I support Bowen, think he has done a good job. Of course, the bar was pretty low taking over for R.C. I like Bowen's passion in this interview, but not sure he has much of a leg to stand on with the coverage of the bond issue.
Bowen and the athletic dep't could have gotten out in front of the story, said none of this would have been possible without our new BOR, and this is great news for the future of Tiger athletics because we can react quickly, be creative in our financing . . .
Instead, the narrative built that Memphis had to borrow money because we couldn't raise enough after years of trying. So Bowen got in a defensive, reactive position, which rarely looks good.
The University has been more than out and open. Rudd had an interview in December that basically said this is what we are going to do. We shouldn't have to repeat this over and over again for these idiots.
The CA wrote an misleading trash article. Those are the facts.
It's August. The public is supposed to remember an interview from December? It's not about being out and open, it's about doing fundamental public relations. Not like this is new for Bowen, we don't hear from him a lot. Now, he doesn't like how the story played, and he's jumping on different radio shows.
Someone should of remember the interview from December....
I believe the issue is most people on the board here and the public don't understand the situation. The $10M has been raised but the income stream is spread out over several years and I don't know the cash flow stream but when you build a facility the contractors etc ALL HAVE TO BE PAID when the facility is finished!!
Since the $10M will not be on-hand only a portion of it will be, the BOD made a very good financial decision to borrow $10M to pay off the contractors and subs when the facility is finished.
As the $10M comes back in over time they slowly pay off the $10M loan. Also, they used their conferences future incoming revenues as collateral for the loan!
Great decisions are made when you business guys on the Board of Directors versus the Board of Regrents!
I support Bowen, think he has done a good job. Of course, the bar was pretty low taking over for R.C. I like Bowen's passion in this interview, but not sure he has much of a leg to stand on with the coverage of the bond issue.
Bowen and the athletic dep't could have gotten out in front of the story, said none of this would have been possible without our new BOR, and this is great news for the future of Tiger athletics because we can react quickly, be creative in our financing . . .
Instead, the narrative built that Memphis had to borrow money because we couldn't raise enough after years of trying. So Bowen got in a defensive, reactive position, which rarely looks good.
(This post was last modified: 08-08-2017 12:14 PM by TigersTigers.)
(08-08-2017 12:08 PM)TigersTigers Wrote: I believe the issue is most people on the board here and the public don't understand the situation. The $10M has been raised but the income stream is spread out over several years and I don't know the cash flow stream but when you build a facility the contractors etc ALL HAVE TO BE PAID when the facility is finished!!
Since the $10M will not be on-hand only a portion of it will be, the BOD made a very good financial decision to borrow $10M to pay off the contractors and subs when the facility is finished.
As the $10M comes back in over time they slowly pay off the $10M loan. Also, they used their conferences future incoming revenues as collateral for the loan!
Great decisions are made when you business guys on the Board of Directors versus the Board of Regrents!
I support Bowen, think he has done a good job. Of course, the bar was pretty low taking over for R.C. I like Bowen's passion in this interview, but not sure he has much of a leg to stand on with the coverage of the bond issue.
Bowen and the athletic dep't could have gotten out in front of the story, said none of this would have been possible without our new BOR, and this is great news for the future of Tiger athletics because we can react quickly, be creative in our financing . . .
Instead, the narrative built that Memphis had to borrow money because we couldn't raise enough after years of trying. So Bowen got in a defensive, reactive position, which rarely looks good.
Disagree, I think everyone understands the situation. It's pretty simple. Bowen and that athletic dep't just did a bad job framing the story, and now he's mad.
I support Bowen, think he has done a good job. Of course, the bar was pretty low taking over for R.C. I like Bowen's passion in this interview, but not sure he has much of a leg to stand on with the coverage of the bond issue.
Bowen and the athletic dep't could have gotten out in front of the story, said none of this would have been possible without our new BOR, and this is great news for the future of Tiger athletics because we can react quickly, be creative in our financing . . .
Instead, the narrative built that Memphis had to borrow money because we couldn't raise enough after years of trying. So Bowen got in a defensive, reactive position, which rarely looks good.
The University has been more than out and open. Rudd had an interview in December that basically said this is what we are going to do. We shouldn't have to repeat this over and over again for these idiots.
The CA wrote an misleading trash article. Those are the facts.
It's August. The public is supposed to remember an interview from December? It's not about being out and open, it's about doing fundamental public relations. Not like this is new for Bowen, we don't hear from him a lot. Now, he doesn't like how the story played, and he's jumping on different radio shows.
