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Post by udshawn on Mar 22, 2024 12:42:27 GMT -5
What is going to happen? We all need to be writing letters and demanding more from Taylor. Same with trustees.
We are at a cross road. We can either shit the bed or get back to glory. In order for glory to happen, they need to do the following :
1) name change. Get over yourselves. No recruit wants to play for MERCY. Period.
2) complete marketing change. Use old logos, etc.
3) rename Calihan Hall to have a business buy the rights. We need capital.
4) reach out to donors, businesses, the Catholic Church, ask for money. The premise being we need 100 million to renovate the stadium, build a athletic training center, and a new dorm building for athletes. Facilities could be used by city and local churches for events and concerts.
5) add music as a degree. Pay scholarships to be band members. Need kids at games.
6) add staff to athletic department. Hire people who actually want to work and will be allowed to do so. Creative types.
7) get our brand in shops like Dicks, etc.
8) NIL pipeline.
9) hire a dj and or promoter for games.
10) each game needs to have a theme and/or promotion.
Winning with a local coach with local kids will help but we need action...and now. Can't get to winning if we don't have the horses. How do we the horses...better facilities, etc.
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Post by ptctitan on Mar 22, 2024 13:59:25 GMT -5
The myth of the local coach. Greg Kampe is from Defiance, OH. Dick Vitale is from New Jersey. Bob Calihan was from Chicago. Ray McCallum is from Indiana.
DeAndre Haynes is from Detroit, went to Detroit Southwestern, but in 2002, he chose to leave and play at Kent State instead of for Perry Watson. Except for his 2 years at Michigan, he has lived and worked out of Michigan. Yet Tony Paul rumors him as a candidate with Detroit ties.
We don't need a coach with local heritage or ties. We need a coach from anywhere who will embrace our university, location, city, metro area, State and region and work hard to make our program again synonymous with those areas.
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Post by JDetroitTitan on Mar 22, 2024 14:26:52 GMT -5
The myth of the local coach. Greg Kampe is from Defiance, OH. Dick Vitale is from New Jersey. Bob Calihan was from Chicago. Ray McCallum is from Indiana. DeAndre Haynes is from Detroit, went to Detroit Southwestern, but in 2002, he chose to leave and play at Kent State instead of for Perry Watson. Except for his 2 years at Michigan, he has lived and worked out of Michigan. Yet Tony Paul rumors him as a candidate with Detroit ties. We don't need a coach with local heritage or ties. We need a coach from anywhere who will embrace our university, location, city, metro area, State and region and work hard to make our program again synonymous with those areas. UDM needs to get its house in order and than they will be able to do what is needed with this program. Until that happens they can keep swing for the fences but I doubt they will make anything that is sustainable. The last coach wanted to stay, had a good record coming in, could build a program and he fell flat. It is a true tell sign this is a much deep problem that needs to be addressed. |
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Post by Rogobob77 on Mar 22, 2024 15:57:30 GMT -5
Not to be a Debbie Downer, but raising $100 million is not all that easy. That would be roughly equivalent to the entire current endowment for the University. The "Return to a Championship" initiative currently underway has a relatively modest goal of $5 million, primarily aimed at updating Calihan Hall in critical places. Last I heard that fundraising effort is still languishing. A couple of individuals assigned specifically to fundraising for Athletics have resigned in the past few years after relatively short stints on the job. Raising funds for this area of capital improvements and operating budget is one of the primary responsibilities of the Athletic Director.
Your recommendations #1, #2 and #7 all are no-brainers IMO, don't require much financial outlay to implement, and if there is any sanity at the University, should be adopted ASAP. If branding changes can't be done for the institution broadly, at a minimum return to "Detroit" specific to Titan Athletics in the near future so the incoming coach doesn't have that current anchor to deal with (unfortunately Mike Davis was saddled with that issue his entire tenure as coach in the Motor City).
