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I'm donating the proceeds of every fifth sale I close this year. But, since each company I'm contracted with pays commissions differently, I'm putting all of the money into a separate account and making one big donation in January 2011. Other than that, it seems we have to do what everyone else does - get on the phone and dial for dollars. Since donating to Tulsa in December, they've called me at least quarterly, and mailed and e-mailed me monthly. They want that 2010-2011 pledge! All of their stuff is slick, colorful, and pretty detailed. It's hard to say no. But, with the hiring of Chico Canales I'm 164% behind this thing now! I suggest the following (some even seriously): -Cold calling (hey, it sucks to have people tell you to f-off...but, that's sales. If 2% of the people give, it makes up for the 98% f-offs! Some $$ is more than No $$.) -Information packets handed out at every f-ing UNT event held anywhere within a six continent radius of Denton! Jazz shows. Packets at the door. Dance thingys. Packets at the door. Volleyball games. Packets at the door. Sack races. Packets at the door. -Send donation cards to the parents/home address of every student. Hit the students up in their welcome packs. -Rent a gorilla outfit and have someone dress up in it with a sign that says "Donate For The New Stadium" and have him/her jumping around like a gorilla at the entrance to the parking lot. This would be good practice for theatre students and a good way to get them involved in the school spirit side of things. -Hold a bake sale whereby people collecting money for UNT bake things and sell them to people who like to eat baked goods. -Auction off/sell every bit of the Fouts Field during the season! Put a suggested price list in the program and online. Make sure someone with decent accounting/receivables skills can keep an accurate list of who paid you for what. Put everything up! Lockers. Stadium bleachers. Old equipment. Dead crickets. Everything! -Open a clandestine strip club next to the beer barn and charge cover at the door, then use the cover money for proceeds to build the stadium. -Break into a neighbor's house while they are away and steal some of their firearms and panty hose. Put the panty hose on your head and hold up various banks and retail establishments. Use the loot to help pay for the stadium. -Start an internet gambling site offshore, open a bank account on a small, carribean island, and launder the money through it to help pay for the stadium. -When you are partying on the weekends, drink one beer out of a can, then go to the bathroom and keep refilling it with water. You'll stay sober and eventually people will begin to get drunk and pass out. When they do, rife through their wallets and take some cash to help pay for the stadium.

Never got a comment of any sort...maybe I'll get some now that I live in Dallas. My gf (Baylor alum) jokingly doesn't understand my love for UNT. But she's $35k in debt to Baylor. I always tell her at least I don't wear t-shirts of my creditors. And for the record, we're both accountants, I have a job and she doesn't. Take that Baylor

I guess those of us who can't afford to live in $200k homes are supposed to not own homes? There has to be a demand for projects like W. 7th St. in areas. There is that demand in FW. Is there that demand in Denton? There has to be financial backing. Looks like The Martino Group here in Denton is doing their best to try and fuel some of that desire and create a urban downtown here. We live in a decent little sub-division where houses go for about $100k (give or take) and, so far, there are no gang-bangers walking down our streets tagging houses and doing drive-bys. Just seems a little small-minded to me to make the assumptions that lower income folks are naturally going to be criminals. (and trust me, I'm no liberal, I just think it is a poor assumption - pun intended.)

Let's clear up, a bit, the cost for Club Seats.. 1) In the Green Section (between the 35 yard lines) - $12,500 gift (one time) per seat payable over 5 years + min. $500 donation to Mean Green Club + Cost of tickets ($350 per seat per season) 2) In the White Section (Between the 15 and 35 yard lines) - $6250 gift per seat (one time) payable over 5 years + min. $500 donation to the Mean Green Club + Cost of tickets ($350 per seat, per season) 3) In the Silver Section (between the goal line and the 15 yard line) - $3,125 gift per seat (one time) payable over 5 years + Min. $500 donation to the Mean Green Club + cost of tickets ($350 per seat per season) You get: priority parking benefits, private elevator access, concierge service, access to club level 2 hours before kick-off, complimentary game-day buffet, complimentary non-alcoholic beverages throughout game, full cash bar, etc. It's a pretty sweet deal and reasonably priced compared to other stadium deals I am aware of around the country. To "reserve" a spot it only takes a commitment on your part and a $500 deposit. Your gift towards Club Level Seating is 80% tax deductible. This info is straight out of the most recent brochure regarding seating at the stadium.

