Stansbury State of Athletics Presentation

18in32

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TStan addressed some boosters today for the annual 'State of Athletics' presentation. TBH, I don't think this was one of his best presentations – there wasn't a lot of hard info, and the organization of the ideas was a little rambling, too. He hit a lot of the 'high points' that he's hit in previous presentations, so not much of it felt like 'new news'. But I'll try to relay what I can remember for those that care...

(1) The AA is really happy with the new Adidas contract. In his day, players didn't care about the logo on the uniforms. These days, players care. The new Adidas connection is a huge, huge upgrade.

(2) The AA wants to focus on the attractions of the City of Atlanta. There used to be a moat around Tech because Midtown was so crummy. Not anymore. Tech wants to take over Midtown and make it our 'college town.' Football & 404 like CGC has been preaching.

(3) Another point of emphasis is Everyday Champions. Our athletes are successes after they stop playing (in college or as pros). The success of our S/A's is a huge selling point for us. We need to embrace the rigor of Tech, rather than use it as a crutch to explain mediocrity. This focus on the success of our S/A's includes deepening and renewing ties with our lettermen. That should be a lifelong relationship that goes both ways – GT benefits from their mentoring, lettermen benefit from the GT network.

(4) Innovation is the brand identity of GT including GT athletics. The next Gatorade should come from Tech. During the Super Bowl the AA coordinated an event between the NFL and the GTRI. Also, the AA organized a student Hackathon where dozens of student teams competed to come up with ideas to bring innovative engineering to the AA. The AA has actually entered into contracts with three of the teams to develop their ideas further.

(5) Wants to increase the "line of sight" at all levels of the AA. This means that boosters, employees, janitors, S/A's, everyone should be able to see clearly what the mission and goal of the AA is in any given endeavor. When you give money, you should see where it's going, how it's being spent, and why.

(6) Tech is moving away from a culture of "survival." It's a different model now. Academics can be an advantage not a problem. And don't think our S/A's are bound to fail. It is still rigorous, but that rigor is a selling point – because our S/A's actually thrive here. GT has the best academic support system in the country. We are able to educate our S/A's. 89% of GT S/A's graduate, and S/A's collectively have a 3.0 GPA. (I wonder what the number is for revenue sports alone...)

(7) One change he's implemented is integrating the ticket office and A-T fundraising. When someone drops tickets because they've moved to California, the salesman now knows to ask if the booster will make a donation instead. This is already reaping rewards.

(8) He spoke some more about the series of home games at Mercedes-Benz stadium. First there's the money. When he first arrived he thought GTAA was about $10m in annual revenue below where it needed to be. How can we close that gap? The Tenn game a couple years ago was a net positive to the AA of about $2m. So this series of games at MBS will help close our funding gap. Perhaps even more importantly, recruits love to know they'll be playing in one of the biggest stages in football – where the Super Bowl and CFP are played. That's something our competitors can't guarantee a recruit.

(9) He would like help in identifying young alums who are tech entrepreneurs. Unlike many places he's worked, major fundraising at Tech is primarily driven by alumni business developments rather than annual fund donations or seat licenses. IOW, a lot of the GTAA's money comes from alums who are going public or selling their business or the like. So he's starting an Innovators Fund to bring together 200 young entrepreneurs with GT connections, and he hopes to start being more innovative with fundraising. If you've got a start-up, you can give the GTAA some shares before your valuations get skyhigh. Let GT cash in on your success before it costs you very much!

(10) What's the long-term plan for Grant Field? Though we don't sell out the stadium, the AA does have waiting lists for all the premium seating options (club seats, suites, etc.). This means that GT supporters are out there ready to spend money to support the program. There needs to be a long term master plan for how to improve Grant Field to maximize fan engagement and tap into those unspent dollars. In other words, he's not going to just throw up some more club seats here or there. He's going to create a master plan and show it to everyone, so we all know what the long term goals for the facility is. (He kept talking about loggias and how he doesn't want to construct ad hoc loggias for premium seats.)

(11) The ACC Network studio on campus has just been completed (right next to McCamish apparently). The ACC Network decided to open on GT/Clemson because that's one of the highest profile games of the year, and draws particularly heavily on the Atlanta market. The ACCN is trying to do everything it can to pressure cable systems to carry it. Obviously the AA wants that, since it increases the revenue pie we all share.

(12) Facilities fundraising has gone very well. The football locker room cost about $4.5m and was done almost immediately upon his arrival. The men's and women's basketball locker rooms are fully funded ($5.6m) and should be ready to move to the next stage of development very soon. The same with the renovation to the baseball stadium ($9m). The big item is the reconstruction of the Edge Center. They've got roughly $40m of the $70m raised.

