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The stadium is already in motion - money has already been spent. The voice of the student body has been heard. Dr B should be very vocal against this group and right NOW. These kids think this is a game that they lost and are asking for a "do-over"... it doesn't work that way. I have foten said that RV has one of the toughest AD jobs in the country and this is exactly why. No other school has this type of apathetic student base that would actually try to put effort into a whole campaign to save $7 bucks a credit hour.

The Super Pit has lots of class space underneath, it also has raquetball courts that rarely get used... plus, graudation is held there. I think that all of these factors helped to get it built... BUT, isn't the Super Pit owned by an outside company and leased to the school? Maybe that was internet fodder but someone told me that once.

It's the offseason and that means talking football with other Belt fans. The Sun Belt Board at NCAABBS is really getting a ton of traffic... plus, they now have a FB page: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#...22460970?ref=ts

Probably one of the most TRUE and correct posts that I have ever seen on this board. The Mean Green Club didn't used to be called the Mean Green Club - (well it was in the 70's when Fry started it but it had dissolved after he left)... the donation machine was called the Mean Green Foundation. Later - this group of posters and fans from Harry's various websites formed the Mean Green Club and we met - had parties, mixers, and started tailgating in an organized way. When RV came to NT, he recognized that more people wanted to be in the unofficial Mean Green Club that Rob had started than the Foundation.... so they politely asked Rob and company if the Foundation could become the Mean Green Club and promised that a lot of the ideas that his club had been pushing would be a part of the new Foundation. The club (and its founder) gave up the name to the Athletic Dept - we got real tailgating approved at NT... and things got much better for members. Is it perfect? No... but it is good. There is always a tent set up at away games for members to gather in. There are hospitality rooms in the pit and a hospitality deck at the stadium... but like KRAM wrote much better than I can - people will always complain. They also complain about the NT Exes. If you don't want to fix it - don't complain. I have found other ways to give to the program and you can too... just support the things that you believe in.

Did you not read the rest? He called me at home on the Sunday after tha game. I don't know how you can get better communication than THAT.

The Mean Green Club has meetings at every football game and basketball game in the hospitality room/deck. How is RV not readily available to the fans? You can call him or e-mail him anytime you want and he will respond. RV has stated about 500 times now that his biggest mistake was announcing quarterly meetings when he first got here because it is still hung over his head. When he got here - he polled fans for the problems and we said - better communication - so he announced the meetings... He can't do them anymore - there is some information that some of our d!psh!t fans don't need to have because they will screw up the plans by blabbing about it like little old ladies. There have not been quarterly meetings since the first year. They have been disbanded. They are not a promise that is still standing and just ignored - they are a failed iniative that some bitter fans use to try and belittle RV. RV is not perfect but I would like to know exactly who would be better for what we pay? Was the Dodge hire bad? Probably - but the fans demanded that hire. Some of the people on this board that I see being so emotional and angry about Dodge - are the exact people that were passionate about him getting hired in the first place. I don't know why they are so let down by RV - they should be let down with their own choices. I talked to these guys on the phone and they were PUMPED when Dodge was announced 3 years ago... RV is easily swayed by public opinion. Public Opinion probably got Dickey fired... public opinion probably got Dodge hired (and might get him fired eventually). Now if we could just get public opinion to get mandy fired... eh, she must have something on him... I have yet to meet any fan that thinks she is good for the program ..... but somehow - she still holds her position and was even PROMOTED! True story - two seasons ago, I was on the deck and with my girlfriend. Mandy was also on the deck - drunk as usual while on the clock during the game. Anyway - there was a Mean Green flag (the Texas Green flag type) that was laid across one of the tables and I didn't know who's flag it was. We were getting ready to leave and most people had left... our immediate area and all the table in my area were gone. My girlfriend asked me if I thought we should turn the flag in (like you would turn in a camera left on a table, or a set of keys, or ANY personal property left behind).. So I grabbed the flag and rolled it up and was walking towards the front entry when Mandy started SCREAMING at me to stop stealing athletic property. I was like, "What the f&*%???" She was really drunk, it was a bad loss and she had been really pouring them in to null the pain. I tried to explain to her that I was turning it in and with slurred words, she kept saying "Sure you were, I know your type, I know your type" - at least that is what I think she was saying, half of the words were difficult to comprehend. I called RV and explained the whole story to him. He was great, returned my call right away - called me on Sunday at night... when he could have been with his family - but he was talking to an upset fan. He told me that Mandy would be calling me to apologize and of course that never happened. To this day - I refuse to renew my membership. I just will not renew until she is gone. And I know that I am not alone. I have met a legion of others that have been insulted by her. I had the uncomfortable situation of having to sit close to her at the ULM game this last year - she seemed so alone. The vote had just come down about the stadium initiative and our Mean Green fans in Monroe were high fiving each other in the stands; but nobody wanted to high five Mandy. Shouldn't your fund raising person at least have a rapport with the fans that will drive to the away games?? Ok, off of soap box. It is this story that shows WHY I think RV is so great for NT and yet how flawed he can be. He is very loyal - in this case, loyal to Mandy and also loyal to me as a fan. I will support my Mean Green - but it is just season tickets for now. Sad, because if they would just let her go, I would be happy to renew my membership.

