Dooley's 2013-2015 UConn Timeline

[Dooley]

This is NOT the end of realignment. Far from it. Until the next wave (when the SEC, B1G and Pac-12 start expanding again), UConn MUST do the following, in order to remain a viable option to the B1G Conference:

1. expand Rentschler Field to 60-65,000 (whatever the maximum amount that is agreed upon with the town of E Hartford). This needs to be done now. Include a start of the art HD scoreboard and big billboards that line that area of I-84 with "This is UCONN COUNTRY". Make sure every northeast recruit on their way to BC, Syracuse, Penn State, UMass, or Rutgers can see it from their cars....multiple times.

2. continue to build endowment and research budgets. I like the direction this is already headed thanks to President Herbst. This is important because...

3. acceptance into the AAU is very important. UConn already ranks favorably to other AAU institutions. An "official" invite into the club would put us on par with other B1G schools. We are not Louisville or WVU where degrees are handed out to hobos at the train station. We are UConn, a top research flagship university with a proud tradition and commitment to excellence.

4. increase advertising/marketing budgets. It's important that our venues look good on TV, aka - are sold out and unison. The casual CT fan is going to feel blue during the waiting process so let's give some incentive to go to games (lower prices, guaranteed rights to bowl games including BCS, guaranteed rights to Final 4 men's or women's, discounted student tickets, better student shuttles from campus to football games and XL Center...no early departing shuttles unless an emergency!, a free BLUE t-shirt per ticket to be worn to games, discounts on road game packages, etc). Now is definitely not the time for fan apathy, and it's up to advertising/marketing to give the fans some incentive and excitement. Includes self-proclamations that NYC and Boston is part of UCONN COUNTRY (ex - Syracuse ads at Yankee Stadium). If it's on a billboard, it's got to be true! UConn needs to be bold, now more than ever.

5. increase football coaching budgets and throw our openings out there to some big fish. Again, the fanbase needs to be re-energized after this year and George DeLeone's offensive offensive philosophies (3 and outs are safe/okay) won't do.

6. finish the on-campus basketball facility and extend Kevin Ollie and Geno immediately. Put more emphasis on past UConn greats and all of the championships won in basketball. Print it on the court itself! Remind everybody who is watching a game being played at UConn that we are a powerhouse top 5 hoops program and nothing less. Instill some fear and intimidation into opponents.

7. sign a new clothing contract with several alternate jerseys and apparel. Oregon and Maryland are made fun of constantly for their odd uniforms but it MAKES PEOPLE TALK ABOUT THEM. When people talk about them, no matter what the reason (other than a disgusting Sandusky incident), they are relevant. Maryland, despite a 1 win season with our vanilla ex-coach and thousands of empty seats stayed in the national picture in the past two seasons. Why? Because people kept talking about their unusual uniforms. It's a brilliant marketing stroke of genius, not to mention, the wide array of clothing choices appeals to a vaster audience consumer. More money. Is this selling out? Absolutely. But we need to keep UConn on the tips of the tongues of the country to remind folks that we are available and can generate revenue.

8. WIN. This is self-explanatory and obvious but needs to be listed. It all starts with 40,000 this Saturday and a loud supportive crowd to try to send this great group of seniors out with a bowl game. They brought our state its first BCS game after the tragic loss of a teammate and friend, it's time to do our part to repay the favor!

Go Dahgs!

 

[Brochacho]

For #1, tell the B1G that as soon as the invite comes plans will go into motion for the stadium to expand to 60k. But for this and the majority of your points, where will the cash come from? State isn't doing to hot right now and I don't think paying for a couple more seats and PP's buyout is a top priority.

 

[UConn9604]

For #1, tell the B1G that as soon as the invite comes plans will go into motion for the stadium to expand to 60k. But for this and the majority of your points, where will the cash come from? State isn't doing to hot right now and I don't think paying for a couple more seats and PP's buyout is a top priority.

I'd throw them a bone and offer to play one home game a year in the Meadowlands, Yankee Stadium or Foxboro until we expanded past 50-55,000.

 

[Dooley]

For #1, tell the B1G that as soon as the invite comes plans will go into motion for the stadium to expand to 60k. But for this and the majority of your points, where will the cash come from? State isn't doing to hot right now and I don't think paying for a couple more seats and PP's buyout is a top priority.

Promises are weak. Action speaks louder than words. RU and UL both expanded during fiscal crises and now look at them. If we don't expand, we will never be able to draw a big name OOC game ever again (look at Michigan alum pounding their AD to have UConn move the game to MetLife Stadium).

The state is not doing so hot right now so why not create jobs? UConn is already aggressively adding some 300 or so faculty in the next few years and that's good. What I'm saying is don't stop there. Is either spend the money now to better position ourselves for future B1G payouts, or play conservative and stuck in the Big East in front of more empty seats and coaches worse than PP.

