New HS Stadium - Why Not Upgrade MSU

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Re: New HS Stadium - Why Not Upgrade MSU

Post by Hawks86 » Fri Nov 24, 2017 4:03 pm

I added to my response after you quoted it. I also think they want to do most of this without bonding until the others are paid for.


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Re: New HS Stadium - Why Not Upgrade MSU

Post by allcat » Fri Nov 24, 2017 4:10 pm

I don't have any kids, so I am willing to raise the tuition by 1,000 per student per year till they pay for this. See this stuff is actually very easy, especially when you make someone else pay for it.


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Re: New HS Stadium - Why Not Upgrade MSU

Post by AFCAT » Fri Nov 24, 2017 4:15 pm

Hawks86 wrote:I added to my response after you quoted it. I also think they want to do most of this without bonding until the others are paid for.

I understand but I'm not waiting for them to figure this out. I'm sending in money now with the hope they will get off their rear ends sooner rather than later. I'm not a big donator (just a few K to start) but I will do my part to get this done before I'm too old to hike up the East grandstands. Football season is over, so we need something to get all worked up about. :D


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Re: New HS Stadium - Why Not Upgrade MSU

Post by Hi-Line Bobcat » Fri Nov 24, 2017 4:22 pm

AFCAT wrote:
Hawks86 wrote:
AFCAT wrote:
MSU01 wrote:
AFCAT wrote:
MSU01 wrote:Holy crap, how about just a tiny bit of patience on this. MSU has building projects going on all over the place, and Bobcat Stadium is currently the right size in terms of its capacity meeting the demand for tickets, not including Cat-Griz which could easily sell out a stadium double the size. Making rash decisions under the "I WANT IT NOW!" mentality is what will get them into trouble financially in the long term if at some point MSU doesn't have record-breaking enrollment anymore. A long-term strategic plan for development requires a long-term strategic approach to fundraising, not a big push to get Phase I completed immediately with no plan for how to fund Phases II and beyond.

I'm talking about donations. They have their facilities plan, now is the time to start getting money to pay for it. There is no reason to wait.
But how you get the donations matters too. If I put out a shiny website and ask for donations, you might give $100. If it's a more focused, personalized approach, maybe I can get you to give $500 or $1000 instead. Remember that the number of donors to the end zone project was not exactly huge - there are not thousands upon thousands of Bobcat fans out there just waiting with checkbooks in hand to make a donation to this, so they have to make sure they can get as much as they can from the people who are willing to donate. The $5 and $10 donations generated from a public campaign will be great once they have the vast majority of the money already spoken for.

I don't care how they do it, but waiting makes no sense. I haven't received any personalized letters, phone calls, or e-mails. Many people are excited right now and want to donate money. There is nothing but a short blurb on the facilities plan web page about getting back to you about making a donation. It's been over two months since the plan came out. Why wait? Let's get it started. dUMb doesn't seem to have a problem getting the regular folks to donate along with their big whales. Heck, I'm sending them a nice check as soon as they get back to me and I'll even set up a monthly allotment if they let me know where to send the money.
Again. They told recruits for 10+ years that their new locker room was coming soon. They also had to bond up to 5 million on their champions center.
I don't know what that has to do with soliciting donations for this facilities plan. That's all I'm writing about. There is no reason to wait and I believe they aren't doing a good job of outreach right now..
Exactly, it doesn’t. If they want to get things rolling start collecting from the GP right now. This isn’t a patience deal, this is simple schematics, when your up stay up don’t wait to cool down.


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Re: New HS Stadium - Why Not Upgrade MSU

Post by Cat Grad » Fri Nov 24, 2017 4:37 pm

Just raise the price of tickets. Even Boise State charges $98.00 per ticket. Boise State doesn't begin to compare to the prices most colleges charge. Then, raise the student activity fee to be at least half the national average.



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Re: New HS Stadium - Why Not Upgrade MSU

Post by ElbowCat » Fri Nov 24, 2017 5:00 pm

MSU01 wrote:
AFCAT wrote:
MSU01 wrote:Holy crap, how about just a tiny bit of patience on this. MSU has building projects going on all over the place, and Bobcat Stadium is currently the right size in terms of its capacity meeting the demand for tickets, not including Cat-Griz which could easily sell out a stadium double the size. Making rash decisions under the "I WANT IT NOW!" mentality is what will get them into trouble financially in the long term if at some point MSU doesn't have record-breaking enrollment anymore. A long-term strategic plan for development requires a long-term strategic approach to fundraising, not a big push to get Phase I completed immediately with no plan for how to fund Phases II and beyond.

