Seven Figure gift being finalized

SouthBendGreen · November 17, 2006

We heard about this already, but here's a new story

By BRETT VITO / Denton Record-Chronicle

DENTON – Athletic director Rick Villarreal said Thursday that the school is in the process of finalizing a gift to the athletic department of at least $1 million.

UNT is waiting to announce the gift until it determines where the money will be directed within the department. Villarreal said the gift will be the largest the department has received during his tenure that began in the spring of 2001.

PlummMeanGreen · November 17, 2006

We heard about this already, but here's a new story
DMN
By BRETT VITO / Denton Record-Chronicle
DENTON – Athletic director Rick Villarreal said Thursday that the school is in the process of finalizing a gift to the athletic department of at least $1 million.
UNT is waiting to announce the gift until it determines where the money will be directed within the department. Villarreal said the gift will be the largest the department has received during his tenure that began in the spring of 2001.
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Some of you young gun alums may not be aware of this but many times thru the years UNT athletics was never given the school's fundraising "A List" of potential donors. Such a practice (IMHO) kept our athletic dept. further strapped and preventing it from getting the Big Donor(s) who with one signature could have done some nice things for NT Athletics long ago; who knows, maybe one such donor back in the day could have had the influence to have kept us out of 12 years of NCAA purgatory, ie, 1-AA.

It is my understanding from a fellow alum that even Mr. Warranch (Tennis Center) called Prez Pohl not knowing where to earmark his big donation and Norval deferred the call (and Warranch's monies) to UNT Athletics. (Sorry, UNT College of Music, yall missed out on this one, but yall still do pretty good by not getting all the nice plum$ out there). NOTE: Actually, our College of Music fundraisers long ago figured out who in Dallas-Fort Worth had the big bucks and then they developed a pretty good follow-up system for going after those Big Buck$ for many years. In fact, the UNT COM should be commended for such aggressiveness.

With what appears to be some new freedoms for our A.D. from UNT's higher-ups, I think we will be seeing other big announcement$ from Rick Villarreal soon that will benefit what at least 2 UNT presidents we've known have called "the picture window of our university." You know, though, its one thing for any high ranking UNT officials to call NT athletics the picture window, but its another thing to make sure all the right things are seen inside that picture window from all those on the outside looking in.

We all love the One O'Clock Lab Band and the international fame it has brought to UNT, but that small group of musicians still cannot command the media attention that a successful NCAA D1-A football program (that operates at a high profile) can do and do on a more consistent basis. Might not be right for music and the arts to take a back seat to athletics (which is the case at most Texas schools at any level) but after all, this is still the Lone Star State, right?

Edited November 17, 2006 by PlummMeanGreen

LongJim · November 17, 2006

Surprised there hasn't been more interest in this thread. This sounds huge.

Eagle1855 · November 17, 2006

Surprised there hasn't been more interest in this thread. This sounds huge.
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agreed, this seems to be a really great thing. could this springboard the stadium project? be interesting to see where this donation is directed

November 17, 2006

agreed, this seems to be a really great thing. could this springboard the stadium project? be interesting to see where this donation is directed
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It could hire us a great coach and that would spring board the borderline fans to donate... maybe?

OldTimer · November 17, 2006

Possible uses first 3 would be my first choices in that order. Yours?

1. indoor practice facility for FB team

2. Complete the tennis facility with the missing center court and grandstands

3. Track facility

4. Baseball field, but must also have $300,000 + annual operating fund program to do so.

5. Apply to new fooball stadium...which means do nothing with it for several years.

CMJ · November 17, 2006

Out of that list, baseball field and getting the sport up and running here would be my #1.

THOR · November 17, 2006

what about just holding onto the money and gaining interest on it so we can get some extra cash while waiting on others to donate to the stadium fund.....assuming that doesn't take too long.

UNTLifer · November 17, 2006

Finish out the current projects would be my first suggestion, but then again, they aren't asking me.

nortx9 posted this in the thread on baseball in the Athletics section of this board yesterday:

My hope is that we have the opportunity to grow all sports that provide the University the options to grow and improve levels of competition for all sports. I love baseball, and would certainly support ($$$) the program. However, I hope we also finish the projects we have started. The soccer field is still incomplete, the concession area is a muddy mess on rain days, and port o potties are not giving a sense of money, class or permanence to the program. Retaining fences are temporary PVC structures. Hope these things are already in the budget since we are due to host an SBC conference soccer tourney. Have not observed the Softball or Tennis complex up close, but during a recent soccer game and softball tourney, SB players were having to enter soccer field to go potty, so obviously bathrooms are a priority for all MGV sports. Foul balls were raining down on unsuspecting soccer fans seated in the bleachers, some work left to be done on that. Combined events overflow the MGV parking, and cars are parking in fields and among adjoining athletic offices. It appears dorm overflow parking is in the field across from the Athletic Dorm, not enough parking there either. All of this requires money, and new sports require even more. If having to choose, short of a huge donation to offset either the cost of new sports or finishing touches on facilities under way, I hope we choose to make the existing sport's facilities the best in the SBC as a priority. We still have a ways to go on that.

Unfinished projects look bad, in my opinion, and should be finished prior to moving on the other projects.

Edited November 17, 2006 by UNTLifer

Green Crazy · November 17, 2006

Surprised there hasn't been more interest in this thread. This sounds huge.
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When I read this thread I thought it was referring to the MM donation. This is great news!

NT80 · November 17, 2006

Possible uses first 3 would be my first choices in that order. Yours?
1. indoor practice facility for FB team
2. Complete the tennis facility with the missing center court and grandstands
3. Track facility
4. Baseball field, but must also have $300,000 + annual operating fund program to do so.
5. Apply to new fooball stadium...which means do nothing with it for several years.
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It would depend on the size of the gift. $10 million vs. $1 million would make a big difference. $1 million doesn't go very far towards construction of anything when you consider finish out, furnishings, landscaping, etc.

An indoor facility could also be used in heat as well as cold and by other programs like marching band, soccer, softball, track,etc.

However, if you want max return and impact on your investment, we need it towards the new football stadium. A new stadium will bring better OOC opponents (maybe a better conference), more media to the school, more HS playoff games (future students?), and greatly improve the image of our athletics program as a whole (thus more donors).

Edited November 17, 2006 by NT80

DeepGreen · November 17, 2006

Although $1 million is a lot of money, it's a drop in the bucket towards a new FB stadium. The money could be used to "start up baseball", but what is going to sustain baseball.

I would use the money to finish up the rest of the facilities.

Stan R · November 17, 2006

Although $1 million is a lot of money, it's a drop in the bucket towards a new FB stadium. The money could be used to "start up baseball", but what is going to sustain baseball.
I would use the money to finish up the rest of the facilities.
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I thought that the student service fees would eventually finish those out? Is that not the case?