Jamie Pollard talks facilities/south endzone

[CyFan61]

Bingo. It pisses me off that they give so many clubs so much money for nothing. Tell them if they want something they can fundraise. If not, well, they didn't really want it that bad.

So which is it? Student fees and mandatory athletic tickets, or neither? In your opinion, of course.

I mean, it sounds like you want to have your cake and eat it too.

[Cytaki]

Jamie has devoted how much money to Jack Trice over the last few years...he has done worlds to the stadium. Now it is time to focus on the other sports and get them a little more competitive. The one thing I have always respected about Jamie is that he understands how important it is to keep the other sports afloat. I have worked for two other athletic departments and this wasn't the case at those places. As much as many people "don't care" about those sports they do matter in our entire athletic profile. Football can wait. So much has already been done to J.T. and the most important things are done or are getting done. The bowling in of the south end zone will happen when we can get it done. But other things should be priority right now.

[Cyclonestate78]

We are very lucky to have Jamie Pollard. What we need is patience and very competitive Football and Basketball teams in the Big 12. He gets that and that is why their facilities are upgrading first. After that you still cannot ignore the non-revenue sports, because they hold merit. Any conference will want a school that fields a lot of teams.

Once a good product is on the field consistently the proximity to Des Moines can start to pay off. Building the casual fan base and creating revenue. At that point the SEZ project can be done and pay off.

I trust Jamie's plan and hope we can hang on to him and CPR for a long long time. That is the key.

I think some people forget where JP came here from. The University of Wisconsin. Wisconsin in many regards was a program that was in ISU's shoes a few decades ago. Their football history was filled with mediocrity or even worse... flat out periods of being absolutely pathetic. Prior to Barry Alvarez being hired as the head coach the previous coaches put up these amazing records....

Milt Bruhn 52-45-6
John Coatta 3-26-1
John Jardine 37-47-3
Dave McClain 46-42-3
Jim Hilles 3-9
Don Morton 6-27

That is a combined record of 147-196-13. Hell... Barry Alvarez took over and went 1-10 in his first season and followed that up with 2 more losing seasons.

What changed? Leadership. Pat Richter became the AD in 1989 and he hired Barry Alvarez to coach their team. When Richter took the job their facilities were outdated, their teams were pathetic, and they had an athletic budget that was 2.1 million dollars in the hole. His first priority was to update Camp Randall Stadium and then he was involved in the construction of the Kohl Center. He turned that 2.1 million dollar deficit in the athletic budget into a 6.4 million dollar budget surplus. He then retired and turned it over to Alvarez as the new AD. Pollard worked at Wisconsin in the AD's office from 1998 to 2005. He worked with Pat Richter, he worked with Barry Alvarez. He was a major player in getting the budget issues at Wisconsin fixed and when he left Wisconsin they had a 15 million dollar budget surplus.

JP worked directly with the 2 key figures that took Wisconsin Athletics and in particular their football program from doormat status to Big Ten Conference Champions and BCS Bowl Champions. He knows the blueprint for success because he helped Wisconsin draw it up and implement it.

What did JP do when he got to ISU? He went right after new coaches and while he whiffed on GMAC and Chizdick he hit homeruns with Hoiberg and CPR. He has raised money and pumped a huge amount of cash into upgrading the facilities at ISU and he isn't done yet. Sound familiar? It is the exact same blueprint Wisconsin used to turn the corner and now it has become the ISU blueprint. Love or hate the guy all you want but know that if we follow JP's plan good things are on the horizon for ISU. Be patient because we know this blueprint works.

[IcSyU]

So which is it? Student fees and mandatory athletic tickets, or neither? In your opinion, of course.

I mean, it sounds like you want to have your cake and eat it too.

If you're going to do one that doesn't deserve the majority of campus, the other should be easily justifiable. If you aren't going to do either, I'd be ok with that too. Right now, one is ok, the other is not. That's crap. There aren't 10,000 students using the clubs. There probably are 10,000 using the athletics tickets in some form.

[CyDude16]

I think some people forget where JP came here from. The University of Wisconsin. Wisconsin in many regards was a program that was in ISU's shoes a few decades ago. Their football history was filled with mediocrity or even worse... flat out periods of being absolutely pathetic. Prior to Barry Alvarez being hired as the head coach the previous coaches put up these amazing records....

Milt Bruhn 52-45-6
John Coatta 3-26-1
John Jardine 37-47-3
Dave McClain 46-42-3
Jim Hilles 3-9
Don Morton 6-27

That is a combined record of 147-196-13. Hell... Barry Alvarez took over and went 1-10 in his first season and followed that up with 2 more losing seasons.

