Pollard interview

darts180 · 01-21-2007, 02:23 PM

Originally Posted by SLCyclone

I'm not sure if anyone else noticed, but on the Friday night 10:00 news, KCCI's Andy Garman referred to the "ISU Ticket Scandal". He must be a Hawkeye fan!

He used to work for KGAN, and is a big Hawk homer.

travman23 · 01-21-2007, 02:39 PM

Well at least Shawn is a Cubs fan which should help balance out Andy and his constant Cardinals talk. Andy was once again wearing another stupid Cardinals shirt at Hilton while shooting video. Not sure I have seen a SoundOff recently where he has not mentioned the Cardinals at least once. Give it up man, the World Series have been over for awhile and if it weren't for the NL Central being crap 83 wins would not have got you any better than 3rd in any other division in baseball last season and 4th in two of the AL divisions. I'll give it to him that the Cards did finally play well come playoff time but put them in any other division baseball last year and they would not have even got that chance.

pulse · 01-21-2007, 03:06 PM

Originally Posted by HandSanitizer

Maybe you are right, but I work with hundreds of Doctors, plus nurses, techs that mostly came to from the U of I. I work with at least 10 lawyers also. Sure most of them drive nice cars and live in 500+K homes and they might be in debt up to their Eyeballs. BUT they are still buying season tickets and donating more than somebody that is making 50K per year. They can donate more because they have more, even if that means they too are in debt. ISU needs a generous Bill Gates or Pickens or something...
Otherwise, for the most part I know what your saying.

The real difference is season ticket holders, which we are trying to increase. We don't have enough people buying season tickets. Donating money is certainly nice, but is not the real point. If 40,000 season tickets were sold instead of 30,000, that means millions of dollars of more revenue, and that's not including any sort of extra donation. Single game tickets would no way generate that kind of revenue. All anyone has to do is look at the math, its really very, very simple.

HandSanitizer · 01-21-2007, 03:36 PM

I think we need to be setting our goal at 40,000 season tickets within the next few years. Then get our NCC membership up to 20,000 instead of 6,000 or whatever it is. Lastly get on TV b/c that is what pays nice money and helps recruiting. We need our budget over 40 Million oppposed to 28 million.

I think this was from a couple years ago from the Indy Star

1. University of Texas $89,651,682 2. Texas A&M University $64,180,453 3. University of Nebraska $55,876,334 4. University of Kansas $50,826,019 5. Texas Tech University $47,961,420 6. University of Missouri $46,812,603 7. Kansas State University $39,884,220 8. University of Colorado $35,851,791 9. Iowa State University $28,913,010

We are never going to catch the big guys, but if we were middle of the pack in budget and get our facilities upgraded, we will be fine.

aeroclone · 01-21-2007, 04:59 PM

There are certainly wealthy alumni out there, the question is can we get them to donate to athletics? Just a few that I have come in contact with in my time here:

Vance Coffman: recently retired I believe, Chairman and CEO, Lockheed Martin

Thornton “T” A. Wilson: Chairman of the Board of Directors, The Boeing Company

Mike McBreen: COO Nike

Those are just the ones I know of personally. I've also heard that the president of Texas Instruments is an ISU grad. And I believe I heard on this board that the founder of Hooters restaurants is as well. There is also the guy living in Ankeny that owns his own golf course, I think he is involved in fertilizer or something.

Its not Boone Pickens money, but there are lots of ISU grads who could write us some heft checks. Sure, we don't have a med school or a law program, but we graduate a large number of engineers, who tend to do fairly well financially. There is enough money in our alumni base, we just have to tap into it.

Cydar · 01-21-2007, 05:19 PM

Originally Posted by darts180

He used to work for KGAN, and is a big Hawk homer.

Garman also worked for KDSM. When he reported the sports, you could sense that he favored the Hawkeyes. He's a 1998 Iowa Grad which explains why he's a big Hawkeye Homer.

ISUAlum2002 · 01-21-2007, 06:06 PM

Originally Posted by Cydar

Garman also worked for KDSM. When he reported the sports, you could sense that he favored the Hawkeyes. He's a 1998 Iowa Grad which explains why he's a big Hawkeye Homer.

Also, his headline on their story on the game last night on the 6 pm news was "ONE WORD - UGLY".

Blandboy · 01-21-2007, 09:37 PM

Originally Posted by HandSanitizer

They spent the last 20 years watching the only team on TV/Media with "ANF" plastered on their helmets and very successful teams.
My dad happens to be one of these exact guys we are talking about. No college attended, Thousands of Acres owned, LOVES the Hawks. Drives me crazy...(Also..He doesn't attend games or donate to UofI)

What's ANF got to do with farmers? It's short for Always Need Finances!

jimmycy · 01-21-2007, 10:05 PM

I've got to disagree. Pollard is using faulty logic. He claims that single game tickets will be available for the other games but that will be impossible if his plan works becuse they will all be sold out. This will be a PR nightmare if it doesn't work. What happned to the 4.2 million budget surplus we had when he got here? Mostly I just don't like his tone. He comes off defensive and a little bit snide. If the team wins people will buy season tickets. he's telling people to buy tickets first. That's not really a problem for me but for many people it will be.
Kind of reminds me of the mindset of american auto executives counting on people to buy infereior products out of guilt instead of a desire for the product.

