(10-12-2025 12:50 PM)Ourland Wrote: I can only afford a game ticket, but thanks for letting me know. Go Owls!
That's fine. You might be surprised how many 'cost free' ways there are to support athletics including things as simple as retweets and likes. You never know whom in your contacts list might be able to do a lot more than you thought... if they only knew about something.... OR how much attention we might get from campus if something got a (relative) large number of 'likes' or follows.
MOre on this below...
(10-13-2025 07:32 AM)Frizzy Owl Wrote: (10-12-2025 11:52 AM)Hambone10 Wrote: (10-10-2025 03:10 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote: (10-10-2025 02:14 PM)Ourland Wrote: It looks like they've raised $21,000. I guess every little bit helps. I have my doubts that the Gateway Project has anything to do with the stadium. We'll see.
The Gateway Project has everything to do with the stadium and another athletic facility.
This
In re the $21,000.... There are NUMEROUS opportunities for people to get involved at any level of interest or participation. The Gateway Project is mostly about major gifts and infrastructure. If that is your passion, there are opportunities. There are also sport specific projects like the SIGs and NIL as well as numerous individual projects that relate to overall health and wellness, educational and mentoring opportunities.
If you're not sure where to start or even 'how', Consider joining the Owl Club. I can say from first hand experience that the Owl Club today isn't remotely what it was in years past. While the following isn't a full/fair assessment, in simplest terms the Owl Club can be a starting point for helping anyone who wants to help in any way and on any level into action.
Too often on here, I see people often rightfully upset about things within athletics, but then nothing happens because they don't know what to do next.... you don't know how to help, short of writing a six or seven figure check... and even then, you may not know what projects are being worked on until they're already mostly 'done'... or you may feel that your $100 donation or showing up at a few games can't possibly make a difference... or maybe you have a company with a product or service that can create a win/win? Maybe the Owl Club can show you how it can?
Rice doesn't want to get 'Stanford', but we can certainly learn from their successes... and while they certainly got the hundreds of millions in donations and p5 money and an unreal location, there is more to their success than that. It started with something the we can easily copy.... and that is, if your sport doesn't have a path to millions in the pros... which is most Olympic sports.... then there shouldn't be ANY reason for you to not seek the best education possible.... and we are among the elite few. This not only invites great athletes, but you then surround that with a complete culture of wellness and sports enthusiast across campus.
Couple of things:
1) Only a relative few people know what the "Gateway Project" is. For most of us - and, yes, I'm an Owl Club donor at a high enough level to get a perk or three - the project is an email saying, "Give some money toward the $75000 goal of this mystery fund and we'll send you a model that doesn't even look like the stadium!".
Why has the Athletic Department become so secretive that it can't even tell the booster club where the money is going while they are soliciting it? That is NOT a path to success. To wit: the fundraiser a few years ago for women's sports upgrades like new lockers etc. was transparent and specific. They raised a fair amount of money - I, for one, was motivated to give.
2) Lately, feedback doesn't seem to go anywhere - for example, what I just wrote above. Another example is the pregame music volume in Tudor. Lots of people complaining for a few years now that the volume is too damn loud - no response, no explanation, no change.
Agreed 100% with Walt on his comments not quoted here. The $375 only goes to the Owl Club (and the cost of the Legos, lol)... which is essentially a relatively large staff of people whose primary purpose is to get more people involved in Rice athletics... in SOME fashion. The variety of ways that people can get involved is vast... hence the staff, and it includes things like campus and student advocacy as well as 'stadium improvements'.
It is clear to me that the ADs office hears us... but that doesn't necessarily translate into action for a vast variety of reasons.
In terms of solicitations for major gifts... this is my best explanation of giving to major gifts at Rice...
There are SIGs... which are fund used by the coaches for their purposes. Some of which are simple and ongoing like training supplements or coaching staff augmentation and some of which are relatively major in nature and you may get a specific ask.
There is also NIL, which is self-explanatory.
There is the Owl Club, which is a bit like funding the development office on campus...
THEN there is are endowed scholarship or coaching opportunities.
and major gifts.... and this would include the gateway project.
Bottom line is that because the gateway includes significant monies from the University, the only people initially privy to the details are people with the capacity to make major gifts.... and once those gifts are secured, the board votes to approve their portion and THEN the project is opened up to everyone else... and can also include new opportunities for unexpected but still significant asks for things 'in addition to' what the board approved.... and this is on its way.
I don't know if there are dollar amounts above which the board has more say over the solicitation or whether it is a 'nature of the ask', as in 'new lockers' don't change the footprint of the stadium so perhaps such an ask wouldn't require board involvement, but Tudor and Patterson did, so they were more quiet until they were mostly 'funded'.
If you'd like to know more about donor opportunities and/or you are looking for some 'project specific' ways to get involved, The Owl Club Staff is the place to express that sort of interest. Don't just think of them as 'the guys that give me the good parking in exchange for my donation', but think of them as the gatekeepers for ALL of our athletic fundraising.