At $100 a brick I'm afraid we wouldn't be able to finish construction of the new stadium until 2040. But I have heard we have an abundance of wrinkled $100 bills so I could be wrong about that.

Just going on his reputation. Neinas has been a very respected power broker in college athletics for 20+ years now. He has a lot of connections. Neinas is more of a CEO type for college athletics...whereas Gene Stallings is a career football coach. So even though I respect the heck out of Stallings as a coach and a man...I wouldn't put him in the same league as Neinas....when it comes to consulting. Just my opinion.

Huge move......this is great.

The kid and his mom were seated in the restaurant area. The FORMER bartender was delivering their food and making small talk.

RIP Boss What the hell did you trade Jay Buener for?!? He had 30 home runs, and over 100 RBIs last year. He's got a rocket for an arm - - you don't know what the hell you're doin'!!

What a shame that they built $90k houses that working people can afford to buy. Because clearly that is where all the gangs come from. Really?

I agree, but he should be given a bit of "counseling" from his boss. To say something like that is just plain STUPID and definitely not good for the hotel's business. Any Denton businessperson who let's this stuff pass from an employee is making a big mistake in my opinion. UNT is a big reason the hotel exists in the first place. Like it or not, UNT and TWU both generate a lot of occupancy for the local hotels. Employees saying negative things about one of the area's largest employers (whether they attend either of the universities or not) is simply BAD BUSINESS!

Harry it looks great. Did we lose all member stats? I like to keep an eye on a certain Greek guy's status he maybe sneaking around and you can't be too careful.

Sad part is I actually understood this reference.

I have been told that 14 suites have been sold, which translates to at least $1.4 million in hand. Club seat sales are going reasonably well, and seats between the 35 yard lines require a $5000 a year contribution (for 2 seats) to the fund per year for 5 years. My conservative educated guess would be that so far we should have at least $250,000 in hand for Club Seats. Yes, we have a long way to go but that is not a bad start for a stadium that is 11 months from completion.

They sound a bit unproven, but they certainly do have some size. Hopefully, they'll overlook us for Presbyterian.

When you see people living in section eight housing one month, and in those $90k homes the next, yes, it does. Remember those bad loans? Ask the people that live and work in that area. They will tell you. There should have been gated communities with $200k plus homes on that property, but the city took the easy way out. They will pay for it for the next 30 years. I agree that Denton should plan furture development, but not planning leads to situations like South Arlington, not Frisco or Southlake. You may not like those communities, but there is no doubt that they were well conceived and planned to attract a certain resident, which they accomplished quite effectively. Location plays a role, but you have to have what people want to get them to live in your city. Another great example of a city being very proactive is Fort Worth. The new W. 7th St development, the new development just south of downtown, working to reginerate older neighborhoods, the new town lakes development about to get underway, and all of this in a bad economy. It's kinda like college football, your either going forward or your going backward. Arlington=backward, Fort Worth (and Southlake, Frisco, etc..)=forward.

They got nothing on the little dribblers

I love George he had Moxie, there was always a show. How many times did he fire Billy Martin? It was a long road with George in the 80's with a 14 year gap with out making the playoffs. He got the Yankees back to a powerhouse in the mid to late 90's. I wonder what would have happened if his deal to buy the Cleveland Indians had gone through the year before he bought the Yankees?

Don't underestimate the pass that sets up the pass. If this was a hockey scoring system...eh, screw it. Happy birthday, CMJ!

Did you punch him in the nuts? I've got three North Texas t-shirts I rotate: -One gray, North Texas UNT Alumni on the front -One white, University of North Texas on the front -One green one, Mean Green Football on the front Oddly enough, I've never had a comment one way or the other about any of them. I also have the strange experience of not knowing many people who support one school but went to another. My neighborhood block is a melting pot of alumni - Kansas, Missouri, Rice, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State - and each supports their alma mater. The only thing I've experienced is people who have some sort of tie back to another school through family, or formerly living in another place, also being fans of a second school. I think that's probably much of what you see with local UT/OU fans. Lots of Arkansas and LSU in DFW as well. LSU and Florida even have alumni license plates in Texas! DFW is an odd mix. You've got alumni and family from many different areas of the country. I don't have a problem with that. Any shortcoming in recognition of UNT is less a reflection of some random person's allegiance and more a manifestation of decades of poor marketing by our own athletic department and school. Just seeing how Texas State is about to crack the Top 50 in licensing is enough to tell us that much. They've accomplished much less than we have on the field across the board, and yet they have found a way to successfully market their brand. The bottom line is, no matter what the athletic department or school is doing now, we've got years of neglect to overcome. Although, I'm sure our 9-3 or 10-2 season in 2010 will turn enough heads to get us some more positive recognition. Bank on it, ballslappers!