The opportunity is there for us for the taking. Think B1G.

 

[Dann]

how u do the stadium is since u know the b10 has certain dates it want to get things done by and what the nd date is, u annouce 2moro that in 2015 u are going to expand. then sometime next spring firgure it out actually.

 

[businesslawyer]

There is no point expanding the stadium until you need the space. Everyone in power knows we can expand it in one season when we need to.

The four most important things to do now:

1. Hire Ollie. Look -- I was fine with talking to Smart, Miller and maybe Stevens in February, but right now our job is not as appealing as it was last week. Sign Ollie, save the money and move on.

2. Aggressively market. We need to increase the top line of UConn sports. We need to sell more tickets, we need to get more donations, we need more fannies in seats.

3. Initiate an aggressive PR campaign. I was shocked to see how poorly we are perceived, and maybe more shocked to see perception drive reality. But it is what it is. Spend the money and change the perception. Have a social media company that responds to every ridiculous thing said about us on the internet, twitter and facebook.

4. I will not tell you what four is until after our game Saturday.

 

[The Funster]

High profile

Herbst out front with academics and overall vision for the university.

Manuel right behind trumpeting athletic success.

 

[Vuce]

1. expand Rentschler Field to 60-65,000 (whatever the maximum amount that is agreed upon with the town of E Hartford). This needs to be done now. Include a start of the art HD scoreboard and big billboards that line that area of I-84 with "This is UCONN COUNTRY". Make sure every northeast recruit on their way to BC, Syracuse, Penn State, UMass, or Rutgers can see it from their cars....multiple times.

Let's stop at #1. It is one thing to just write words on a message board. But where does the money come from for this? The Governor just CUT 10 million dollars from the Uconn budget. 170 million overall from the State budget with more to come. There is no appetite politically to invest millions of dollars in a stadium expansion while they are stuck in a league. I get your point I am just saying it is not happening unless you find a way to raise the funds privately.

 

[WestCoastHusky]

Excellent post. We have to expand now. We don't have much choice unless our long term plan is playing UMASS and Temple forever. We have to go to 55K+ whether we have the fanbase now or not. If we want to get into the B1G, we need a stadium that size just to qualify and we have to get into the AAU. Those two things are important to B1G. If we get PSU or Michigan here every other year, selling out a 55K to 65K stadium will not be an issue.

 

[WestCoastHusky]

Let's stop at #1. It is one thing to just write words on a message board. But where does the money come from for this? The Governor just CUT 10 million dollars from the Uconn budget. 170 million overall from the State budget with more to come. There is no appetite politically to invest millions of dollars in a stadium expansion while they are stuck in a league. I get your point I am just saying it is not happening unless you find a way to raise the funds privately.

Even more reason why we need to get into B1G. We can get $25M+ each year just from B1G TV payout. You got to invest to get the return down the road. UCONN can issue a bond or do some creative financing. RU did it with no money. UL did it as well. Why can't we be forward thinking?

 

[uconnell]

How did RU do it? We all know the answer to that. Just do it.

 

[wpackzac]

This person should have started two years ago.

http://articles.courant.com/2012-11...-susan-herbst-uconn-today-uconn-health-center

 

[TouchdownHusky]

There is no point expanding the stadium until you need the space. Everyone in power knows we can expand it in one season when we need to.

The four most important things to do now:

1. Hire Ollie. Look -- I was fine with talking to Smart, Miller and maybe Stevens in February, but right now our job is not as appealing as it was last week. Sign Ollie, save the money and move on.

2. Aggressively market. We need to increase the top line of UConn sports. We need to sell more tickets, we need to get more donations, we need more fannies in seats.

3. Initiate an aggressive PR campaign. I was shocked to see how poorly we are perceived, and maybe more shocked to see perception drive reality. But it is what it is. Spend the money and change the perception. Have a social media company that responds to every ridiculous thing said about us on the internet, twitter and facebook.

4. I will not tell you what four is until after our game Saturday.

Needs to be done now - not down the road. Everyone busts on Rutgers and Schiano for years (couldn't necessary beat them more than they beat us but we busted anyway). Now how smart does Snooki U look now and how smart does the PPZzzzzzzzzzzz's look.

 

[businesslawyer]

Needs to be done now - not down the road. Everyone busts on Rutgers and Schiano for years (couldn't necessary beat them more than they beat us but we busted anyway). Now how smart does Snooki U look now and how smart does the PPZzzzzzzzzzzz's look.

If we expand now, and don't move, the building will have no juice at all and we won't have anyone going. The Big Ten and the ACC know what our stadium can be fitted to do. What they need to know is we can sell more seats, and building them won't tell them that until there is demand.