I'm talking about donations. They have their facilities plan, now is the time to start getting money to pay for it. There is no reason to wait.
But how you get the donations matters too. If I put out a shiny website and ask for donations, you might give $100. If it's a more focused, personalized approach, maybe I can get you to give $500 or $1000 instead. Remember that the number of donors to the end zone project was not exactly huge - there are not thousands upon thousands of Bobcat fans out there just waiting with checkbooks in hand to make a donation to this, so they have to make sure they can get as much as they can from the people who are willing to donate a significant sum of money. The $5 and $10 donations generated from a public campaign will be great once they have the vast majority of the money already spoken for.
MSU01 is on point here. It’s important to maximize each potential donation that’s out there and you do that by having someone from the Alumni office contact those individuals who could potentially donate larger amounts, not by giving them a chance to make a smaller donation through a website before you are able to reach out to them.

I’m not sure why anyone thinks they are waiting to start raising money? I was contacted this fall about 6 weeks after they announced the plan and asked specifically to donate to the new North Endzone building, so I know they aren’t waiting for anything. It does seem strange that no one has gotten back to AFCat after he inquired about making a donation. As has been stated in other threads and I think publicly by MSU, they are hoping to complete the fundraising for the first phase by homecoming 2018.



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Re: New HS Stadium - Why Not Upgrade MSU

Post by AFCAT » Fri Nov 24, 2017 5:25 pm

ElbowCat wrote:
MSU01 wrote:
AFCAT wrote:
MSU01 wrote:Holy crap, how about just a tiny bit of patience on this. MSU has building projects going on all over the place, and Bobcat Stadium is currently the right size in terms of its capacity meeting the demand for tickets, not including Cat-Griz which could easily sell out a stadium double the size. Making rash decisions under the "I WANT IT NOW!" mentality is what will get them into trouble financially in the long term if at some point MSU doesn't have record-breaking enrollment anymore. A long-term strategic plan for development requires a long-term strategic approach to fundraising, not a big push to get Phase I completed immediately with no plan for how to fund Phases II and beyond.

I'm talking about donations. They have their facilities plan, now is the time to start getting money to pay for it. There is no reason to wait.
But how you get the donations matters too. If I put out a shiny website and ask for donations, you might give $100. If it's a more focused, personalized approach, maybe I can get you to give $500 or $1000 instead. Remember that the number of donors to the end zone project was not exactly huge - there are not thousands upon thousands of Bobcat fans out there just waiting with checkbooks in hand to make a donation to this, so they have to make sure they can get as much as they can from the people who are willing to donate a significant sum of money. The $5 and $10 donations generated from a public campaign will be great once they have the vast majority of the money already spoken for.
MSU01 is on point here. It’s important to maximize each potential donation that’s out there and you do that by having someone from the Alumni office contact those individuals who could potentially donate larger amounts, not by giving them a chance to make a smaller donation through a website before you are able to reach out to them.

I’m not sure why anyone thinks they are waiting to start raising money? I was contacted this fall about 6 weeks after they announced the plan and asked specifically to donate to the new North Endzone building, so I know they aren’t waiting for anything. It does seem strange that no one has gotten back to AFCat after he inquired about making a donation. As has been stated in other threads and I think publicly by MSU, they are hoping to complete the fundraising for the first phase by homecoming 2018.
I don't know why I haven't been contacted. They have no trouble sending me e-mails about concerts and other stuff going on at the Brick, phone calls by student athletes thanking me for my scholarship donation, and emails when my season tickets need to be renewed. Heck, even the bookstore calls me when I purchase something from them. I'm sending money in anyway for the facilities plan. No need to try and maximize my donation, I'll give them what I can spare now. I'd like to see this plan implemented sooner rather than later.


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Re: New HS Stadium - Why Not Upgrade MSU

Post by KittieKop » Fri Nov 24, 2017 7:15 pm

Why not at least start with the donor list from the EZ project? If that group of about 600 people donated all that money, why not retap that resource? I'm like AFCat - I donated to the EZ but haven't heard a word about donating to any new projects. I know there's a method to approaching the $25,000-$1 million donors, but why are you leaving all the 1, 2, 5 thousand dollar donors? If your plan is to contact people, maybe you should - you know - reach out and contact people. Not wait for people to come to you.


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Re: New HS Stadium - Why Not Upgrade MSU

Post by grizzh8r » Sat Nov 25, 2017 10:34 am

Hi-Line Bobcat wrote:Some have said on here, but honestly Costello has the quiet phase down pat, almost like a Peter Fields type. There is no excuse for not fixing the grandstands by next year, none!! After we won in Missoula when Dmac was a freshman it was instant, in regards to starting to get donations and breaking ground on the new end zone. Of course we had to wait until after the NDSU game, but it seemed like we had a plan. With Costello, I see your videos but why hasn’t there been anything going out to boosters or the public around Bozeman. Say MSU wants to raise 2 million to tear down the old bleachers and put in new concrete and bleachers that match the end zone, I guarantee you will get that money in a hurry. Set a concrete plan not a huge plan that will take 20 years to maybe do.
#SMH

How many times does it have to be said - the east grandstands AREN'T PART OF THE IMMEDIATE PLAN. The north end zone academic center project is priority numero uno. Unless someone ponys up a huge amount of cash, get used to having the east grandstands for a number of seasons more to come.


