The unofficial online home for fans of the University of Cincinnati Bearcats. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

Dave and Wendy Herche Make Transformative Investment to UC Athletics
Fifth Third Arena will now feature ‘Herche Courtside’

Zach Stipe
Associate AD / Communications

CINCINNATI – University of Cincinnati Director of Athletics John Cunningham announced on Tuesday a transformative investment from Dave and Wendy Herche to the Day One Ready Campaign to prepare the Bearcats to compete for championships in the Big 12.

The remarkable contribution spearheaded the efforts to revamp the men's and women's basketball locker rooms, which is currently in progress, the makeover of the practice gym and several other hoops and major athletic department initiatives.

The process of formalizing recognition for this transformative investment is underway at the University of Cincinnati. The plans include calling the men's and women's basketball practice gym, "The Herche" in honor of Dave and Wendy. Additionally, the wording "Herche Courtside" will prominently adorn the apron at center court of the Ed Jucker Court at Fifth Third Arena. The "Herche Courtside" will be a premium seating area that surrounds the playing surface. Fans in this area will continue to have access to the Mercedes-Benz Club located inside Fifth Third Arena.

"We are incredibly grateful and honored to receive this game-changing investment from Dave and Wendy Herche, which will specifically take our men's and women's basketball programs to the next level and help make our entire athletic department Day One Ready when we join the Big 12 on July 1," Director of Athletics John Cunningham said.

Herche is the chairman of Enerfab, an industry-leading industrial services company based in Cincinnati.

"Wendy and I are proud to announce this investment to the University of Cincinnati and the Day One Ready campaign," Dave Herche said. "We love what the University of Cincinnati does for its young people by preparing them and providing the tools to have success as adults. Sports, in particular, teach so many lessons about teamwork, which is essential to any person's success. Entering the Big 12 is a big step, and helping to provide resources for our student-athletes to find success on and off the court is a worthy cause we hope others will consider supporting, too."



https://gobearcats.com/news/2023/4/4/gen...etics.aspx

Must be big money I guess, though I only ever see it call "transformative".

Happy we have such donations. A big thanks to the Herches!

(04-04-2023 10:38 PM)Bruce Monnin Wrote:  Must be big money I guess, though I only ever see it call "transformative".

Happy we have such donations. A big thanks to the Herches!

I know Dave. Good people.

For years Enerfab was the largest closely held company in Cincinnati.

I knew him when. Yes, good guy.

(04-04-2023 02:47 PM)bearcatfan Wrote:  Dave and Wendy Herche Make Transformative Investment to UC Athletics
Fifth Third Arena will now feature ‘Herche Courtside’

Zach Stipe
Associate AD / Communications

CINCINNATI – University of Cincinnati Director of Athletics John Cunningham announced on Tuesday a transformative investment from Dave and Wendy Herche to the Day One Ready Campaign to prepare the Bearcats to compete for championships in the Big 12.

The remarkable contribution spearheaded the efforts to revamp the men's and women's basketball locker rooms, which is currently in progress, the makeover of the practice gym and several other hoops and major athletic department initiatives.

The process of formalizing recognition for this transformative investment is underway at the University of Cincinnati. The plans include calling the men's and women's basketball practice gym, "The Herche" in honor of Dave and Wendy. Additionally, the wording "Herche Courtside" will prominently adorn the apron at center court of the Ed Jucker Court at Fifth Third Arena. The "Herche Courtside" will be a premium seating area that surrounds the playing surface. Fans in this area will continue to have access to the Mercedes-Benz Club located inside Fifth Third Arena.

"We are incredibly grateful and honored to receive this game-changing investment from Dave and Wendy Herche, which will specifically take our men's and women's basketball programs to the next level and help make our entire athletic department Day One Ready when we join the Big 12 on July 1," Director of Athletics John Cunningham said.

Herche is the chairman of Enerfab, an industry-leading industrial services company based in Cincinnati.

"Wendy and I are proud to announce this investment to the University of Cincinnati and the Day One Ready campaign," Dave Herche said. "We love what the University of Cincinnati does for its young people by preparing them and providing the tools to have success as adults. Sports, in particular, teach so many lessons about teamwork, which is essential to any person's success. Entering the Big 12 is a big step, and helping to provide resources for our student-athletes to find success on and off the court is a worthy cause we hope others will consider supporting, too."



https://gobearcats.com/news/2023/4/4/gen...etics.aspx

An amazing gift and we all should celebrate the ability of such a gift to continue the process of transforming our Athletic Department into a true power conference competitor.

Each such gift is a another brick in that foundation and we should hope that this energizes more individual and corporate donors to step up as well as all of us giving at whatever level we can.

The blueprint for big time athletics used to be investing in infrastructure. stadium upgrades/facilities/housing etc

We successfully used the massive Varsity Village project to get into the Big East. Unfortunately it tapped out our donor base and we weren't able to continue leading to AAC purgatory when programs well ahead of our curve stayed P5. We finally got up to speed with stadium/arena upgrades as well as upcoming IPF as well as other smaller projects to get into Big12 right as NIL takes center stage.

My question is does anybody know whether we're once again spread too thin on donor support to keep up with our peers? I know at least the new stadium/arena upgrades will at least eventually pay for themselves with luxury boxes etc, but in the short term anybody familiar with our situation?

They're going to get a charitable deduction for building a new luxury seating area. LOL surely you guys so bothered by the NIL collectives' tax status must be livid!

(04-05-2023 08:39 AM)cincy7718 Wrote:  The blueprint for big time athletics used to be investing in infrastructure. stadium upgrades/facilities/housing etc

We successfully used the massive Varsity Village project to get into the Big East. Unfortunately it tapped out our donor base and we weren't able to continue leading to AAC purgatory when programs well ahead of our curve stayed P5. We finally got up to speed with stadium/arena upgrades as well as upcoming IPF as well as other smaller projects to get into Big12 right as NIL takes center stage.

My question is does anybody know whether we're once again spread too thin on donor support to keep up with our peers? I know at least the new stadium/arena upgrades will at least eventually pay for themselves with luxury boxes etc, but in the short term anybody familiar with our situation?

Bolded, not to be negative but my suspicion is yes we are too thin right now. UC has benefitted from a small but elite group of major donors to athletics who have helped UC rebuild infrastructure and secure coaches who raised the bar in terms of gaining a seat at the P5 table. Our P5 peers have a decades long head start on attendance, season tickets, and cultivating major gift prospects.

I'll argue that UC's greatly expanded fan base is relatively young. There are people of wealth among that cohort, but many of our ardent supporters are still building careers, and we hope, wealth sufficient to meet the special needs of athletics in the coming decade. A larger number of donors are needed; a smaller number of elite donors are critically needed to maintain the momentum.

Support for UC Athletics still suffers from our limited geographic footprint. We are surrounded by large, flagship state universities (O$U, UK, IU, Purdue, Michigan, WVU and a school, UofL, that is the only game in a town devoid of professional sports. That’s also not counting the NKU’s, EKU’s, Miami’s, Ohio U’s, and prominent basketball schools Xavier, Butler and Dayton. We may not like it, but in Ohio we are a very distant afterthought to O$U, an afterthought to UK and UofL in Kentucky and an afterthought to IU and Purdue in Indiana.