I also don't like his implying that we will have to drop out of the Big 12 if this doesn't work. that's ********* and he knows it.

Johnny8 · 01-21-2007, 10:13 PM

Not once in the interview did Pollard state that he expected the season tickets to sell out. In fact his words were "I don't know what to expect." Therefore you can't fault his logic without putting words in his mouth. He said in the interview that it was a risky move. He is defensive about it because, as he explained, he is very passionate about Cyclone athletics, and really wants us to succeed.

Finally, he didn't really imply that we will drop out of the Big XII. What he used the comparison for was to explain why the tickets need to cost so much, because we are in the Big XII, and we need to have a Big XII budget. He stated that you can see football games for much cheaper, but they are games involving teams no one wants to watch.

pulse · 01-21-2007, 10:56 PM

Originally Posted by jimmycy

I've got to disagree. Pollard is using faulty logic. He claims that single game tickets will be available for the other games but that will be impossible if his plan works becuse they will all be sold out. This will be a PR nightmare if it doesn't work. What happned to the 4.2 million budget surplus we had when he got here? Mostly I just don't like his tone. He comes off defensive and a little bit snide. If the team wins people will buy season tickets. he's telling people to buy tickets first. That's not really a problem for me but for many people it will be.
Kind of reminds me of the mindset of american auto executives counting on people to buy infereior products out of guilt instead of a desire for the product.

I also don't like his implying that we will have to drop out of the Big 12 if this doesn't work. that's ********* and he knows it.

There is so much wrong with this.. well everything. Say it did work and there weren't any single game tickets.. great! That's what everyone wants, it means the stadium would need to be expanded because supply would be less than demand.

I think the budget surplus was used firing and hiring new coaches, among other things. He's trying to move forward by spending money in order to make money, instead of it sitting there waiting for the worst to happen.

The auto exec analogy is poor at best. There is no guilt, they make big, fast cars because that is what people want. They live in the here and now, and don't look down the road too much.

GoShow97 · 01-21-2007, 11:02 PM

Originally Posted by aeroclone

. There is also the guy living in Ankeny that owns his own golf course, I think he is involved in fertilizer or something.

.

Weed Killer my man.
Started out packaging Glyphosate (Roundup) and exporting it to S. America straight from his garage in the late 70’s. Turned it into a Multi-million dollar company. Good guy.

mike4cy · 01-21-2007, 11:07 PM

Originally Posted by HandSanitizer

I think we need to be setting our goal at 40,000 season tickets within the next few years. Then get our NCC membership up to 20,000 instead of 6,000 or whatever it is. Lastly get on TV b/c that is what pays nice money and helps recruiting. We need our budget over 40 Million oppposed to 28 million.

I think this was from a couple years ago from the Indy Star

1. University of Texas $89,651,682 2. Texas A&M University $64,180,453 3. University of Nebraska $55,876,334 4. University of Kansas $50,826,019 5. Texas Tech University $47,961,420 6. University of Missouri $46,812,603 7. Kansas State University $39,884,220 8. University of Colorado $35,851,791 9. Iowa State University $28,913,010

We are never going to catch the big guys, but if we were middle of the pack in budget and get our facilities upgraded, we will be fine.

I like the way you think.

dsouth · 01-21-2007, 11:20 PM

Originally Posted by HandSanitizer

Maybe you are right, but I work with hundreds of Doctors, plus nurses, techs that mostly came to from the U of I. I work with at least 10 lawyers also. Sure most of them drive nice cars and live in 500+K homes and they might be in debt up to their Eyeballs. BUT they are still buying season tickets and donating more than somebody that is making 50K per year. They can donate more because they have more, even if that means they too are in debt. ISU needs a generous Bill Gates or Pickens or something...
Otherwise, for the most part I know what your saying.

there are many many more iowa alumni making 50,000 a year than 500k. and it is laughable to suggest most isu alumni are making 50k a year. there are many isu alum in high 6 figure and higher income. you have a litany of startup companies in isu research park, the president of dow chemical is an isu grad, the inventor of freakin lipitor, the number one selling prescription drug of all time is an isu alumni. sorry, a gp making 150k a year isn't that imposing sorry, it just isn't. most attorneys starting out today, unless they are connected aren't making much money. i am curious how you know how much money andybody is donating? as far as endowments ect, grinnell college has more endowment money than all the other universities and colleges in iowa together. my point is, there is a LOT of money out there in isu alumni land. i think you are going to see a lot more money coming isu's way, not just in atheletics but in endowments, gifts, ect.

all of this aside; however, we are basically talking about $350 tickets, donations are a different issues.

dsouth · 01-21-2007, 11:25 PM

Originally Posted by pulse

The real difference is season ticket holders, which we are trying to increase. We don't have enough people buying season tickets. Donating money is certainly nice, but is not the real point. If 40,000 season tickets were sold instead of 30,000, that means millions of dollars of more revenue, and that's not including any sort of extra donation. Single game tickets would no way generate that kind of revenue. All anyone has to do is look at the math, its really very, very simple.

hit the nail on the head bro.