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Re: New HS Stadium - Why Not Upgrade MSU

Post by Long Time Cat » Sat Nov 25, 2017 11:15 am

Cat Grad wrote:Just raise the price of tickets. Even Boise State charges $98.00 per ticket. Boise State doesn't begin to compare to the prices most colleges charge. Then, raise the student activity fee to be at least half the national average.
Boise State no longer sells out for most of their games either so I’m not sure they are the best example to use. I don’t hate Boise State like I do the griz but their fan base is similarly unrealistic. BSU lost 4 games in ‘15 and 3 games in ‘16 and lots of fans wanted to fire the coach. They are in the MWC championship game this year and still their attendance is down 10 - 20% from what it used to be.


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Re: New HS Stadium - Why Not Upgrade MSU

Post by BelgradeBobcat » Sat Nov 25, 2017 11:57 am

Long Time Cat wrote:Boise State no longer sells out for most of their games either so I’m not sure they are the best example to use. I don’t hate Boise State like I do the griz but their fan base is similarly unrealistic. BSU lost 4 games in ‘15 and 3 games in ‘16 and lots of fans wanted to fire the coach. They are in the MWC championship game this year and still their attendance is down 10 - 20% from what it used to be.
Boise State's stadium isn't all the big either. For an area with half a million people, a program that does nothing but win, and not much else going on to draw fans away, their attendance appears pretty anemic to me. Exhibit 1 why you don't want to make your stadium too big too fast. Plus their stadium is really ugly (and not just because of the turf).



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Re: New HS Stadium - Why Not Upgrade MSU

Post by Cataholic » Sat Nov 25, 2017 1:16 pm

AFCAT wrote:
ElbowCat wrote:
MSU01 wrote:
AFCAT wrote:
MSU01 wrote:Holy crap, how about just a tiny bit of patience on this. MSU has building projects going on all over the place, and Bobcat Stadium is currently the right size in terms of its capacity meeting the demand for tickets, not including Cat-Griz which could easily sell out a stadium double the size. Making rash decisions under the "I WANT IT NOW!" mentality is what will get them into trouble financially in the long term if at some point MSU doesn't have record-breaking enrollment anymore. A long-term strategic plan for development requires a long-term strategic approach to fundraising, not a big push to get Phase I completed immediately with no plan for how to fund Phases II and beyond.

I'm talking about donations. They have their facilities plan, now is the time to start getting money to pay for it. There is no reason to wait.
But how you get the donations matters too. If I put out a shiny website and ask for donations, you might give $100. If it's a more focused, personalized approach, maybe I can get you to give $500 or $1000 instead. Remember that the number of donors to the end zone project was not exactly huge - there are not thousands upon thousands of Bobcat fans out there just waiting with checkbooks in hand to make a donation to this, so they have to make sure they can get as much as they can from the people who are willing to donate a significant sum of money. The $5 and $10 donations generated from a public campaign will be great once they have the vast majority of the money already spoken for.
MSU01 is on point here. It’s important to maximize each potential donation that’s out there and you do that by having someone from the Alumni office contact those individuals who could potentially donate larger amounts, not by giving them a chance to make a smaller donation through a website before you are able to reach out to them.

I’m not sure why anyone thinks they are waiting to start raising money? I was contacted this fall about 6 weeks after they announced the plan and asked specifically to donate to the new North Endzone building, so I know they aren’t waiting for anything. It does seem strange that no one has gotten back to AFCat after he inquired about making a donation. As has been stated in other threads and I think publicly by MSU, they are hoping to complete the fundraising for the first phase by homecoming 2018.
I don't know why I haven't been contacted. They have no trouble sending me e-mails about concerts and other stuff going on at the Brick, phone calls by student athletes thanking me for my scholarship donation, and emails when my season tickets need to be renewed. Heck, even the bookstore calls me when I purchase something from them. I'm sending money in anyway for the facilities plan. No need to try and maximize my donation, I'll give them what I can spare now. I'd like to see this plan implemented sooner rather than later.
Apparently the 3 above are fundraising experts. The campus has expanded in a very meticulous and well thought out approach that provides a stable financial future, yet the 3 above know more than anybody. Seriously, get a grip and let the professionals do their job. The south end zone was a huge success and the expansion on campus is phenomenal. Do you think students are more concerned (or have a greater need) for campus parking than football stadium improvements? Every dollar that goes to one need is lost to another campus need. Heck, people already complain about the cost of season tickets and tailgating yet one of your idea is just to raise prices. The approach above is like buying a Mercedes this week and worrying about you can pay for it later. If you are running short on funds, you will just ask for a raise at work.

