18in32
Petard Hoister
- Joined
- May 23, 2010
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As part of my court-ordered public-service, I thought I would provide a summary of a presentation that Stansbury gave today to some Tech folks. He gives these kinds of presentations all over, and to all sorts of audiences, and does the podcast, and interviews and you name it... so apologies in advance if this is repetitive or uninteresting. Just thought I'd share!
— Uniforms and shoes are a top-three recruiting item. Reality is that people really, really care about this stuff. And we've been recruiting with one arm behind our back for years. The new Adidas deal helps level the playing field in that regard. Moreover, this isn't just about design and colors and so forth. Adidas is a first-rank innovator in the technology of sports clothing and equipment, and GT wants to be in that first-rank, too.
— This past year was a strong one for the GTAA financially. We had 5 basketball sell-outs and an increase in basketball season ticket sales, contributing about $500k to the GTAA's bottom line. We also had the most football revenue (i.e., game day revenue like tickets, concessions, TECH fund, suites, etc., not including TV revenue, apparel sales, etc.) in Tech history, topping out around $20,000,000. Part of that was the Tennessee game, which was put an extra $2,000,000 in the GTAA's books.
— He was pleased with the football recruiting matching-funds challenge. The majority of donors to the football recruiting challenge were first time donors. He specifically noted that the challenge seemed to draw a lot of attention from message board posters. He said STTE 'we gave them an opportunity to put up or shut up, and a lot of them put up.' He also added that he does not go on the message boards.
— He's happy that about the locker room renovation. The locker rooms hadn't been touched since 2000 or 2001, and that's an eternity in this business. This is another recruiting issue for us, because players spend an enormous amount of time in the lockers and adjacent facilities. They're not hanging out in their dorms, they're hanging out in the facilities. If they look dingy or dated compared to our competitors, it's an issue. One neat thing is that basically every contractor working on the locker rooms is a Tech guy, including several former FB players. That both shows where our graduates end up, and means they're personally invested in the project.
— A consistent theme of his is that the GT brand is "innovation" — that should apply in every aspect of what we do, what we sell, and how we represent ourselves to the world. How is that being realized? For example, the GTAA organized a Sports Innovation Symposium last year which invited every GT dept. that was doing any research that was even vaguely sports-related to come together and give presentations on their work. GT had representatives from all the local pro teams present, not to mention other academics, employers, etc.
— Another example is building bridges to the academic depts. which do sports-related work — such as the Analytics Dept. (?). We now have an analytics degree, and students in that program do work for the GTAA, everything from analyzing how to maximize football ticket revenue, to analyzing specific game strategies. He mentioned an unnamed GT women's coach that received student-produced analytics on how an opposing team did poorly when forced to play some of their players a lot — so the coach forced their hand on that, and sure enough, those players dragged down the team, and GT upset a favored team.
— Our budget is about $86,000,000 annually. That puts us in the bottom third of the ACC. We'd need to move that to $95,000,000-$100,000,000 annually to get into the middle tier of the ACC. Interesting notes from the budget... we still get $5,300,000 from student fees (6% of budget). In turn we spend about $28,800,000 on personnel, $10,700,000 on scholarships, and $13,300,000 on debt service (15% of budget).
— The coming years are going to be financial challenges for the GTAA. To begin with, we are required to make a one-time payment of $10,000,000 to establish the ACC Network. But also as part of a larger college-wide fundraising effort, the GTAA is going to try to raise $125,000,000 in the next few years. About $12,000,000 of that is for general operations, but $25,000,000 is to increase the scholarship endowments, and a further $88,000,000 is for construction.
— While that may seem like a lot... in reality it'll just help us 'keep up' with the competition. UNC is in the midst of a $500,000,000 athletics-only fundraising campaign, and Wake Forest recently completed a $300,000,000 athletics-only fundraising campaign. (How as tiny Wake able to do that? Well, they got $220,000,000 of it from six people. It's good to have rich friends.)
— What will be rebuilt here with that $88,000,000? Lots of things. He showed a bunch of renderings, including a refurbished Russ Chandler that would include a history & heritage section that doubled as club seating & view terrace. He noted that we have a large business community right across the Connector — instead of driving out to SunTrust, why not get a few of those businesses to buy tickets right down the street? If we have a nice-enough facility, that's a reasonable, cheaper alternative. He doesn't suggest we're competing against the pro facilities, but that we have to remember that they set the expectations that ticket buyers have for the experience.
— He also said the entire Edge/Rice complex will be rebuilt as a single building (Edge actually demolished, Rice rebuilt). He wants it to look like a Google space, because that's how we see ourselves. The renderings he showed were glass-heavy; he said he liked the look of the Berlin train station. He wants to maximize the view value, so that the new building 'faces' into Grant Field a lot more. He suggested connecting the North Stands and terraces in the new building, as a way of making the North Stand seats more saleable. This project alone will probably account for $70,000,000 of the $88,000,000 referenced above.
