This story on the UConn donor requesting $3 mil back from the school is fascinating to me. There are so many ways to look at it.
Was his donation really a donation, or an investment? And does that change his power within the organization? If it is purely a donation, isn’t it mighty classless to ask for it back?
I understand that donations generally come with strings, especially donations of this magnitude. Even smaller donations come with a cost, to an extent. Case in point, we donated a somewhat significant sum of money to a local food bank, which was a good deed, but we needed to have some press coverage and a photo op. It’s a pain to the ED of the food bank, but he explained that every time he gets a large donation like that he plans on setting aside a portion of his day for such an event. You could go on and on with similar examples.
So, I got to thinking about how this parallels our program right now. We have some big donors, sure. Some of the names we know, some we don’t. That’s typically how it goes. Some people want the fame, others just support the institution and have more money than they can spend.
But besides that, each person who invests in supports an Athletics Department around America has some stock, whether perceived or real, in that department. So, in order to keep these donors/investors happy, certain things have to happen. In the case of UGA, I am talking about winning.
Essentially what you have at UGA with the Hartman fund is a large pool of annual investors. If you win, the investors continue to pay, usually even larger amounts. That’s why the initial buy in is so tough for some. But if you lose, like you have these past two years, you begin to lose investors.
In this instance, you don’t have the big media splash that you have at UConn. Nonetheless, the end result is the same. By that same token, the suits at UGA know that they have to put a good product out there, because in the end it’s all about the money.
I don’t know if I’ve fully formed an opinion on Mr. Burton in Connecticut, but I don’t completely blame him for being upset. There are always strings with that kind of cash.
ucheedawg
I think he has a right to be upset. However, no amount of money buys you a say in hiring decisions. Sorry. Furthermore, to express your anger so publicly reeks of Lowder like shenanigans. It’s wrong and shows a lack of character. Clearly, the donor in question never had the university’s best interests at heart, only his own. If they can afford to, I think UConn ought to give him his money back and politely ask him never to show his face on campus again. No one needs these kind of folks around. They are corrosive. His public temper tantrums should not be rewarded. Babies like this can only be placated temporarily. It’s just a matter of time before he throws a fit about something else. It’s not worth it. The public relations mess he just created for the university will likely cost them far more than the 3 million he donated.
I think it’s silly to donate money and expect to be put into the hiring process. I know that Mr. Burton knows football, he apparently played college ball, and his name’s apparently on the side of the athletic center, but at the end of the day, he’s still a donor not a coach, athletic director or anything. I agree with Paul that if they can afford to, which they might not be able to, UConn needs to politely give him his money back.
Mr. Burton needs to donate UGA or any other SEC school that 3 million. All he’ll get with that donation is a nice box in the stadium and a catered lunch — not a name on the side of a athletic center and certainly not a vote in a coach decision. He’s dealing with a smaller football program, and he needs to support that instead of his ego.
Which brings us to the subject of disgruntled Dawg “fans” and some alums proclaiming on these pages that they will withhold donations. I figure most of them gave 10 bucks, so I’m upping my donation to cover 10 of them. If a few more of you true fans follow suit, then I figure we have it covered by Friday. What say?
Paul, sir, Burton and his family have donated over Seven (7) million dollars to Ucon. Additionally, he funds football scholarships annually, and has a $50,000 sky box.
If you ignore this kind of a person, your football program is doomed. Burton has plenty of money to pay the attorneys he said in his private letter to Ucon that he has hired to get $ 3 million back and to take his name off the football complex he broke ground for at Ucon with his $3 million donation back then in 2002.
In the Mark Richt Decade from 2001 through 2010, Ucon is outside the Top 25 in win percentage at 67-55. Ucon competes in other sports well. Why can’t the major benefactor for their football program have some at least courtesy shown him, by contacting him and suggesting that they are considering the hire of Paul Pasqualoni, whom 1 of Burton’s sons played for. Burton, himself, was Drafted by the NFL.
This man, you say Paul, cannot have any say in the hiring at all. Why the hell be a donator, then ?
I see the parallels here with UGA too; yes, I do. We are not in a 1-year slide, or a 2-year Decline, but in fact have gone 2-10 against teams who finished in the top 25 over the last three (3) years.
You would have to have your head buried in the sand to not have read all of those who donate to UGA who have made exactly similar statements about the coaching staff assembled by Mark Richt through the years – including but not limited to the current staff.
Mark Richt has not earned the right to hire another OL coach. His coaching staff is indicative of the known fact that he isn’t capable of hiring yet another coach.
Look at all the talent UGA has ?
And, we are # 23 in the nation over the last 5 years with twenty-one losses – an average of MORE than 4 Losses per Year.
Let’s say that Mark Richt has the talent here on his teams, ok ?
So, what is the reason for averaging more than 4 losses a season over the last five (5) years ?
There are several questionable recruits here for 2011 now. Questionable both off the field and on it.
And, the holes – all over the Depth Chart – huge gaping holes, while at the same time, we stock-pile at other positions we already have plenty of talent at these other positions, yet get commitments from yet more to play those same positions which no one would describe as holes on our Depth Chart.
TE for example. We need 5 Scholarship TE when the # 2 on the Depth Chart last season in 13 games caught all of 9 passes ?
Yet, no Fullback.
Mark Richt by all accounts is on a short leash for 2011 to produce. Garnering a 9-4 record for example which would put us at # 32 in winning percentage for 2011 as 9-4 did for 2009 and 2010, is not acceptable. Do you agree with that ?
I look at Paul Pasqualoni and I don’t see where he has really done much to inspire confidence that he is a great football coach to lead Ucon to greatness in football, as Ucon enjoys in so many other of their sports teams.
I would tend to think that Burton knows something about this. I will tell Greg McGarity this, that Ucon and Burton are a lesson for a new athletic director – especially 1 who has never coached a damn thing ever in any sport anywhere.
You do whatever you want to do, while the team losses more than 4 games a year for over a five year period as we are in the midst of, with more of the same for 2011; and while 20 percent of your scholarship talent is arrested / suspended, and ignore the donators who are the lifeblood of your football program at a football school # 3 all-time in The SEC at SEC Football Championships and # 11 all-time in 1-A wins, while you brag about talent today no better and no worse than you have had the previous 5 years here, and 1 day you will wake up and find yourself deciding that just perhaps you have done whatever the hell you wanted to do, without regard to those who seem on the surface at least to have at least as much knowledge about this, if not more, than the athletic director.
If Jeff Burton says that Jeff Hathaway is an unfit athletic director who should have simply asked Burton what he thought about it, I am sorry, but I would have to agree.
Greg McGarity would do well to listen to our donators as well, instead of all this Kool-Aid that UGA is not # 23 in won / lost over the last 5 years when we are, just as Ucon is not even in the Top 50 in won / lost over the entire Mark Richt era.
The case can clearly be made that neither program is beyond seeking the opinions of those who pay their damn huge salaries.