There is a reason you haven’t been approached for funding: because you do not account for where 90% of the funding will come from - the deep pocket donor. As another has said, the fund raising is taking place with the large donors right now. If the majority of funds aren’t there, they won’t ask for funds from a demographic that historically only accounts for a small portion of the funding.

If you need an example, look at Eastern Washington. Their Gateway project is 10+ years old and has become old news with no momentum. This is despite tremendous success on the field. Another example is Washington Griz. Does anybody think the Champions Center would been built without help from the Washington’s? Do you think that approaching small scale Griz donors would have resulted in any construction without the $7 million donation from Washington? Not a chance!

It is great that you are excited and want to contribute. Unfortunately, your donation will not mean much without the big donor money. Sorry for the terse tone, but let’s be realistic and try to understand the process before throwing criticism at Costello and his team.



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Re: New HS Stadium - Why Not Upgrade MSU

Post by 91catAlum » Sat Nov 25, 2017 2:05 pm

Cataholic has a point. For the end zone project, there were only about 700 total donors. Leaving the big money donors out of the equation, let's say MSU does a phenomenal job and triples the number of donors from last time, to 2000. Then let's say the average donation of those 2000 people is $250. That would be a grand total of $500,000. Basically a drop in the bucket (3%) of the $16 million price tag, and that's for phase 1 only!

Getting the facilities done is going to rely mostly (95%+) on big money donors.

Costello got things done at sdsu, so it's not his first rodeo. Even though it's not happening as quickly as any of us would like, let's see what the man can do over the next year.


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Re: New HS Stadium - Why Not Upgrade MSU

Post by AFCAT » Sat Nov 25, 2017 2:25 pm

Cataholic wrote:
AFCAT wrote:
ElbowCat wrote:
MSU01 wrote:
AFCAT wrote:
MSU01 wrote:Holy crap, how about just a tiny bit of patience on this. MSU has building projects going on all over the place, and Bobcat Stadium is currently the right size in terms of its capacity meeting the demand for tickets, not including Cat-Griz which could easily sell out a stadium double the size. Making rash decisions under the "I WANT IT NOW!" mentality is what will get them into trouble financially in the long term if at some point MSU doesn't have record-breaking enrollment anymore. A long-term strategic plan for development requires a long-term strategic approach to fundraising, not a big push to get Phase I completed immediately with no plan for how to fund Phases II and beyond.

I'm talking about donations. They have their facilities plan, now is the time to start getting money to pay for it. There is no reason to wait.
But how you get the donations matters too. If I put out a shiny website and ask for donations, you might give $100. If it's a more focused, personalized approach, maybe I can get you to give $500 or $1000 instead. Remember that the number of donors to the end zone project was not exactly huge - there are not thousands upon thousands of Bobcat fans out there just waiting with checkbooks in hand to make a donation to this, so they have to make sure they can get as much as they can from the people who are willing to donate a significant sum of money. The $5 and $10 donations generated from a public campaign will be great once they have the vast majority of the money already spoken for.
MSU01 is on point here. It’s important to maximize each potential donation that’s out there and you do that by having someone from the Alumni office contact those individuals who could potentially donate larger amounts, not by giving them a chance to make a smaller donation through a website before you are able to reach out to them.

I’m not sure why anyone thinks they are waiting to start raising money? I was contacted this fall about 6 weeks after they announced the plan and asked specifically to donate to the new North Endzone building, so I know they aren’t waiting for anything. It does seem strange that no one has gotten back to AFCat after he inquired about making a donation. As has been stated in other threads and I think publicly by MSU, they are hoping to complete the fundraising for the first phase by homecoming 2018.
I don't know why I haven't been contacted. They have no trouble sending me e-mails about concerts and other stuff going on at the Brick, phone calls by student athletes thanking me for my scholarship donation, and emails when my season tickets need to be renewed. Heck, even the bookstore calls me when I purchase something from them. I'm sending money in anyway for the facilities plan. No need to try and maximize my donation, I'll give them what I can spare now. I'd like to see this plan implemented sooner rather than later.
Apparently the 3 above are fundraising experts. The campus has expanded in a very meticulous and well thought out approach that provides a stable financial future, yet the 3 above know more than anybody. Seriously, get a grip and let the professionals do their job. The south end zone was a huge success and the expansion on campus is phenomenal. Do you think students are more concerned (or have a greater need) for campus parking than football stadium improvements? Every dollar that goes to one need is lost to another campus need. Heck, people already complain about the cost of season tickets and tailgating yet one of your idea is just to raise prices. The approach above is like buying a Mercedes this week and worrying about you can pay for it later. If you are running short on funds, you will just ask for a raise at work.

