ADLER

It's beacause the university hasn't done anything in a very long time that would endear it to the community. The things that the university pretends it prides itself on make very little (or none at all) impression on the public.

Choose your recipients carefully. It's only a good decision if there is a likelihood of someday receiving a return on the investment. Otherwise it's just pissing away money and effort that could make a significant impact if applied in other ventures. I will remind everyone again about the noble but misguided Kidz Korner Katastrophe.

Although I think it'd s novel idea I believe it would be doomed for failure. Remember the Kidz Korner Kampaign several years ago when the athletic department simply pocketed the money because nobody could be enticed to attend? The residents of Denton are potential customers. They are more aware of the historic shortcomings of North Texas athletics than just about anybody. Like any product that has been deemed undesirable, North Texas needs to make improvements before it starts giving out free samples. These 'monied alumni' would be purchasing thousands of tickets and getting maybe 5% turnout on their give-away tickets. That's something like $200 spent for every person that actually bothers to attend. I do see a way that the program can be made to work. Obviously there is some (though minimal) interest from the Denton business community. What if the entire north end zone seating was segregated as a 'private suite area' for the many Denton County Chambers of Commerce and there was a large tent behind their section to cater food and drinks for their function. These Chamber members would attend more for the social aspects than for the actual game. The athletic department could sell these people severly discounted tickets and start building a relationships that should flourish as the program improves in coming years. This could be the foundation for many of the future corporate sponsorships.

What I think many of the naysayers fail to take into account that there already is a token fee of around $63 per semester per student which is applied toward athletics. It is far too small and look how it has affected the university's image. If raised to the state maximum, the TOTAL increase per semester for each student (around $177) isn't even enough money to fill a gas tank twice but it would do wonders for the value of their degree. Then factor in that the increase could be implemented in increments over several years (maybe $30 per year over 6 years) and the transition would be virtually painless. Incoming students paying the larger fee would be making their college selection fully aware of the costs and the benefits.

First, I'm not asking about just athletics. And even if that is the case, do you think that a substantial populace from Denton is regularly attending the professional sports events? There are pro sports fans in every college city but they still love their college. Overall, athletics attendance aside, why don't the people and businesses of Denton love the University of North Texas? What has caused this problem with the university's perception?

The $100,000.00 donation this past momth was purely because Texas State has made a commitment to athletics. The benefactors stated that the gift is to help get young alumni involved as the university aspires to make the move to succeed at the Bowl Championship level. The $8 million donation represents the benefit that academic departments (in this case Performing Arts) receive when alumni make an emotional attachment to their school. Patti Strickel Harrison is donating the money and the facility will be named The Patti Strickel Harrison Theatre in her honor. The larger $20 million donation by Emmett and Miriam McCoy benefits the Business school and it will now be renamed The McCoy College of Business Administration. North Texas is much older, has more alumni, and generally an academic reputation at least equal to Texas State.....but why are no buildings on campus named after donors? They're all named after old university presidents, with the exception of the Lupe Murchinson Hall where the donor defaulted on much of the original financial commitment. Why is that? Why are the North Texas alumni not making an emotional attachment to the university?

What do you think is the reason that people of Denton don't support North Texas? College towns everywhere else support their college. Doesn't North Texas being a 'best buy college' endear it to the community? Are they disappointed in it's academic programs? I just can't figure it out. What gives North Texas such a bad image?

And I find it amazing that both the tourism and corporations have instantly sprung up since the university recently made a commitment to athletics. I bet nobody had ever visited the Alamo before this past year, and all those companies just rushed in. Let's face facts, they've always been there and they only made a commitment to UTSA once UTSA made a commitment to succeed. It's funny how that works.

Meanwhile at Texas State where they also have recently raised the student athletics fee. The University shows a commitment, and alumni have responded, in this case it benefits performing arts. But athletics also benefitted.

And related information of the impact of UTSA sports on the San Antonio economy and why the city and county support the university. I wonder if Denton County and the City of Denton would be willing to do something similar. If not, why? Denton County has half the population of Bexar but the per capita income is much higher.

Like I stated, I don't know how much that they will actually be receiving.

Well, doing #3 first sure seems to be paying some dividends for UTSA. $50 Million from Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce (I'm not sure if they are getting the full $50 Million) This is in addition to the $18 Million that Bexar County is already contributing to UTSA athletics. Funny, none of this ever happened until UTSA showed a commitment by setting the new fee. What do you think are the chances that alumni may now be slightly more interested in supporting their university?

That dining service system was horrible. I stood in line for over an hour and then eventually gave up, I am convinced that we have people smart enough to learn from their mistakes and that it won't happen again.

Funny, yesterday I'm getting calls because people think I'm too defensive of of the athletic director on this board and today I am being told that I am too opposed and accusing you of being in his back pocket. As a moderate and a realist I am aware that extremists from both ends of the spectrum will likely be opposed to my views. That is something that I have learned to accept. There are very many people from North Texas that refuse to associate with it becaue of it's failures but there are also many who are quite comfortable with the failure. My point is, and always has been, what can be done to avoid that failure? My point has always been positive, to state that there is a method to improve the situation, some may even refer to it as fixing a problem. There is cost, but the cost of not doing it is far worse. And when I ask how else it can be done, the only response I get is awkward silence.