I kinda got the impression he's getting a little worried about the remaining $30m, because he went on and on about the importance of getting this project done. He argued that the construction of the Edge Center in 1981 played an important role in the success we had in the late 80's/early 90's (MNC in 1990, the Final Four, the College World Series, David Duval and Stewart Cink in golf, etc.) But now the building looks like a military bunker and he's afraid to show much of it to recruits. The new Edge will be all glass, very transparent, very futuristic. It'll be used all year long obviously, but during football games it'll be a place for recruits, for premium access, etc. It'll be a showpiece.

(13) He was asked about S/A's transferring (maybe the two girls bball players who left, I couldn't quite hear). He said that's just a fact of life in college athletics now. The transfer portal has made it very easy for schools to track transfers, and that's meant coaches have to pay close attention to it. While every transfer has his own reasons, he doesn't think it's a bigger problem for GT than anywhere else – if anything, it's less. I think he said the transfer portal has around 800 S/A's, across all sports, across the NCAA, at any given time. He said at a recent ACC conference, we had 2 S/A's in the portal, way lower than most other ACC schools. One had something like 80 players in it. (Can that be right?)

(14) He returned on multiple occasions to the point that having strong academics is a benefit not a burden for the AA. People say wouldn't it be great if we had lower academic standards – but if we did, then we wouldn't have the amazing S/A's that we have, with their incredible records of success. For example, half of our S/A's participated in summer internships. He said that number is much higher than any other big athletic school.

Why are we so successful? One thing is that we're located in Atlanta, in the business capital of the South. At other schools it's much harder to get kids into business just because they're further away. But even other urban schools (he mentioned UCLA, Washington and USC) don't have the success we have because their players aren't usually majoring in the meaningful fields that ours are. If we had lower academic standards, we would necessarily have less successful S/A's. (I guess this depends on your measure of success!) It's two sides of the same coin, and if we want to brag to recruits that our S/A's do more in life, then we have to understand that it's the demanding standards Tech imposes on the S/A's that make that happen.

Anybody else there and have anything else to add?

PS. CJP and CGC were both there. FWIW, I don't think CPJ ever came to this event. CGC was checking his multiple phones round the clock, carrying the WaHo cup, and not wearing socks. Of course.
 
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aeromech

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Part of the reason I think CGC will be successful is that he is supported by TStan rather than MBob. I don't think CGC would produce near as much juice if he was waiting on MBob to get the oranges.
 

18in32

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Video for those with 30 minutes to spare. I'm just gonna stick with the OP's summary.
Wow – if I'd known that was out there, I would've saved myself the typing exercise! Thanks for the link –
 

Ish

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(9) He would like help in identifying young alums who are tech entrepreneurs. Unlike many places he's worked, major fundraising at Tech is primarily driven by alumni business developments rather than annual fund donations or seat licenses. IOW, a lot of the GTAA's money comes from alums who are going public or selling their business or the like. So he's starting an Innovators Fund to bring together 200 young entrepreneurs with GT connections, and he hopes to start being more innovative with fundraising. If you've got a start-up, you can give the GTAA some shares before your valuations get skyhigh. Let GT cash in on your success before it costs you very much!
This is a great idea
 

oldgold68

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On point number 7, when asked what my season tix plans were, the GTAA rep immediately afterward asked for an A-T donation if tix weren't in the cards for me. (I had to break his heart by telling him I had been an A-T donor for over 35 years.). But, to his credit, he did exactly as ADTS indicated.

Great report on the presentation!
 

GT98

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Part of the reason I think CGC will be successful is that he is supported by TStan rather than MBob. I don't think CGC would produce near as much juice if he was waiting on MBob to get the oranges.
I remember CPJ talking about that TStan "gets it" and knows what is needed to make the athletics program successful. A not so veiled shot at Mboob, who isn't the worse AD @ GT ever solely due to Braine(dead).
 

GT98

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(3) Another point of emphasis is Everyday Champions. Our athletes are successes after they stop playing (in college or as pros). The success of our S/A's is a huge selling point for us. We need to embrace the rigor of Tech, rather than use it as a crutch to explain mediocrity.
I can appreciate the effort here. However, until meaningful #s of the best players choose a school for well, school reasons, it isn't a crutch, but reality. Hopefully, with more $, GT (under CGC) can broaden its reach geographically and find more of the kids who do care about a meaningful college degree.
 

JJacket

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I'd think the transfer portal would help GT more than most as players rethink their futures once they spend a year or so in Big State U
 

LeonardWood

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edit: nm, not time for negativity while drinking the juice
 
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eneq

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I'd think the transfer portal would help GT more than most as players rethink their futures once they spend a year or so in Big State U
Definitely. Its not the same process, but look at the grad transfers who've come here for both football and basketball. Patrick Skov, Tyler Davis, Jordan Price to name a few.

this makes no sense, but if it works on a to-be-successful entrepreneur so be it
If I'm understanding the idea correctly, this would not be an answer to the immediate $30M shortfall. This would definitely be a one-of-a-kind offering though. I'm guessing a AA-backed VC fund is not on the radar of any other athletic association.
 
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