DentonLurker

Never thought I’d see the day. Now it’s time to get started on a shiny, new arena too!

I sure hope not. I would think everything is wide open to any former players or pros who might want to use the facilities. Although, Denton is probably not very high on the list of destinations for pros to spend their off-season.

Nah. The mistake was not making a good hire to replace him. We weren't going to be able to compete from a salary perspective. If I was AD, I would never tag a coach who fans/players might like as interim. Can only create a false sense of hope. See Canales after Dodge got fired.

I would be so interested to see if they do any kind of ROI analysis on these events and what their stated goal is for these events. Is it to drive new revenue, cultivate existing relationships, etc.?

I get the point you’re trying to make here, but this is apples to oranges and not the slam dunk you think it is. I promise you a $5,000 donor lot at UT isn’t being sold on a single game basis to Johnny who drives up on gameday. I’ll also add that not all donations are created equally. What I mean is that, unlike say a monthly tithe to a church, there are certain donations you do make with some kind of benefit expectation. I’m sure there are some donors who would donate to student-athlete scholarships and not care at all about receiving anything in exchange for their donation. There are others who do it for priority seating, parking, post-season ticket access, etc. It’s no secret that a lot of, if not most, donors care about benefits. That’s why they shove benefits charts in front of you the first chance they get. I don’t think either is any worse than the other. They’re just different.

Anthem singers and others like them should be neutral in a NCAA tournament setting. He's clearly not neutral when it comes to UT. I have no issue with what the NCAA did here. I would not have phrased things the way they did, but either way, I would make the same decision the NCAA did.

I have. I've looked at a lot of it. I can't find anything that supports your opinion that Baseball would be break-even at UNT.

If you say so. The financial data doesn't really support this. As of 2019, 15 of 299 DI baseball programs made money.

I hate OU, almost as much as Texas Tech… But that softball team is crazy good.

Let's see if I can break this down for you: UTSA/TXST/La Tech already have resources committed to baseball. We do not. For us to add baseball and commit resources to baseball, you have three choices financially: 1- Divert $'s you currently use to support existing programs 2- Generate new $'s; this can be through ticket sales, donations, student fees, etc. 3- Use a current operational surplus Considering baseball does not typically turn a profit through ticket sales/donations and I can't imagine there's much of an appetite to increase student fees to pay for baseball, option 2 doesn't really work. This leaves you in a position where you would have to divert funds from other sports to pay for baseball. I guess you could say we can backfill money we divert, but our history does not support that we would be able to backfill those $'s either. We do not operate in a surplus, so option 3 is out.

For those who are convinced we can afford baseball, where are you going to divert funds from to cover Baseball? College baseball is not a money maker so it won’t be self-sustaining. That said, where does the operational budget money come from?

I love the “It is what it is” responses. The difference to me, between athletic fees and a library fee or a rec center fee is that athletic fees are literally requiring one student to pay so that another student doesn’t have to. With the other fees, the student who pays is the one who benefits if they choose to use the services. I get that it changes the model and would make athletics look different at a lot of schools, including UNT. That’s why I’ve always tried to get friends and family to donate to the MGSF. I would love to see a day where UNT didn’t have to make it mandatory because alums/Dentonites are choosing to support Athletics.

Mandatory athletics fees are just wrong. Always have been, always will be. NIL doesn't even matter to me in this conversation. There's no reason a Biology student who cares about Med School only should ever be forced to pay for athletics. It should be 100% optional.

I don't think I've ever talked to anyone who just flat out doesn't want Baseball. There are a lot of people who disagree about the timing of when Baseball should be added though. Some of us just think we have some things we need to do for our current sports before we start serious conversations about adding Baseball.

Well deserved. Glad to see him locked in!

They've used it for as long as I can remember.

This seems like internet/social media/message board trash to me. No one other than the Gunnells know how these decisions are truly made. I'm sure that in most decisions it's a family decision. I'm glad when parents are involved. I think it brings some level-headedness to the situation that an 18-22 year old can often use.

I mean, this is the football forum...

I mean, he's not wrong. You've got to compete in the market you're in, whether you like the market or not. If I own a Ford dealership and the market demands small SUVs, I can't keep showing the market F250's and complain that I don't like the market.

I'm just glad to see a commitment from a Denton County kid, PWO or other. Denton County plays great football in a great football state. I honestly think we could be better than we are if 50% of our roster was Denton County athletes.

I actually think this brings up a fair critique of the current athletics staff. The names on buildings/suite holders/floor seat holders are all the same names as before they got here. It doesn't seem like we've really identified any new major donors since they have been here. It seems like we keep going to the same people we always have to get things done.

I agree with you this would level the playing field a little more, but there’s no way this happens. Why would “the big boys” want this to happen?

I’m excited to hear this squeaky wheel.

This right here! I just don’t believe the support is there. Would love to be wrong.

"Significant" and "enough" are two very different things.