Anderson - is he really the guy ?

[SJU Double Alumn]

Again, to tough to deal with the quote function with multiple posts. Beast to the best of my knowledge, the capital gains hit as a NY resident is somewhere in the range of 35% with federal, state, obamacare surcharge, etc added up. Just an FYI. As for the fans doing their part, Cragg just went on Twitter and said that season ticket sales are up 33% over last year, so it seems to me that the fans are doing thier part. Now, I expect to hear "that's not enough", which begs 2 questions; how much is enough(to get an upgrade to the facilities)? And why is so much of this burden being placed on fans? I don't get it. And usually(not always) when i don't get something, it means something's not right about it. 

There are some naive assumptions here and in the prior post. Men's basketball brings in some decent revenue, much more than at a non-major school, but as a percentage of the University's budget it isn't that substantial. Donations and the endowment are much more significant.
I'm all for spending the $60-80 million or so to upgrade our basketball facilities, but you seem to think that the administration can just snap its fingers and there it is. This would be a massive effort to get the funding to do this. We would likely need far more in alumni donation than Repole ever has given or seemed likely to ever give, something from the endowment, and debt. And there would be risk involved that has to be weighed against other alternatives. It's great that you advocate this but if you have a good plan for how to get there, I don't see it from you.

I'll tell you what I've told Beast and others, it's not by job to figure this stuff out. That's the job of the people at the school who get paid big bucks to do that. Having said that, if there was an actual plan in place(IE a fundraising drive earmarked for new facilities, a specific plan with a goal, etc), maybe I would feel more confident that the school was actually serious about upgrading the facilities and the program. But all I've heard so far is what sounds like total BS to me. "Take our word for it and just buy more tickets and send us more donations", etc.  Thats BS to me. When the school talk about "national championships", without taiking about how they plan on elevating our program to that level, that's also BS to me. Obviously you, and whoever, are entitled to believe whatever you chose. 

I've never seen anything from the school along the lines of "take our word for it" about upgrading facilities. What exactly are you talking about?

 

[monte]

Again, to tough to deal with the quote function with multiple posts. Beast to the best of my knowledge, the capital gains hit as a NY resident is somewhere in the range of 35% with federal, state, obamacare surcharge, etc added up. Just an FYI. As for the fans doing their part, Cragg just went on Twitter and said that season ticket sales are up 33% over last year, so it seems to me that the fans are doing thier part. Now, I expect to hear "that's not enough", which begs 2 questions; how much is enough(to get an upgrade to the facilities)? And why is so much of this burden being placed on fans? I don't get it. And usually(not always) when i don't get something, it means something's not right about it. 

There are some naive assumptions here and in the prior post. Men's basketball brings in some decent revenue, much more than at a non-major school, but as a percentage of the University's budget it isn't that substantial. Donations and the endowment are much more significant.
I'm all for spending the $60-80 million or so to upgrade our basketball facilities, but you seem to think that the administration can just snap its fingers and there it is. This would be a massive effort to get the funding to do this. We would likely need far more in alumni donation than Repole ever has given or seemed likely to ever give, something from the endowment, and debt. And there would be risk involved that has to be weighed against other alternatives. It's great that you advocate this but if you have a good plan for how to get there, I don't see it from you.

I'll tell you what I've told Beast and others, it's not by job to figure this stuff out. That's the job of the people at the school who get paid big bucks to do that. Having said that, if there was an actual plan in place(IE a fundraising drive earmarked for new facilities, a specific plan with a goal, etc), maybe I would feel more confident that the school was actually serious about upgrading the facilities and the program. But all I've heard so far is what sounds like total BS to me. "Take our word for it and just buy more tickets and send us more donations", etc.  Thats BS to me. When the school talk about "national championships", without taiking about how they plan on elevating our program to that level, that's also BS to me. Obviously you, and whoever, are entitled to believe whatever you chose. 

I've never seen anything from the school along the lines of "take our word for it" about upgrading facilities. What exactly are you talking about?

Its Christmas eve so I'm not in a very argumentative mood, but it has been expressed on this board countless times that we cannot compete for recruits with other top programs due to our facilities. Maybe I assumed, incorrectly,  that the school understood this, and was looking to do something about it. Maybe they're not, in which case what is it that additional donations and increased ticket sales revenue will go towards? 