What changed? Leadership. Pat Richter became the AD in 1989 and he hired Barry Alvarez to coach their team. When Richter took the job their facilities were outdated, their teams were pathetic, and they had an athletic budget that was 2.1 million dollars in the hole. His first priority was to update Camp Randall Stadium and then he was involved in the construction of the Kohl Center. He turned that 2.1 million dollar deficit in the athletic budget into a 6.4 million dollar budget surplus. He then retired and turned it over to Alvarez as the new AD. Pollard worked at Wisconsin in the AD's office from 1998 to 2005. He worked with Pat Richter, he worked with Barry Alvarez. He was a major player in getting the budget issues at Wisconsin fixed and when he left Wisconsin they had a 15 million dollar budget surplus.

JP worked directly with the 2 key figures that took Wisconsin Athletics and in particular their football program from doormat status to Big Ten Conference Champions and BCS Bowl Champions. He knows the blueprint for success because he helped Wisconsin draw it up and implement it.

What did JP do when he got to ISU? He went right after new coaches and while he whiffed on GMAC and Chizdick he hit homeruns with Hoiberg and CPR. He has raised money and pumped a huge amount of cash into upgrading the facilities at ISU and he isn't done yet. Sound familiar? It is the exact same blueprint Wisconsin used to turn the corner and now it has become the ISU blueprint. Love or hate the guy all you want but know that if we follow JP's plan good things are on the horizon for ISU. Be patient because we know this blueprint works.

+1. Great post.

[IcSyU]

Wisconsin isn't quite the same thing but the point remains. Wisconsin has a HUGE advantage being the only university in the state with almost double the population of Iowa.

[alarson]

So which is it? Student fees and mandatory athletic tickets, or neither? In your opinion, of course.

I mean, it sounds like you want to have your cake and eat it too.

The student fees that are there are never going away. 40-50 bucks/student would probably be a better use than most of the rest of the fees i paid combined, as many thousands would benefit, not just small groups like most of the rest of them

[Cyclonestate78]

Wisconsin isn't quite the same thing but the point remains. Wisconsin has a HUGE advantage being the only university in the state with almost double the population of Iowa.

Very true. Iowa State faces some unique challenges compared to what Wisconsin faced but I think JP has made the proper adjustments to the blueprint and on we go. The similarities are obvious. Most people probably didn't even know that Wisconsin ever sucked as bad as they used to. Which brings up another good point... start winning consistently and building on that success and people will forget that ISU ever used to be a mediocre to below average program. ISU fans will always know where we came from but the national perception of the program can change dramatically by simply winning.

[mustangcy]

I think some people forget where JP came here from. The University of Wisconsin. Wisconsin in many regards was a program that was in ISU's shoes a few decades ago. Their football history was filled with mediocrity or even worse... flat out periods of being absolutely pathetic. Prior to Barry Alvarez being hired as the head coach the previous coaches put up these amazing records....

Milt Bruhn 52-45-6
John Coatta 3-26-1
John Jardine 37-47-3
Dave McClain 46-42-3
Jim Hilles 3-9
Don Morton 6-27

That is a combined record of 147-196-13. Hell... Barry Alvarez took over and went 1-10 in his first season and followed that up with 2 more losing seasons.

What changed? Leadership. Pat Richter became the AD in 1989 and he hired Barry Alvarez to coach their team. When Richter took the job their facilities were outdated, their teams were pathetic, and they had an athletic budget that was 2.1 million dollars in the hole. His first priority was to update Camp Randall Stadium and then he was involved in the construction of the Kohl Center. He turned that 2.1 million dollar deficit in the athletic budget into a 6.4 million dollar budget surplus. He then retired and turned it over to Alvarez as the new AD. Pollard worked at Wisconsin in the AD's office from 1998 to 2005. He worked with Pat Richter, he worked with Barry Alvarez. He was a major player in getting the budget issues at Wisconsin fixed and when he left Wisconsin they had a 15 million dollar budget surplus.

JP worked directly with the 2 key figures that took Wisconsin Athletics and in particular their football program from doormat status to Big Ten Conference Champions and BCS Bowl Champions. He knows the blueprint for success because he helped Wisconsin draw it up and implement it.

What did JP do when he got to ISU? He went right after new coaches and while he whiffed on GMAC and Chizdick he hit homeruns with Hoiberg and CPR. He has raised money and pumped a huge amount of cash into upgrading the facilities at ISU and he isn't done yet. Sound familiar? It is the exact same blueprint Wisconsin used to turn the corner and now it has become the ISU blueprint. Love or hate the guy all you want but know that if we follow JP's plan good things are on the horizon for ISU. Be patient because we know this blueprint works.

This is a good post...I have a ton of confidence in JP. That said, the man is a human being and can make errors of judgement. We as a fan base should express our opinions and wants out of our AD. Not to say he should always listen but it's important we express and he listen. Which I think he does.

[Palmer]

I think some people forget where JP came here from. The University of Wisconsin. Wisconsin in many regards was a program that was in ISU's shoes a few decades ago. Their football history was filled with mediocrity or even worse... flat out periods of being absolutely pathetic. Prior to Barry Alvarez being hired as the head coach the previous coaches put up these amazing records....