There is a reason you haven’t been approached for funding: because you do not account for where 90% of the funding will come from - the deep pocket donor. As another has said, the fund raising is taking place with the large donors right now. If the majority of funds aren’t there, they won’t ask for funds from a demographic that historically only accounts for a small portion of the funding.

If you need an example, look at Eastern Washington. Their Gateway project is 10+ years old and has become old news with no momentum. This is despite tremendous success on the field. Another example is Washington Griz. Does anybody think the Champions Center would been built without help from the Washington’s? Do you think that approaching small scale Griz donors would have resulted in any construction without the $7 million donation from Washington? Not a chance!

It is great that you are excited and want to contribute. Unfortunately, your donation will not mean much without the big donor money. Sorry for the terse tone, but let’s be realistic and try to understand the process before throwing criticism at Costello and his team.

Well, since you are the expert on this; Why did they put out this facilities plan and hype it up with the video requesting support for the project? Choate said that; "the arrows are all pointing in the right direction now and we can accomplish some amazing things with the help of alumni and friends." Coach Binford said; "People are onboard, people are fired up about it and now we are going to have an opportunity to provide resources to winners on campus. But we also want our community of fans to be a part of this next stage, getting committed and getting onboard with something you are interested in. It's an opportunity to invest in something that makes a difference in your life. Grab a hold of whatever program of facility that is and help us get there." I didn't hear any mention of; "We are waiting for the big donors first and then we'll ask for you peons for some cash later." People are ready to do what those coaches asked. However, if everyone at MSU believes there is a greater need for student parking first, then they probably should have put that plan out first and hyped it up.

Heck, 5,000 people donating $1,000 a piece is $5 million dollars. That's not chump change. Choate even said he's like put a shovel in the ground now and get this started. If you can get the little people excited enough to donate, the project could be started that much quicker. I just want to donate to this specific facilities plan and, so far, there has been nothing advertised or communicated to me. Why? I am approached for money for scholarships every year and I'm not a big donor. I guess my low level donations is good enough for those scholarship funds.

I'm also curious how my donation to the facilities plan takes away from money going to other campus needs? I get to determine where I want to donate my money and it's not to parking garages. My donation to the facilities plan takes nothing away from other campus improvements since I only want my facilities plan donation to specifically go to that program. My scholarship donations don't go into a big pot of money to be used for something other than scholarships, at least it better not be.

I'd like to see the donations breakdown for the UM improvements. I know the Washington's donate a lot of money, but I suspect there are quite a few little guy donations as well.


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Re: New HS Stadium - Why Not Upgrade MSU

Post by Hi-Line Bobcat » Sat Nov 25, 2017 2:43 pm

grizzh8r wrote:
Hi-Line Bobcat wrote:Some have said on here, but honestly Costello has the quiet phase down pat, almost like a Peter Fields type. There is no excuse for not fixing the grandstands by next year, none!! After we won in Missoula when Dmac was a freshman it was instant, in regards to starting to get donations and breaking ground on the new end zone. Of course we had to wait until after the NDSU game, but it seemed like we had a plan. With Costello, I see your videos but why hasn’t there been anything going out to boosters or the public around Bozeman. Say MSU wants to raise 2 million to tear down the old bleachers and put in new concrete and bleachers that match the end zone, I guarantee you will get that money in a hurry. Set a concrete plan not a huge plan that will take 20 years to maybe do.
#SMH

How many times does it have to be said - the east grandstands AREN'T PART OF THE IMMEDIATE PLAN. The north end zone academic center project is priority numero uno. Unless someone ponys up a huge amount of cash, get used to having the east grandstands for a number of seasons more to come.
#KSYH. I don’t care about the plan, the more money the merrier. If they did what they did for the end zone project, we can get the east grand stands fixed right away. Why does it have to be part of the “master plan” which 50% of the board will be dead by then, maybe myself as well.I like the master plan, but just like anything plans change and this would be the easiest first fix.

I’m hearing a lot of excuses and reason to stay in the quiet phase. I don’t know about you guys but I love quiet phases and noise shed complaints.oh by the way I’m an expert just ask me.