— In response to a question about scheduling, he noted that there are a lot of difficult things to weigh, but in general coaches are worried about overscheduling. You need some breathers and some warm ups at some point in the schedule. When at UCF he asked O'Leary about playing GT. O'Leary said, 'what years would that be?' Stansbury said 2017 & 2019. O'Leary said, 'Fine — I'll be retired by then.'
— In response to a question about ESPN cord-cutting, he said the ACC remains committed to and optimistic about the ACC Network. By moving production facilities on campus, it means the conference is less dependent on ESPN going forward. Moreover, in recent contracts cable companies have continued to want the ACC Network, albeit at reduced prices. But sports remains the only thing that people absolutely insist on watching live. That gives college athletics a pricing power that won't go away, no matter the delivery technology.
— In response to a question about basketball's disappointing results last year, he said that was the result of CJP so greatly exceeding expectations in his first year. He doesn't think the program's various distractions (CJP's lawsuit, the asst coaches, etc.) are having any impact on recruiting. He says CJP is a great recruiter — while we're still not getting the top-notch players, we're moving into that conversation. You can tell if you're going in the right direction by who you're competing against. And we're moving onto the shortlist with the best programs. He also remains impressed by CJP's X's and O's. There were several games last year where we were overmatched on paper, and ultimately lost, but were just a few missed baskets at the end of the game from winning. That woulda-coulda-shoulda response won't be good enough forever, but given the suspensions, the distractions, the injuries last year, it's a fair response. Finally, he liked that CJP never lost the players — they were fighting for wins even after a losing season was assured, such as in our last two victories.
— In response to a question about our new DC, he said it was a very difficult decision for CPJ. He looked at every aspect of the program but ultimately decided that a change had to be made. He said we were three stops total last season from playing in the ACCCG. (Is that right?) He liked that our DC wanted to play a more aggressive style — that fits with CPJ's mentality, and plays into our time-of-possession advantage on offense.
— He reiterated that football is what drives the GTAA. It is the engine of the entire department. It is responsible for perhaps as much as 90% of our revenue. It's gotta have what it needs, because without it, everything else suffers.
— He said he doesn't expect any further conference realignment in the near future. Also, while they discuss it every year, he doesn't expect any further division realignment at the moment.
— On the issue of student attendance, he said it's a nationwide problem, and that the GTAA can't just take students for granted. He talked about 'reaching out' and the like. He also noted that this has been a point of emphasis and success at his other stops. At UCF he had 15,000 students at every game, and at Oregon St they had the highest student attendance ever in his final year.
— Uniforms and shoes are a top-three recruiting item. Reality is that people really, really care about this stuff. And we've been recruiting with one arm behind our back for years. The new Adidas deal helps level the playing field in that regard. Moreover, this isn't just about design and colors and so forth. Adidas is a first-rank innovator in the technology of sports clothing and equipment, and GT wants to be in that first-rank, too.
— This past year was a strong one for the GTAA financially. We had 5 basketball sell-outs and an increase in basketball season ticket sales, contributing about $500k to the GTAA's bottom line. We also had the most football revenue (i.e., game day revenue like tickets, concessions, TECH fund, suites, etc., not including TV revenue, apparel sales, etc.) in Tech history, topping out around $20,000,000. Part of that was the Tennessee game, which was put an extra $2,000,000 in the GTAA's books.
— He was pleased with the football recruiting matching-funds challenge. The majority of donors to the football recruiting challenge were first time donors. He specifically noted that the challenge seemed to draw a lot of attention from message board posters. He said STTE 'we gave them an opportunity to put up or shut up, and a lot of them put up.' He also added that he does not go on the message boards.
— He's happy that about the locker room renovation. The locker rooms hadn't been touched since 2000 or 2001, and that's an eternity in this business. This is another recruiting issue for us, because players spend an enormous amount of time in the lockers and adjacent facilities. They're not hanging out in their dorms, they're hanging out in the facilities. If they look dingy or dated compared to our competitors, it's an issue. One neat thing is that basically every contractor working on the locker rooms is a Tech guy, including several former FB players. That both shows where our graduates end up, and means they're personally invested in the project.
— A consistent theme of his is that the GT brand is "innovation" — that should apply in every aspect of what we do, what we sell, and how we represent ourselves to the world. How is that being realized? For example, the GTAA organized a Sports Innovation Symposium last year which invited every GT dept. that was doing any research that was even vaguely sports-related to come together and give presentations on their work. GT had representatives from all the local pro teams present, not to mention other academics, employers, etc.
— Another example is building bridges to the academic depts. which do sports-related work — such as the Analytics Dept. (?). We now have an analytics degree, and students in that program do work for the GTAA, everything from analyzing how to maximize football ticket revenue, to analyzing specific game strategies. He mentioned an unnamed GT women's coach that received student-produced analytics on how an opposing team did poorly when forced to play some of their players a lot — so the coach forced their hand on that, and sure enough, those players dragged down the team, and GT upset a favored team.