Those are our club level seats that I was referring to.. they are in the plans from what I have seen. We will have three places for Mean Green Members to drink, the new deck over there, the club suites, and the club level seats. One good thing about making it available in limited places is people that REALLY feel like it is important to drink during those 2 or 3 hours can do so, they will just need to pay for a Mean Green membership for that perk. More Mean Green Club memberships help UNT and make a hell of a lot more money than trying to calaculate how many ounces of beer you can spill to break even.

We could really go back and forth about this all day... dram shop insurance is a flat fee for the year, not per event. If you think that selling a keg will net you that much of a profit, you have never worked in the industry. Beer is the least profitable. In fact, we make more off of coke and dr pepper than we would off od beer but people don't buy 10 of them per person during a game. If the University doesn't operate their concessions, their company might have a special vending license - and it is a courtesy thing for having the food rights. A keg of domestic beer will run $76.80 wholesale - $94 without trade in empty - (and that has probably gone up)... Nobody would buy a $7.00 20 oz beer, they would laugh right at your face at that proposition. We charge $2 bucks for soft drinks for a reason. Let's say that you have NO spillage and you sell every ounce in the keg - next to impossible with the temp changes in the box and line... you might make enough to break even. After a keg is tapped - it has to be finished that day because it will be flat by the time the next game rolls around... and you wouldn't want to pay to keep it cold for weeks between games anyway. Also, sporting events generally cut off after the 1st half or 3rd quarter. You are looking at a maximum of $300 bucks of profit per keg ($200 realistically but I will shoot high to try and fit your arguement) and let's say that you go through 50 in a game (again, not likely when we average 15K a game and of those, maybe 4K would drink). You might make $15K off of it. I seriously doubt that we would go through 50 kegs. But even if we shot for the HIGH side, and there was no waste - let's hypothetically say that we are able to have $15K per game of profit from beer sales (either keg or plastic bottle)... in a 5 game season, $75K profit.... Now start taking away the insurance for the year (about $30K for a 49 seat bar, $100K for just one 800 capacity club at the Bronco Bowl) can't even imagine what it would be for a 30K seat stadium)... the extra staff to deal with security, the public perception, the complaints, etc. I am totally serious - we would lose money. So the arguement is that it would bring more people to the game and thus be a good loss. Would it bring more people into the game? Maybe some... but not enough for the risk. Most just go out to the parking lot and drink out of their coolers or fork over the $250 bucks to drink on the deck. I bet that if you researched - Houston's concessions are outsourced and they do the soccer games. I imagine that is why Houston does it if they do. Either that or they just take the loss. A lot of places choose to take the loss to boost attendance. There are only a few NCAA stadiums around the country that do it though and MOST are run by outside venues (not on campus stadiums but stadiums like the Cotton Bowl where SMU played in the 90's or USF playing in that Tampa pro stadium)... Nevada and Louisiana have some pretty loose alcohol laws... We are right smack in the bible belt and the taxes, insurance, and hassle would take away any profit from it. Would it bring in more people? In my opinion - Not enough to outweigh all the potential negatives. Most likely the school would take away tailgating to try and boost beer sales and that would kill the game atmosphere. All of the crud that goes along with it - just not worth it to lose money. I guess that you don't know me o rmy background... but you are just going to have to trust me on this - I know the bar business. I have owned and operated everything from a 3200 sq foot bar on Fry Street to the Bronco Bowl in Dallas. The money is never as much as people seem to think it is - the costs are never worth the hassle with beer. NOW - If we could sell liquor - well, then we might have something... but that is not really the clientele for a football game... shots for touchdowns? Maybe a good promo. But that is what the suites will be for in the new stadium. Beer does not make money. Oh, and Denton doesn't require private club membership for beer and wine sales... in fact, I believe that the voters recently approved doing away with clubs for mixed drinks for on premise consumption as well (just no liquor stores) - a lot of Denton places are just waiting for their private clubs to expire - there are pros and cons to both. A private club can never make a profit on paper, it is simply a group of people paying a "storage and handling" fee to an establishment to hold what is the members' booze. They were born out of golf country clubs and a very smart dude that chose to challenge the state on discrimination for his VFW. I really could type another 5 pages on this, but until you make the mistakes and have been through it - you just won't get it. If it was worth it - I would be typing and typing (and typing) why it was a great idea. It is not good for UNT - image wise or profit wise. They don't sell beer at any of the Big 12 schools in Texas - why do you think that is? They are just happy with the tickets and concessions? You don't think that Lubbock would jump all over that if it was profitable? I honestly don't know the deal with UH is- maybe they don't own the stadium. If the school doesn't own the stadium, it is a whole diff ball game. Those are the places that will sell alcohol. NT owns its stadium and all the liability that comes with it.

