Why do we have such limited funds?

[superjohn]

So I was recently talking to some of my Midwest friends and a Southern friend about what a nightmare situation UConn is in and to a man they all said well your coach obviously should have already been fired. They couldn't wrap their heads around how UConn which in their words is a "big name brand" "everyone knows UConn" could possibly not have the money to buy out a cr@p coach and hire a good one. They said "Why don't you have big money people stepping in to fix things, where are the big UConn donors. . . . . . Connecticut is such a rich state why aren't any of them donating money?" They all thought I was crazy trying to explain how the money just doesn't seem to be there. It's a question I've always had, where are the big money people? Surely we have some grads who made it Big, the state is full of people with enormous wealth. Why have we never tapped into that?

 

[UConnJim]

Good question. For years, UConn did not have a professional approach to fundraising which Herbst is slowly turning around, but it will take years. Also, look at the Board of Trustees at UConn. There are not a lot of big money people on the Board, so most of them aren't going to help with fundraising or make big donations. The Board needs to be reconstructed with the recognition that UConn aspires to be a leading global university.

Compare the University of Houston Board Chair vs the UConn Board Chair. Houston's Chair is a billionaire owner of wide ranging businesses. UConn's Chair is a former teacher and coach at Xavier High. Guess which one could raise money to find a top football coach, pay a buyout, or fix the Gampel roof?

 

[polycom]

The issue is culture. UC Jim said it best compare UConn and Houston's boards...they told Herman money was no object that they were willing to pay any amount, UConn can't compete with that. UConn needs to function like the type of university it wants to be not the type of university it is, and that starts with leadership.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

I'd love to see how our $72M athletic budget is allocated.

Given that the only sport that controls our fate is in shambles and the word is we can't afford it, I want to know why.

 

[huskymedic]

Compare the University of Houston Board Chair vs the UConn Board Chair. Houston's Chair is a billionaire owner of wide ranging businesses. UConn's Chair is a former teacher and coach at Xavier High. Guess which one could raise money to find a top football coach, pay a buyout, or fix the Gampel roof?

Hell, TF will just jiggle the odds on the slot machines for a week. Done!

 

[zls44]

UConn hasn't actually tried to raise money privately as an institution until the last 5 years for basic academic stuff. Think back- for years, the athletics website was run privately in a partnership with NERAC, a small-potatoes patent firm down the street, while most programs were aligned with CBS and using more modern stuff. Huskies All-Access video feeds are an across-the-board disappointment, with no graphics, bad cameras/audio and low production values (by comparison, Vermont and Northeastern [!!!] blow them out of the water).

This is, by and large, not a professionally-run operation. Top to bottom.

Our 'big-money' successful donors are a small family business that controls the sirens/emergency lights industry (Whelen), a bargain-basement furniture chain (Bob's Discount Furniture) and a guy who went to Syracuse but his kid played here when he couldn't make the team there (Burton).

 

[superjohn]

Good question. For years, UConn did not have a professional approach to fundraising which Herbst is slowly turning around, but it will take years. Also, look at the Board of Trustees at UConn. There are not a lot of big money people on the Board, so most of them aren't going to help with fundraising or make big donations. The Board needs to be reconstructed with the recognition that UConn aspires to be a leading global university.

Compare the University of Houston Board Chair vs the UConn Board Chair. Houston's Chair is a billionaire owner of wide ranging businesses. UConn's Chair is a former teacher and coach at Xavier High. Guess which one could raise money to find a top football coach, pay a buyout, or fix the Gampel roof?

Why is that the case? Why have we always had such a small-time approach? People outside of CT. assume we are like the other big name sports state schools and are rolling in it. A couple of my cousins went to University of Delaware, it's incredibly embarrassing our endowment pales in comparison to theirs and whole bunch of other schools nobody knows anything about.

 

[uconnfan68]

Good question. For years, UConn did not have a professional approach to fundraising which Herbst is slowly turning around, but it will take years. Also, look at the Board of Trustees at UConn. There are not a lot of big money people on the Board, so most of them aren't going to help with fundraising or make big donations. The Board needs to be reconstructed with the recognition that UConn aspires to be a leading global university.

Compare the University of Houston Board Chair vs the UConn Board Chair. Houston's Chair is a billionaire owner of wide ranging businesses. UConn's Chair is a former teacher and coach at Xavier High. Guess which one could raise money to find a top football coach, pay a buyout, or fix the Gampel roof?