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Re: New HS Stadium - Why Not Upgrade MSU

Post by 91catAlum » Sat Nov 25, 2017 3:03 pm

AFCAT wrote:
Cataholic wrote:
AFCAT wrote:
ElbowCat wrote:
MSU01 wrote:
AFCAT wrote:
MSU01 wrote:Holy crap, how about just a tiny bit of patience on this. MSU has building projects going on all over the place, and Bobcat Stadium is currently the right size in terms of its capacity meeting the demand for tickets, not including Cat-Griz which could easily sell out a stadium double the size. Making rash decisions under the "I WANT IT NOW!" mentality is what will get them into trouble financially in the long term if at some point MSU doesn't have record-breaking enrollment anymore. A long-term strategic plan for development requires a long-term strategic approach to fundraising, not a big push to get Phase I completed immediately with no plan for how to fund Phases II and beyond.

I'm talking about donations. They have their facilities plan, now is the time to start getting money to pay for it. There is no reason to wait.
But how you get the donations matters too. If I put out a shiny website and ask for donations, you might give $100. If it's a more focused, personalized approach, maybe I can get you to give $500 or $1000 instead. Remember that the number of donors to the end zone project was not exactly huge - there are not thousands upon thousands of Bobcat fans out there just waiting with checkbooks in hand to make a donation to this, so they have to make sure they can get as much as they can from the people who are willing to donate a significant sum of money. The $5 and $10 donations generated from a public campaign will be great once they have the vast majority of the money already spoken for.
MSU01 is on point here. It’s important to maximize each potential donation that’s out there and you do that by having someone from the Alumni office contact those individuals who could potentially donate larger amounts, not by giving them a chance to make a smaller donation through a website before you are able to reach out to them.

I’m not sure why anyone thinks they are waiting to start raising money? I was contacted this fall about 6 weeks after they announced the plan and asked specifically to donate to the new North Endzone building, so I know they aren’t waiting for anything. It does seem strange that no one has gotten back to AFCat after he inquired about making a donation. As has been stated in other threads and I think publicly by MSU, they are hoping to complete the fundraising for the first phase by homecoming 2018.
I don't know why I haven't been contacted. They have no trouble sending me e-mails about concerts and other stuff going on at the Brick, phone calls by student athletes thanking me for my scholarship donation, and emails when my season tickets need to be renewed. Heck, even the bookstore calls me when I purchase something from them. I'm sending money in anyway for the facilities plan. No need to try and maximize my donation, I'll give them what I can spare now. I'd like to see this plan implemented sooner rather than later.
Apparently the 3 above are fundraising experts. The campus has expanded in a very meticulous and well thought out approach that provides a stable financial future, yet the 3 above know more than anybody. Seriously, get a grip and let the professionals do their job. The south end zone was a huge success and the expansion on campus is phenomenal. Do you think students are more concerned (or have a greater need) for campus parking than football stadium improvements? Every dollar that goes to one need is lost to another campus need. Heck, people already complain about the cost of season tickets and tailgating yet one of your idea is just to raise prices. The approach above is like buying a Mercedes this week and worrying about you can pay for it later. If you are running short on funds, you will just ask for a raise at work.

There is a reason you haven’t been approached for funding: because you do not account for where 90% of the funding will come from - the deep pocket donor. As another has said, the fund raising is taking place with the large donors right now. If the majority of funds aren’t there, they won’t ask for funds from a demographic that historically only accounts for a small portion of the funding.

If you need an example, look at Eastern Washington. Their Gateway project is 10+ years old and has become old news with no momentum. This is despite tremendous success on the field. Another example is Washington Griz. Does anybody think the Champions Center would been built without help from the Washington’s? Do you think that approaching small scale Griz donors would have resulted in any construction without the $7 million donation from Washington? Not a chance!

It is great that you are excited and want to contribute. Unfortunately, your donation will not mean much without the big donor money. Sorry for the terse tone, but let’s be realistic and try to understand the process before throwing criticism at Costello and his team.

Well, since you are the expert on this; Why did they put out this facilities plan and hype it up with the video requesting support for the project? Choate said that; "the arrows are all pointing in the right direction now and we can accomplish some amazing things with the help of alumni and friends." Coach Binford said; "People are onboard, people are fired up about it and now we are going to have an opportunity to provide resources to winners on campus. But we also want our community of fans to be a part of this next stage, getting committed and getting onboard with something you are interested in. It's an opportunity to invest in something that makes a difference in your life. Grab a hold of whatever program of facility that is and help us get there." I didn't hear any mention of; "We are waiting for the big donors first and then we'll ask for you peons for some cash later." People are ready to do what those coaches asked. However, if everyone at MSU believes there is a greater need for student parking first, then they probably should have put that plan out first and hyped it up.

