Bad decisions. A series of cascading bad decisions starting while Dave Braine was AD. I have no insights or visibility to what happens on the spreadsheets at the GTAA but a few obvious things jump out that have already been talked about. But let's see if we can do an unnecessary expansion of those talked about things, you know, kind of like....
The unnecessary stadium expansion/renovation.
I don't know the numbers but I'd be shocked if the upper north ticket revenue has come close to paying for this aesthetic nightmare. An unending set of empty stadium steps going up into the clouds casting an ominous shadow over everything beneath. Who in their right mind would think anyone would choose to sit up there over watching it on TV in the comfort of their own homes without having to dodge helicopters, circling buzzards and low orbit satellites?
The chair backs gutted the Tech home crowd, cutting it in half like Sherman's march to the sea, the Berlin wall or I-75 running straight through the heart of Atlanta, destroying continuity. Half empty most of the time, the chair backs project a terrible image in house and on TV. Whether you like the chair back club experience or not, it has a big net negative effect on the crowd atmosphere and home field advantage. Bad planning, bad designs, bad results and I would expect bad return on investment. They should tear this sh*t out and reconnect the fans. "JBATT, TEAR DOWN THAT WALL!".
I don't know what, if anything, can be done with the monstrosity that is the upper north. Maybe we can put a telescope up there.
Paul Hewitt.
It's a shame because coming off the Final Four run it sure looked like Tech was rolling and Hewitt was the right guy. We weren't and he wasn't. A disastrous contract that cost a fortune to get out of. If you look across college football you will see other programs making the same kinds of mistakes. Time will only tell, but the gargantuan contracts at Michigan State w/ Mel Tucker and Texas A&M w/ Jimbo Fisher are beginning to look regrettable. I don't know the details but the buyouts are crippling. Tech paid dearly for this mistake for years leading to...
Instability at GTAA. Buyouts and more buyouts.
After the Hewitt debacle and monster buyout, Dan Radakovich subsequently hired Brian Gregory (76-86) paying a buyout to Dayton. DRad split for Clemson leading to Mike Bobinski who canned Gregory paying him a buyout and hired Josh Pastner (94-96) with Bobinski promptly splitting for Purdue. This lead to hiring Todd Stansbury which required a buyout to Oregon State who then hired Collins (10-28) requiring a buyout to Temple. Collins and Stansbury were subsequently sh*t canned, requiring buyouts of course, leading to JBatt who just hired Brent Key (4-4) who heretofore has had no HC experience except in the interim capacity and... wait for it....NO BUYOUTS WOOO!
Trouble with the NCAA. I don't know what all the violations and sanctions have been and I am not going to dig them all up and try to re-litigate any of it but suffice it to say, Tech can't afford any and we've had too many. It has significantly added to the difficulty and if one were conspiratorial minded it might appear damn near malicious. Not really sayin, just sayin.
The ACC. While the arms race has gotten out of control and college athletics has become more and more expensive to operate, the ACC has lagged behind in supporting it's members relative to competing conferences. The Big Ten and the SEC now control the future of college sports. The ACC has made terrible longterm TV deals leaving it's members at a disadvantage. Polarization between the haves and the have nots of college sports is becoming extreme. Tech is facing the same decisions a lot of programs are as the chairs dwindle and the music begins to go long. UCLA and USC jumping to the Big 10 should be a screaming alarm bell to everyone. Where Tech ends up is anyone's guess but we better put on our best dress and start looking.
Where we are now. A giant pile of bad decisions, bad results, bad luck, bad actions and expensive failures bring us here with the burden of more buyouts than I can count leading to historic GTAA instability and ever more precarious financial footing. The hope is that JBatt and Brent Key can stop the bleeding.
Basketball remains to be seen but I am no fan of Josh Pastner. Based on the above disasters described (and probably more I don't know about), I wouldn't expect a change in basketball any time soon unless Pastner significantly underperforms his mediocre record. I personally would just let his contract run out while he is in place. We can't afford any more misadventures paying for former coaches to not coach.
I think there should be a big a$$ sign placed right above the coffee maker in the Edge building reading, "NO MORE BUYOUTS!". I assume JBatt has found the coffee maker.
Just my 2¢.