Milt Bruhn 52-45-6
John Coatta 3-26-1
John Jardine 37-47-3
Dave McClain 46-42-3
Jim Hilles 3-9
Don Morton 6-27

That is a combined record of 147-196-13. Hell... Barry Alvarez took over and went 1-10 in his first season and followed that up with 2 more losing seasons.

What changed? Leadership. Pat Richter became the AD in 1989 and he hired Barry Alvarez to coach their team. When Richter took the job their facilities were outdated, their teams were pathetic, and they had an athletic budget that was 2.1 million dollars in the hole. His first priority was to update Camp Randall Stadium and then he was involved in the construction of the Kohl Center. He turned that 2.1 million dollar deficit in the athletic budget into a 6.4 million dollar budget surplus. He then retired and turned it over to Alvarez as the new AD. Pollard worked at Wisconsin in the AD's office from 1998 to 2005. He worked with Pat Richter, he worked with Barry Alvarez. He was a major player in getting the budget issues at Wisconsin fixed and when he left Wisconsin they had a 15 million dollar budget surplus.

JP worked directly with the 2 key figures that took Wisconsin Athletics and in particular their football program from doormat status to Big Ten Conference Champions and BCS Bowl Champions. He knows the blueprint for success because he helped Wisconsin draw it up and implement it.

What did JP do when he got to ISU? He went right after new coaches and while he whiffed on GMAC and Chizdick he hit homeruns with Hoiberg and CPR. He has raised money and pumped a huge amount of cash into upgrading the facilities at ISU and he isn't done yet. Sound familiar? It is the exact same blueprint Wisconsin used to turn the corner and now it has become the ISU blueprint. Love or hate the guy all you want but know that if we follow JP's plan good things are on the horizon for ISU. Be patient because we know this blueprint works.

Awesome post.

[Cyclonestate78]

This is a good post...I have a ton of confidence in JP. That said, the man is a human being and can make errors of judgement. We as a fan base should express our opinions and wants out of our AD. Not to say he should always listen but it's important we express and he listen. Which I think he does.

I remember the whole ordeal when some kid had emailed JP about some ticket issue and JP did his research and called the kid out on never being a season ticket holder etc... KXNO ran with that deal for all it was worth trying to drag JP through the mud. While I didn't necessarily like the situation that resulted from JP's response to the kid I walked away with quite a bit more respect for the guy. If JP takes that much time and effort to go back and research this kid's history in purchasing tickets for ISU football how much time and effort do you think JP spends on each and every financial move that ISU makes? No detail is left out, no stone is left unturned, and when a move is made he has all of the information available to him to make the proper call and he has analyzed it from every possible direction. This guy is sharp and he doesn't BS anybody. He tells it like it is regardless of how that response will be received and for a guy in his position as an AD at a BCS conference school that is far from the norm.

He ****** some folks off with his plan that you had to purchase season tickets if you wanted a ticket to the ISU vs. Iowa game. That didn't go over with resounding support but guess what.... it worked and people got over it. I am sure he knew he was going to take some heat on that deal but I would guarantee you that when he pulled the trigger on that deal he already knew that it was going to work.

When Cael Sanderson was crying for more money for wrestling and himself, JP straight up told him that he simply didn't have that money to devote to wrestling. He did that knowing that a 4 time NCAA champion, unbeaten in college, olympic gold medalist, and a Cyclone legend loved by ISU fans around the country was going to walk right out the door. He ****** a lot of ISU fans off with that one but guess what.... once again it was the right call.

They guy has a set of stones that he needs assistants to carry around for him.

[BirdDog]

Just a thought: Seems to me that with the new giant screen on the north, the south end zone seats might be sought after. Not only can one watch the plays unfold in real time but also watch the game on the screen, almost with the same eye. Maybe financially it would make sense to make the bowled in south premium seating with some enclosed suites. Preselling that type of seating would be a good start to bowling in the south.

[IcSyU]

No one will ever be jumping at the chance for premium endzone seating. The seats in the top row of the upper deck in the corner are better seats than the endzone seats.

[Cyclone711]

No one will ever be jumping at the chance for premium endzone seating. The seats in the top row of the upper deck in the corner are better seats than the endzone seats.

If they are priced right they will. People in this thread even have stated they would pay more for an actual seat in the endzone instead of grass.

[CYKOFAN]

It's been awhile so we were due for another round of JP worship from some of his fans (huge stones, genius, etc). JP has done some bad things (Chizik and GMac) and good things (Fred and CPR with some major help from Auburn and Creighton). We lost our legend wrestling coach and there are probably only a very few people that know the whole story on that. Our athletic department got a lot of extra money from the new tv deal, and nothing wrong with debating the best way to use it. I would have done the south end zone first, at least the lower level, but maybe CPR wanted the new football facility and scoreboard first. As long as we start a sez fundraising project fairly soon I'll be happy. I'm one of those crazy fans that could give a rip about swimming, cross country, etc.