A note to prexy k, bjm, the board of regents and all the ivory tower hangers-on:

imthewalrus

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Ever since TCF BANK STADIUM became a reality, we long-time season ticket holders have got you administrators RIGHT where we WANT you! Ever since prexy b took the plunge and "just said yes..." to the new stadium we long-time season ticket holders FINALLY are of some value to you University of Minnesota pinheads. You need US to continue buying season tickets MORE than we need you. We can walk away from you. You can not walk away from your debt obligations on that shiny new unpaid for stadium. You HAVE to put a competetive Big Ten Level product on the market and IF you don't, we long-time season ticket holders really don't have to continue to support the costs of the stadium that you must account for each year. The Big Ten Network and the Big Ten Revenue sharing plan goes a ways in funding all the athletic programs, BUT, season ticket sales were a very important part of the long-term funding formula that is needed to pay off the long-term debt of building the stadium. You won't get very far with the state legislators for other funding needs IF you can't even compete with other Big Ten Football Programs in this expensive new stadium that prexy b claimed the University just NEEDED to have.

You people are "under water" on this pricy new stadium and you have no where to run and no where to hide if any aspect of your long-term financial plan does not work out. You have obligations that you MUST honor. You have bonds to pay off. You can't sell naming rights again for a VERY long time. You HAVE to make that stadium pay for itself. You NEED to have season ticket holders renew their season tickets AND make contributions to the scholarship funds, etc.

That means, the athletic director NEEDS to make proper hires in key positions: such as the Football Coach. The Football Coach NEEDS to be able to field a team that will be at least competetive in Big Ten Play.

The current athletic director has a MISERABLE record in making the right hire for the position of Head Football Coach. Your acting ad: badger joel macturi just can not seem to do anything right with ANY of the 3 men's revenue sports...but...football has been the largest disaster.

I don't think the U of M has a good enough credit rating with the state legislators to try to refinance the stadium deal. So, the ONLY option is for you to insure that a qualified, capable athletic director is in place to build the revenue produced by this beautiful TCF BANK STADIUM.

We've got you right where we want you prexy k. Bring in a very capable NEW athletic director to mend and rebuild the damage that badger joel macturi has done. It is a real shame that the football stadium doesn't sell out in only it's third season. And, it is equally sad that the student ticket sales have been so incrdibly disappointng.

I think you need to assess the issue very carefully, completely and competently prexy k. When the U of M built that stadium, going forward there can only be total committment to attracting and KEEPING long-time season ticket holders as very satisfied, generous customers. Take GOOD care of the existing season ticket holders prexy k: it costs a LOT of money to attract new replacement season ticket holders. badger joel macturi just is NOT getting it done with the Men's Revenue sports. And always remember: the U of M NEEDS the football season ticket holders MORE than the current football season-ticket holders NEED their U of M football season tickets. Be good to the ticket holders prexy k: give us a REASON to want to always renew and make contributions.

That starts with putting a competetive Big Ten Football Program on the field every year.

When you played for free in the dome...you probably didn't need we season ticket holders...but..."baby you need us now!" Building TCF BANK STADIUM changed ALL the rules. You are now OFFICIALLY committed to football whether you want to be or not prexy k. You have GOT to keep we season ticket holders satisfied with your efforts to provide a valuable product and a competetive Big Ten Football Program.

; 0 )

You can NOT afford to have long-time season ticket buyers deciding to cancel their ticket orders. Season ticket sales still are a vital source of income.

Either put a competetive Big Ten Football Team on the field or just watch the fan base shrink. IF the football program stays at the bottom of the conference for too long you will be forced to start lowering the price of your season ticket packages...unless you want to try to sell tickets to iowa, wisky and Nebraska fans. They won't make generous contributions to the University of Minnesota in addition to buying season tickets though, will they prexy k?

You can NOT ignore the Football Program prexy k...it just wouldn't make good economic sense...
 

+1. feeling kind of dirty agreeing with wren on something. ;-)
 

The feeling is mutual, I am sure...

Having a "supadupafly" agree with me makes me wonder if being honest is really a positive thing.

I say what I think and I mean what I say...and I always have a heck of a lot of fun with this stuff. Somebody needs to keep this board HONEST...It might as well be me.

So, as always "supadupafly" right back at you...and I'll raise you one...

I'll never back off...I'll never back down...and I'll NEVER let the ba$tards get me down...

; 0 )
 

I agree as well. There is one way we can let the University hear us, and that is with our feet. I want to buy season tickets for as long as I live in this state, but I can't see any reason to financially support this product. It MUST get better, very soon.
 

