oldguystudent

See the title under my username in this post. Also, I made about $14,000 that year. Desperate times, desperate measures.

I filed my taxes today, so will find out in a couple three weeks when I get my refund. I don't think anybody really knows right now, but that's surely what the name suggests.

This is a more accurate description in my experience. In my first semester at UNT in the fall of 2008, I walked into Cool Beans, ordered a Schlitz, and asked the bartender something about the upcoming game that weekend. Her response was something along the lines of, "I don't know. We don't much pay attention to that here." The Schlitz was, like many residents and students in Denton, cold and cheap.

In an exhaustive student survey of one, my daughter has no idea that there is a vote.

I need to remind myself this afternoon to ask my kid if she's even aware of this vote.

I, for one, would like to see a fund to get air conditioning in Apogee for September games. Those fans they set up outside just aren't cutting it.

You know, there is always the option of starting up an external 501(c) entity whose sole purpose is to donate its revenue to specific, restricted gifts to UNT. Screw scholarships, let's start a gold plated toilets in Apogee fund. Even better, let's start a legal defense fund to make sure that student votes go our (the alumni's) way and that student fees get maxed out with 50% increases every year. Maybe a buy out the coaching staff every time our defense gives up a third down conversion fund. The possibilities are limitless! We could (and I believe would be required to) have officers of the fund and could have secret meetings and handshakes and everything. Maybe even lapel pins and tiny flags to fly from our cars.

Now my teeth hurt.

I'm thinkin' North Texas Exes. What, too soon?

Did that interviewer guy just say everybody wants to get ahead of the curb?

After going through and looking at birth dates, playing time, graduation dates, etc., that's really a thing?

As somebody who moved to this great state and learned the hard way that I didn't have "Texas ties," in my industry, I learned how to create and cultivate relationships pretty quickly. The main difference between where I was from and where I'd arrived was small talk -- I was used to getting straight to business, getting in, and getting out, lest I annoy my customer with wasting his time. When I arrived here, after getting thrown out of a couple offices for being to "pushy," I learned to visually scour a customer's office, pick up that their kid was doing 4H llama breeding and had to learn what color guard was because there was some girl holding a flag on the wall. I definitely had to learn that the many, many times people said, "Well bless your heart," to me that it wasn't a good thing. It took me about a year before I became THE go to guy and invaluable resource for the entire northern half of Texas (and the panhandle and El Paso). It was so strong, that I was still getting phone calls two years after I'd quit. Why am I boasting like this? Because I so tire of this constant, incessant, "HE DOESN'T HAVE TEXAS TIES!" rally cry I see at every hire. There might be a little bit of a learning curve at the beginning, but it's certainly not insurmountable. Give me talent over locality any day of the week.

If that's not your argument, then you might seriously consider re-enrolling and taking a communications course.

There are innumerable things in this world upon which you and I disagree. This is not one of them. I think this is a spot on post. Well said.

I can't prove otherwise, but I swear I saw that number once because I wondered if my priority points weren't cutting the mustard and inquired. Nonetheless, I agree that $3,000 is a helluva jump.

I always got red/blue with my club seats. I believe the black lot was something along the lines of $1,000 or $2,000 (I don't recall the exact amount), so it looks like they raised the minimum for that. I anticipate the red/blue lot is going to be considerably more crowded next year as former black lot space holders and the general public trickle in. I'm gonna have to make effort to show up early so as to avoid the shithouse that is entry on Bonnie Brae. Either that, or I'll decide to have a little verbal sparring fun with yellowjackets at the North Texas Blvd entry who don't seem to understand that red and blue parking passes are exactly the same thing.

When they made the contribution minimum change from per donor to per seat in the club last year, it was to stifle certain abuses that were taking place. I could lay down one donation, buy two seats, but effectively have rights to four seats every game at cut-rate prices. People (rightfully) didn't think that was fair, so they changed the policy. All of this, in my eyes, is disposable income expenditures on a recreational pursuit. Some day, I may feel that the expense outweighs the benefit of recreation enjoyed. If that day arrives, I will either downgrade my seating situation or I will decide that it simply isn't worth it, and I will quietly walk away. Same as I did with cable television nearly a decade ago. People wanted RV gone and got what they wanted. Now Wren is running things differently for better or for worse. To expect anything else would be futile. There are still a number of people out there who for whatever reason have such a deep seated loathing for all things UNT athletics, that Wren could be caught taking a piss in the student center men's room as opposed to his allocated private office gold plated latrine, and it would cause rage induced aneurysms. None of this is a birthright to alumni. Like at all. It is a choice -- you either think it's worth it or you don't. That's it. It you're experiencing near daily rage induced aneurysms, I'd maybe think you don't consider it worth it, and I'd be ok with that.

Ruh-roh.

LOLOLOLOL!!!! Somebody's reading this board!

There are effectively three places that contributions to athletics go, right? 1) Scholarships 2) Capital campaigns 3) Coach and staff salaries Capital campaigns have, to my knowledge, nearly all come from private purpose specific donations and the student athletic fee. So that leaves us with scholarships and salaries. Have salaries historically been paid out of the GMG fund? Is anything really different? I promise I'm not trying to agitate here. I'm trying to understand what is actually different aside from potential increases in required donations for season tickets, which had already begun with club seats who had completed their capital campaign gifts last season, so was really to be expected. I haven't yet received my phone call from the athletic department to discuss my upcoming contributions for 2018, so I haven't been able to ask any of these questions. (I kinda think that I might have a little asterisk by my name akin to DoNotCall list from previous encounters, and I'm kinda fine with that.)

I mean, I'd probably pay pretty good money to kick your Todd Dodge football.

I'm just briefly glancing at this, but if there are still required donation levels to this new scholarship fund, I don't know how that would circumvent the new tax code. I'll come back in a few hours and somebody can update me on why this change significantly affects their lives and maybe even show me the consideration to link me to a youtube instructional video on how to properly gnash teeth and rend garments.

This asks the ultimate question that I've been asking for a decade -- who does UNT wish to be? I think there's a serious institutional identity crisis going on at the moment. And yes, for the kids who are getting 1600s on their SATs, I promise that football has just about zero influence on their choice of education.

It's reality. You just gotta pay for shit you don't want or use. It's for the greater good and importance of image. I have never wanted to be a car salesman so badly in my life.

Without crunching numbers, that sounds correct conceptually. Your original post looked like they were letting people buy club seats for a single season, and that seemed new and unfamiliar to me, which we all know frightens the children.