TheTastyGreek

If only someone could help out and check them for him.

You magnificent bastard. Biggest laugh of the day, in a day of high comedy.

It's really more of a lounge for Craig James, Jr.

Something "Just For Fun"?

100% agree. Oh, wait... This isn't the thread about promotion for the Texas Tech basketball game. Nevermind, disregard.

The lines are blinking like a Christmas tree... If you can't get through, dial again!

Needs more pitchin'.

I think I read something yesterday about him being busy at a baseball game or somesuch.

I would take him in a heartbeat, the second he passed the NCAA clearinghouse.

What if you were a hot dog? Would ya eat yourself?

I just so happen to know that if you're a company renting four billboards near the southern end of the I-35E&W merger (down near Hillsboro/Waco), you can get four billboards, two in either direction, for somewhere between $3600-5000 per month. Given the populations and the relative traffic flow at each end of the I-35 diamond, I would suspect that that end is probably the same price or higher compared with what it costs up in Denton. If we sold the naming rights to the stadium for $10 million across 20 years, that comes out to $41,667 per month. Let's say that counts as the geographic equivalent of two billboards (one in each direction). Naming rights based on geography would mean that having a name on a stadium was 16 to 23 times more expensive than just renting two billboards. A company sponsoring us for the marquee value of drive-by awareness wouldn't be paying a double premium for their marketing. Not a triple premium. They'd be paying somewhere around TWENTY TIMES what it would cost them to just get a pair of billboards. And that's if we sold it for what Akron got from a personal donor/community booster, for a price that's half of what Flyer says we're hoping to get. Again... The real value of naming rights, and the reason that companies pay for the naming privilege, is the media exposure from TV, print, and radio. I don't mean for today to turn into personal show-and-tell day, but I also spent two years selling naming rights and various sponsorships for a sporting event with a national cable TV broadcast deal. This was in 2007-08, and even though we thought that was a tough economic time to sell that sort of advertising opportunity, it was easy street compared to what the people on that assignment are dealing with today.

CallallenStang is actually a pretty good guy, for someone I've never met and don't know at all. Don't get me wrong, he's the spawn of the devil and he's pure evil right down to his cold, dead, withered black heart. But for an SMU guy, he's decidedly less so than those who earn pony grads their unfortunate reputation.

I don't remember that, unless it's something that was said during the student fee campaign. I do vaguely recall something about Dr. B being a voice of reason and restraint back then. Not joking here: Quoner and I spent a little bit of time volunteering for the capital campaign committee for a local theater. It was a very eye opening experience about how these sorts of fundraising efforts work. The reason I mention it is because part of their orchestrated effort was to pre-raise a certain sum during a (for lack of a better term) "quiet phase" of fundraising, then use that war chest as a PR chip to get them the rest of the way in a very public campaign. If I remember right, it was an 8 figure total, and they wanted 1/3rd of it raised in the "quiet phase" before they publicized the effort. That makes it look like it's already a success before they've officially started trying, and avoids a public embarrassment if they name a lofty goal and come up very short. Anyway... I have no idea what sort of money we've already banked in donations or how much more is lined up in pledges. But if we were already at the mark, I would have expected some sort of publicity about it. That would be a phenomenal, amazing accomplishment, and it would serve us well in raising even more money to have that information out there. That's to say nothing about what it would do to our appeal and credibility in the current conference realignment shuffle. If we raised $39 million before breaking ground... That's a very good sign for our financial future. I'm not sure what Dr. B said, but if we had done what you're asking about, it would be big, big news.

Whatever anyone may think of the other numerous axes that guy is grinding, he has hit on the one thing that has worried me from the very beginning of the process: We can only use school money to cover a max of 50% of the cost. Somewhere, somehow, we have to raise $39 million of private funds to cover the balance. That can be naming rights, donations, sponsorships, branded advertising, ticket sales... That money can come from a lot of places. But it has to total up to half of the cost- $39 million in principal funds, a whole lot more depending on what our rate is on the bonds. The school can't bail us out. It's against the law. We can't spend fee money or additional supplemental funds from the UNT budget. There are a lot of creative accounting games that can be played to maximize how much we bring in... Pay a guarantee game with public funds to generate a big game of ticket sales that would count as private money, etc. But the bottom line is that we're going to have to raise a sum, one way or another, that still equals a significant proportion of our school's endowment. A year and a half ago, the school's total endowment was under $52 million. To pay off the stadium, we're going to need a sum not too far away from the total stored value the entire system has been able to sock away through the operating history of our school. I'm not trying to be an alarmist, but it could turn out to be an alarming situation.

They will if it's cheaper to just rent a billboard. Cheaper, more prominent, and more direct. Geography is nice and it's a point in our favor... But it isn't the value of naming rights, at least not at the price levels that Flyer mentioned. Geography saves you the cost of a billboard. One billboard. TV exposure saves you the cost of multiple ad buys on local, national, and regional cable television. Also, integrated mentions in local news, sports radio, newspaper articles... All sorts of mass media exposure that people are focused on seeing and hearing, not just seeing out of the corner of their eye as they drive to and from Winstar Casino.

Spoiler alert...

That is not encouraging. Texas Tech and Maryland only sold for $20 million, and that was a few years back when the money available for naming rights was much, much better than it is today. Both are in BCS conferences, and the naming rights carry the significant value of national and regional television exposure. Akron sold theirs a year or two ago, for a total of $10 million. That sounds encouraging, but it was a personal donation from a guy who has lived in Akron for decades, and in return they agreed to put his company's name on the stadium. They sold the field for half that to a non-profit hospital. Basically, they got about half of what it sounds like we're hoping for, and that was through community support and personal financial contributions from longtime residents and supporters.

Fun Fact: John Wooden was a coach at UCLA for 14 years before he won his first ever postseason tournament game. 3 postseason appearances in 13 years to start his tenure at UCLA, all of them first game exits. Two of them were by double digits, the closest was a 9 point loss. And that was back in the 40's and 50's, when many considered the NCAA tournament inferior to the NIT. Forget T. Boone Pickens... When are we going to get our Sam Gilbert? Edit: Looking back over it, this may read like a slap at Wooden. It isn't meant to be... It's just interesting to me that (arguably inarguably) the greatest coach in NCAA basketball history took so long to get his dynasty going. Wooden is a legend. Lucky for UCLA, they were patient back then.

Drive thru daiquiris for everyone!

Not ANZAC Day.

The WAC already wanted a meaner greener past. WE didn't want THEM. And it was the right decision. Now, Boise is hypothetically gone, and this idea lumps us in with UTSA, Texas State, I think I saw Lamar mentioned when I very briefly skimmed the article... Pass. Pass, pass, pass. The WAC with Boise was a bad idea. The wreckage of a post-Boise WAC plus half the Southland Conference is even worse.

Oklahoma State and Tech are in the package for the same reason that Baylor found its way into the Big 12- political necessity. If you have to take Oklahoma State to ensure that the state allows Oklahoma to join the Pac 10, and if you have to take Tech to guarantee approval for Texas and A&M... It's worth it. That's probably why Kansas is getting left out of this shuffle.

Why stop there? Maybe if we throw in some D-1AAs and a startup or two, we can start tapping some sweet BCS money. Especially with Boise State out of the equation.

Playmaker?