Ever since TCF BANK STADIUM became a reality, we long-time season ticket holders have got you administrators RIGHT where we WANT you! Ever since prexy b took the plunge and "just said yes..." to the new stadium we long-time season ticket holders FINALLY are of some value to you University of Minnesota pinheads. You need US to continue buying season tickets MORE than we need you. We can walk away from you. You can not walk away from your debt obligations on that shiny new unpaid for stadium. You HAVE to put a competetive Big Ten Level product on the market and IF you don't, we long-time season ticket holders really don't have to continue to support the costs of the stadium that you must account for each year. The Big Ten Network and the Big Ten Revenue sharing plan goes a ways in funding all the athletic programs, BUT, season ticket sales were a very important part of the long-term funding formula that is needed to pay off the long-term debt of building the stadium. You won't get very far with the state legislators for other funding needs IF you can't even compete with other Big Ten Football Programs in this expensive new stadium that prexy b claimed the University just NEEDED to have.

You people are "under water" on this pricy new stadium and you have no where to run and no where to hide if any aspect of your long-term financial plan does not work out. You have obligations that you MUST honor. You have bonds to pay off. You can't sell naming rights again for a VERY long time. You HAVE to make that stadium pay for itself. You NEED to have season ticket holders renew their season tickets AND make contributions to the scholarship funds, etc.

That means, the athletic director NEEDS to make proper hires in key positions: such as the Football Coach. The Football Coach NEEDS to be able to field a team that will be at least competetive in Big Ten Play.

The current athletic director has a MISERABLE record in making the right hire for the position of Head Football Coach. Your acting ad: badger joel macturi just can not seem to do anything right with ANY of the 3 men's revenue sports...but...football has been the largest disaster.

I don't think the U of M has a good enough credit rating with the state legislators to try to refinance the stadium deal. So, the ONLY option is for you to insure that a qualified, capable athletic director is in place to build the revenue produced by this beautiful TCF BANK STADIUM.

We've got you right where we want you prexy k. Bring in a very capable NEW athletic director to mend and rebuild the damage that badger joel macturi has done. It is a real shame that the football stadium doesn't sell out in only it's third season. And, it is equally sad that the student ticket sales have been so incrdibly disappointng.

I think you need to assess the issue very carefully, completely and competently prexy k. When the U of M built that stadium, going forward there can only be total committment to attracting and KEEPING long-time season ticket holders as very satisfied, generous customers. Take GOOD care of the existing season ticket holders prexy k: it costs a LOT of money to attract new replacement season ticket holders. badger joel macturi just is NOT getting it done with the Men's Revenue sports. And always remember: the U of M NEEDS the football season ticket holders MORE than the current football season-ticket holders NEED their U of M football season tickets. Be good to the ticket holders prexy k: give us a REASON to want to always renew and make contributions.

That starts with putting a competetive Big Ten Football Program on the field every year.

When you played for free in the dome...you probably didn't need we season ticket holders...but..."baby you need us now!" Building TCF BANK STADIUM changed ALL the rules. You are now OFFICIALLY committed to football whether you want to be or not prexy k. You have GOT to keep we season ticket holders satisfied with your efforts to provide a valuable product and a competetive Big Ten Football Program.

; 0 )

You can NOT afford to have long-time season ticket buyers deciding to cancel their ticket orders. Season ticket sales still are a vital source of income.

Either put a competetive Big Ten Football Team on the field or just watch the fan base shrink. IF the football program stays at the bottom of the conference for too long you will be forced to start lowering the price of your season ticket packages...unless you want to try to sell tickets to iowa, wisky and Nebraska fans. They won't make generous contributions to the University of Minnesota in addition to buying season tickets though, will they prexy k?

You can NOT ignore the Football Program prexy k...it just wouldn't make good economic sense...

It's called "email". Try it sometime.
 


I don't want to minimize this "...power to the people..." message maximus...

So I will post the message on GOPHERHOLE.COM rather than to follow a suggestion from maximus that would minimize my intent to help energize the base of season ticket holders that the administration always USED to treat so poorly.

You see, now the U of M chief administrator and his inadequate athletic director have the old "...ball and chain..." in the form of the debt from the stadium. Suddenly, these administrative ivory tower guys have GOT to come begging to the season ticket holders to "please" renew the tickets and to please make contributions just to have the right to continue to buy those tickets.

When those ivory tower pinheads got free rent at the damn dome, they really didn't care what kind of product the football program was turning out. badger joel macturi would read an email and shoot back some kind of smug reply indicating that it really didn't matter what the season ticket holder thought or wanted or suggested. Those fools in the ivory tower thought they had a licnse to do what ever they darn-well-pleased and atually believed they were really important and had no one to answer to...especially not season ticket holders for the football program.

