Welcome Back Ed Kull!

Was great being there today. Excitement was obvious...also it was very nice to hear Joe Oliva, Father Shanley and Ed Kull all praise and thank John Diffley who has served as interim AD. He's going to be sticking around and I'm sure will be vital in the transition. After the press conference there was a media scrum with Ed for about 20 minutes.

He focused on the importance of fundraising. Not shying away from the reality of NIL. I asked him about his relationship with Mike Repole and he said his hope is that other alumni see Mike Repole chipping in and also jump on board. He said his plan in the first 100 days basically is to really rally alumni in the tri state.

My biggest takeaway as someone who just met Ed today, but has heard about him for years, is that he's got the personality and attitude for the job. He feels like he's a natural fit.

He met with all the coaches of the university before his press conference and it seems like he's going to hit the ground running. Spoke about the new basketball facility being state of the art and top notch. I think he was careful to not make an grandiose statements that'll bite him in the ass later on. He stressed the importance of winning now, he stressed the importance of maximizing Rick Pitino's time but most of all winning now so we are set up after Pitino retires.

All in all, it was a fun afternoon and I'm excited for the future. Welcome home Ed Kull
 
Think he's a great fit.

A friend of mine, was a grad asst with Kull and they became friends and still stay in touch regularly.

No info, but he suspects it will be sooner than later, perhaps as Big East season unfolds that there would be some type of early donor (not NIL) and / or sponsorship win with Repole to get momentum going with others.

We'll see.
 
Reasonable presumption. Not quite a package deal but I'm certain Repole ardently advocated for Kull with Shanley and Vaupel, with a very short string dangling the carrot. Keep in mind Repole's style is "If you do this, I'll do that." He said h e promised $10 or $20 mm towards a CA rehab if we hired the lesser Hurley. Stakes raised considerably as has his wealth. $25 million towards the Repole basketball facility sounds fair, but might be closer to $10mm. $50mm towards a CA major rehab might get his name on the building. Go big MR and get Kull a huge win.
 
While the press conference was a bunch of platitudes, a ton of thank yous, and not a ton of substance (or seats), what is very clear is just how well liked Ed is by staff from his prior tenure. The question of whether he will fit in here is already answered.

He is a Queens native, middle village, Our Lady of Hope grammar, Molloy hs, Stony Brook undergrad, and SJU grad.

Unless something unforeseen, expect a long tenure. Best of luck to him.
 
mjmaherjr said:
#johnnielobsterrolls, #johnnieIPAS are going to send us into the stratosphere
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Rumor has it Kull is now getting texted to invite Jessica Alba for the UConn game & MSG, more frequently than Cragg got nasty emails for seatbacks, beer & firing CMA.

#MaherDarkAngel, #MJMHoney
 
RedStormNC said:
Rumor has it Kull is now getting texted to invite Jessica Alba for the UConn game & MSG, more frequently than Cragg got nasty emails for seatbacks, beer & firing CMA.

#MaherDarkAngel, #MJMHoney
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To be fair Craig did get very nice emails from me thanking him for the beer sales at CA and also a free offer from me to get on the roof with a chainsaw and cut holes into the roof to let hot air out where even he said that was an interesting outside the box idea :)
 
Since Ed Kull has joined the staff every varsity sport is undefeated and ranked nationally, we have raised $1 billion for new arenas in all sports including domed stadiums, and all tickets will be free.

I get the enthusiasm and all that but let's be real with expectations. Fordham sports essentially sucked overall and not even sure other than an occasional one off from a team sustained success not achieved.

School was anxious to move Cragg out for whatever reason since many close to the program thought he did a good job. I'm not even refuting their clisely held reasons but his departure did not exactly create a clamor of qualified applicants wanting this job.

We don't exactly pay staff a lot, even in leadership positions. Even if we did, consider that Villanova, similarly with 1 rev producing sport but flush with cash, lost their competent AD to a Big Ten school that guaranteed its prior AD a minimum salary of the Big 10 median of ADs ($1.4 million). I'd bet the house Nova will pay their new AD more than Kull.

The point is that what SJU is selling to us is NOT a record of on the field excellence, but Kulls ability to raise $. Kull did poach our Athletic deoartment's major gift officer Paul Sclafani, 3 years ago, just as a facilities fund raising initiative was getting underway giving him a nice bump in pay.

Since Kull worked in development here and based on what the school is emphasizing, the reasonable goal will be for Kull to work with development to raise more money. That will mean attracting more major gift benefactors and larger gifts from existing donors. If that happens, he will fulfill expectations.

The other stuff is all a push between Kull and his predecessor. At SJU major hires are always done by committee and coaching hires severely restricted by salary.

I appreciate the positive vibe here but a more reasonable expectation is more or less status quo in operation but an increase in athletic fund raising. Its nonsense to attribute a twitter change in reporting on practices to Kull, since this is the responsibility of others and really moves no needles anyway.
 
Clearly we brought him in to raise $ first & foremost. And that is def what we need to look for in this new CBB world. But I also hope fan engagement is totally revamped both on social media & creating real incentives to get students/alums out to games regularly.

1) Social Media: It’s widely known across Big East that we are perhaps the weakest in this area. Every offseason, we see other BE schools creating amazingly unique & creative ways to release schedule & make content. Some even make headlines for this e.g. Sports Illustrated. Being in biggest city & market in US there’s no reason to be so poor here.

2) Incentives: Create programs to encourage alums, students, etc. to truly want to come out regularly. Popularize it. You’d be surprised how much a $50 Chikfila giftcard or $50+ school store giftcard could motivate students. I remember being a broke college kid and I know for sure students quickly talk about these giveaways if they’re worth it. Half off Qdoba burrito won’t cut it!
 
Mike Zaun Returns said:
Clearly we brought him in to raise $ first & foremost. And that is def what we need to look for in this new CBB world. But I also hope fan engagement is totally revamped both on social media & creating real incentives to get students/alums out to games regularly.

1) Social Media: It’s widely known across Big East that we are perhaps the weakest in this area. Every offseason, we see other BE schools creating amazingly unique & creative ways to release schedule & make content. Some even make headlines for this e.g. Sports Illustrated. Being in biggest city & market in US there’s no reason to be so poor here.

2) Incentives: Create programs to encourage alums, students, etc. to truly want to come out regularly. Popularize it. You’d be surprised how much a $50 Chikfila giftcard or $50+ school store giftcard could motivate students. I remember being a broke college kid and I know for sure students quickly talk about these giveaways if they’re worth it. Half off Qdoba burrito won’t cut it!
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Clearly free tickets at CA aren't enough for some students. I propose NIL to support students. Maybe not $200K per year but maybe $25K and transportation service from the dorms to CA. If the school bought a ChikFilA it could cut the vost of giving some to students for free. 😀
 
I know I’ve said this before but a while back when I was seeing how much other schools invested in fan incentives (albeit MSU, etc), it was wayyyy more than we invested. Is there a consultant firm that can help? Sadly we probably keep the same people in positions where they seem to just “go with the flow”.

For the Netflix viewers, you’ve probably seen the series where they follow college or pro teams around behind scenes (and during games). I always wondered why Val wouldn’t try pitching a Big East series featuring a diff team each time to Netflix, Prime, Peacock, etc. I guarantee it would get tons of viewers & help promote branding.

Hopefully Kull is willing to get much more creative! Honestly losing faith in Val. Comes off as just on cruise control. Like Apple after Steve Jobs.
 
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