The title of this post stems from one of my favorite episodes of the Simpsons from the 1990s. At times, the Town Hall with Scott Barnes reminded me of the scene where Mayor Quimby is taken to the elderly center and they hold what was dubbed "Gripe at the Mayor Night."
Here goes the rundown:
- Not surprisingly, the event kicked off with a discussion of the Strategic Plan, which was unvieled a few weeks ago. Barned went through an abridged, scripted version of the plan. There were some points of note, but for an event slated to last one hour, the run through of the plan took around 25 minutes, leaving less time for Q and A. Initially, I was frustrated by this, but I actually found this part to be more informative than a lot of the Q and A portion, which was largely due to the questions asked.
- Barnes also discussed the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats they went through to create the "vision" for where the department is headed. I'm not sure I cared for all the minutiae that went into it, but you could tell there was great care to develop the plan.
- After about 10 minutes of the Strategic Plan, Barned began discussing the lack of investment in football. I am assuming this will be most people's main interest in the Town Hall, so I took the majority of my notes on what was said here.
- Barned recognized the lack of investment in football when he took the job in Feb 2017. He addressed the information that has been floated around by that OSU only invests about 17 % of its budget on football.
- According to SB, it is not wise to compare these numbers school to school as schools can report numbers in different ways. He said that some schools include things like game ops, football marketing, debt, and facility care in their football spending numbers. He said OSU does not report their numbers to the department of ED in this way.
- According to SB, OSU will be allotting 23% of its total budget to football for the FY 2018. Barnes said if you include the costs like debt service, game ops, marketing, and facility care, OSU will dedicate about 30% of its budget to football.
- (Side commentary by me-- I want to believe SB in this. By nature, I am a good mix of cynic and optimist. Part of my initial reaction was that one, I was happy this was brought up by SB and that he is aware, but two, was there some sort of spin going on to make him look better? Only time will tell in the 2018 numbers. Watch the FY 2018 to see if that the 23% number is accurate. If so, there may be some positive movement going on.)
- SB discussed how happy he is with his staff, but next he wants to focus on allowing more money for retention of assistants. This was stated with the assumption that there will be postive results on the field. This will also be able to happen once the "coaches" from GA are off the books.
- SB encouraged fans to enjoy their trip to Ohio State because we will never play another body bag game while he is in charge. He said that is a G5 way of scheduling and only wants to do home and home match-ups.
-SB mentioned a need for more private jet time for recruiting to be put into the football budget, not just donated by alums.
- SB wants to balance the budget by 2020 and to do so, try to create more external revenue sources. He would also like to have endowed positions on staff, similar to what other schools have done.
(Side note, one thing that did not come up was the charging of in-state tuition for athletes. I wish I would have asked during the Q and A)
- SB wants to return to using volunteers to seek out donations. This is what was done in the early 2000s and according to fans, brought a more personal/vested interest and touch to fundraising.
- SB discussed facility improvement in the recent past and those upcoming in the future. Gill will get a center hanging scoreboard and new lighting this summer. There will be minor improvements for Goss, especially down the right field line. Reser will get LED lighting for the upcoming season.
- In April and May, renderings for facility options will be produced. This should include options for the west-side of Reser. The main topic with Reser was trying to make it a 365 day facility, not just a 6-day a year facility.
-SB mentioned trying to tie facility improvements (Reser) in with the next university capital campaign.
- SB mentioned being scared right now of building and labor costs, which are skyrocketing with the recent economic uptick.
- The Q and A session begain, which I was initially excited about, but was mostly dominated by individualized problems, like not being able to get good seats on the website for baseball, handicap parking, niche sports, etc.
- Jeff Lulay asked about the SQUAD promotion and whether or not it will be expanded. Young alums like it and the department will look to expand it.
- I asked two questions: one on seeking more corporate money. SB wants to seek more corporate and private naming rights for areas around the facilities and fields to help with revenues.
- I also asked that if the 23% (or 30%) number is accurate, how does he plan on changing the perception that we are last in P5 when it comes to football spending. I mentioned that while that perception may not be actual reality, it is reality with fans. SB said that this topic will be the topic of converstation at his next executive meeting. (If it is truly the next topic great. Or, was this just shining me on. Time will tell).
- Questions were asked about Pac-12 network. Ed Ray actually dominated this portion. ER said he was frustrated that some school presidents and ADs in the conference are bashing their own product, and that this is not a healthy way of acting. He said some schools (cough WSU cough) spent a lot of money on projective revenue from the network that has not come true. Now, they are looking for bail-outs for their own poor decisions.
- One comment from an attendee was the beg ER to hold onto SB. The person said we have heard a lot of nonsense from previous ADs. Was this a planted participant? I kid. Well, sort of.
At this point, it was about 3:55 and I left to get dinner with the family before the men's basketball game, so I missed the last couple questions. There was another event being held at the Club that night, but SB said he would be willing to meet with people off to the side up until 4:30, at which he needed to get to Gill.
Overall, I came away with tempered optimism. This event was like a poltical campaign. Lots of promises, of which if they can make happen, that would move OSU in the right direction. But promises are easy to make.
