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Post by phearthephoenix on Sept 21, 2014 18:45:39 GMT -6
Just wondering what everyone's thoughts are on the new chancellor at UWGB, Gary Miller. He took an 18% pay cut at GB from his previous job as the chancellor at UNC-Wilmington. He is a big college basketball fan so hopefully the new Miller / Gillespie administration can invest more resources into athletics, specifically mens basketball. I think we have already seen the start of this with Wardle's new contract this past spring. Here's what Chancellor Miller recently said to the Green Bay Press-Gazette editorial board when asked about athletics: Q: How valuable to you believe Division 1 athletics are and what can be done to improve Green Bay's athletic budget, which is the worst in the Horizon League?A: Well it's the lowest in the Horizon League (laughs). I'm familiar with that situation, my previous institution was the lowest in the Colonial Athletic Association too. We had the highest number of championships. One of the things we have made clear, and I've made clear and I'd be glad to make clear to the readers, is there are only 4 division 1 athletic schools in Wisconsin. Three of them are in the system: Madison, Milwaukee, us, and of course there's Marquette. That is not going to change while I'm here. That is not a discussion we are having on campus to get rid of athletics or to downgrade, we will have division 1 athletics and the reason is that it is an enormous advantage to us. For people like me who are out in the community all the time, people are very interested in Phoenix athletics. And it's an athletic town. So we will use it to build the reputation of the institution and to help us find resources for it and for other actives that we are doing. We have a relatively new athletic director who is great. She knows what to do. She's been here less than a year and she reports directly to me and we have conversations all the time about what we're doing to support athletics and we've made some moves in that regard. We will invest in it, we have to invest in it. We have some facilities plans we are contemplating as well as some other things. So, I'm excited about Phoenix athletics. Don't expect us to add football though (laughs)
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Post by gbbrl97 on Sept 22, 2014 7:40:29 GMT -6
It's good to see that the Chancellor Miller was from a mid-major conference (CAA) like GB. But the previous chancellor (Harden) was from Kennesaw St., which is in the Atlantic Sun, and he didn't do a whole lot in terms of the athletic program.
At this point, getting the fundraising to the point where GB is closer to the midpoint in terms of overall athletic department budget and have the men's and women's teams at or slightly above the midpoint for basketball spend. That will come with continued success in those programs. Let's hope that BW and Kevin Borseth can get GB men's and women's teams back to the NCAA's. That will give athletics a big shot in the arm for fundraising.
For facilities, I would like to see something done with Aldo Santaga Field.....We need to build a soccer stadium more reflective of a D1 program. And maybe build it for possible future sports like LAX, field hockey, or track......
If GB does get to a point where they can add a sport(s), I'm trying to think of something where it would be low cost......track (men's and women's), rifle (men's and women's), rowing (men's and women's). I think Nebraska has a women's bowling team as an NCAA sport. Personally, I would like to see LAX (men's)/ field hockey (women's), but I don't think GB would increase their budget to get to that point.....Other than track, I'm also trying to think of low cost sports that SNC does not have currently, and create a niche following and directly compere for collegiate sports dollars in NE WI.
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Post by PantherU on Sept 22, 2014 11:27:03 GMT -6
Good to hear.
The problems we have are totally different. You guys have the problem of a lack of money and getting continuity after a longtime AD who was excellent at fundraising leaves town. We've got money (by HL standards) but we have no continuity at all. We have dire needs for facilities, you guys have no need at all there in hoops.
Just goes to show how different situations can be even at the same level. Your new chancellor seems to "get it" with athletics. Not being a research school, UWGB can also spend more fundraising time in athletics.
Thank the state government for this unbelievable turnover in chancellors in the UW System.
Sent from my SCH-R970 using proboards
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Post by gbbrl97 on Sept 22, 2014 13:25:38 GMT -6
Hopefully Amanda Braun can clean up the mess left by the 4 previous AD's/Interim AD's (George Koonce, Dave Gilbert, Rick Costello, and Andy Geiger). With the budget UWM has, there's no reason why you guys should be a consistent player in most HL-sponsored sports, especially Men's and Women's BB......
It's also even more amazing that Rob Jeter, despite having 6 AD's in his tenure (You need to include Bud Haidet and Amanda Braun too), is still at UWM. Any of the past AD's could have tried to 'get their guy' so to speak, but the program also has not bottomed out in terms of W/L record during Jeter's tenure.
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Post by lutzow10 on Sept 22, 2014 19:51:58 GMT -6
I really enjoy the civilized conversation going on between gb and milwaukee fans these last few posts. Why does everything have to be a contest/battle between us? I love the good interaction and discussion here. We need more of it.
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Post by shooting the J on Sept 22, 2014 21:27:48 GMT -6
At this point, getting the fundraising to the point where GB is closer to the midpoint in terms of overall athletic department budget and have the men's and women's teams at or slightly above the midpoint for basketball spend. Only the men's basketball program is unfunded, the women's team is the best funded team in the conference.
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Post by shooting the J on Sept 22, 2014 21:36:43 GMT -6
As for the new chancellor, is great to hear he supports athletics and understands their importance. The best thing about Miller however is that he's not Thomas Harden.