He's on 56 weekly. I listened last week and understood what he said about the capital campaign. I didn't think twice until the CA article seemed to contradict what he'd previously stated. I get why he's upset.
Understanding a lot of people of this board don't like Calkins, here are some tweets from him from about 20 minutes ago. I agree with Calkins here, Dr. Rudd has to call Calkins and clean up Bowen and the Athletic Department's mess. Dr. Rudd should not have to do that.
Tried to edit the tweets and put in correct order to make them easier to read:
Geoff CalkinsVerified account @geoff_calkins 19m19 minutes ago
Tom Bowen has lost his mind, ranting about media not covering Olympic sports instead of the mystery surrounding indoor practice facility.
Here's the truth: Memphis did a lousy job explaining what was happening on the front end. Their communication tends to be terrible.
David Rudd was kind enough to call me and explain what happened, at which point I was able to write a column dispelling conspiracy theories.
But that could easily have been done on the front end and the whole thing would have been avoided. Memphis dropped the ball.
Then Bowen goes on local radio and says media should be covering volleyball. Instead of the program that will define athletic department.
Bowen has every right to be angry -- at himself, and the people who handle communications for the university.
And i respect the job Bowen has done, broadly. But this rant was absurd.
(08-08-2017 12:42 PM)Tigx Wrote: Understanding a lot of people of this board don't like Calkins, here are some tweets from him from about 20 minutes ago. I agree with Calkins here, Dr. Rudd has to call Calkins and clean up Bowen and the Athletic Department's mess. Dr. Rudd should not have to do that.
Tried to edit the tweets and put in correct order to make them easier to read:
Geoff CalkinsVerified account @geoff_calkins 19m19 minutes ago
Tom Bowen has lost his mind, ranting about media not covering Olympic sports instead of the mystery surrounding indoor practice facility.
Here's the truth: Memphis did a lousy job explaining what was happening on the front end. Their communication tends to be terrible.
David Rudd was kind enough to call me and explain what happened, at which point I was able to write a column dispelling conspiracy theories.
But that could easily have been done on the front end and the whole thing would have been avoided. Memphis dropped the ball.
Then Bowen goes on local radio and says media should be covering volleyball. Instead of the program that will define athletic department.
Bowen has every right to be angry -- at himself, and the people who handle communications for the university.
And i respect the job Bowen has done, broadly. But this rant was absurd.
The thin skinned, entitled media...the rant was far from absurd and I don't even care for Bowen. Good for him.
(08-08-2017 12:42 PM)Tigx Wrote: Understanding a lot of people of this board don't like Calkins, here are some tweets from him from about 20 minutes ago. I agree with Calkins here, Dr. Rudd has to call Calkins and clean up Bowen and the Athletic Department's mess. Dr. Rudd should not have to do that.
Tried to edit the tweets and put in correct order to make them easier to read:
Geoff CalkinsVerified account @geoff_calkins 19m19 minutes ago
Tom Bowen has lost his mind, ranting about media not covering Olympic sports instead of the mystery surrounding indoor practice facility.
Here's the truth: Memphis did a lousy job explaining what was happening on the front end. Their communication tends to be terrible.
David Rudd was kind enough to call me and explain what happened, at which point I was able to write a column dispelling conspiracy theories.
But that could easily have been done on the front end and the whole thing would have been avoided. Memphis dropped the ball.
Then Bowen goes on local radio and says media should be covering volleyball. Instead of the program that will define athletic department.
Bowen has every right to be angry -- at himself, and the people who handle communications for the university.
And i respect the job Bowen has done, broadly. But this rant was absurd.
Dude. Calkins didn't need the situation explained to him. He's not a moron. The University didn't need to explain this more, because it's not a story.
(08-08-2017 12:42 PM)Tigx Wrote: Understanding a lot of people of this board don't like Calkins, here are some tweets from him from about 20 minutes ago. I agree with Calkins here, Dr. Rudd has to call Calkins and clean up Bowen and the Athletic Department's mess. Dr. Rudd should not have to do that.
Tried to edit the tweets and put in correct order to make them easier to read:
Geoff CalkinsVerified account @geoff_calkins 19m19 minutes ago
Tom Bowen has lost his mind, ranting about media not covering Olympic sports instead of the mystery surrounding indoor practice facility.
Here's the truth: Memphis did a lousy job explaining what was happening on the front end. Their communication tends to be terrible.
David Rudd was kind enough to call me and explain what happened, at which point I was able to write a column dispelling conspiracy theories.
But that could easily have been done on the front end and the whole thing would have been avoided. Memphis dropped the ball.