I know, but it should be a firable offense.

I'll say it for all of us - Burn in hell, pedophile.

I have never had any bad reactions wearing UNT gear. I am a student so I never get any reactions wearing on school or around campus. But when I go back home (Victoria which is 330 miles south of Denton) I always get good hearted comments. I was wearing my Sun Belt basketball championship shirt around our family friends (husband went to Kentucky, wife went to WKU) and we talked about how we are getting really good a basketball. Around my friends who go to other schools there is always trash talking going back and forth, being a UNT fan you have to learn to take and give a joke. Then there is my "grandpa" who went to A&M Kingsville, thinks he went to A&M and refuses to recognize other schools besides A&M.

I like the video, just not sure I understand why a shot of the Dallas skyline and the other skyline/arena starts off the video.

It isn't all bad news for development in Denton. Diverse Denton

Hope she fired him.

All of the cities you mention are closer to major population/job centers than Denton is. Even Allen and Frisco are because of their border with Plano. Plano grew because it was the suburb of Dallas and the large number of corporate headquarters located there. Keller is the northern suburb of Ft. Worth. Roanoke and Southlake benefit from close proximity to DFW airport and the resulting number of major company headquarters located there in addition to the Alliance Airport/Intermodal hub. Denton was passed by because we are farther out from the urban sprawl (for now) and not much more reason than that. As I have already said the city government is barely competent, (to put it nicely) and bear some responsibility for the conditions we have here now. The city government/city council are not the primary factor in other formerly small towns in the region outpacing us in growth, our location is.

Do not bother to let facts cloud your judgment.

I guess "nice" is subjective...

I usually get "don't you think that's a little inappropriate for this Quinceanera?" Then I tell them that 1) I don't know what a quinceanera is and 2) If I had, I might've worn pants. Then I think maybe they're talking about the lack of pants. Then I make pants out of toilet paper in the bathroom. Then I get kicked out of the Sheraton. Point being, people are intolerant, and I still wear it.

There's the problem. Why anyone would eat at Subway instead of New York Sub Hub is beyond me.

How much of that is the market? Frisco is larger than Denton and both Allen and Frisco have better tax bases. They also have large cities surrounding them in a fast growing area (it certainly was fast growing when Frisco built those stadiums). Denton has, well Lewisville is on the other side of the lake and then we have what, Sanger? We simply don't have a Plano bordering us. Frisco also has the Stonebriar mall, no chance of a mall like that making a home in Denton because there isn't the same market available here. I love Denton for the small town feel and we have a lot going for us and we should be better than we are. Simply voting yes to every proposition and reelecting the same fools to the city council every election is certain to change nothing. I work about 40 miles from my house and yet we choose to continue to live in Denton. When I was out of a job I looked very hard for one in Denton, or even in Denton County and found no luck. Denton needs to be more pro-business and pro-development and yet we seem to be unable to build anything more than new housing additions. Sorry for the longish rant.

Rayzor Ranch is messed up because of the company's bad finances. The rail is DCTA. Fry Street is, well Fry Street and I don't know why the private company was in such a hurry to knock everything down to leave an empty lot there. As much as I disagree with the city on many issues I don’t see where they are at fault with most of what you accuse them. This time. Next thing you know you will be blaming the city for Golden Triangle Mall being foreclosed on.

Do the women teams still use "Lady Eagles"? In this day and age, why do we continue adding "Lady" in front of women teams? Can they not be Mean Green as well? For those who are asked the question, what is a "Mean Green", you can tell them we just come from a long and distinguished tradition of naming our athletic teams after the school color...starting with the Oxford Blues, Harvard Crimson, Cornell Big Red, and Stanford Cardinal. There are also the Cleveland Browns to consider. So..we are Green and (sometimes) Mean!

Why stop at just three theoretical options for this new hero? I demand we find a way for the new stadium be filled with a money vault ala Duck Tales pulled entirely from CUSA, MAC, MWC and WAC bowl revenues.