But, in 2011 and beyond, IF the season ticket holders decide to balk at ticket price hikes or at mandated contributions just to buy season tickets in certain locations...it is going to hurt the athletic director and eventually this new rookie prexy k pretty hard. They are STUCK with the stadium and they HAVE to make it work. They aren't selling out the stadium and they have pathetic sales to th students. bjm has blown the mission badly.

The message to this inexperienced new prexy k is that he had best replace the failed badger joel macturi and find a competent AD to run the Football Program, Men's Basketball Program and the Men's Hockey Program.

Unless the products of these three programs improve and become competetive within the Big Ten Conference...there will be less and less season ticket holders willing to also make contributions JUST to have the privilige of buying their season tickets. If that were to happen, it would hurt the athletic department's fiscal situation very badly.

They are still paying off renovation costs at the BARN I believe. They are not selling the BARN out. But, they decided to put the screws to long-time season ticket holders. And this year, they are intorducing new pricing and seating fees? How many Big Ten wins did Tubby have last season? He needs to step it up. Hockey needs to step it up. Football needs to step it up. badger joel macturi has driven these programs to some very low points.

This new, inexperienced prexy k needs to bring a competent AD on board very soon. And, prexy k NEEDS to pay attention to the customer service given the long-time, loyal season ticket holding public and he needs to NOT take season ticket holders for granted.

He NEEDS the season ticket holders to pay for the stadium, the BARN and to help generate income to generate the cash flow that eventually trickles it's way down to the non-revenue sports and Title IX sports.

POWER to the (Season Ticket Holding) People!

We want to energize the base to the max...not minimize the base by following any suggestion by maximus...

; 0 )
 

The Kessel, 19 November 1942 - 31 January 1943

It's called "email". Try it sometime.
Maximus,
1. I have sadly stated in previous posts, and I will keep reiterating it until the power brokers in Morrill Hall and The Regents of the University of Minnesota install an athletic director who bleeds maroon and gold and is not a Notre Dame graduate. In the annals of NCAA Division 1A athletic directors, Joel Maturi’s leadership, decision making, and stewardship of the University of Minnesota revenue sports programs begs comparison and runs parallel with Herr Generalfeldmarschall Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Paulus’ leadership, decision making, and stewardship of the much vaunted German Sixth Army.
2. Paulus suffered from fatal character flaws. His unwillingness or inability to defy Hitler’s idiotic orders to attack Stalingrad prematurely was then followed with an even weaker display of character and integrity through failing to protect his remaining troops in The Kessel (19 November 1942 – 31 January 1943) by breaking out of the Kessel. It meant defying Hitler’s idiotic order to hold Stalingrad at all cost. The result was total decimation of the German Sixth Army, which started out with some 300,000 troops of which only 6,000 survived the war.
3. In the case of the University of Minnesota Department of Intercollegiate Athletics (or whatever they are called today), it matters little whether the idiotic order to fire Glen Mason came from Robert Bruininks, Kathryn Brown (per Sid Hartman 10/01/2011), The Regents of the University of Minnesota, or whether this was a brain f@rt specially conjured up by Joel Maturi himself. What matters are the results. The results remind me of dropping ordnance on our own troops and killing them through “friendly fire.” We fragged ourselves through this horrible display of leadership.
4. Paulus likely would have been courts martialed by Hitler and probably executed for breaking out of “The Kessel,” but he would have saved tens of thousands of good German soldiers. A good leader puts the interests of those under his / her charge ahead of his / her own personal interests and personal safety. In Paulus’ case, he made two bad decisions, the first agreeing to prematurely attack Stalingrad, followed by an even worse one which would seal the fate of the German Sixth Army.
5. Our 58 – 0 loss to Michigan is another monument to Joel Maturi’s horrible decision making, and his stubborn steadfast refusal to hold himself accountable for the irreparable damage he has perpetrated on University of Minnesota revenue sports, and the general reputation of the University of Minnesota. If Robert Bruininks, Kathryn Brown (per Sid Hartman 10/01/2011), or The Regents of the University of Minnesota ordered Joel Maturi to fire Glen Mason, then Joel should have had the character and integrity to stand up to them, refuse the order, and tender his own resignation in protest. If the decision to fire Glen Mason was Joel Maturi’s and Joel’s alone, he should have resigned before he fired Tim Brewster, in acknowledgement of his own personal mistakes. He did neither.
6. Whose interests has Joel Maturi really been representing? The parties who have financially benefited the most from Joel’s actions are the owners of the NFL Vikings, NBA Timberwolves, NHL Wild, MLB Twins, and WNBA Lynx in that order. The collapse of University of Minnesota revenue sports effectively emasculated and nullified ticket sales competition from the University of Minnesota. However, the suicidal decision by our Dear Leader (Joel Maturi, not Kim Jong-Il) to fire Glen Mason has set our football program back at least a decade, perhaps more, and this latest 0 – 58 mockery of what used to be the most storied trophy game in college football has yet again made the University of Minnesota the absolute laughingstock of all NCAA Division 1A schools. If The Regents of the University of Minnesota do not believe that it impacts us academically, think again. Perceptions are very important. If the football team loses 0 – 58, people remember that. They won’t remember that we have a great Chemical Engineering department. After enough humiliations, good students who want to be chemical engineers will choose a university that either has no football team, or a football team that is not a national embarrassment. Nobody, I repeat, nobody wants to be associated with a loser. Right now, the entire University is perceived as born losers by association with our revenue sports programs.
7. I don’t blame Tim Brewster like other people on this board do. He took the opportunity to earn 7 figures Joel handed him on a silver platter. Tim did not make a decision to be a poor football coach. He made a decision to take advantage of a once in a lifetime opportunity to become a millionaire.
8. I am sick and tired of people blaming the football coaches. Isn’t it Einstein who declared that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results? The problem is not with our football coaches. The problem has been with Morrill Hall, The Regents of the University of Minnesota, and most recently their decision to select Joel Maturi to lead us into The Kessel. Thank God Joel did not go through ROTC at Notre Dame and did not lead men in battle in Vietnam.
9. Will Jerry Kill be able to “break out” of The Kessel, despite the “help” he has received from Morrill Hall, The Regents of the University of Minnesota, and Joel Maturi? It will take a miracle.
10. The first step on the road to recovery is reinstatement of a degree program through General College. Before you all start throwing rotten vegetables and rotten eggs at me, ask yourselves how the other Big Ten programs, including academically high and mighty Michigan do it. If the Regents of the University of Minnesota don’t want to reinstate General College degree programs, then it is time for them to start renting out TCF Bank Stadium for tractor pulls, rock concerts, etc., and join the University of Chicago by shuttering our NCAA Division 1A football program. In the long run, shuttering our football program will be much more healthy for the U of M’s reputation than continuing to field embarrassing revenue sports teams, which only serve to cheapen my diploma, and cause people to snicker and laugh when I tell them I graduated from the University of Minnesota.
11. Here is the link for contacting our Regents. http://www1.umn.edu/regents/regent_contact info.html They deserve to get an ear full.
 

