(11-20-2014 12:09 PM)Antarius Wrote:  

(11-20-2014 12:08 PM)THRILL Wrote:  tl; dr

plus,, boobs

Executive summary of what THRILL said.

where's the "LIKE" button ?

(11-20-2014 12:51 PM)temchugh Wrote:  Even if fund raising is completed by the end of the year, the whole endeavor can hardly be considered a success. Fund raising will have taken:

- Three years from initial announcement
- 15 months from the hiring of JK
- 9 months after explaining that the project scope had been scaled back to better match potentially available funds

The University was already coordinating with potential donors on the north EZF (rather than the originally announced south EZF) before JK arrived, so he was definitely not starting the fund raising from scratch.

I imagine that the process has left JK much less optimistic that he can make a real long-term impact on athletics at Rice.

It's not hard to imagine there may have been a strong Greenspan hangover and some pledges being held or even walked back until a level of comfort with the new AD was reached. Dr K's tone and the content of the discussion certainly don't indicate someone who isn't optimistic.

I think concerns about the timeline ignore the reality of needing to have architectural renderings to solicit pledges in the millions of dollars. Even if it was merely a courtesy, we owed it to our donors to give them a realistic idea of what we wanted to use their money for. It is a horrible idea to solicit 6, 7 and 8 figure pledges and allow there to be ANY misunderstandings about the expectations... and architects and engineers have to study what is there, in addition to studying what we want to be there. This takes months.

I don't believe ONE BIT that the scaling back of the plans had anything to do with an inability to raise the original amount, but that the original amount essentially involved not only everything that the 'new' project involved (in terms of demolishing and repurposing the existing seating area) but also involved tearing down the south end facilities, while providing duplicate facilities during the construction and creating what is REALLY a nice, but essentially un-necessary and not really helpful street pavillion. I don't know if we will ultimately KEEP the south facilities or not, but the north facility doesn't need to immediately do so, while the south end plan did.... so the initial investment is less.

It is in Rice's nature to NOT announce things until virtually everything has been buttoned up... and we have so many needs, for players, for coaches, for the mob, for the fans, for the students, etc etc... it should come as no surprise that it takes a while to explain to people why THIS part is necessary but THAT part isn't... especially if that person REALLY thinks that we need 'that' part or doesn't really value 'this'.

I'd say that the first month or 3 of JKs tenure here, he was listening and not directing... so regardless of what happened prior to his arrival, we probably didn't send HIS interpretation of what we wanted/needed to the architects and engineers for quite some time... much less had something to present to donors.

Just listened to Dr. K's interview. I appreciate his candor and love the fact that he has goals for the Athletic Program and hopes to meet all of the goals he set out. Some of his goals that I had never heard before, but which I like as possible targets for Rice, are the $2.2 million in funding for the Owl Club, and 8,000 in football season tickets. He acknowledged the work before him, and to his credit, didn't shy away from it. Thanks to Dr. K for all of his, and the rest of the Athletic Department's hard work in this endeavor.

Just listened to Dr. K's interview, which provided me a lot of information I had not heard before, not just the EZF (it's only 5 minutes long) and also am really appreciative of his candor.

The things that really struck me were what Dr, K said toward the end:

"I have a theory on good Head Coaches, and that's that they're always a year behind where they want to be:

If you talk to Mike Rhoades about where he wants this basketball program to be--it's where we're going to be a year from now. But he wants it to happen today. And I try and adopt that attitude...(he then lists several items he wants to be done for Rice now, and they are ambitious, and he emphasizes he is not complacent but wishes they could all be done now)...all these things that we want to do, that are probably gonna happen for us a year or 18 months from now, I want to happen today.

So so, I don't think that you can be really good at this job (AD) and be satisfied with where you are, so I'm...a ball of stress right now...that's just the way I'm wired. And it's okay; I get it. You know, I want to move this thing forward as fast as I possibly can. So I'm not satisfied in the least (Karlgaard's own emphasis) with where we are."

Gee, Dr. K, neither am I or some of the other posters. We share your attitude of "We want it today" and some of us even post about it while we're waiting. We always want to be where we'll be a year from now, just like you!

For those of you who might complain about posters like myself and our attitudes, well, you probably have a problem with Dr. Karlgaard as well.

To THRILL: yeah, I'd like to see a real Hooters sports bar on game-days at Rice Stadium too, so the casual fan could come out and watch all their games and also see some of Rice in person!
-30-
GoodOwl

eta: fixed a plural above.