Watch those FY 2018 numbers. That will tell the real story of what is happening.
Here goes the rundown:
- Not surprisingly, the event kicked off with a discussion of the Strategic Plan, which was unvieled a few weeks ago. Barned went through an abridged, scripted version of the plan. There were some points of note, but for an event slated to last one hour, the run through of the plan took around 25 minutes, leaving less time for Q and A. Initially, I was frustrated by this, but I actually found this part to be more informative than a lot of the Q and A portion, which was largely due to the questions asked.
- Barnes also discussed the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats they went through to create the "vision" for where the department is headed. I'm not sure I cared for all the minutiae that went into it, but you could tell there was great care to develop the plan.
- After about 10 minutes of the Strategic Plan, Barned began discussing the lack of investment in football. I am assuming this will be most people's main interest in the Town Hall, so I took the majority of my notes on what was said here.
- Barned recognized the lack of investment in football when he took the job in Feb 2017. He addressed the information that has been floated around by that OSU only invests about 17 % of its budget on football.
- According to SB, it is not wise to compare these numbers school to school as schools can report numbers in different ways. He said that some schools include things like game ops, football marketing, debt, and facility care in their football spending numbers. He said OSU does not report their numbers to the department of ED in this way.
- According to SB, OSU will be allotting 23% of its total budget to football for the FY 2018. Barnes said if you include the costs like debt service, game ops, marketing, and facility care, OSU will dedicate about 30% of its budget to football.
- (Side commentary by me-- I want to believe SB in this. By nature, I am a good mix of cynic and optimist. Part of my initial reaction was that one, I was happy this was brought up by SB and that he is aware, but two, was there some sort of spin going on to make him look better? Only time will tell in the 2018 numbers. Watch the FY 2018 to see if that the 23% number is accurate. If so, there may be some positive movement going on.)
- SB discussed how happy he is with his staff, but next he wants to focus on allowing more money for retention of assistants. This was stated with the assumption that there will be postive results on the field. This will also be able to happen once the "coaches" from GA are off the books.
- SB encouraged fans to enjoy their trip to Ohio State because we will never play another body bag game while he is in charge. He said that is a G5 way of scheduling and only wants to do home and home match-ups.
-SB mentioned a need for more private jet time for recruiting to be put into the football budget, not just donated by alums.
- SB wants to balance the budget by 2020 and to do so, try to create more external revenue sources. He would also like to have endowed positions on staff, similar to what other schools have done.
(Side note, one thing that did not come up was the charging of in-state tuition for athletes. I wish I would have asked during the Q and A)
- SB wants to return to using volunteers to seek out donations. This is what was done in the early 2000s and according to fans, brought a more personal/vested interest and touch to fundraising.
- SB discussed facility improvement in the recent past and those upcoming in the future. Gill will get a center hanging scoreboard and new lighting this summer. There will be minor improvements for Goss, especially down the right field line. Reser will get LED lighting for the upcoming season.
- In April and May, renderings for facility options will be produced. This should include options for the west-side of Reser. The main topic with Reser was trying to make it a 365 day facility, not just a 6-day a year facility.
-SB mentioned trying to tie facility improvements (Reser) in with the next university capital campaign.
- SB mentioned being scared right now of building and labor costs, which are skyrocketing with the recent economic uptick.
- The Q and A session begain, which I was initially excited about, but was mostly dominated by individualized problems, like not being able to get good seats on the website for baseball, handicap parking, niche sports, etc.
- Jeff Lulay asked about the SQUAD promotion and whether or not it will be expanded. Young alums like it and the department will look to expand it.
- I asked two questions: one on seeking more corporate money. SB wants to seek more corporate and private naming rights for areas around the facilities and fields to help with revenues.
- I also asked that if the 23% (or 30%) number is accurate, how does he plan on changing the perception that we are last in P5 when it comes to football spending. I mentioned that while that perception may not be actual reality, it is reality with fans. SB said that this topic will be the topic of converstation at his next executive meeting. (If it is truly the next topic great. Or, was this just shining me on. Time will tell).
- Questions were asked about Pac-12 network. Ed Ray actually dominated this portion. ER said he was frustrated that some school presidents and ADs in the conference are bashing their own product, and that this is not a healthy way of acting. He said some schools (cough WSU cough) spent a lot of money on projective revenue from the network that has not come true. Now, they are looking for bail-outs for their own poor decisions.
- One comment from an attendee was the beg ER to hold onto SB. The person said we have heard a lot of nonsense from previous ADs. Was this a planted participant? I kid. Well, sort of.
At this point, it was about 3:55 and I left to get dinner with the family before the men's basketball game, so I missed the last couple questions. There was another event being held at the Club that night, but SB said he would be willing to meet with people off to the side up until 4:30, at which he needed to get to Gill.
Overall, I came away with tempered optimism. This event was like a poltical campaign. Lots of promises, of which if they can make happen, that would move OSU in the right direction. But promises are easy to make.
Watch those FY 2018 numbers. That will tell the real story of what is happening.
