Sid: U still must raise about $60MM of the $166MM for Athletes Village

BleedGopher

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per Sid:

U fundraising efforts

Gophers athletic director Mark Coyle reports that the U still must raise about $60 million of the $166 million budget for the Athletes Village, which will open next month. One of the big questions around project financing has been the university's decision to take on debt in order to finance construction.

Brian Burnett, the senior vice president for finance and operations, detailed how debt service will work.

"We try and structure very competitive interest rates for athletics as they're raising money because we know they're going to bring in gifts over the next 10 years," Burnett said. "So we don't put debt way out 20 years when we know they're going to bring money in over the next 10. … That is part of the ability of a place like the University of Minnesota to be able to help their athletic department finance this facility."

Burnett said that the athletic department never has taken on a loan like this. Large loans were taken out for construction of TCF Bank Stadium, but that was a combination of public funding and university funding.

The payments for the Athletes Village are expected to be around $3.6 million each year for principal and interest, Burnett said.

Coyle said the athletic department will have no problem paying that.

"We feel comfortable that we can cover that new debt service working closely with Brian and his office," he said. "Our operating budget will be able to cover that."

Necessary costs

Earlier this month University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler said there was no question that going into debt to build these facilities was the right thing to do.

Coyle believes that this project, which the Gophers have been trying to accomplish for over a decade, is going to lead to a brighter future in major sports.

"I'm excited about the future. I'm excited about the fact that if you look at our department as a whole, the last two years we have won 11 Big Ten championships, from women's soccer, hockey, women's hockey, we won 11 conference championships," he said. "That is third in the Big Ten. We have a lot of success. We have a broad-based program, as you know, and now the challenge is how do we get football to compete at a high, high level like a lot of our programs are doing. That is what we're trying to do."

http://www.startribune.com/vikings-...rved-well-by-time-with-the-bengals/464634933/

Go Gophers!!
 

When I first heard that Lou Nanne was going to head this up I really thought he would get this done by now. $60 million left. Hopefully with a good season next year and the following year, progress will be made to wipe that out.
 

I thought I heard fund raising was going to go crazy after a certain coach was hired?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Does anyone really know how much money has actually been raised? It seems like every time there's an article about the project, a different dollar amount gets thrown around. In October, there was an article stating that $105 million had been raised, including $16 million within the last month. That left $61 million to raise. Now - two months later - Sid says the U still need to raise "about $60 million." If that is an up-to-date figure, then the U hasn't raised anything in the last two months. If it is not an up-to-date figure, then Sid is wrong and someone needs to get him the correct information.

Sid being wrong would not be a shock. And I expect that one way or another, the U will eventually meet its goal. If I was running the campaign, I would have a website and post the up-to-date totals at least on a monthly basis, along with a reminder that there are still opportunities to contribute. Have they ever announced or promoted a 'public' phase to the campaign? If they have, I've missed it.
 

Does anyone really know how much money has actually been raised? It seems like every time there's an article about the project, a different dollar amount gets thrown around. In October, there was an article stating that $105 million had been raised, including $16 million within the last month. That left $61 million to raise. Now - two months later - Sid says the U still need to raise "about $60 million." If that is an up-to-date figure, then the U hasn't raised anything in the last two months. If it is not an up-to-date figure, then Sid is wrong and someone needs to get him the correct information.

Sid being wrong would not be a shock. And I expect that one way or another, the U will eventually meet its goal. If I was running the campaign, I would have a website and post the up-to-date totals at least on a monthly basis, along with a reminder that there are still opportunities to contribute. Have they ever announced or promoted a 'public' phase to the campaign? If they have, I've missed it.

Really? I mean, seriously?

http://www.nothingshortofgreatness.com
 


When I first heard that Lou Nanne was going to head this up I really thought he would get this done by now. $60 million left. Hopefully with a good season next year and the following year, progress will be made to wipe that out.

Lou is a tool. he chased Denney T away. Please lou, go away.
 


