago. Never since. (My daughter got a Presidential Scholarship and I do intend to "pay it back" at some point.)

In Cabrera's remarks he referred to a $2B fund raising goal and said some would go to Athletics.
  • What was he referring to?
  • Is it a change in policy?
 
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