Heck, 5,000 people donating $1,000 a piece is $5 million dollars. That's not chump change. Choate even said he's like put a shovel in the ground now and get this started. If you can get the little people excited enough to donate, the project could be started that much quicker. I just want to donate to this specific facilities plan and, so far, there has been nothing advertised or communicated to me. Why? I am approached for money for scholarships every year and I'm not a big donor. I guess my low level donations is good enough for those scholarship funds.

I'm also curious how my donation to the facilities plan takes away from money going to other campus needs? I get to determine where I want to donate my money and it's not to parking garages. My donation to the facilities plan takes nothing away from other campus improvements since I only want my facilities plan donation to specifically go to that program. My scholarship donations don't go into a big pot of money to be used for something other than scholarships, at least it better not be.

I'd like to see the donations breakdown for the UM improvements. I know the Washington's donate a lot of money, but I suspect there are quite a few little guy donations as well.
I think 5000 people donating $1000 each is a pipe dream. 700 people donated to the end zone project, and I'll bet the average donation was much less than $1000.


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MSU01
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Re: New HS Stadium - Why Not Upgrade MSU

Post by MSU01 » Sat Nov 25, 2017 6:13 pm

Cataholic wrote: Apparently the 3 above are fundraising experts. The campus has expanded in a very meticulous and well thought out approach that provides a stable financial future, yet the 3 above know more than anybody. Seriously, get a grip and let the professionals do their job. The south end zone was a huge success and the expansion on campus is phenomenal. Do you think students are more concerned (or have a greater need) for campus parking than football stadium improvements? Every dollar that goes to one need is lost to another campus need. Heck, people already complain about the cost of season tickets and tailgating yet one of your idea is just to raise prices. The approach above is like buying a Mercedes this week and worrying about you can pay for it later. If you are running short on funds, you will just ask for a raise at work.

There is a reason you haven’t been approached for funding: because you do not account for where 90% of the funding will come from - the deep pocket donor. As another has said, the fund raising is taking place with the large donors right now. If the majority of funds aren’t there, they won’t ask for funds from a demographic that historically only accounts for a small portion of the funding.

If you need an example, look at Eastern Washington. Their Gateway project is 10+ years old and has become old news with no momentum. This is despite tremendous success on the field. Another example is Washington Griz. Does anybody think the Champions Center would been built without help from the Washington’s? Do you think that approaching small scale Griz donors would have resulted in any construction without the $7 million donation from Washington? Not a chance!

It is great that you are excited and want to contribute. Unfortunately, your donation will not mean much without the big donor money. Sorry for the terse tone, but let’s be realistic and try to understand the process before throwing criticism at Costello and his team.
I certainly don't consider myself to be a fundraising expert, and the bolded part of your post was pretty much the exact point I was trying to make. The last thing MSU needs to do here is a failed GoFundMe-style "I WANT IT NOW!" fundraising campaign.



Cataholic
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Re: New HS Stadium - Why Not Upgrade MSU

Post by Cataholic » Sat Nov 25, 2017 6:30 pm

MSU01 wrote:
Cataholic wrote: Apparently the 3 above are fundraising experts. The campus has expanded in a very meticulous and well thought out approach that provides a stable financial future, yet the 3 above know more than anybody. Seriously, get a grip and let the professionals do their job. The south end zone was a huge success and the expansion on campus is phenomenal. Do you think students are more concerned (or have a greater need) for campus parking than football stadium improvements? Every dollar that goes to one need is lost to another campus need. Heck, people already complain about the cost of season tickets and tailgating yet one of your idea is just to raise prices. The approach above is like buying a Mercedes this week and worrying about you can pay for it later. If you are running short on funds, you will just ask for a raise at work.

There is a reason you haven’t been approached for funding: because you do not account for where 90% of the funding will come from - the deep pocket donor. As another has said, the fund raising is taking place with the large donors right now. If the majority of funds aren’t there, they won’t ask for funds from a demographic that historically only accounts for a small portion of the funding.

If you need an example, look at Eastern Washington. Their Gateway project is 10+ years old and has become old news with no momentum. This is despite tremendous success on the field. Another example is Washington Griz. Does anybody think the Champions Center would been built without help from the Washington’s? Do you think that approaching small scale Griz donors would have resulted in any construction without the $7 million donation from Washington? Not a chance!

It is great that you are excited and want to contribute. Unfortunately, your donation will not mean much without the big donor money. Sorry for the terse tone, but let’s be realistic and try to understand the process before throwing criticism at Costello and his team.
I certainly don't consider myself to be a fundraising expert, and the bolded part of your post was pretty much the exact point I was trying to make. The last thing MSU needs to do here is a failed GoFundMe-style "I WANT IT NOW!" fundraising campaign.
You are right. My apologies. I thought Hi Line was part of the thread referred to. You and I are on the same page.