I don't see Nanne's name anywhere in this article:

University of Minnesota suspends donor talks amid Sanford deal

The University of Minnesota will suspend talks with donors linked to a proposal that would give a South Dakota-based company control over Fairview Health Services, officials announced during a public hearing Sunday.

Sanford Health of Sioux Falls, S.D., has proposed acquiring Fairview Health Services, which owns the University of Minnesota Medical Center. Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson, who has expressed concern that putting one of the state's largest hospital systems in the hands of an outside company is not in the best interest of Minnesotans, pressed for information during a public hearing on the issue Sunday at the state Capitol, according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

In response to Swanson's questioning, the newspaper reported, university general counsel Mark Rotenberg told Swanson the university had placed a moratorium on any fundraising discussions that could raise a conflict-of-interest question until merger talks are complete.

The Star Tribune reported that the university noted that any moratorium would cover potential gifts from T. Denny Sanford, a wealthy university alumnus who has been courted for donations to the Gophers' athletic fund.

Sanford launched Sanford Health in 2007 with a $400 million donation, the Star Tribune reported.

Rotenberg said the new policy will assure Minnesotans that any acquisition talks won't be tainted by potential conflicts involving any "gifts for football or athletics or anything else," according to the Star Tribune.

Swanson welcomed the moratorium. She said Minnesota taxpayers have a major stake in the future of the university's medical franchise and in Fairview, which has grown largely due to its tax-exempt status as a nonprofit.

Swanson said her job is to protect Minnesota's investments, according to the Star Tribune, and make sure the assets are not inappropriately siphoned off to an out-of-state company.

According to the Pioneer Press, she questioned whether there has been an inappropriate commingling of merger talks with university efforts to raise money for its athletic department, either from Sanford Health or Sanford.

The attorney general pointed to a recent email from a Sanford Health official to university President Eric Kaler that was largely focused on the merger but in closing briefly mentioned fundraising efforts for university athletics, the Pioneer Press said.

"Sports and athletic donations have nothing to do with the merger of a hospital system," Swanson said of the email. "It doesn't look good."

Read more at: http://www.postbulletin.com/archive...cle_750b7063-1b77-5bed-8a1c-335c73faf8a3.html
 




I've mentioned the same in the past...the number seems to move around. The link you provided from the U itself says $104M for the overall NSOG campaign, with $92M in donations for the village specifically, but Coyle has stated $105M in village specific donations recently.

I don't know where you're seeing the numbers you cite here. Directly from the page: "To-date, you have helped our Nothing Short of Greatness campaign raise more than $120 million in private contributions to address our facility needs, including more than $105 million specifically for the new Athletes Village."
 

I don't know where you're seeing the numbers you cite here. Directly from the page: "To-date, you have helped our Nothing Short of Greatness campaign raise more than $120 million in private contributions to address our facility needs, including more than $105 million specifically for the new Athletes Village."

Under the Campaign Details tab, under the Funding paragraph...

http://www.nothingshortofgreatness.com/campaign.php

"Our goal is to fund all of these new facilities though private contributions. Every contribution, regardless of size, brings us closer to achieving this goal.

To-date, our Nothing Short of Greatness campaign has made significant progress toward our campaign goal of raising $190 million for facility improvements. More than $104 million has been committed to the campaign, with more than $92 million donated specifically to the Athletes Village project, along with additional funding for other facility enhancement projects and the new track and field stadium."
 

This is pretty much a hard and fast rule: if a large organization has to provide the same figure in multiple instances, then you should expect to see multiple different numbers.

Getting anything to tie-out in a huge, complex project is just a pain in the rear.
 

I thought I heard fund raising was going to go crazy after a certain coach was hired?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The new generation of Gopher supporters, fans, and donors are just taking their time. Is not about the old ones anymore. Row in the cash millennials....
 



This is pretty much a hard and fast rule: if a large organization has to provide the same figure in multiple instances, then you should expect to see multiple different numbers.

Getting anything to tie-out in a huge, complex project is just a pain in the rear.

Even if it is on the same website specifically created and dedicated to said project?
 





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