I don't think enough people realize that a community's major civil projects and infrastructure are rarely built because some company donates money huge amounts of cash or by 'passing the hat for donations'. Arlington has the Rangers ballpark. Sure it has a corporate sponsor (after construction), but the stadium was built with fees levied through reasonable tax increases. The stadium was quickly paid off and has been a source of pride and a boon to the Arlington economy. The City of Arlington is doing the same with the Cowboys new stadium and will almost certainly have similar results. Dallas sat around and waited for somebody else to pay for these structures within the city of Dallas. They lost both times. Sometimes it takes community contribution through fees to make great things happen.

But flyeater, here is your opinion from 2 years ago. I am happy that you've finally seen the light about that "goofy, moronic, stadium". Many of us recognized it as a P.O.S. when it was first unveiled.

Here's a gift for you. It's a video from March 2004 stating that a football stadium is one of 6 major facilities planned to be completed within the next 18 months. Click HERE for Stadium Video It was a video produced for the University of North Texas, and the timeframe was being supported not only by the Director of Athletics but also by the President of the University. It is very clear how people could be mislead to believe that there would potentialy be groundbreaking on a stadium facility prior to 2010. I think it has become fairly appearant that the groundbreaking for the stadium has been delayed from the original schedule. I think many fans are openly questioning if the prospects for a new stadium are any better now than they were back when this video was produced. In the meantime construction costs have risen at an astounding rate and North Texas has lost it's only President that ever acknowledged that UNT could become a great university. He was run out by a faculty that believed existance not performance should be the basis for tenure. That same faculty has since selected their own marionette who will do absolutely nothing that makes waves. So, what do we do? We sit and wait for some imaginary company with no history of interest in North Texas to suddenly dump tens of millions on a historically underperforming venture, or you wait for some elusive fairy to inspire all of North Texas' 150,000 alumni to suddenly start donating generously to a discarded educational appliance.

Alan Goldfield, founder and former chairman and CEO of CellStar, a distributor of mobile phones and accessories, and his wife, Shirley, are selling “Champ d’Or,” a 140- acre estate modeled after Vaux-le- Vicomte, the estate designed for Nicholas Fouquet, the finance minister of Louis XIV. That chateau inspired the design of Versailles. Price: $59,550,000.00 Bedrooms: 6 Bathrooms: 6 full baths, 8 half-baths Size: 48,000 square feet in main house, and a 16,000 squarefoot contemporary-style house Features: A 78-foot-high foyer with domed ceiling; a double-height living room with balconies and windows offering views from the second floor; a media room with a velvet-curtained stage and opera-style boxes; ballroom; master bedroom with carved fireplace and a two-story closet modeled after the Chanel boutique in Paris; a tea room patterned after New York's Tavern on the Green. Also, a bowling alley, 15-car garage, tennis court with cabana, squash court and outdoor and indoor pools. The antique furnishings can be purchased for an extra $5 million. "Just a typical Denton County cottage"

True, it is the old concept of Sparks Engineering of Tulsa of the design which was configured only to cater to the desires of any company willing to be a title sponsor. In the misguided effort, those things called "fans" were pushed aside for the benefit of the hordes of die-hard North Texas enthusiasts that would be packing this company's corporate level. The old illustration was only used here to represent the dangers associated with excessively catering to the whims of a title sponsor.

Those alumni/donors/corporations contributions are the result of a commitment to winning. The fee is the foundation for that commitment. Please describe, without some fairytale lottery scenario, how it could be done any differently.

Isn't Evan Fentriss expected to make a big impact this season? I know he's working through an injury that kept him out of spring ball, but the preceding spring he had rave reviews from both the coaches and fans.

I'm not a video game guy, but I do love watching North Texas play football, even if it's just in the NCAA 2009 game. Using NCAA 2009, would it be possible to play one of our rivals on the big screens at one of the local sports bars? After the summer barbeque, it would be fun to go to the new Pourhouse Sports Bar and watch North Texas play Notre Dame or USC on the big screen.

Here's an article that includes a picture of the accused; HuskerExtra.com It's an interesting article in that it describes the fan message boards, true and false rumors, and athletic department reactions to posts.

What about, and this may be going out on a limb, but...... Why not make the whole North or south aluminum end zone seating areas part of the MGC "deck area". Put the old Eagle Dome tent behind the stands to handle catering service, and serve beer only in that secrion of the stadium. The seating area would give a much better view of the field than does the current deck area. with many more seats. Casual fans (those that don't intently follow North Texas football) may be attracted because of the social atmosphere. Isn't this what many colleges do with club seating areas to attract local business owners and Chamber of Commerce members?

$.25 refills all season on the big stadium style souvenir cups. Having affordable concessions enhances the gameday experience, and the souvenir cups would be a small enticement for fans to keep coming to the games. This type of promotion has worked quite well for the Six Flags chain with their big 44 ounce reusable drink bottles. They give unlimitted free refills on the initial day of purchase and 99 cent refills for the rest of the year. Maybe the drink machines could be self serve like the ones at many fast food restaurants; this would speed the lines, reduce labor costs, and give customers the options of how much ice.