(10-03-2014 09:23 AM)Ken Barna Wrote: Dear Friends,
I do not know how many are connected to Eastern's "Lyke Line", but what I received today was an outline with goals, as to what the athletic department is trying to accomplish.
Two of the measures were to see what needs to be done with athletic facilities, and the other was to increase athletic funding through donations and business connections.
This should encourage those who think Eastern is sitting on their hands, and doing nothing, and it looks like emusteve is on the right track when he mentioned going after business types to help in financing. Ahhh...steve, did you get that out of Athletic Director Lyke when you had that discussion with her?
Ken,
Good points.
I too got the Lyke Line and read those comments about facilities and revenue sources.
I'd rather not publicly discuss too much here other than to say after spending time with our athletic department senior leaders I came away VERY optimist that they think big. I love people who think big. Better to shoot high and come up a little short than shoot low and come up short of that modest target.
I went from a 'think small' to a 'think big' philosophy.
I'm anxious to hear concrete plans when they are ready. We have had rumors here for MONTHS (going back to July and the gray turf) about lights, scoreboard, maybe a new football building, press box, etc.
BTW, don't forget EMU spent big, big bucks on the new score board in the Convo. I heard the dollar amount and they spent more then I would have.
Maybe I'm the 'small thinker'. OMG.
But if they can think big and back it up with big gifts from corporations, big donors, and even borrowing against future revenue streams, I say MORE POWER TO THEM.
As many have noted, Dr. Martin and AD Lyke did not come here to watch the decline of EMU athletics.
I have a friend very, very well connected within EMU academia, and he thinks EMU (and other universities) think TOO SMALL when it comes to big capital fund raising campaigns (he thinks MSU has set their sights too low for their current campaign).