The unofficial online home for fans of the UAB Blazers. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

(06-04-2015 03:07 PM)BlazerGold09 Wrote:  There is a reason why Patton was psyched out of his mind during the presser.

He seemed to be the only guy there with much of a pulse. It was a bizarre tone for a celebration.

(06-04-2015 03:09 PM)thebernreuter Wrote:  

(06-04-2015 03:07 PM)BlazerGold09 Wrote:  There is a reason why Patton was psyched out of his mind during the presser.

He seemed to be the only guy there with much of a pulse. It was a bizarre tone for a celebration.

Should have heard him on Matt and Scot later than after noon. The OCS stadium seemed to be all but a guarantee in his future plans. Obviously it's not but it's nice to hear the ambition in his voice. Also, he was the only one who spoke that Watts didn't have some type of control over.

I believe the name is Hatton Smith, not Patton.

(06-04-2015 01:59 PM)BirminghamBound Wrote:  Blown away... THIS is what the old guard fears. Not a competitive football team that might beat Bama on the field one day or steal a recruit or two... but a thriving, comprehensive university they can no longer control in a city they can no longer hinder.

That meeting and the subsequent victory signals a seismic shift in our city's trajectory. Wow.

+1000

(06-04-2015 03:16 PM)KevMo4UAB Wrote:  I believe the name is Hatton Smith, not Patton.

He must have reminded me of a certain General

(06-04-2015 03:16 PM)KevMo4UAB Wrote:  I believe the name is Hatton Smith, not Patton.

Hatton, like my high school alma mater.

Hatton is our Patton.

I think the timing is that Watts took a beatdown about trying to close it by email Friday before Memorial day. These guys met with him the following Tuesday. I imagine that their $13m was included in what Watts was talking about and is why we hit close to $30m on just 700 pledges. We need lots of little pledges to broaden the base, and we need to start pushing folks to support the program by buying season tickets.

I'd love to have been able to witness this meeting, because basically they got him at a table and said "What is your missing funding? Thirteen million? No problem, we can write you a check for four today, but consider that thirteen covered, and we'll go on from there." They plopped so much money on the table that he knew it was over, right then. Everything else was just Watts squirming and trying to squeeze out more money.

(06-04-2015 03:50 PM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  I think the timing is that Watts took a beatdown about trying to close it by email Friday before Memorial day. These guys met with him the following Tuesday. I imagine that their $13m was included in what Watts was talking about and is why we hit close to $30m on just 700 pledges. We need lots of little pledges to broaden the base, and we need to start pushing folks to support the program by buying season tickets.

I'd love to have been able to witness this meeting, because basically they got him at a table and said "What is your missing funding? Thirteen million? No problem, we can write you a check for four today, but consider that thirteen covered, and we'll go on from there." They plopped so much money on the table that he knew it was over, right then. Everything else was just Watts squirming and trying to squeeze out more money.

What is disturbing to me in all this is that we supposedly had 10-17M pledged, counting the city, alumni society, and the student fee. Yet it took these outstanding folks having to back up our pledges to get Watts to accept that the $ was there to cover the 'donut hole'. First he wouldnt accept the pledges that went in on Foundation paper. Then he demanded that we use the Campaign for UAB foms, and he still didnt trust us?? Im just glad that he somehow got pushed to the brink by our supportive business folks. Watts must have really been up against a wall by the BOT who probably wouldnt permit him to believe anything but cash on hand, or the equivalent, which these kind folks basically handed with with their IOU.

(06-04-2015 04:13 PM)BlazrDawg Wrote:  

(06-04-2015 03:50 PM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  I think the timing is that Watts took a beatdown about trying to close it by email Friday before Memorial day. These guys met with him the following Tuesday. I imagine that their $13m was included in what Watts was talking about and is why we hit close to $30m on just 700 pledges. We need lots of little pledges to broaden the base, and we need to start pushing folks to support the program by buying season tickets.

I'd love to have been able to witness this meeting, because basically they got him at a table and said "What is your missing funding? Thirteen million? No problem, we can write you a check for four today, but consider that thirteen covered, and we'll go on from there." They plopped so much money on the table that he knew it was over, right then. Everything else was just Watts squirming and trying to squeeze out more money.