The fact we insist on going by both only exacerbates the confusion. I feel we should either be the Mean Green or the Eagles, but not be both the Mean Green and the Eagles. Enough with the schizophrenia.

Talked about on Vito's blog here. Vito links to the DRC story here.

How so ? don't know much about this guy or group or exactly what they are going to do, but unless they are really a lobbyist for our getting in Conf USA, I don't see how we are going to benefit...not big on consultants....like gene stallings who said we didnt' need a stadium....huge error, that was exactly what we needed and is probably a big reason why we are where we are now. So, if you know more, would appreciate understanding more about this "chuck neinas".

It absolutely depends on how the city government manages the growth as to what you end up with. Just look at south Arlington. 15 years ago it was farmland, minutes from the shiny new Parks Mall. Today it is home of the biggest gang problem in the metroplex (thank you, $90K home developments). Nowhere is more centrally located than Arlington, and they completely screwed the pooch. Frisco, Allen, Grapevine, Southlake and the like have been smart in their development. Denton? From what I see, not so much.

That's not completely accurate. Argyle is a growing and affluent area and Highland Village/North Flower Mound is a developing area. Same goes for south and southwest Denton, Lantana, Bartonville, and east of Denton on 380. Corinth is growing to the east of 35. There may not be that one knockout punch of a city like Plano, but the area is growing rapidly. That's part of why the Rayzor Ranch project was started. I don't know how that will turn out in the end, but the way the project is described, it would be the second largest open air mall in DFW (behind Southlake). If it's completed and spurs as much growth as Stonebriar did in Frisco, Denton might finally get over the hump and realize it's no longer a small college town and definitely will not be in about 10-15 years.

Odd, because we keep reelecting 'pro business' candidates to the city council-even if they bend or break the rules respecting term limits. I have many disagreements with the city government and freely blame them for many ills. I just happen to disagree on these points.

Sorry, but I have to agree with SUMG. I grew up in Denton, still have family there, still love the town and would move back if the right opportunity existed for me and my family, but SUMG couldn't have stated this any better. Razor is a mess because of the economy, I will give you that. The Fry Street project was shut down because the original developers plans were objected to because of a CVS drive through and the traffic congestion this would cause. What a load of B.S. Please show me one, one pharmacy drive through anywhere that causes traffic congestion. BTW, it was knocked down because some moron set fire to The Tomato. Plano, Frisco, Grapevine, Southlake, etc... would all take care of the infrastructure prior to development as a means to attract developers. Denton is know for taking care of the infrastructure after development is completed and creating havoc for new business. Denton is rightfully portrayed as anti-business because of the difficulty in getting any project off the ground. Denton is reactive instead of proactive which places it behind many cities in the Metroplex area.

Sorry, but in the late 80's/early 90's, Frisco was a small farming community with a 2A High School, nobody knew where Allen was and Plano was about the size of Denton. You mention malls? Denton built the Golden Triangle Mall and Frisco courted Stonebriar. Any guess on who won that battle? Some other communities to add in to this discussion. Coppell was nothing but farm/ranch land, as was Colleyville, Southlake, Keller and Roanoke. Grapevine was a quaint little town on the northen edge of DFW airport and Flower Mound was beautiful ranchland west of Lewisville. Face it, everyone of these communities has passed Denton by because Denton is not proactive, not pro-business and has been touting its potential for years. Denton has had every opportunity to grow as the communities listed above, yet they end up with the reputation as being difficult to work with.

As much as you may not like what that guy did. It's not a fireable offense. Yeah he's a doucher but we can't mix personal emotions with everything else.

Dude, it's a college town. If anyone suggests anything remotely approaching capitalism, the denizens crawl out of their caves and demand a return to the fire and water only era.

Happy Birthday...hope to see you at a game or two this season...should be fun to see the MEAN GREEN WIN! Have a great B'Day...you own the day, so make it so!

Trust me, they aren't assumptions and have very little to do with 100K homes. You can find plenty of nice 100K home neighborhoods in plenty of places. South Arlington is not one of them. That is an indictment of the planners of the City of Arlington and no one else. But, there are very few gang members that grew up in 200k homes. There may be plenty of coke heads, but very, very few gang members. Unfortunately, they are usually a product of lower income neighborhoods. Sad but true.

Are you still in Utah? Have a Happy Birthday, I hope we see you at tailgating this year I have some Cuervo I need help with.