Harden was a buffoon with no understanding of how to grow the university and was a huge opponent of athletics. His stunt last spring was the last straw. Don't believe for a second that his retirement was his idea. Bothof left because of Harden, but the early returns are that Gillespie will be a terrific replacement.
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Post by GBPhoenix1 on Sept 23, 2014 6:17:53 GMT -6
I keep reading that Bothof was excellent at fund raising. Where did this idea come from? The Kress Center was built with $15 million from raising student fees. Those fees were voted on by the students in the late 90's and implemented around 2000 before Bothof arrived. The Kress also received something like 7.5 million was from the state. Bothof raised the remaining 10 million or so. Now that is nothing to sneeze at but when there have been no other major facility improvements and with an overall low budget I would say he wasn't a great fund raiser when considering he was there for 10+ years. With that said he did have a good eye for hiring coaches. He did also run a department that prioritized having true student athletes as the GPA is always solid.
I really think MEG is going to circles around the fund raising efforts of Bothof.
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Post by gbbrl97 on Sept 23, 2014 7:50:14 GMT -6
Hey J, what stunt did Harden pull last spring? Being in the MSP area, I may have missed that story......Harden did not excite me as an alumnus. Also, when you refer to the Men's BB team as unfunded, are they self-sufficient in terms of $$, and don't get anything from the general athletics fund??
With what's been going on at UWM, they need a stronger administrator type. After Haidet, I thought Koonce was in over his head, and Costello's personality was not a good fit. Geiger made the questionable move back to the Klotche Center for Men's BB. UWM needs some stable leadership right now.
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Post by PantherU on Sept 24, 2014 9:50:27 GMT -6
Hopefully Amanda Braun can clean up the mess left by the 4 previous AD's/Interim AD's (George Koonce, Dave Gilbert, Rick Costello, and Andy Geiger). With the budget UWM has, there's no reason why you guys should be a consistent player in most HL-sponsored sports, especially Men's and Women's BB...... It's also even more amazing that Rob Jeter, despite having 6 AD's in his tenure (You need to include Bud Haidet and Amanda Braun too), is still at UWM. Any of the past AD's could have tried to 'get their guy' so to speak, but the program also has not bottomed out in terms of W/L record during Jeter's tenure. Rob has had the benefit of each AD being here for such a short time that they haven't gotten the chance, as well as a contract that up until this past year was too difficult to buy out. Bud announced his retirement in fall of 2008, when Rob had gone 22-9 (tourney), 9-22, 14-16 in his first three years. The cupboard had been left bare by that shyster Pearl (who, like Kowalczyk, took his recruits with him), and Bud gave Rob the benefit of the doubt there. Things definitely were moving in the right direction as far as wins were concerned, but two years with his own roster was too small a sample size. George Koonce did try to replace Rob, but the way he went about it was such an underhanded and manipulative move that even donors who weren't warm to Rob united with Jeter's backers and got him ousted before he could make it happen. Essentially, Koonce was going to fire all the assistants and then allow each coach (Jeter and Botham) to hire only one replacement, forcing them to quit rather than work with an NAIA D-II sized staff. It's all okay, though, because Koonce got ousted and he was very much not the guy that we thought we were getting when we hired him. I have intimate knowledge, since I was on the Search and Screen Committee that recommended the hire of Koonce and I was one of the people that checked his references. Dave Gilbert is the chair of the UWM Foundation that raises money for the university, he wasn't going to make any big splashes in hirings/firings. He's still here and is doing a great job raising cash for all the schools and buildings that are going up as the university expands in a big way. Rick Costello was an empty shirt who said he had a lot of things that he didn't have. I'm sure he would have picked his own guy, but he never even tried to restructure Rob's deal to make it possible and then he screwed up royally by not firing the men's soccer coach, Whalley, who turned out to be a nightmare for the players. That was Costello's undoing when the players went public. Andy Geiger may have gotten there, but he was always working on a 13-month contract and I'm certain he wasn't going to be bothered with picking a winning coach. He did, however, get Jeter's deal restructured so that a buyout isn't out of the question - we may have more money than GB, but buying out a coach with a 460k/year contract is still out of our price range - in any case, Jeter's last few years have made his ouster as coach pretty much out of the question unless you're a diehard Panther fan who expects nothing less than Pearl-level glory years often. In all seriousness, Rob Jeter is 88-80 in his last five years, 80-56 if you throw out that odd 8-24 season, with three postseason appearances, one at each level - top tier NCAA, second tier NIT, third tier CBI - and I don't think any team in the Horizon League over that span would fire their coach. I absolutely get the arguments against, but take those numbers to any HL school, or even Butler, over that span and I just don't see anyone ousting him. The only time I could have seen it happen was after the 2012-13 season, but we were in transition and no outgoing or incoming AD is going to make that decisions in their first or last month on the job.