I forgot one thing - the "sin" tax that alchohol gets in the South... Double the regular sales tax. So if the tax is 8%, the sin tax is 16%... you just have to sell a lot of beer to make it worth your effort. And all it takes is one person - just one idiot - to drive away from the stadium after too much to drink and kill someone... it could literally shut a program down. The tailgating area is PUSHING it... it would be a nightmare if that person was underage on top of that. The University would lose so much... it is too much of a risk for such a little reward (if any).

Most likely their vendor is taking care of it along with the soccer games. If we used the stadium more than 5 or 6 times a year, it might be worth it... but the stadium is only used those 5-6 times a year. The way that Texas Bev law is set up, we couldn't even get a license for both the Pit and Fouts and "share" it - the license has to be attached to a physical address and cannot be used for a picnic (off premise) license more than 2-3 times a year. Two being the rule, three with an exception made. And yes, I know TABC law - I became an expert.... and when State Club gave up the rights to vending in Fouts - I actually put a bid in to take that over so I explored the beer situation in depth. Can it be done? Absolutely. Is it cost effective? Not in the current format with state law... It's not really the license - it's the insurance. There is not a ton of mark-up on beer as it is despite what most people think. The game only lasts 4 hours, tops... so you have 5 home games (6 on a good year) and 4 hours each time to sell enough beer to not only pay for the license, to pay the insurance, and to try and make some sort of profit... plus dealing with extra security and all of the complaints that always come with selling alcohol around kids. No way it would fly in the general seating area. It would be pushing the envelope way too far. Even if you could use another premise's license for those days and outsource it... it still wouldn't be worth the hassle. You might as well just let people bring their own in. The new stadium will solve a lot of these problems. The suites will allow drinking, the new deck will allow it and the club seats will probably allow it as well. I imagine it will be done like it is now - you pay for a ticket to control the amount.. and you hand the ticket to redeem the item to avoid an actual sale.