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Re: New HS Stadium - Why Not Upgrade MSU

Post by kennethnoisewater » Sat Nov 25, 2017 8:35 pm

Cataholic is right. This is fundraising 101, and MSU seems to be doing it exactly right. I was a professional fundraiser for years, and the goal is always to get "seed money", or leadership gifts, during the silent phase. I know that's a frustrating thing, but that's the way pretty much every campaign goes. The little fish are frustrated and the big fish are getting worked over. Just because you haven't been contacted doesn't mean they're not working. I guarantee they're working their butts off and are making all the contacts to the people who matter for right now. When a campaign comes out of the silent phase, ideally, they have a huge chunk of their money raised, and they get us all fired up to make what we call "stop and think gifts". If you set up a gofundme campaign or haphazardly start an online push, people don't often stop, budget, give something up, and make a sacrificial gift. If the project just needs another 20%, people like you and me can get behind it and feel like we're making a difference to make that final push.

You might not like it, but this is how it's done. Every fundraiser has heard it a thousand times from people who think they know how it's done, but this approach is tried and true. Little fish like us can hate it all we want.


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Cataholic
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Re: New HS Stadium - Why Not Upgrade MSU

Post by Cataholic » Sat Nov 25, 2017 9:13 pm

AFCAT wrote:Well, since you are the expert on this; Why did they put out this facilities plan and hype it up with the video requesting support for the project? Choate said that; "the arrows are all pointing in the right direction now and we can accomplish some amazing things with the help of alumni and friends." Coach Binford said; "People are onboard, people are fired up about it and now we are going to have an opportunity to provide resources to winners on campus. But we also want our community of fans to be a part of this next stage, getting committed and getting onboard with something you are interested in. It's an opportunity to invest in something that makes a difference in your life. Grab a hold of whatever program of facility that is and help us get there." I didn't hear any mention of; "We are waiting for the big donors first and then we'll ask for you peons for some cash later." People are ready to do what those coaches asked. However, if everyone at MSU believes there is a greater need for student parking first, then they probably should have put that plan out first and hyped it up.

Heck, 5,000 people donating $1,000 a piece is $5 million dollars. That's not chump change. Choate even said he's like put a shovel in the ground now and get this started. If you can get the little people excited enough to donate, the project could be started that much quicker. I just want to donate to this specific facilities plan and, so far, there has been nothing advertised or communicated to me. Why? I am approached for money for scholarships every year and I'm not a big donor. I guess my low level donations is good enough for those scholarship funds.

I'm also curious how my donation to the facilities plan takes away from money going to other campus needs? I get to determine where I want to donate my money and it's not to parking garages. My donation to the facilities plan takes nothing away from other campus improvements since I only want my facilities plan donation to specifically go to that program. My scholarship donations don't go into a big pot of money to be used for something other than scholarships, at least it better not be.

I'd like to see the donations breakdown for the UM improvements. I know the Washington's donate a lot of money, but I suspect there are quite a few little guy donations as well.
Sorry again to MSU01 for lumping you in with AFCAT and Hiline. It appears that most people posting understand that the wheels are turning and the process is moving along.

I will try to address AFCAT's questions above. I don't profess to be an expert on fundraising, but I have tried to educate myself on the process. I am disappointed when people take jabs at Costello (or anybody in the athletic department) without doing any research on the process. To just say "he sucks because he hasn't asked me for a donation directly" is ridiculous.

In regard to the big announcement and fanfare on future athletic facilities, it is intended to drum up hype, support and funds. However, their focus in raising funds is not on the guy who is willing to donate $25. I can assure you that they are seeking big dollar donors to make sure the money will be there. My recollection was that the initial $4 million+ was already raised for the last endzone project before they started a campaign with the general public. As for your comment: "We are waiting for the big donors first and then we'll ask for you peons for some cash later." ---- I am sure you are just trying to make a point and fully understand why such a statement is not made. As for student parking, the garage is already being built. Parking was needed in the late 80's when I attended MSU and the school has grown substantially.

As mentioned before, raising $1,000 each from 5,000 donors is a pipe dream. Only 700 contributed to the end zone project. The vast majority of funds came from the big donors.

You do realize that MSU has one of the finest stadiums and environments in the FCS? Our program will be perfectly okay if it takes some time to pull the funding together. Of course low level donations are welcome and important, but they will be a very small part of funding for stadium improvements. This has been proven in past projects at MSU and similar projects across the country.

Maybe you are different than me, but if I contribute $1,000 to a project, it will impact my giving to other organizations, especially at the same academic institution.

Let me know what you find out about the Griz fan's contribution toward the Champion's Center or other athletic facilities. I fully expect that the "lion's share" comes from major donors such as Washington.



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