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Post by ptctitan on Mar 22, 2024 16:28:07 GMT -5
The myth of the local coach. Greg Kampe is from Defiance, OH. Dick Vitale is from New Jersey. Bob Calihan was from Chicago. Ray McCallum is from Indiana. DeAndre Haynes is from Detroit, went to Detroit Southwestern, but in 2002, he chose to leave and play at Kent State instead of for Perry Watson. Except for his 2 years at Michigan, he has lived and worked out of Michigan. Yet Tony Paul rumors him as a candidate with Detroit ties. We don't need a coach with local heritage or ties. We need a coach from anywhere who will embrace our university, location, city, metro area, State and region and work hard to make our program again synonymous with those areas. UDM needs to get its house in order and than they will be able to do what is needed with this program. Until that happens they can keep swing for the fences but I doubt they will make anything that is sustainable. The last coach wanted to stay, had a good record coming in, could build a program and he fell flat. It is a true tell sign this is a much deep problem that needs to be addressed. More than anything else, getting the house in order starts with returning to the head coach of each sport from the Associate AD for Business Affairs the power to set and spend money on the priorities that they determine are best for the strategic improvement of their teams as long as they keep total spending in their sport within the sport's overall budget. It is the responsibility of each coach to operate his or her sport within their budget. It is the responsibility of a controller only to verify that the checks are issued promptly and are for the expenditures that the coach designates. And it is the responsibility of the department to make sure that things like the Titan Field scoreboard actually work for games played there by our teams. |
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Post by motorcitysam on Mar 25, 2024 22:41:52 GMT -5
The myth of the local coach. Greg Kampe is from Defiance, OH. Dick Vitale is from New Jersey. Bob Calihan was from Chicago. Ray McCallum is from Indiana. DeAndre Haynes is from Detroit, went to Detroit Southwestern, but in 2002, he chose to leave and play at Kent State instead of for Perry Watson. Except for his 2 years at Michigan, he has lived and worked out of Michigan. Yet Tony Paul rumors him as a candidate with Detroit ties. We don't need a coach with local heritage or ties. We need a coach from anywhere who will embrace our university, location, city, metro area, State and region and work hard to make our program again synonymous with those areas. If we get a coach with geographic ties somewhere, I hope it's to an area that still has a robust local recruiting base. Whoever the coach is, I'd love to see him get a guy on staff with ties to the Phoenix area. You have several basketball based prep schools out here, along with several JUCOs that develop D1 talent, and what is still a good local high school talent base. In a perfect world I would love to see a team of Detroit players coached by a hometown Detroiter go on a St. Peter's like run to the Elite Eight. However, I loved the Ray McCallum teams as much as I loved the Perry Watson teams. Once you suit up at Six Mile and Livernois for the Titans, you're a Detroiter. |
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Post by motorcitysam on Mar 25, 2024 23:28:06 GMT -5
Over the weekend, I was at Grand Canyon University's GCU arena for the free "watch party" for the Alabama game, and it was a stark contrast (obviously) with current state of the Titan program and Calihan Hall. There were thousands of fans there, just to watch a game on the big video screen. They treated it like the teams were playing in front of us, including the entire fanbase standing until GCU scored their first points. The band was electric, the student cheering section (the Havocs) were animated and LOUD. In fact, the entire place was loud. I don't think I have heard Calihan that loud since a game back in the 80s when the Titans hosted Michigan State. GCU Arena is a 7,000 seat facility that opened in 2011, and it's owned by the University. It's modern, well designed, and perfect for basketball. Last year, the University entered into a naming rights agreement with Global Credit Union; the GCU part of the name officially comes from Global Credit Union, not Grand Canyon University. There's a lot that the Titans need to do better, and some of it doesn't cost a lot, relatively speaking. However, if you want to get to the Grand Canyon level, you need a lot of money. And GCU has it. Despite the narrative of GCU as the plucky little mid major taking on the big boys, Grand Canyon U spends about seven million annually on the men's basketball program. That's 50% more than their closest conference rival. GCU was purchased in 2004 by Significant Education, LLC. In 2006, they spent $150 million on campus renovations and expansion. The University has 25,000 students attending it's Phoenix campus, and over 90,000 taking classes online. It's not your typical mid major. The University flew out 200 members of the Havocs to do their thing for the games against St. Mary's and Alabama. In addition, the University benefits from benefactor Jerry Colangelo. He's the fundraising rainmaker, and has contributed millions himself to the school. He's the driving force behind the efforts that have resulted in GCU getting prime opportunities to play in major in-season events in Phoenix. Without his interest in GCU, they don't become the basketball program they are today. His influence is seen on campus in the Jerry Colangelo Museum next to GCU Arena, and the bigger than life statute of Colangelo that stands out front. And that cash has trickled down to NIL opportunities and ameneties for the Antelope players. That can't be overlooked. The Titans failure to find that kind of Jerry Colangelo/Sam Gilbert/Phil Knight/Koch Brothers/T. Boone Pickens type booster back when things were good and the City was flush with cash continues to haunt us. Everything takes money, and we don't have much of it. Because of that, there's a ceiling on just how much we will be able to do. But it starts with the little things, and we at least need to do a better job with the things that don't cost much money. Instead of merging with the Sisters of Mercy, it might have been better to find an LLC to buy us back in 1990.  |
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Post by nctitan on Mar 25, 2024 23:55:33 GMT -5
GCU is a for-profit educational institution.
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Post by motorcitysam on Mar 26, 2024 0:03:30 GMT -5
GCU is a for-profit educational institution. The NCAA and the IRS disagree with you. Also, I'm not sure what that has to do with the point of the post. |
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Post by ptctitan on Mar 26, 2024 5:00:47 GMT -5
"GCU has 25,000 students attending its Phoenix campus."