Then Bowen goes on local radio and says media should be covering volleyball. Instead of the program that will define athletic department.
Bowen has every right to be angry -- at himself, and the people who handle communications for the university.
And i respect the job Bowen has done, broadly. But this rant was absurd.
The thin skinned, entitled media...the rant was far from absurd and I don't even care for Bowen. Good for him.
I usually agree with you, 450, but not this time. And I get that Calkins and the CA make for an easy target.
How many times have Tiger fans seen Bowen bungle a story though poor communications, and then get mad about the coverage? Even going back to him discussing football games with Tennessee and Ole Miss without telling Josh, while Josh is saying on radio that those games will never happen. And then Josh has to admit he was wrong publicly. Just no excuse.
Bowen is weak at communications, which is an important part of his job.
(08-08-2017 12:08 PM)TigersTigers Wrote: I believe the issue is most people on the board here and the public don't understand the situation. The $10M has been raised but the income stream is spread out over several years and I don't know the cash flow stream but when you build a facility the contractors etc ALL HAVE TO BE PAID when the facility is finished!!
Since the $10M will not be on-hand only a portion of it will be, the BOD made a very good financial decision to borrow $10M to pay off the contractors and subs when the facility is finished.
As the $10M comes back in over time they slowly pay off the $10M loan. Also, they used their conferences future incoming revenues as collateral for the loan!
Great decisions are made when you business guys on the Board of Directors versus the Board of Regrents!
I support Bowen, think he has done a good job. Of course, the bar was pretty low taking over for R.C. I like Bowen's passion in this interview, but not sure he has much of a leg to stand on with the coverage of the bond issue.
Bowen and the athletic dep't could have gotten out in front of the story, said none of this would have been possible without our new BOR, and this is great news for the future of Tiger athletics because we can react quickly, be creative in our financing . . .
Instead, the narrative built that Memphis had to borrow money because we couldn't raise enough after years of trying. So Bowen got in a defensive, reactive position, which rarely looks good.
Disagree, I think everyone understands the situation. It's pretty simple. Bowen and that athletic dep't just did a bad job framing the story, and now he's mad.
he probably didn't realize the cranial deficiencies of the average tigahhigh fan
Lets take a moment to put ourselves in Rudd/Bowen's shoes. The University as a whole is in a good spot. We're completing major improvements on campus, enrollment is higher than it has ever been, and we have a respectable university that is on par with any other university with regards to endowment/donations.
Football is going through arguably the best stretch in the history of the program. Basketball has taken a hit, but trying to recover. Those are your cash cow sports. I'm all for the women's soccer team and rifle team competing, but they just aren't going to provide the income that FB/BB do. That being said, we're coming off a potential 'conference expansion' by a P5 conference (even though they turned out to be a bunch of crazy boneheads) where we were able to analyze and identify our weaknesses when it comes to being attractive to membership of a P5 conference.
What we found is that among other things, one of our glaring weaknesses was athletic facilities when being considered for membership. We currently have a plan in place to rectify that by building a state of the art IPF and new basketball facility. Only problem is, the way the donation schedule works out, you have about 10M that needs to be paid over time. As has been stated on this board, the contractors need to be paid upon completion. So what Rudd/Bowen decide is that NOW is the time to act due to the ever changing college landscape with regards to conference expansion. Even having to borrow the 10M and paying interest on the loan, in their opinion, is worth the reward outweighing the risk. So by upgrading the facilities now, that eliminates one of our biggest issues to being attractive to a P5 conference. Its all about timing and opportunity cost.
Will we end up in a P5 conference? Maybe not, but if your ultimate goal isn't to try to get in a P5 conference and build the University of Memphis into the #1 school academically and athletically competing at the highest level, then what are we even doing here? Go Tigers!
(08-08-2017 12:42 PM)Tigx Wrote: Understanding a lot of people of this board don't like Calkins, here are some tweets from him from about 20 minutes ago. I agree with Calkins here, Dr. Rudd has to call Calkins and clean up Bowen and the Athletic Department's mess. Dr. Rudd should not have to do that.
Tried to edit the tweets and put in correct order to make them easier to read:
Geoff CalkinsVerified account @geoff_calkins 19m19 minutes ago
Tom Bowen has lost his mind, ranting about media not covering Olympic sports instead of the mystery surrounding indoor practice facility.
Here's the truth: Memphis did a lousy job explaining what was happening on the front end. Their communication tends to be terrible.
David Rudd was kind enough to call me and explain what happened, at which point I was able to write a column dispelling conspiracy theories.