 

[RedStormNC]

Monte is correct.

Don't talk about conference champs, final fours etc. if you realize the infrastructure is not there to legitimately do so and there is little to nothing on immediate horizon to make significant change to help you achieve it. 

No offense to the Fencing team, who wins, and other teams doing well,  but that's not what Cragg & Anderson were brought here for. Cragg was hired in Fall 2018..  3+ years ago. Read the press release of Cragg's 5 yr contract extension from this past April. 

Nice start, cultural change for sure,, but since 2018 has there been transformational change in infrastructure or performance at speeds we should expect or just still trying to play catch up? Master plans on paper are useless if not driving them and the University support ($) to do so. Rather not hear about Covid as excuse. Every program had same cards dealt. Are we set up for success and change on the rebound, or will still be last out if the gates?


https://redstormsports.com/news/202...s-announces-contract-extension-for-mike-cragg

 

 

[SJU Double Alumn]

Monte is correct.

Don't talk about conference champs, final fours etc. if you realize the infrastructure is not there to legitimately do so and there is little to nothing on immediate horizon to make significant change to help you achieve it. 

No offense to the Fencing team, who wins, and other teams doing well,  but that's not what Cragg & Anderson were brought here for. Cragg was hired in Fall 2018..  3+ years ago. Read the press release of Cragg's 5 yr contract extension from this past April. 

Nice start, cultural change for sure,, but since 2018 has there been transformational change in infrastructure or performance at speeds we should expect or just still trying to play catch up? Master plans on paper are useless if not driving them and the University support ($) to do so. Rather not hear about Covid as excuse. Every program had same cards dealt. Are we set up for success and change on the rebound, or will still be last out if the gates?


https://redstormsports.com/news/202...s-announces-contract-extension-for-mike-cragg


 

There was nothing in that link that talked about conference championships, final fours, or transformational change through facilities. I've never heard anyone at St. John's say they were committing to building new state-of-the-art facilities. Donations and ticket prices are for what all schools use donations and ticket revenue. We don't get nearly enough in donations to build all-new facilities. People here should be more realistic. If the University is going to spend the money to build new facilities, it will be a massive endeavor that will take time. The planning alone and the preparation needed just to make the decision to move ahead with it will take time. I'm all for it but I don't expect it to happen overnight.

 

[RedStormNC]

Proud Alumn - I'm a proud alumn too, albeit a disappointed one. Everyone make too many excuses for lack of change.  

Until this school realizes that their brand and cultural identity is the storied basketball program, and not the e-gaming major, and invests in what their brand is, then the brand will die.

sure its, education, its Vincentian mission at its core,, but modern day reality is this school is known for basketball and needs to invest in it and not at a turtle's pace..

Treat it like a premium brand, a business and it will succeed.

Beast noted the dungeon in Carnesecca. I know it all to well.. can't imagine it practicallly unchanged 25 years later and a weight room/ gym that players have to rotate to use...or a shared locker, or coaches sharing shoebox sized offices. It was that way 25 years ago. Will it be that way 25 years from now, or will it not matter by then?

Complacency should not be accepted.

 

[weathermannyc]

Again, to tough to deal with the quote function with multiple posts. Beast to the best of my knowledge, the capital gains hit as a NY resident is somewhere in the range of 35% with federal, state, obamacare surcharge, etc added up. Just an FYI. As for the fans doing their part, Cragg just went on Twitter and said that season ticket sales are up 33% over last year, so it seems to me that the fans are doing thier part. Now, I expect to hear "that's not enough", which begs 2 questions; how much is enough(to get an upgrade to the facilities)? And why is so much of this burden being placed on fans? I don't get it. And usually(not always) when i don't get something, it means something's not right about it. 

There are some naive assumptions here and in the prior post. Men's basketball brings in some decent revenue, much more than at a non-major school, but as a percentage of the University's budget it isn't that substantial. Donations and the endowment are much more significant.
I'm all for spending the $60-80 million or so to upgrade our basketball facilities, but you seem to think that the administration can just snap its fingers and there it is. This would be a massive effort to get the funding to do this. We would likely need far more in alumni donation than Repole ever has given or seemed likely to ever give, something from the endowment, and debt. And there would be risk involved that has to be weighed against other alternatives. It's great that you advocate this but if you have a good plan for how to get there, I don't see it from you.