He hasn't been at Xavier for about 40 years. He has been president of the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce for many years. I'm sure he knows folks with money.

 

[Fishy]

Because we spend a lot of money on sports, but are in a conference that pays about $1.4M in television rights fees?

We spend a ton more than Houston, so just stop there. Our revenue without the subsidy is greater than their revenue with a massive subsidy.

If you want to be like Houston, you need to at least realize what Houston is.

 

[Sky ball]

In CT for years, and still may be, UConn was a backup school to all the well respected New England private schools. There just may not be the big donors available as they went to other universities. If you grow up in Alabama you dream of going to University of Alabama as they have far fewer Yales, Wesleyans, Trinitys etc in their backyard to choose from.
A possible explanation?

 

[superjohn]

UConn hasn't actually tried to raise money privately as an institution until the last 5 years for basic academic stuff. Think back- for years, the athletics website was run privately in a partnership with NERAC, a small-potatoes patent firm down the street, while most programs were aligned with CBS and using more modern stuff. Huskies All-Access video feeds are an across-the-board disappointment, with no graphics, bad cameras/audio and low production values (by comparison, Vermont and Northeastern [!!!] blow them out of the water).

This is, by and large, not a professionally-run operation. Top to bottom.

Our 'big-money' successful donors are a small family business that controls the sirens/emergency lights industry (Whelen), a bargain-basement furniture chain (Bob's Discount Furniture) and a guy who went to Syracuse but his kid played here when he couldn't make the team there (Burton).

It's insane, why has it always been such a joke? We had one of the five best men's basketball coaches of all-time, we have the best women's basketball coach of all-time, we've run out of space for all our trophies, our incredible basketball success has lifted the entire University to unprecedented heights. Why are we run like a VOAG school in Appalachia? Why do we have no relationship with the big money people in this state, why is ESPN right down the street and they piss on us?

 

[superjohn]

Because we spend a lot of money on sports, but are in a conference that pays about $1.4M in television rights fees?

We spend a ton more than Houston, so just stop there. Our revenue without the subsidy is greater than their revenue with a massive subsidy.

If you want to be like Houston, you need to at least realize what Houston is.

We had no money when we were in the Big East.

 

[UConnfan8]

Our conference.

 

[zls44]

In CT for years, and still may be, UConn was a backup school to all the well respected New England private schools. There just may not be the big donors available as they went to other universities. If you grow up in Alabama you dream of going to University of Alabama as they have far fewer Yales, Wesleyans, Trinitys etc in their backyard to choose from.
A possible explanation?

ding ding ding

 

[Dooley]

Our offensive coordinator made $130,000 last year. If you want an explanation of why our offense better resembles road kill than a FBS level unit, that kind of penny pinching at such an important position is a good place to start.

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

Don't forget Houston also mortgaged their future to get into the Big 12 and thus far has failed. They were very open that financially they could not afford to continue as they were going financially in the AAC and would have to scale back certain things if it fell through.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Because we spend a lot of money on sports, but are in a conference that pays about $1.4M in television rights fees?

We spend a ton more than Houston, so just stop there. Our revenue without the subsidy is greater than their revenue with a massive subsidy.

If you want to be like Houston, you need to at least realize what Houston is.

Seems to me that the issue is funding for non revenue sports needs to be slashed.

Given that if we're stuck in the AAC forever they would be likely cut, why not give ourselves and dump it into football instead?

 

[Richmondhsky]

So I was recently talking to some of my Midwest friends and a Southern friend about what a nightmare situation UConn is in and to a man they all said well your coach obviously should have already been fired. They couldn't wrap their heads around how UConn which in their words is a "big name brand" "everyone knows UConn" could possibly not have the money to buy out a cr@p coach and hire a good one. They said "Why don't you have big money people stepping in to fix things, where are the big UConn donors. . . . . . Connecticut is such a rich state why aren't any of them donating money?" They all thought I was crazy trying to explain how the money just doesn't seem to be there. It's a question I've always had, where are the big money people? Surely we have some grads who made it Big, the state is full of people with enormous wealth. Why have we never tapped into that?