Maximus,
10. The first step on the road to recovery is reinstatement of a degree program through General College. Before you all start throwing rotten vegetables and rotten eggs at me, ask yourselves how the other Big Ten programs, including academically high and mighty Michigan do it. If the Regents of the University of Minnesota don’t want to reinstate General College degree programs, then it is time for them to start renting out TCF Bank Stadium for tractor pulls, rock concerts, etc., and join the University of Chicago by shuttering our NCAA Division 1A football program. In the long run, shuttering our football program will be much more healthy for the U of M’s reputation than continuing to field embarrassing revenue sports teams, which only serve to cheapen my diploma, and cause people to snicker and laugh when I tell them I graduated from the University of Minnesota.

I tend to believe there are concrete reasons for success at Wisconsin and Iowa beyond "Alvarez and Ferentz are miracle workers". Can this, or other issues, be referenced? I'm not about to research it.
 

The current vision and goals of the Regents, President and AD must change. The focus has been on doing well in the Directors Cup standings, not putting out winning football and basketball teams. Who cares if we compete well with Michigan and Ohio State in rowing, volleyball, golf, etc. The emphasis must be competing well at TCF and the Barn. If we can do that, then the lesser sports can survive. If not, the UM needs to do some cutting and focus on the ball.

Free up dollars to hire a top notch football coach. Build a hoops practice arena if that is a missing link to success. Study what Wisconsin and Alvarez did back in the early 90's. Swallow their pride and bring back the General College Degree like 6Nov suggests which reeks of the jock mentality but makes it easier to bring in more talented athletes. Tell the "PC correct profs/mad scientiests" to buy in or leave. Even they will benefit from a strong AD. Hire an AD that has a vision and track record for success. Its sad when Maturi compared the UM current status to other BIG schools and said something like, "....well, after all, this is Minnesota." Pathetic!

Build a foundation that will foster success and good things will follow. Expect to win often and big. If not, bring in someone else. Expecting success within the current atmosphere and leadership has been an unfair and unrealistic expectation. Like Wren has said many times, the record speaks for itself.

IMO, until the Regents and President change their vision it won't matter who is the AD. President Kaler is the key if we are serious about creating a new attitude and way of doing business in the AD that will foster success.

The question is do "they" have the balls to change course?
 






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