There is no rule OR law that keeps NT from selling beer at games. Games are family friendly and we are already pushing the envelope by having Budweiser signs all over the place in Fouts. It would also not be worth the license to sell beer at the stadium, the insurance alone would be way too expensive to make it profitable. It is done on the deck with a picnic license sponsored by a distributor and is regulated with tickets so that there are no direct sales. If someone wants to drink - they can buy a Mean Green Club membership or they can lease one of the new club level seats or suites in the new stadium. The original concept also had a club level with a large window that would be kind of like an indoor sports bar for game days. The insurance is so expensive that most bars don't even get it and just gamble that if something happens they will throw the person suing the keys and say "good luck"... I owned a bar in Denton for 8 years and paid for my million dollar insurance for exactly 1 year before I decided that I wanted to try and make some sort of profit. For a very small bar, capacity of 49 - my insurance was more than my rent each month. It's less expensive to just give it away and charge a cover charge (basically what we are doing now). We are VERY fortunate to have alcohol flowing freely in the parking lots... pushing it could kill the whole thing. I love the idea of free tuition. I think that is a great idea. When we moved up to IA, we did the band thing to hit our 17K attendance marks. At the time, bands like Tripping Daisy and Deep Blue Something were very popular and from the Denton/Dallas area - I have always wondered why we stopped that strategy when it was working for drawing people in.

Agreed. We really need to ramp up our OOC play, it is clear that playing one of the weakest OOC schedules in the country does nothing for the conference or our team. There was a time when we needed to play Houston Baptist, UT-Peanut Butter, and various Div II schools from Oklahoma but those times have passed. Let's have a real schedule with real teams.

Also, the fee is only charged on the first 12 hours - but those numbers are pretty close. Plus, the fee can go up by 10% per year without a vote until it caps at $20 bucks a credit hour.

UTA students voted for an increase in athletics fees years ago in hopes of starting a football team. That fee has been in place and building up... Also, since the building will be used for graduation and classroom space, it can be paid for with state funds (unlike a football stadium). I believe that the UTA students voted for the fee increase about 3 or 4 years ago... but the President had other things in mind for that money. It was a crappy thing to do because the vote was primarily to get football going again there but the vote did not mandate that the fees could only be used for that purpose.

That reporter has a cool last name...

Sorry about that, I posted this in the wrong forum - maybe a mod can move it. My bad.

http://www.wwltv.com/topstories/stories/ww...u.1b7b45e4.html You can read the rest of the story by clicking on the link.

The Belt does noto own the rights to TV games, any school in the Belt can contract their own games. The problem is - the only thing more boring than watching a mid major on TV is a quarter (at best) full arena cheering it on. WKY has a tv deal because they have their own station as part of their curriculum and they make the coordinates available to any station that wants them (for free). NT does not have an uplink to a sattelite for our RTVF dept, very few schools do. So while there are inferences all over the place - the Belt TV package hasn't changed really at all... there are about 10-12 games on Game Plan like always. As I check the Belt games on the ESPN website, there is usually a game each weekend that has the little Game Plan logo by it... and the Belt has a couple of games on the Deuce along with the Conf championship. I see what John is saying, you would think that we could put something on one of those other stations but most of those stations charge the conference - not pay them. And honestly, the interest just isn't there. I remember the Big West says of a couple of Deuce games a year... I can think of one that NT was on, at NMSU. The televised Belt games are usually at schools that draw well like WKY. So we can sell all the local games that we want (like we did with the UTA game).. but there really is very little interest.

Hey 2012, were you there right before any recent announcement that someone showed up hung over and barfed all over himself because he couldn't make it through practice? Yeah, that type of behaviour demands respect.

It doesn't really matter - but the official oath was not done in public. That was the ceremonial oath, after that Obama went down the parade route and was sworn in properly. I am not sure if this is a new thing or always done - but the news talked about it last night.

Good blog, realistic without being spiteful. Honest and to the point but also with the spirit of a beat writer that should be secretly cheering for the team that he "reports" on.

Wait, if we break ground this August, why would it take more than 1 year to build this thing? I am guessing that the groundbreaking will just be a ceremonial ground breaking and not a true "dig" day?

We have never beat FAU and they have two straight bowl wins. I don't think that anyone in the Belt can claim that they have two consecutive bowl wins... in fact, I think that we are the only other school that have two consecutive bowls. Schnelly seems to do things old school and it works for him... I would trade rivals rankings for wins and national reputation anyday.

