Thoughts On Unt And A Stadium Fund

[mad dog]

An alternative might be having everyone donate on their own, and then having a GMG donation meter, where we show how much GMG.com members have donated. We could put that information in a thread and pin it at the top of the forum.

[SilverEagle]

Brett Vito: Vote gives hope amid despair

08:23 AM CDT on Monday, October 20, 2008

Brett Vito Considering the circumstances, the atmosphere around the North Texas locker room seemed almost out of place late Saturday night.

The Mean Green was disappointed after yet another loss, this time a 35-23 setback to Louisiana-Monroe that dropped UNT to an unsightly 0-7 on the season. And yet there was a sense of optimism that glossed over that malaise.

UNT students threw the Mean Green’s football program a lifeline in the form of a yes vote on a student fee that will be used to help build a much-needed football stadium to replace Fouts Field. For at least one night, the talk was not so much about how UNT would dig itself out an ever-growing hole on the field, but how a new stadium would help pull the program out of it.

“It’s huge for our university and the future of Mean Green football,” UNT head coach Todd Dodge said. “I want to say thank you to our student body for coming out and voting yes on the stadium.”

UNT athletic director Rick Villarreal spoke about the commitment the school’s students showed to the athletic program by setting the groundwork for the fee to go in place when the stadium opens, hopefully in 2011.

Villarreal and UNT officials will now turn their attention to raising the private funds it will take to complete the stadium. Final figures are not back, but UNT will have to come up with another $30-40 million to supplement the funds it will receive from the fee.

Villarreal didn’t seem too concerned with meeting the challenge.

“The students have shown their commitment,” Villarreal said. “We will be able to compete with the programs we are up against that have similar fees.”

Villarreal indicated earlier this year that UNT’s problem has always been that it hasn’t carried through on promises — whether they were to improve the quality of the programs or the facilities its athletes play and practice in.

UNT began to change that over the last few years with the opening of the Mean Green Athletic Center and a few other venues. The school moved closer to fulfilling its biggest promise of all with the addition of a student athletic fee.

Now that the groundwork has been laid, it seems like only a matter of time before those who were skeptical of whether UNT would come through will jump on board with the project.

There is little doubt that everyone with an interest in Mean Green football will want his or her name somewhere on the stadium, whether it’s on a brick or a luxury suite.

When the stadium opens, Villarreal and UNT president Gretchen Bataille will both be remembered for their roles in the process, and rightly so, but there are a few more people who played big roles who deserve some credit as well.

UNT student body president Jeff Kline and fellow student senator Derrick Murray both played key roles in championing a cause that wasn’t all that popular with everyone on a campus where athletics are often an afterthought.

The roles each played were at the forefront of not only Dodge’s mind, but those of his players as well after Saturday night’s game. Seniors Isaac Thomas and Brock Stickler probably know better than anyone just what a new venue could do for the Mean Green’s program.

“Hopefully it will go through,” Stickler said of the final steps needed to build a new stadium. “That way we will get the recruits we need to start winning ball games at North Texas.”

That goal seemed like it was a long way off again after the Mean Green’s latest loss, one that saw UNT fall behind 28-0 in the early going.

However, unlike before, there seemed to be a reason to believe in the future of the program.

UNT had hope when Dodge was hired as the Mean Green’s head coach in December 2006, but that hope had faded in rapid fashion over the last year or so. That happens when a new head coach struggles to the tune of a 2-17 career record.

Another loss was tough for the Mean Green to take. The consensus is UNT is one of the worst teams in the country.

The difference on Saturday was that there was a glimmer of hope about the future, thanks to the work of a handful of UNT officials, Kline, Murray and the school’s students who voted in favor of an athletic fee.

That small hope made all the difference in the world for UNT.

BRETT VITO can be reached at 940-566-6870. His e-mail address is bvito@dentonrc.com .

Does anyone know how much the bricks will cost?

If we want to make sure that gmg.com is recognized, perhaps everyone can contribute to a gomeangreen.com brick.

[JesseMartin]

I'll have to check on this, but I am not sure that if you give gmg.com money, and then gmg.com donates that money, that it counts as a charitable donation for you.

If aren't concerned about the tax benefit, then its a good idea. Of course, you could always give a large donation that you want the tax credit for directly to the university, then we could take a collection of smaller donations online.

Also, there is no free money handling, if we don't pay paypal, we pay whatever credit card processing company we use.

An alternative might be having everyone donate on their own, and then having a GMG donation meter, where we show how much GMG.com members have donated. We could put that information in a thread and pin it at the top of the forum.

Cerebus has said pretty much what I'm advocating. Give a nickel, buck, whatever to help national rankings, then throw the money to gmg.com unless you can afford a big-ass donation by yourself...

The thing about illuvius' idea is that with the exception of buying bricks or being somebody with an assload of money, a bunch of little donations over 2 years could make gmg.com a permanent fixture somewhere in the stadium.

And I am pretty sure that you can still write off donations that you make to gmg.com that are for the stadium. You guys might need to get 5013c or whatever status, which takes all of five minutes to apply for.

[NT1978]

Yes, stadium funds are tax deductible.

What about the admins on the board setting something up on here so we can all throw $$ in? Think about this...if each of us gives even 5 or 10 bucks every paycheck, by the time they're putting the "little details" on the stadium in early 2011 (like naming small stuff, plaques, etc), we would have a ton...let's say there are about 200 of us regularly active on here. 200 x 5=1,000 every 2 weeks or 26,000 per year. With 5 bucks each every two weeks from 200 of us, depending on the "naming rights" deadline, we would have between $60,000 and $75,000 to donate!!!

Stadium funds given to a qualified charitable organization are tax deductible. Funds given to GoMeanGreen.com probably do not qualify.

Edited October 20, 2008 by NT1978

[DallasGreen]

Stadium funds given to a qualified charitable organization are tax deductible. Funds given to GoMeanGreen.com probably do not qualify.

I have spoken with RV at the Cookout about smaller donations to the stadium. Development has a card specifically for athletic facilities donations. The reason that the card is not directly for the football stadium is that pledges for facilities can be used as collateral for a bond issue if one can be raised in the current tight money environment. RV assured me that all funds pledged to athletic department facilities would be used for the stadium, but the pledge can't be directly to the stadium if you want to help toward a bond issue as well. I would urge all who have connections to the City of Denton ( Joe Holland are you listening?) to urge the leaders to give some help from the city or county. The Barnett Shale has produced a windfall of property tax dollars for local government. This stadium will further boost sales tax and hotel occupancy tax revenue. DISD may be a separate entity but they put $15 million into a state of the art HS stadium that is never half filled. It's time UNT began calling in some markers as the largest employer in Denton. Revenue sharing of some small percentage of property tax revenue or even a quarter % sales tax increase are both reasonable requests of the city/ county. Use the city of Arlington's investment in Jerry's World as an example. Arlington knows that in time it will reap the benefits of its investment many times over by having Jerry's World in Arlington. Denton will on a smaller scale also find that this stadium will be a wise use of public funds for a project that will keep on benefitting the taxpayers of Denton city and county for many years to come.

[GreenAlums]

Obviously you have never done this.

Or a 501.c(3)