 

[CHIROMIKE]

If we expand now, and don't move, the building will have no juice at all and we won't have anyone going. The Big Ten and the ACC know what our stadium can be fitted to do. What they need to know is we can sell more seats, and building them won't tell them that until there is demand.

The problem with waiting is the continued perception that Uconn is not as committed as other schools to the athletic programs. From what I have read, Louisville's demonstrated commitment is why they were chosen over us. I know money is tight with the state, but now is the time to put up or shut up(as in stay put in the NNNBE). Alot of the allure for students to come to Uconn has been our athletic programs. Will we continue to attract top academic students without the athletics? MAYBE

 

[TouchdownHusky]

If we expand now, and don't move, the building will have no juice at all and we won't have anyone going. The Big Ten and the ACC know what our stadium can be fitted to do. What they need to know is we can sell more seats, and building them won't tell them that until there is demand.

OK, I rest my case. You're right. I'm wrong. Just get us into a decent conference. You do that and I'll defer to your wisdom. Til then you are just as wrong as me. We're both looking at a sequence of things that need to be in place (selling seats, scheduling attractive opponents to do so, recruiting better caliber of players, expanding the stadium,better bowls, better TV opportunities upgrading, etc). Where we differ (chicken v egg) is in the order with respect to what needs to happen first for other things to happen.

 

[UCFBfan]

The problem with waiting is the continued perception that Uconn is not as committed as other schools to the athletic programs. From what I have read, Louisville's demonstrated commitment is why they were chosen over us. I know money is tight with the state, but now is the time to put up or shut up(as in stay put in the NNNBE). Alot of the allure for students to come to Uconn has been our athletic programs. Will we continue to attract top academic students without the athletics? MAYBE

Where do you people honestly live? You truly think the state is going to invest money when they are making cuts left and right. That's great that RU and Louisville did it but was it state funded? (I honestly don't know) On top of this, those jobs would probably be outsourced to a company outside CT thus causing more of a ruckus. Then what happens if an invite doesn't come for 3+ years? This is a topic no politician would touch. So move on from the dream of an expanded Rent for now. I agree with BL that the conferences know that plans exist and an upgrade can be done easily once we are invited into a conference.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

 

[ctchamps]

There is no point expanding the stadium until you need the space. Everyone in power knows we can expand it in one season when we need to.

The four most important things to do now:

1. Hire Ollie. Look -- I was fine with talking to Smart, Miller and maybe Stevens in February, but right now our job is not as appealing as it was last week. Sign Ollie, save the money and move on.

2. Aggressively market. We need to increase the top line of UConn sports. We need to sell more tickets, we need to get more donations, we need more fannies in seats.

3. Initiate an aggressive PR campaign. I was shocked to see how poorly we are perceived, and maybe more shocked to see perception drive reality. But it is what it is. Spend the money and change the perception. Have a social media company that responds to every ridiculous thing said about us on the internet, twitter and facebook.

4. I will not tell you what four is until after our game Saturday.

Number 4 is the same as number 3 and both should be number 1.
Always agreed with number 1. Felt Stevens would haven't bothered to come to UConn to talk and that certainly wouldn't have helped PR matters. Smart and Miller would be at UConn only a short time if they chose the job and that wouldn't help PR. That was before this last slam. Smart would still consider the hire but I still prefer KO.
UConn has gone corporate with its seating for a long time. Great revenue generator. Horrible fan generator. This should have changed a long time ago. It was getting diminished benefits for some time. Now it will be harder than ever to change this policy.

 

[MattMang23]

http://mobile.courant.com/p.p?m=b&a...DL.w=&DL.d=10&DQ=sectionId%3A6022&DPS=0&DPL=4

Good luck with your stadium expansion idea.

 

[WestCoastHusky]

http://mobile.courant.com/p.p?m=b&a=rp&id=3066428&postId=3066428&postUserId=47&sessionToken=&catId=6022&curAbsIndex=1&resultsUrl=DID=6&DFCL=1000&DSB=rank%23desc&DBFQ=userId%3A47&DL.w=&DL.d=10&DQ=sectionId%3A6022&DPS=0&DPL=4

Good luck with your stadium expansion idea.

I don't believe RU did it with state money.

 

[MattMang23]

I don't know how they did it.

Perhaps the people advocating for expansion of the stadium could research how RU did it and come up with a proposal that would work for us, rather than just telling us to expand?

 

[UCFBfan]

I don't know how they did it.

Perhaps the people advocating for expansion of the stadium could research how RU did it and come up with a proposal that would work for us, rather than just telling us to expand?