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Post by PantherU on Sept 24, 2014 10:42:00 GMT -6
I keep reading that Bothof was excellent at fund raising. Where did this idea come from? The Kress Center was built with $15 million from raising student fees. Those fees were voted on by the students in the late 90's and implemented around 2000 before Bothof arrived. The Kress also received something like 7.5 million was from the state. Bothof raised the remaining 10 million or so. Now that is nothing to sneeze at but when there have been no other major facility improvements and with an overall low budget I would say he wasn't a great fund raiser when considering he was there for 10+ years. With that said he did have a good eye for hiring coaches. He did also run a department that prioritized having true student athletes as the GPA is always solid. I really think MEG is going to circles around the fund raising efforts of Bothof. I also remember Amanda Braun from my time in athletics at GB. Having met MEG I think she is going to be a better fund raiser than Braun as well. MEG is a saleswoman but doesn't make you feel dirty. Braun felt like more of an administrator. From what I understand, Bothof was adept at raising money that went directly towards the operating budget. What you have to remember is the setting. UWGB, from a purely athletics standpoint, looks to be among peers in the Horizon League. It's a good liberal arts school with a great GPA for incoming students, the only real choice for anyone that stays in the Brown County area, and it achieves at a high level in men's basketball and some Olympic sports. Women's basketball is a whole other beast entirely, to loop its achievements in with any of the other sports would do that program a disservice. The Green Bay market is just under the midway point of the conference in size - not the behemoth Chicago or Detroit markets, not the next tier Milwaukee or Cleveland markets, not far behind Dayton but definitely bigger than Youngstown and Valparaiso. It looks like it fits. But raising $10 million for the Kress and keeping the Division I program afloat are huge achievements, bigger than any conference title or NCAA Tournament from the women's team. This is where having 6,500 students comes into play. Let's say that Green Bay and, say, UIC both make $6 million of income from ticket sales, TV deals, corporate sponsorships etc. Say they each need to boost their budgets by $2 million. Well, UIC can boost that budget by increasing segregated fees on its 28,091 (wikipedia) students by $71.20 per year, or $35.60 per student per semester. For Green Bay to get that same $2 million increase from its 6,700 (wikipedia) students, they'd need to raise student segregated fees by $298.51 per student per year, or $149.25 per semester per student. Could they do it? Sure, but Green Bay students are going to be a lot more pissed and revolt for having to sink another $150 in athletics that a majority don't care about; hell, even those that do care would be angry. I would have been angry if I got bumped $150 just to raise our budget. Are UIC students even going to notice $35.60 a semester? I doubt it. The only ones who would really raise a stink about it, no one listens to anyways. At private schools like Valpo and Detroit, they can bury $150 increases to athletics in their $30,000 per year tuitions and no one bats an eye. We're all public schools, where $150 looks like a bunch of cash. The point I'm making here is that you get a quality UW education at Green Bay, but its enrollment is the main reason why it has the budget that it does - perhaps the $7.44 million budget is stretched absolutely as far as it can go. If it is, then a lot more of that fundraising money is going directly toward paying for the department to stay afloat. UIC has that huge budget of $14.1 million because it can afford to, not just because it's in a big market.
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Post by gbbrl97 on Sept 24, 2014 19:42:23 GMT -6
Since I graduated from GB in 1997, I always complained that an enrollment of 6500 is too small for GB. It is the 3rd largest metro area in Wisconsin and most of WI's population is in a triangle from GB to Madison and to the Milwaukee/SE WI. UW-Oshkosh is more than twice the size of GB and is in DIII and is the largest UW school not named UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee. The only 2 UW schools that are smaller than GB are UW-Parkside and UW-Superior.
GB should be at least the size of Eau Claire, La Crosse, or Whitewater in terms of enrollment based on the population density of east and SE WI
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Post by GBPhoenix1 on Sept 25, 2014 5:50:17 GMT -6
I would suggest that Bothof raised money but he wasn't a master fund raiser. The Phoenix Fund for example went from 150k/yr when he started to 450k/yr or so. Now that is a nice percentage jump but starting with such a low point it still ends a low point.
I heard an interview with John Calipari a long time ago. He referenced one of his first meetings when he was hired at Memphis. He met with the president of FedEx. To paraphrase he asked the president how much do you want to win? The obvious answer was a lot. Calipari then told how much money they needed to do that and asked for a check, which they apparently received.
Now I know the situations are different but I don't see GB bleeding the corporate community. I see them doing mostly the same things year over year and doing a slow growth strategy to which I would say that isn't master fund raising.
Also, I fully understand the seg fee issue. Keep in mind the university enrollment was 5500 when I started in the mid 90's and is now listed at 6500. So we can't give Bothof credit for any department revenue increases that come from 1000 extra students paying seg fees.
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Post by phearthephoenix on Aug 14, 2019 13:35:29 GMT -6
This is a big blow for UWGB. Chancellor Miller is heading to the University of Akron.
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Post by GBPhoenix1 on Aug 14, 2019 21:05:33 GMT -6
Akron is a total disaster right now. At his age this is likely his last big job, hopefully for Akron he leaves as much of a mark as he did at GB. The next chancellor has big shoes to fill given all of the momentum gained in the last 5 years
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