U of D has about 2300 full time undergraduate students, about 500-600 part time undergraduate students and about 5500 total graduate and undergraduate students. Of that number, about 700-00 live on campus.
The only comparable State of Michigan owned university is Lake Superior State with 1,669 students enrolled as of the fall term 2022-23.
Total enrollment in State run universities in Michigan in 2022-23 was 257,760. They broke down as follows:
CMU - 14,411
EMU - 13,352
FSU - 9,918
GVSU - 22,269
LSSU - 1,669
MSU - 51,316
MTU - 7,324
NMU - 7,197
OAK - 15,922
SVSU - 6,889
UM - 52,065
UM-D - 8,037
UM-F - 6,130
WSU - 23,702
WMU - 17,559
When you lament attendance, remember several things. OAK gets 300-500 students per game when they're winning out of an enrollment of just under 16,000. The same ratio to total enrollment applied to us would mean 88 students per game. When they're winning, OAK draws about 3500 tickets sold. The same ratio of total attendance to undergrad enrollment translates to 615 for us.
When Vitale was coach here, our total undergrad enrollment was more than double what it is today. The decline in enrollment has mirrored the decline in the city's population and it has mirrored the movement of the metro area's population center from the city out beyond 1-696 and towards I-275. For the past 30 years, we have graduated fewer students because fewer students have been enrolled. About 50% of these graduates move away from metro Detroit. The fan base is older mainly because the number of recent graduates per year is about 40% of the number 50 years ago.
Therefore, if we want to draw 2,000 fans per game, the university must reach out to people who are not graduates, alums, students, and family of athletes. Winning more games on a regular basis will help, but it is not the only things needed. The first thing is that given our enrollment for the past 10-20 years, the complainers must set realistic goals about attendance. Second, given our enrollment for the past 10-20 years, the university must market basketball to more than just the current students and more than just the alumni. Third, given our enrollment for the past 10-20 years, the university must market basketball in the broadest manner to all its alumni and recognize that its target market still contains a large portion of U of D alumni - not MCOD alumni - that means emphasizing Detroit and de-emphasizing Mercy.
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Post by fan on Mar 26, 2024 10:32:19 GMT -5
Looks like the state university system has about 250,000 students, it doesn't look like there are many students left to go around.
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Post by professorjackson on Mar 26, 2024 10:32:38 GMT -5
I've said it before and I'll say it again...somewhat (but not entirely) sadly, I think it's time for dear old U of D to drop to Division III, bring back football, and play in the MIAA. Imagine a crisp fall Saturday afternoon in a reasonably expanded stadium taking on the Alma College Scots, the smell of roasting sausages and local beer wafting over the packed tailgate lot. We'd be a little big enrollment-wise for the conference, where the average is 2,313, but we'd save a ton on athletics, likely be somewhat competitive, and probably attract more male students who want to play non-scholarship football.
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Post by nctitan on Mar 26, 2024 10:38:34 GMT -5
GCU is a for-profit educational institution. The NCAA and the IRS disagree with you. Also, I'm not sure what that has to do with the point of the post. The Department of Education says it's a for-profit organization. GCU is owned by Grand Canyon Education Inc., a publicly traded company ($133 a share on NASDAQ if you want to own a piece of a college!) and the two share an address. The courts have sided with the Department of Education. It is listed as the only for-profit college in the NCAA Div 1 ranks. |
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Post by rbj on Mar 26, 2024 10:40:11 GMT -5
I've said it before and I'll say it again...somewhat (but not entirely) sadly, I think it's time for dear old U of D to drop to Division III, bring back football, and play in the MIAA. Imagine a crisp fall Saturday afternoon in a reasonably expanded stadium taking on the Alma College Scots, the smell of roasting sausages and local beer wafting over the packed tailgate lot. We'd be a little big enrollment-wise for the conference, where the average is 2,313, but we'd save a ton on athletics, likely be somewhat competitive, and probably attract more male students who want to play non-scholarship football. It might happen...sooner than later. |
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Post by ptctitan on Mar 26, 2024 10:49:56 GMT -5
I've said it before and I'll say it again...somewhat (but not entirely) sadly, I think it's time for dear old U of D to drop to Division III, bring back football, and play in the MIAA. Imagine a crisp fall Saturday afternoon in a reasonably expanded stadium taking on the Alma College Scots, the smell of roasting sausages and local beer wafting over the packed tailgate lot. We'd be a little big enrollment-wise for the conference, where the average is 2,313, but we'd save a ton on athletics, likely be somewhat competitive, and probably attract more male students who want to play non-scholarship football. About 2-3 years ago, under urging from its professors, Wright State looked at going D3 and there was no significant cost savings. |
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