EagNBran
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RE: This truly is the death of USM football
(11-01-2017 06:58 AM)HarborPointe Wrote: (10-31-2017 04:11 PM)EagNBran Wrote: Actually, we've lost a ton of donors that had given to the school for decades. The entire debacle between Hammond, McGillis, IHL, Bennett, and other factors led to a good amount I personally know stopping. And until they see actual leadership, they don't plan to give any more. To quote one, "I gave tremendous amount for over 30 years and nothing changed. Their student recruitment strategy was awful, no one listened to any of our ideas that seemed so braindead obvious even a kid could do it, and it's obvious they don't care much about losing my dollars because I haven't heard from them since." That's a pretty common thread I hear from many donors who used to have season tickets for decades and can no longer be found at the games.
Please do elaborate as to what the “The entire debacle between Hammond, McGillis, IHL, Bennett“ entails. I’ve seen those events of the past half-dozen or so years, but what, specifically, caused these people to throw in the towel after giving “tremendous amounts” for “decades?”
The problems we have today have been brewing for decades as well. The last legitimate visionary to hold the president’s office was probably McCain. McLellan, for whom I otherwise had a lot of respect, did everything possible to balance the athletic budget except actually grow income. The word “marketing” may not have even been in his vocabulary, and under his watch, our facilities fell 10 years behind our peers’. For heaven’s sake, we only played 4 home football games for years. That was atrocious. What exactly made people who contributed through all that decide, “Nope, I’m done now”? It’s ALWAYS been a battle here. Our fighting, biting, and scratching for everything we have from the day the doors opened is well-documented.
It’s also a strange paradox that one of the biggest complaints over the years has been “the big donors control everything.” Now you’re telling me people who gave huge sums of money are pissed off because they weren’t being listened to.
What caused many, from my understanding, was a buildup over the years of incompetence. We all work jobs and do our best at them. When you see pure, unadulterated laziness permeating a campus for twenty+ years and no leadership to fix it, that weighs on you. Many saw Hammond as whipping the laziness out of the Athletic Department, but he was canned because he made some big money people unhappy. Then you had Bennett brought in, who was a candidate no one on the Presidential committee wanted, but was forced on us by the IHL to be the 'diverse' pick of Mississippi. He hired McGillis, who did nothing but make us lose money through terrible IMG deals and paying this outside company to sell season tickets instead of our own people actually going out and selling those tickets, costing us more money in the process. You begin to combine all of these things happening and at one point, people say 'Enough is enough. If USM doesn't want to better itself, I'm not going to pour my money in their sinkhole.' And so they left.
Big sums can look like small sums in comparison. I've been in rooms and heard administration straight up say that if they can control Hattiesburg and the surrounding 30 mile area, we'd be okay. This is what led Martha to assign her worst recruiter to Jackson. It's created an echo chamber in Hattiesburg where any ideas that aren't from Hattiesburg are seen as ridiculous or out of touch. Meanwhile, the Eagle Club in Hattiesburg is dying (dead may be a better word, their meetings are jokes), more and more kids are choosing SEC schools over us, and we're finding out very quickly that the surrounding 30 mile radius isn't that large. In theory, sure, if everyone in that area got involved, we'd be a-okay. That's not reality though. And for decades they've made sure to keep those giving millions as happy as possible while giving the finger to those who give tens of thousands.
Short story to show a bit of the incompetence I've witnessed. I have a friend who's company owned a suite the first five years (08-12). After that, the contract came up for renewal. They had previously been paying $28,000 a year to rent the suite. McGillis comes in and tells them that the price is now going to be $31,000 a year. Note, this is after an 0-12 year where all of our conference rivals left us and were being replaced by startup programs. So, out of goodwill, this friend offers $29,000 and cites the reasons why he would never consider paying $31,000 with the product on the field and the competition we had on schedule. He even agreed to do a one year deal so that if someone found out and complained, they could say it's being rented and is available to anyone willing to pay the $31,000 at any time. McGillis refused. That suite was filled the entirety of the 2013 season by local businesses given free tickets to make sure it wasn't empty. Our AD passed on $29,000 (more than that if we account for future years) and instead gave away free tickets to people who have never shown their face on campus again. That's the incompetence that plagues our Athletic Department. I sure hope the new AD can fix things, and I haven't seen any reason so far that I believe he can't. But it's going to take a cultural shift in Hattiesburg for us to right the ship. It'll also take certain people rotating off of the IHL that will inevitably allow us to improve ourselves instead of stay where we are.
(This post was last modified: 11-01-2017 10:28 AM by EagNBran.)
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This truly is the death of USM football