I agree 100%. We rarely have someone under the age of 24 enroll for class and our average student age is about 35. Honestly, we are too expensive for anyone considered a "dependent" student (as defined by the FAFSA)... They can't even go to our online Junior College (which is about 60% the cost of regular UOP) unless their parents agree to sign a parent plus loan and most just won't do that. We are there for working adults or single parents... kids need traditional education, for shizzle.

There are a lot of incorrect assumptions about the school. We started off as a ground campus school in a garage in California - specifically for working adults. back in the 70's, there were no such things as night classes or adult education programs... about the best that a working man could do was put his wife to work and go back to school full time. Sure, there were correspondence courses out there... and there were some night schools and classes, but you definitely couldn't get a whole degree. Our learning module is different than the traditional school - it is set up much like a real office, you work on teams and also have individual work. It is about 50/50. California nor its region of accreditation for higher learning would not give UOP accreditation. Phoenix and the North Central Association did - thus the move to Phoenix and the new name. Our founder was a hippy and believed in trying new things and changing the world... we were the first on the net. Now come the incorrect assumptions - the education is a joke... that is just flat out wrong. In the Dallas area, we have about 7000 students attending our 4 campuses... about half go online and the other half go to campus. Yes, we have campus classes right here in Dallas, Las Colinas, Plano, and Arlington - soon to be in Mid Cities as well as Cedar Hill. I do not recruit for the school anymore, I did that for about a year before moving into an administrative position... but I have taken classes. I didn't finish my Masters yet - why? it was too freaking hard. Can you cheat? Sure - but you can cheat in any learning environment. North Texas has online classes... so does UT.. so does UOP. Guess who they rent their software from? That's right - UOP. We rent the software to them to help control the price of online classes and because our online module is certified by the Department of Education. So if the same classes are coming out of UT, UNT, and UOP, all offered in the same learning module - why are the ones from UOP a joke? Especially when we are the ones that developed it? I don't know - there is no easy way to get a degree. I know that Fortune 500 companies pay for their employees to go to school at UOP, the employee never pays a bill. We are not cheap, for an online student in an undergrad program, a typical student is on the hook for about $14K a year. There are no short cuts, it takes 4-5 years at UOP just like any other school. About the only thing different is that our students only take one class at a time over a 6 week period and then when they are done, they get their grade and move on to the next. Since the classes are only 6 weeks long, they can still go full time by just not taking any breaks. Our students were in class on Thanksgiving. They will be there on Easter. We only shut down during Christmas, otherwise it is a year round school. It is kind of like taking summer school over and over and over again. If you think it is a joke, I challenge you to take a class. I think that you will change your mind pretty quick. Is it Ivy League? No - but it is every bit as hard as the classes that I took at UNT if not more. By the way - our stock is trading at over $82 bucks a share. When I started working there it was in the $40's. We have about 400,000 students (nationwide) and our goal is to hit a million. Our students are the largest group of financial aid recipients in the nation... In these tough times, most people are looking to go back to school or prepare to change careers by getting a Masters.. .business is good with most of higher learning and UOP is not an exception. I had many of the same thoughts that you all did about UOP before I started working there... and honestly, even after I started working there. It wasn't until that I started my Masters program that I started to defend their education. It is kind of like someone from SMU or UT telling me that my UNT education wasn't that hard - how would they know if they never went to school there? Just an ignorant statement made by "reputation" rather than proof. Our students on the average come in much lower (IQ) when they enter but graduate at close to and sometimes over the average/traditional university. There are tons of studies on it- we obviously use those studies to show companies like Verizon why they should spend $80K on their employee to get his/her Bachelors degree. Every single company that offers Tuition Reimbursement (that I know of) accepts UOP and happily pays for their employee to better their life... if the end result wasn't a positive one, I can assure you that we would be put on their list of "not acceptable" schools (like Everest or ATI). Ok, off of my soap box now... and yes, we just sponsor the stadium