What is disturbing to me in all this is that we supposedly had 10-17M pledged, counting the city, alumni society, and the student fee. Yet it took these outstanding folks having to back up our pledges to get Watts to accept that the $ was there to cover the 'donut hole'. First he wouldnt accept the pledges that went in on Foundation paper. Then he demanded that we use the Campaign for UAB foms, and he still didnt trust us?? Im just glad that he somehow got pushed to the brink by our supportive business folks. Watts must have really been up against a wall by the BOT who probably wouldnt permit him to believe anything but cash on hand, or the equivalent, which these kind folks basically handed with with their IOU.

It had nothing to do with him not trusting us or anything. That was all just subterfuge created by Watts and Co. to scuttle the movement. Watts was cornered by the task force and then threatened by the business elite. He only gave in because he had no other option, and even then he was an A-hole to the bitter end.

They backed him into a corner, stuck a finger in his chest, and said "This is money, not a promise. Now go get it fixed or you won't see another dime from any of us!". That's why he was so sullen, they made him do what he didn't want to do by using his own BS words against him.

(06-04-2015 04:33 PM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  They backed him into a corner, stuck a finger in his chest, and said "This is money, not a promise. Now go get it fixed or you won't see another dime from any of us!". That's why he was so sullen, they made him do what he didn't want to do by using his own BS words against him.

These were also big donors to the Campaign. I imagine they said accept our money or we pull what we have pledged for the Campaign also.

Leverage.

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2015/...cart_river

Quote:The reason was simple for O'Neal.

"UAB is the economic engine for Birmingham, and for the state to a large degree. What's good for UAB is good for Birmingham," O'Neal said. "We recognized the whole football issue was becoming a real negative for Birmingham and UAB. We see the potential in football at UAB with the proper facilities, so we were willing to step up, get involved and help with that."

Smith isn't a devoted UAB football fan -- he prefers basketball and played at Washington and Lee University in Virginia -- but like O'Neal, he believes UAB football can help the entire city rise up.

That sense of civic duty, from Smith and his business peers, is how the most improbable story in UAB history got a happy ending.

"If Birmingham has a viable UAB football program," Smith says, "it improves the quality of life for Birmingham. It's a victory for our city."

This is crazy. I've lived in the Birmingham area for my entire life, 32 years now. I have never heard anyone who wasn't the Mayor of Birmingham talk about this city that way. The fact that it was someone like Craft O'Neal is a big deal. I have kind of been shrugging off the Archibald "this has changed Birmingham" stuff, but now I'm convinced. This process really has done something pretty big.

I agree. This may be another turning point in the history of Birmingham. One for the good.

This group of who's who of Birmingham's Most Influential Executives, key philanthropists and the leaders of Birmingham's Largest Private Companies could feasibly contribute enough for a new on campus stadium.....in a heart beat. It would not surprise me one bit if that is exactly what they are preparing to do.

When I was growing up in B'ham in the 40s and 50s, my father used to complain that the wealthy in the metro area would invest millions in other places but never in B'ham. I hope that my dad is looking down from a bright place and smiling that his complaint is no longer true.

In the 1920s, he worked for his dad at the American Casting Co. (after the Depression it was known as Jackson Industries) and after WWII started his own foundry in East B'ham. until 1972. Since one son went into medicine at UAB and one into education - B'ham City, he sold out.

Now we are seeing local CEOs put serious money into UAB which shares its future with its city. We seem to be off to a good start but until UAB athletics has an annual contribution income of $30 to $50 million, we can't rest on any laurels (AU athletics has $113 million and UA athletics has $150 million).

I guess I don't know how fundraising works, but what kept them from donating before? Do you literally have to be asked to make a donation? If some eccentric billionaire woke up tomorrow and cut UAB a check for the full cost of an OCS, would they turn it down because it was unsolicited?

(06-05-2015 09:35 PM)tibber Wrote:  I guess I don't know how fundraising works, but what kept them from donating before? Do you literally have to be asked to make a donation? If some eccentric billionaire woke up tomorrow and cut UAB a check for the full cost of an OCS, would they turn it down because it was unsolicited?

Any indication that the program was in trouble until it was too late?

Probably. You don't build on UA System property without their permission.

We couldn't put a damn rug on the practice field with private dollars, remember?

And when it comes to "UA System property", keep in mind that the UA System is one of the six largest land owners in this state. Most did not realize that the property on the Warrior River that the coal mine folks wanted to dig in was on UA System property. No one uses UA System land without BOT permission - and payment, no matter where in the state it is located.