It takes out reach and success/ fear. Ive met the VA Tech AD and the fundraiser twice this year at my club...member Alum sponsored. Coach Beamer has been here this fall. Success fuels Techs supporters and contributors.
On the other side I know donors who contributed to pay for Londons buyout as well as Gillens. That's the fear aspect. Hard to believe there's more "power brokers" here than in CT.

 

[superjohn]

It takes out reach and success/ fear. Ive met the VA Tech AD and the fundraiser twice this year at my club...member Alum sponsored. Coach Beamer has been here this fall. Success fuels Techs supporters and contributors.
On the other side I know donors who contributed to pay for Londons buyout as well as Gillens. That's the fear aspect. Hard to believe there's more "power brokers" here than in CT.

That's exactly what I'm getting at. What you just described, it's like that everywhere. . . . .well everywhere except for UConn. Blaming it on being in the AAC is bunk. We didn't have any "power brokers" when we were in the Big East.

 

[Fishy]

We spend millions more on football than Houston does.

The issue isn't more money, it's smarter money.

If a coach came in here and won, he'd get paid. Paying $3M for a football coach is easily done - paying this idiot $5M to go away and then paying $2M for a new coach is not so easily done.

The swim team shouldn't be shot because the football coach got a bad extension.

 

[CTBasketball]

#1 Northeastern families with an exuberant amount of money tend to not send their kids to UConn.

#2 Growing up I was told as long as you could write your name, you could go to UConn. This is false, but my parents wanted me to go to a school with a richer prestige than UConn. When applying to colleges, UConn was my safety school. I got in, but didn't attend because I got a boat load of financial aid and scholarships from the private schools I applied to - this made it cheaper than UConn. As much of a die-hard basketball fan as I was, it was impossible to go to UConn primarily for being a "fan."

#3 New England private schools are among the best in the country. The top portion of the class rarely goes to UConn unless they get reduced tuition through scholarships, top xx of their class, etc. The private schools give more money to get the better students. Better students usually lead to better jobs and more lucrative careers, increasing their ability to donate on larger scales.

#4 Compare UConn's enrollment and endowment to Yale, Harvard, Brown, Dartmouth, etc. Even compare UConn to Fairfield, Quinnipiac, and Villanova. While UConn grads contribute, UConn lacks the graduates that can drop millions at the flip of a coin. They have them yes, but I would argue the top 1% is heavier at those schools.

#5 Big10 country the best school more often than not is the state flagship university. Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, etc. Talented kids go to Notre Dame or Northwestern. University of Chicago too. The best students there go to these schools. Same down south, same out west. The private schools out there aren't as good and don't poach good students. Exceptions: Stanford, BYU, Gonzaga, etc.

So when you add all these up, plus a horrible football team in the red, it makes it really difficult to generate funds at the drop of a dime. UConn started as a regional voag school while others were doing science, math, business, etc. We're playing catch up - still doing a damn good job of it though. But the regional private schools are on a whole different academic level.

Our biggest financial donor for football didn't even go to UConn. He went to our rival school and throws us peanuts because we let his son play football here. Think about that. I want Diaco gone too, but financially (in our current position) it makes a lot more sense to make an OC/DC change and pray for a bowl game vs. blowing $7 million on the same odds.

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

He hasn't been at Xavier for about 40 years. He has been president of the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce for many years. I'm sure he knows folks with money.

There's money, there's Farmington Valley and more affluent dinero towns east of New Haven money, and, then there's Gold Coast money. No comparison exists, absolutely none! Not suggesting the latter's all good, but UConn sure should be better positioned to dip into Gold Coast mucky mucks and dinero.

 

[Fishy]

We do not seem to be alone....

In part because of massive guaranteed money owed to coaches and the lack of home-run candidates to fill openings, a long list of schools that could have made changes decided to instead stand pat, including Texas A&M, UCLA, Arizona State, Texas Tech and Connecticut.

 

[polycom]

Outside of UCLA do you think UConn shoukd be in this group? I think not.

We do not seem to be alone....

In part because of massive guaranteed money owed to coaches and the lack of home-run candidates to fill openings, a long list of schools that could have made changes decided to instead stand pat, including Texas A&M, UCLA, Arizona State, Texas Tech and Connecticut.

 

[Fishy]

Outside of UCLA do you think UConn shoukd be in this group? I think not.

The person paid to put words in the USA Today thought otherwise, but I'm sure they'll remove us once they hear from you.