But that could easily have been done on the front end and the whole thing would have been avoided. Memphis dropped the ball.
Then Bowen goes on local radio and says media should be covering volleyball. Instead of the program that will define athletic department.
Bowen has every right to be angry -- at himself, and the people who handle communications for the university.
And i respect the job Bowen has done, broadly. But this rant was absurd.
The thin skinned, entitled media...the rant was far from absurd and I don't even care for Bowen. Good for him.
I usually agree with you, 450, but not this time. And I get that Calkins and the CA make for an easy target.
How many times have Tiger fans seen Bowen bungle a story though poor communications, and then get mad about the coverage? Even going back to him discussing football games with Tennessee and Ole Miss without telling Josh, while Josh is saying on radio that those games will never happen. And then Josh has to admit he was wrong publicly. Just no excuse.
Bowen is weak at communications, which is an important part of his job.
Even a dumb coward can be forthright. My guess is that it makes Bowen's job easier to operate without communicating up front. Then it's just, "Well, this is how it stands today." Marvelous negotiation skills.
(08-08-2017 01:12 PM)shere khan Wrote: Is the CA still in business other than occasionally pissing people off that might buy what's left of their newspaper
That place has really gone downhill since John Martin left.
(08-08-2017 12:42 PM)Tigx Wrote: Understanding a lot of people of this board don't like Calkins, here are some tweets from him from about 20 minutes ago. I agree with Calkins here, Dr. Rudd has to call Calkins and clean up Bowen and the Athletic Department's mess. Dr. Rudd should not have to do that.
Tried to edit the tweets and put in correct order to make them easier to read:
Geoff CalkinsVerified account @geoff_calkins 19m19 minutes ago
Tom Bowen has lost his mind, ranting about media not covering Olympic sports instead of the mystery surrounding indoor practice facility.
Here's the truth: Memphis did a lousy job explaining what was happening on the front end. Their communication tends to be terrible.
David Rudd was kind enough to call me and explain what happened, at which point I was able to write a column dispelling conspiracy theories.
But that could easily have been done on the front end and the whole thing would have been avoided. Memphis dropped the ball.
Then Bowen goes on local radio and says media should be covering volleyball. Instead of the program that will define athletic department.
Bowen has every right to be angry -- at himself, and the people who handle communications for the university.
And i respect the job Bowen has done, broadly. But this rant was absurd.
The thin skinned, entitled media...the rant was far from absurd and I don't even care for Bowen. Good for him.
I usually agree with you, 450, but not this time. And I get that Calkins and the CA make for an easy target.
How many times have Tiger fans seen Bowen bungle a story though poor communications, and then get mad about the coverage? Even going back to him discussing football games with Tennessee and Ole Miss without telling Josh, while Josh is saying on radio that those games will never happen. And then Josh has to admit he was wrong publicly. Just no excuse.
Bowen is weak at communications, which is an important part of his job.
Even a dumb coward can be forthright. My guess is that it makes Bowen's job easier to operate without communicating up front. Then it's just, "Well, this is how it stands today." Marvelous negotiation skills.
(08-08-2017 12:08 PM)TigersTigers Wrote: I believe the issue is most people on the board here and the public don't understand the situation. The $10M has been raised but the income stream is spread out over several years and I don't know the cash flow stream but when you build a facility the contractors etc ALL HAVE TO BE PAID when the facility is finished!!
Since the $10M will not be on-hand only a portion of it will be, the BOD made a very good financial decision to borrow $10M to pay off the contractors and subs when the facility is finished.
As the $10M comes back in over time they slowly pay off the $10M loan. Also, they used their conferences future incoming revenues as collateral for the loan!
Great decisions are made when you business guys on the Board of Directors versus the Board of Regrents!
I support Bowen, think he has done a good job. Of course, the bar was pretty low taking over for R.C. I like Bowen's passion in this interview, but not sure he has much of a leg to stand on with the coverage of the bond issue.
Bowen and the athletic dep't could have gotten out in front of the story, said none of this would have been possible without our new BOR, and this is great news for the future of Tiger athletics because we can react quickly, be creative in our financing . . .
Instead, the narrative built that Memphis had to borrow money because we couldn't raise enough after years of trying. So Bowen got in a defensive, reactive position, which rarely looks good.
Disagree, I think everyone understands the situation. It's pretty simple. Bowen and that athletic dep't just did a bad job framing the story, and now he's mad.
he probably didn't realize the cranial deficiencies of the average tigahhigh fan
Wow again. Makes me appreciate my Belmont and MTSU degrees even more.