I'll tell you what I've told Beast and others, it's not by job to figure this stuff out. That's the job of the people at the school who get paid big bucks to do that. Having said that, if there was an actual plan in place(IE a fundraising drive earmarked for new facilities, a specific plan with a goal, etc), maybe I would feel more confident that the school was actually serious about upgrading the facilities and the program. But all I've heard so far is what sounds like total BS to me. "Take our word for it and just buy more tickets and send us more donations", etc.  Thats BS to me. When the school talk about "national championships", without taiking about how they plan on elevating our program to that level, that's also BS to me. Obviously you, and whoever, are entitled to believe whatever you chose. 

Agree with Monte.  If there were actual plans in place (contingent on a fundraising drive) then I think that a lot of people would get out the checkbook when they saw that there were serious plans in place for an upgrade that would significantly improve the gameday experience on campus for fans and day to day support for the players and coaches.

I'm not an expert on any of this, but I have heard from many places that with college campuses in general it is an arms race for overall student experience in terms of dorms, dining and entertainment. You have to have the infrastructure already in place to be able to recruit at the highest level possible because kids are always looking for the next best thing.

 

[SLYFOXX1968]

Not sure how it was done at Providence by Fr Shanley but , he got Dunkin to rebuild or renovate  their Playing Arena into a nice Facility .    Many here are advocating the substantial $$$$ to invest  in improved CA and improved On Campus Training rooms , Weight rooms , Coaches Offices , Carpeted locker rooms with more than 2 hot showers , etc .                 
   I have a suggestion , worthy only from one of the old guys .    I drove past yesterday the UBS Arena on the Cross Island on my way home in 15 hours on Rt 95 .   It was a 2 day journey that blew up all our Christmas plans in NY .   A daughter in law tested Positive .      But , I digress .       UBS has all the outward appearance of a first class building .    My plan is this, forget about playing any more Home Games at CA ! Ever !   Play all non MSG games there .   Make a $$$$ Investment to install new SJU locker rooms , Trainer Rooms , etc .at UBS .    As I understand it , only the Icelanders play there . No Pro BB .  See , I still remember Steve Somersault of FAN . Despite being out of NY for 10 years .                  Set a overall ST Johns $ 100 Million $$$  Fund Raising Plan . Which FR Shanley and the Board are likely already formulating .   Big $$$ donors  are needed but , it’s disappointing to learn only 4 percent of Current Alumni donate anything !         All of you who owe some portion of Career Success to St John’s could afford $25 or $50 a year or whatever .  You NY people spend more than that at MSG for a Import Beer and a Hot Dog,, popcorn during a game .  Don’t you ?     Or , become a really big contributor at the $50 or $ 100 dollar level . If 1/2 the Alumni base of 104,000 contributed something more than Nothing , it would go a long way to improving every thing about the School including BB . Why not make that a Christmas and New Year’s pledge . Merry Christmas . 

 

[bamafan]

Monte is correct.

Don't talk about conference champs, final fours etc. if you realize the infrastructure is not there to legitimately do so and there is little to nothing on immediate horizon to make significant change to help you achieve it. 

No offense to the Fencing team, who wins, and other teams doing well,  but that's not what Cragg & Anderson were brought here for. Cragg was hired in Fall 2018..  3+ years ago. Read the press release of Cragg's 5 yr contract extension from this past April. 

Nice start, cultural change for sure,, but since 2018 has there been transformational change in infrastructure or performance at speeds we should expect or just still trying to play catch up? Master plans on paper are useless if not driving them and the University support ($) to do so. Rather not hear about Covid as excuse. Every program had same cards dealt. Are we set up for success and change on the rebound, or will still be last out if the gates?


https://redstormsports.com/news/202...s-announces-contract-extension-for-mike-cragg



 

There was nothing in that link that talked about conference championships, final fours, or transformational change through facilities. I've never heard anyone at St. John's say they were committing to building new state-of-the-art facilities. Donations and ticket prices are for what all schools use donations and ticket revenue. We don't get nearly enough in donations to build all-new facilities. People here should be more realistic. If the University is going to spend the money to build new facilities, it will be a massive endeavor that will take time. The planning alone and the preparation needed just to make the decision to move ahead with it will take time. I'm all for it but I don't expect it to happen overnight.