Did their Naming Rights money go towards it? I'm with you on this one. Not a shot the state puts a dime into expanding the Rent right now

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

 

[Pudge]

Promises are weak. Action speaks louder than words. RU and UL both expanded during fiscal crises and now look at them. If we don't expand, we will never be able to draw a big name OOC game ever again (look at Michigan alum pounding their AD to have UConn move the game to MetLife Stadium).

The state is not doing so hot right now so why not create jobs? UConn is already aggressively adding some 300 or so faculty in the next few years and that's good. What I'm saying is don't stop there. Is either spend the money now to better position ourselves for future B1G payouts, or play conservative and stuck in the Big East in front of more empty seats and coaches worse than PP.

The opportunity is there for us for the taking. Think B1G.

AGAIN ...

What people don't understand, a Stadium financing is a Project Financing. It's not coming out of State funds. Basically, you have a Stadium that was Pro Forma 2002 that is doing far better Revenue-wise than conservative projections & Debt Capital costs are at all time lows. You can raise $50m-80m easy on simple Debt Service Coverage.

This should have been done. We are at 54,000 today. Rutgers did it with paperclips. Louisville knew what they were doing. We are just BS ... and still we have whiners. You are where you are because of poor vision ... like this. I don't want to hear about the 2 tickets they screwed you on.

 

[johnhuskies95]

The state already put a lot of money towards the Rent and the practice facility. They're done investing in UConn football for awhile.

It will be hard to do much with private donations, because a lot of the big donors recently put up a lot of money for the basketball practice facility, and they probably aren't willing(or able) to donate more money so soon.

UConn's endowment and fundraising efforts have been lackluster to say the least. One of the worst things Hathaway did was not hiring a director of fundraising after the spot was vacant. I have no idea how a major D-1 athletic director does that.

 

[Dooley]

I don't know how they did it.

Perhaps the people advocating for expansion of the stadium could research how RU did it and come up with a proposal that would work for us, rather than just telling us to expand?

I understand the economy is tough and it's a tough sell with budget cuts (I really wish they would halt work on that stupid busway and we can redistribute funds to a stadium expansion!). My best guess at the cost would be around $90-$100M. If UConn could raise $15M-$20M from private funds, they can issue bonds for the remaining cost following RU's model. I dont' know what the best way to raise $100M is (other than jacking those dudes from Arizona and Missouri who won the PowerBall!), but I'm concerned that our complacency and conservative approach to funding our athletic programs are leaving us in the dust. If a promise to the B1G that we'll expand immediately after acceptance is enough, I'm all for it. I'm just not certain it will be. Anyway, here is the info you asked for:

Rutgers (mostly bond issuance):
Expansion Financing Plan
The $102 million price tag of the expansion project was to originally be financed via private fundraising ($30 million) and the issuance of bonds ($72 million).[15] The private fundraising effort, however, fell significantly short of the original goal.[16]
This situation prompted the Board of Governors of Rutgers University to approve a new financing plan for the stadium expansion in which the entire amount of $102 million was to be borrowed. Specifically, the university issued $85 million in bonds, and borrowed the remaining $17 million by way of low-interest commercial paper.[12] In addition, a few aspects of the stadium expansion project were scaled back, including a reduction in the number of new seats (the original plan called for 14,000 seats, but only 11,500 were actually added). Also included in the original expansion plan was the construction of new locker rooms in the South end zone. The construction of these locker rooms was deferred to a later date.[12]

Louisville (mostly state funded):
Stadium expansion
In October 2006, an official rendering and details were released of what an expanded stadium would look like and cost. The ambitious original plan called for an additional 21,600 seats and 70 suites added via a new upper deck on the side opposite the main press box area, all for an estimated price tag of $63 million, which is almost identical to the cost to build the original stadium.
On August 27, 2007, John Schnatter donated $10 million in support of the expansion, and extended naming rights through 2040. The Kentucky General Assembly, the state legislature, provided the balance of funding for the project. The stadium is therefore about 46% state-funded in total.
On December 1, 2008, construction started on the east side of the stadium, and the expansion was finished in Fall 2010. The expansion was scaled down from the original plans with about 13,000 additional seats (1,725 of which are higher-priced club seats) and 33 suites instead of the originally planned 70. There is also a 100-yard-long luxury room called the PNC Club, which is similar to the west-side Brown & Williamson Club but has a glassed-in view of the field. There is also standing space for 2,500 people on the new Norton Healthcare Terrace located on the south end (closed end) of the horseshoe-shaped stadium. The expansion, which eventually cost $72 million, also included 20 new restrooms, two new 345' x 3' LED ribbon boards located on the facia of the east and west sides of the stadium, a new 60' x 20' LED video board on the south end of the stadium, matching in size the existing board on the north end, and a new 13 x 9 LED board facing outside the stadium to the south.