— Our budget is about $86,000,000 annually. That puts us in the bottom third of the ACC. We'd need to move that to $95,000,000-$100,000,000 annually to get into the middle tier of the ACC. Interesting notes from the budget... we still get $5,300,000 from student fees (6% of budget). In turn we spend about $28,800,000 on personnel, $10,700,000 on scholarships, and $13,300,000 on debt service (15% of budget).
— The coming years are going to be financial challenges for the GTAA. To begin with, we are required to make a one-time payment of $10,000,000 to establish the ACC Network. But also as part of a larger college-wide fundraising effort, the GTAA is going to try to raise $125,000,000 in the next few years. About $12,000,000 of that is for general operations, but $25,000,000 is to increase the scholarship endowments, and a further $88,000,000 is for construction.
— While that may seem like a lot... in reality it'll just help us 'keep up' with the competition. UNC is in the midst of a $500,000,000 athletics-only fundraising campaign, and Wake Forest recently completed a $300,000,000 athletics-only fundraising campaign. (How as tiny Wake able to do that? Well, they got $220,000,000 of it from six people. It's good to have rich friends.)
— What will be rebuilt here with that $88,000,000? Lots of things. He showed a bunch of renderings, including a refurbished Russ Chandler that would include a history & heritage section that doubled as club seating & view terrace. He noted that we have a large business community right across the Connector — instead of driving out to SunTrust, why not get a few of those businesses to buy tickets right down the street? If we have a nice-enough facility, that's a reasonable, cheaper alternative. He doesn't suggest we're competing against the pro facilities, but that we have to remember that they set the expectations that ticket buyers have for the experience.
— He also said the entire Edge/Rice complex will be rebuilt as a single building (Edge actually demolished, Rice rebuilt). He wants it to look like a Google space, because that's how we see ourselves. The renderings he showed were glass-heavy; he said he liked the look of the Berlin train station. He wants to maximize the view value, so that the new building 'faces' into Grant Field a lot more. He suggested connecting the North Stands and terraces in the new building, as a way of making the North Stand seats more saleable. This project alone will probably account for $70,000,000 of the $88,000,000 referenced above.
— In response to a question about scheduling, he noted that there are a lot of difficult things to weigh, but in general coaches are worried about overscheduling. You need some breathers and some warm ups at some point in the schedule. When at UCF he asked O'Leary about playing GT. O'Leary said, 'what years would that be?' Stansbury said 2017 & 2019. O'Leary said, 'Fine — I'll be retired by then.'
— In response to a question about ESPN cord-cutting, he said the ACC remains committed to and optimistic about the ACC Network. By moving production facilities on campus, it means the conference is less dependent on ESPN going forward. Moreover, in recent contracts cable companies have continued to want the ACC Network, albeit at reduced prices. But sports remains the only thing that people absolutely insist on watching live. That gives college athletics a pricing power that won't go away, no matter the delivery technology.
— In response to a question about basketball's disappointing results last year, he said that was the result of CJP so greatly exceeding expectations in his first year. He doesn't think the program's various distractions (CJP's lawsuit, the asst coaches, etc.) are having any impact on recruiting. He says CJP is a great recruiter — while we're still not getting the top-notch players, we're moving into that conversation. You can tell if you're going in the right direction by who you're competing against. And we're moving onto the shortlist with the best programs. He also remains impressed by CJP's X's and O's. There were several games last year where we were overmatched on paper, and ultimately lost, but were just a few missed baskets at the end of the game from winning. That woulda-coulda-shoulda response won't be good enough forever, but given the suspensions, the distractions, the injuries last year, it's a fair response. Finally, he liked that CJP never lost the players — they were fighting for wins even after a losing season was assured, such as in our last two victories.
— In response to a question about our new DC, he said it was a very difficult decision for CPJ. He looked at every aspect of the program but ultimately decided that a change had to be made. He said we were three stops total last season from playing in the ACCCG. (Is that right?) He liked that our DC wanted to play a more aggressive style — that fits with CPJ's mentality, and plays into our time-of-possession advantage on offense.
— He reiterated that football is what drives the GTAA. It is the engine of the entire department. It is responsible for perhaps as much as 90% of our revenue. It's gotta have what it needs, because without it, everything else suffers.
— He said he doesn't expect any further conference realignment in the near future. Also, while they discuss it every year, he doesn't expect any further division realignment at the moment.
— On the issue of student attendance, he said it's a nationwide problem, and that the GTAA can't just take students for granted. He talked about 'reaching out' and the like. He also noted that this has been a point of emphasis and success at his other stops. At UCF he had 15,000 students at every game, and at Oregon St they had the highest student attendance ever in his final year.
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