Overnight? LOL They have been talking about it since the mid 80's when Laskowski (?) was SID.

 

[RedStormNC]

great suggestion SlyFox.  A campaign with a clear vision. UBS / MSG combo too.Love it.  

Flip side, they repeat the same playbook of flooding paper & emails with the same script about the athletic dept asking for donations sent to those who already donate. Sometimes I get so frequently I forget and just pitch in again.

What's that definition of insanity again that sometimes gets attributed to Einstein? Oh yeah, doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

 

[beast of the east]

great suggestion SlyFox.  A campaign with a clear vision. UBS / MSG combo too.Love it.  

Flip side, they repeat the same playbook of flooding paper & emails with the same script about the athletic dept asking for donations sent to those who already donate. Sometimes I get so frequently I forget and just pitch in again.

What's that definition of insanity again that sometimes gets attributed to Einstein? Oh yeah, doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

I recently addressed this issue with Chris Vaupel at SJU and 4-5 other very prominent people.  The answer is the same.   They are aware and trying to centralize email blasts.  A huge part of the problem is data.   We need a sophisticated alumni database and bigger investment in analytics and marketing to do a much better job.    

I addressed it not as a gripe of mine, but figured if this is annoying me, it is annoying others.    It is very hard to move a university out of the stone age, but I have a level of confidence that with new leadership things are getting better.

 

[RedStormNC]

Speaking of correspondence. just 2+ years ago when my daughter was applying to colleges the mail and email correspondence from the SJU admissions dept. was horrible.
When she once had a deeper question and wanted to know who her admissions counselor was, it was like musical chairs. 3 or 4 different people responded with different answers as to who her counselor was. The on campus admissions session visit was the most generic she experienced too. Reading off a PowerPoint slide in an unlit room in admissions office. I was embarassed as my daughter loved SJU and followed the team since she was a kid.

Just a month a ago, a year and a half after graduating HS,  admissions mail came to our house about general application info as if she was still in HS. Talk about poor databases...what a waste of money.

Seton Hall, surprisingly, was one of the best my daughter saw communications wise. They had the marketing, timing and connectivity down really well close in line with some of the higher ranked schools she was applying to and you would expect a tight and well run admissions operation.

It's systemic. So frustrating they never can get the basics right across so many areas of the university to take next steps forward.

 

[bamafan]

SHOCKING /media/kunena/emoticons/w00t.png

 

[SJU Double Alumn]

Not sure how it was done at Providence by Fr Shanley but , he got Dunkin to rebuild or renovate  their Playing Arena into a nice Facility .    Many here are advocating the substantial $$$$ to invest  in improved CA and improved On Campus Training rooms , Weight rooms , Coaches Offices , Carpeted locker rooms with more than 2 hot showers , etc .                 
   I have a suggestion , worthy only from one of the old guys .    I drove past yesterday the UBS Arena on the Cross Island on my way home in 15 hours on Rt 95 .   It was a 2 day journey that blew up all our Christmas plans in NY .   A daughter in law tested Positive .      But , I digress .       UBS has all the outward appearance of a first class building .    My plan is this, forget about playing any more Home Games at CA ! Ever !   Play all non MSG games there .   Make a $$$$ Investment to install new SJU locker rooms , Trainer Rooms , etc .at UBS .    As I understand it , only the Icelanders play there . No Pro BB .  See , I still remember Steve Somersault of FAN . Despite being out of NY for 10 years .                  Set a overall ST Johns $ 100 Million $$$  Fund Raising Plan . Which FR Shanley and the Board are likely already formulating .   Big $$$ donors  are needed but , it’s disappointing to learn only 4 percent of Current Alumni donate anything !         All of you who owe some portion of Career Success to St John’s could afford $25 or $50 a year or whatever .  You NY people spend more than that at MSG for a Import Beer and a Hot Dog,, popcorn during a game .  Don’t you ?     Or , become a really big contributor at the $50 or $ 100 dollar level . If 1/2 the Alumni base of 104,000 contributed something more than Nothing , it would go a long way to improving every thing about the School including BB . Why not make that a Christmas and New Year’s pledge . Merry Christmas . 

Won't happen. Not financially feasible. We are not going to lose money by playing NJIT at the UBS Arena. But I and others have expressed hope that a few games a year (DePaul like?) can be moved to UBS.

If half the alumni base averaged a $100 donation, we would raise about $10 million. That's not going to do it.

 

[SJU Double Alumn]

Proud Alumn - I'm a proud alumn too, albeit a disappointed one. Everyone make too many excuses for lack of change.  

Until this school realizes that their brand and cultural identity is the storied basketball program, and not the e-gaming major, and invests in what their brand is, then the brand will die.

sure its, education, its Vincentian mission at its core,, but modern day reality is this school is known for basketball and needs to invest in it and not at a turtle's pace..

Treat it like a premium brand, a business and it will succeed.

Beast noted the dungeon in Carnesecca. I know it all to well.. can't imagine it practicallly unchanged 25 years later and a weight room/ gym that players have to rotate to use...or a shared locker, or coaches sharing shoebox sized offices. It was that way 25 years ago. Will it be that way 25 years from now, or will it not matter by then?

Complacency should not be accepted.

Shanley is aware that Carnesseca Arena and the facilities are an embarrassment. Even more important that the CA court and seating are the player dorms.
Providence took ten years before securing the funding for its new athletic facilities, and then another three years to build. Again, I'm all for St. John's doing this, and I think we finally have leadership that will take it on, but it won't happen overnight.

 

[monte]

Again, to tough to deal with the quote function with multiple posts. Beast to the best of my knowledge, the capital gains hit as a NY resident is somewhere in the range of 35% with federal, state, obamacare surcharge, etc added up. Just an FYI. As for the fans doing their part, Cragg just went on Twitter and said that season ticket sales are up 33% over last year, so it seems to me that the fans are doing thier part. Now, I expect to hear "that's not enough", which begs 2 questions; how much is enough(to get an upgrade to the facilities)? And why is so much of this burden being placed on fans? I don't get it. And usually(not always) when i don't get something, it means something's not right about it. 

There are some naive assumptions here and in the prior post. Men's basketball brings in some decent revenue, much more than at a non-major school, but as a percentage of the University's budget it isn't that substantial. Donations and the endowment are much more significant.
I'm all for spending the $60-80 million or so to upgrade our basketball facilities, but you seem to think that the administration can just snap its fingers and there it is. This would be a massive effort to get the funding to do this. We would likely need far more in alumni donation than Repole ever has given or seemed likely to ever give, something from the endowment, and debt. And there would be risk involved that has to be weighed against other alternatives. It's great that you advocate this but if you have a good plan for how to get there, I don't see it from you.

I'll tell you what I've told Beast and others, it's not by job to figure this stuff out. That's the job of the people at the school who get paid big bucks to do that. Having said that, if there was an actual plan in place(IE a fundraising drive earmarked for new facilities, a specific plan with a goal, etc), maybe I would feel more confident that the school was actually serious about upgrading the facilities and the program. But all I've heard so far is what sounds like total BS to me. "Take our word for it and just buy more tickets and send us more donations", etc.  Thats BS to me. When the school talk about "national championships", without taiking about how they plan on elevating our program to that level, that's also BS to me. Obviously you, and whoever, are entitled to believe whatever you chose. 

Agree with Monte.  If there were actual plans in place (contingent on a fundraising drive) then I think that a lot of people would get out the checkbook when they saw that there were serious plans in place for an upgrade that would significantly improve the gameday experience on campus for fans and day to day support for the players and coaches.

I'm not an expert on any of this, but I have heard from many places that with college campuses in general it is an arms race for overall student experience in terms of dorms, dining and entertainment. You have to have the infrastructure already in place to be able to recruit at the highest level possible because kids are always looking for the next best thing.

Great to see you posting WM. We have never been able to offer what a lot of other schools offer. If a kid is looking for "the next best thing",' we're not the right school for him. Yet that has never stopped us from recruiting talent before, and it shouldn't be an excuse now IMO. Times have changed but it always seems like SJU is behind the curve when it comes to change. We are in the financial capitol of the world. As RMNC and other have said, the school needs to figure out how to create partnership with large financial institutions that can compensate kids, offer internships, etc. Other types of strategic partnerships could pay huge dividends as well . Not sure how all of that works. I also don't know how naming rights for an arena works, but I would think that's something that should be up for discussion if it hasn't already been discussed.  If new facilities are unrealistic, then the school needs to figure out what is realistic, and focus on that. Again, all I keep hearing is "donate more money and buy more tickets", which rings extremely hollow to me. 

 

[RedStormNC]

Proud Alumn - I'm a proud alumn too, albeit a disappointed one. Everyone make too many excuses for lack of change.  

Until this school realizes that their brand and cultural identity is the storied basketball program, and not the e-gaming major, and invests in what their brand is, then the brand will die.

sure its, education, its Vincentian mission at its core,, but modern day reality is this school is known for basketball and needs to invest in it and not at a turtle's pace..

Treat it like a premium brand, a business and it will succeed.

Beast noted the dungeon in Carnesecca. I know it all to well.. can't imagine it practicallly unchanged 25 years later and a weight room/ gym that players have to rotate to use...or a shared locker, or coaches sharing shoebox sized offices. It was that way 25 years ago. Will it be that way 25 years from now, or will it not matter by then?

Complacency should not be accepted.

Shanley is aware that Carnesseca Arena and the facilities are an embarrassment. Even more important that the CA court and seating are the player dorms.
Providence took ten years before securing the funding for its new athletic facilities, and then another three years to build. Again, I'm all for St. John's doing this, and I think we finally have leadership that will take it on, but it won't happen overnight.

Ok...let's go with player dorms. Not athletic facilities, seats in CA etc.

If this is potentially #1 issue/need, and not nearly as expensive as so many other needs, why has this investment not yet been made for your flagship program to help attract recruits?

Yet, we'll spend $ on new carpeting in lobby of CA, or new entrance signs by baseball field and posting that on social media as some huge success and sign of progress.

See what I'm saying ? Its about priorities, vision calculated risks and action.

I dont know who is on the board and all their backgrounds, but perhaps too many alumns with law and insurance and accounting degrees who are too risk adverse by nature. I say that myself being more risk adverse by nature but recognize and appreciate the flip side when needed and right move to change course.

Innovators and entrepreneurs are who change things.



 

 

[monte]

Not sure how it was done at Providence by Fr Shanley but , he got Dunkin to rebuild or renovate  their Playing Arena into a nice Facility .    Many here are advocating the substantial $$$$ to invest  in improved CA and improved On Campus Training rooms , Weight rooms , Coaches Offices , Carpeted locker rooms with more than 2 hot showers , etc .                 
   I have a suggestion , worthy only from one of the old guys .    I drove past yesterday the UBS Arena on the Cross Island on my way home in 15 hours on Rt 95 .   It was a 2 day journey that blew up all our Christmas plans in NY .   A daughter in law tested Positive .      But , I digress .       UBS has all the outward appearance of a first class building .    My plan is this, forget about playing any more Home Games at CA ! Ever !   Play all non MSG games there .   Make a $$$$ Investment to install new SJU locker rooms , Trainer Rooms , etc .at UBS .    As I understand it , only the Icelanders play there . No Pro BB .  See , I still remember Steve Somersault of FAN . Despite being out of NY for 10 years .                  Set a overall ST Johns $ 100 Million $$$  Fund Raising Plan . Which FR Shanley and the Board are likely already formulating .   Big $$$ donors  are needed but , it’s disappointing to learn only 4 percent of Current Alumni donate anything !         All of you who owe some portion of Career Success to St John’s could afford $25 or $50 a year or whatever .  You NY people spend more than that at MSG for a Import Beer and a Hot Dog,, popcorn during a game .  Don’t you ?     Or , become a really big contributor at the $50 or $ 100 dollar level . If 1/2 the Alumni base of 104,000 contributed something more than Nothing , it would go a long way to improving every thing about the School including BB . Why not make that a Christmas and New Year’s pledge . Merry Christmas . 

I hear you SF, but I have this theory about donating; people should donate because they want to, not because they owe anyone anything. Least of all a school that charges a very good tuition. It's always great to give back, but people shouldn't do it out of obligation, guilt or peer pressure. I'm sure I'm in the minority on this. 
 

 

[beast of the east]

Again, to tough to deal with the quote function with multiple posts. Beast to the best of my knowledge, the capital gains hit as a NY resident is somewhere in the range of 35% with federal, state, obamacare surcharge, etc added up. Just an FYI. As for the fans doing their part, Cragg just went on Twitter and said that season ticket sales are up 33% over last year, so it seems to me that the fans are doing thier part. Now, I expect to hear "that's not enough", which begs 2 questions; how much is enough(to get an upgrade to the facilities)? And why is so much of this burden being placed on fans? I don't get it. And usually(not always) when i don't get something, it means something's not right about it. 

There are some naive assumptions here and in the prior post. Men's basketball brings in some decent revenue, much more than at a non-major school, but as a percentage of the University's budget it isn't that substantial. Donations and the endowment are much more significant.
I'm all for spending the $60-80 million or so to upgrade our basketball facilities, but you seem to think that the administration can just snap its fingers and there it is. This would be a massive effort to get the funding to do this. We would likely need far more in alumni donation than Repole ever has given or seemed likely to ever give, something from the endowment, and debt. And there would be risk involved that has to be weighed against other alternatives. It's great that you advocate this but if you have a good plan for how to get there, I don't see it from you.

I'll tell you what I've told Beast and others, it's not by job to figure this stuff out. That's the job of the people at the school who get paid big bucks to do that. Having said that, if there was an actual plan in place(IE a fundraising drive earmarked for new facilities, a specific plan with a goal, etc), maybe I would feel more confident that the school was actually serious about upgrading the facilities and the program. But all I've heard so far is what sounds like total BS to me. "Take our word for it and just buy more tickets and send us more donations", etc.  Thats BS to me. When the school talk about "national championships", without taiking about how they plan on elevating our program to that level, that's also BS to me. Obviously you, and whoever, are entitled to believe whatever you chose. 

Agree with Monte.  If there were actual plans in place (contingent on a fundraising drive) then I think that a lot of people would get out the checkbook when they saw that there were serious plans in place for an upgrade that would significantly improve the gameday experience on campus for fans and day to day support for the players and coaches.

I'm not an expert on any of this, but I have heard from many places that with college campuses in general it is an arms race for overall student experience in terms of dorms, dining and entertainment. You have to have the infrastructure already in place to be able to recruit at the highest level possible because kids are always looking for the next best thing.

How many people here, among the most passionate fans, are ready to open the checkbook as soon as a plan is in place?   Would they state that publicly?

 

[monte]

Beast I think it depends on what the plan is, and what you mean by "open the checkbook". But let's say,
for instance, that the school announced that they had plans for new 10,000 seat on campus(or close to campus) arena provided they could raise X number of dollars and sell 8K season tickets in advance, I would immediately commit to purchasing 2 of the best seats in the house, and make an additional donation based on what I could afford at the time. 

 

[beast of the east]

Beast I think it depends on what the plan is, and what you mean by "open the checkbook". But let's say,
for instance, that the school announced that they had plans for new 10,000 seat on campus(or close to campus) arena provided they could raise X number of dollars and sell 8K season tickets in advance, I would immediately commit to purchasing 2 of the best seats in the house, and make an additional donation based on what I could afford at the time. 

I understand Monte.   I don't think we could possibly build a new on campus arena, since that by itself could cost $100 million.   We really don't need an arena of that size.    I sort of doubt that without a top 25 team we could sell 8K season tickets even if we were playing in the Taj Mahal.   Just keep in mind that when you do re-up, you start out with zero priority points, which you forfeit when you cancel season tix.

There is a plan.  This is going to happen.   Father Shanley is aware.   We have the worst facilities in the Big East and everyone, including our BE competitors are aware of it.