Band To Dallas, Brandon On Jerryworld Dollars
Ann Arbor Torch and Pitchfork gets it done:
Michigan marching band received a letter today from Dave Brandon informing them that they will be heading to Dallas for the 2012 FB opener
Also some well-heeled donor or six dropping benjamins. Nickel and dime, nickel and dime.
Meanwhile, David Brandon on the financial realities of Jerryworld($):
Brandon acknowledged that the athletic department would have made more money had it just hosted a game at Michigan Stadium. "If it was just about the money," he said, "we would have hosted a game here."
But the exposure, the primetime slot and the opponent will do wonders for the program. Brandon said there was no way he could have gotten Alabama or a similarly high-profile opponent to do a one-off game in Ann Arbor. And with the Wolverines' 2013 schedule already full, a home-and-home series would not have worked, either.
…says an athletic director looking at a 2013 return game with UConn for a game scheduled in 2010, in a department that waited half a decade to get a return game from Oregon.
Whatever. Even if it's a grim idea financially for both the department and Michigan fans it's better than a MAC game until we're down two touchdowns. I'll be extremely disappointed if this sort of thing happens again, though. Price marquee games appropriately and there's no reason Michigan can't make it work financially with home and homes. No more middlemen, sterile NFL arenas, etc.
Speaking of, Brandon mentioned that Michigan is pursuing a home and home with a Pac-12 team that should launch in before the 2017, when the conferences will play annual games against each other. Hopefully that means a home game in 2014, when Nebraska/OSU/Notre Dame are again on the road. (Michigan at least adds Penn State to the home schedule that year.)
If that's the case, possibilities are:
- Cal. Cal has already scheduled a game at Northwestern, however, and probably wants a couple of bodybag home games to fill things out.
- Oregon. Home date with MSU in 2014 and on the road in 2015. Probably does not want to double up with the state of Michigan, but the schedule seems to work out.
- Stanford. Similar issue to Cal's: Already @ ND in 2014.
- USC. USC ain't scurred of filling up its schedule with BCS teams and has a home game with ND in 2014 plus a game at BC(?!?). They'd probably be willing to take on a challenge since BC is going to roll over and die. Complication: this would be smack in the middle of the period sanctions should bite them and they might want to ease up on the scheduling.
- Utah. Hasn't scheduled anything.
- Washington State. Has a home game against Wisconsin in 2014 and a road game against Nevada. Unlikely they'd want to go on the road that year.
Everyone else is full in 2014. Utah or USC seem like the most likely options. A home and home with a Utah team that has twice come out for one-offs in the past decade would be something of a letdown.
BONUS RANDOM NOTE: It looks like the prophesied resurrection of multiple interesting nonconference games is coming to pass. Body-bags guarantees and rising ticket prices have finally created an environment where it makes sense to keep people on the hook with games against actual opponents. At least there's that.
It will be interesting to see how much UConn jacks up their season ticket prices next year. Right now, you can get 2012 season tix for $150 for the cheapest seats (which, since it only seats 38,000+, can't be too terrible). If the price remains less than $200 and the game remains at their stadium, it might be cheaper to just buy season tix and sell the rest on the secondary market for whatever rather than trying to buy Michigan only tix on the secondary market.
Why are we holding UConn against Brandon?
that home-and-homes need not be scheduled in back-to-back years. I see nothing in this post that "hold[s] UConn against Brandon."
You're right. My bad.
April 25th, 2012 at 12:30 AM ^
"says an athletic director looking at a 2013 return game with UConn for a game scheduled in 2010, in a department that waited half a decade to get a return game from Oregon."
If going to Dallas is a financial wash, how is that any different than scheduling a home and home with, say, USC (rather than two home games vs. MAC teams)? Dallas = $0. And a USC home & home = $0 in the sense that you get one home game's worth of money but lose another home game's worth, which wouldn't happen if you scheduled two MAC teams. What am I missing?
Two MAC games > Dallas + MAC> Home and Home. At least I think that's how we added it up.
When Brian said this, Michigan got owned by Mark "people u is" Hollis re: the Bama v. MSU home-and-home, then, he wasn't correct from a purely financial standpoint.
Precisely.
Right, but Brian also complains about MAC teams becasue they aren't competitive enough. So the comparison should be a home and home. I guess what it boils down to is that he doesn't like neutral site games.
"Two MAC games > Dallas + MAC> Home and Home."
So when DB says it's not about the money, he's half right and half wrong. If it was only about the money, he would schedule two MAC games and be done with it. If it was really not about the money, he would schedule a home and home w/ Alabama like PSU and MSU.
What he is really trying to do is have his cake and eat it too, by having a quasi-home game (from a money point of view) in Dallas w/ Alabama while not giving up a home game the following year like he would have to for a true home and home.
Clever? deceitful? You decide.
What bothers me is the condescending spin he put on it (like everything else) that it was such a great epic event for the program. What it really is is a poor man's home and home.
EDIT: D'oh. Reading comprehension failure.
I'm guessing if he was there would never have been an arrangement like that made. That was Martin's big "new Stadium honoring game" or whatever.
And I'm not sure Oregon situations are ideal, particularly when you're adding the Pac-12 game later. The reason it was moved so far in the first place was we had ND, Washington and Oregon all in the same year. You could have ND, Pac-12 to be named...and Alabama, all in the same year?
And did the thread about it ever make it clear if Brandon meant a one off from the Pac-12 (meaning lower level team) or home and home before the "series"? Because that would drastically modify any candidate speculation.
Edited: because I still can't get my head around there being 12 teams in the "Pac-10"
Brandon is the shit! I think he throws this shit out there just to mess with the ultra sensitive type. Some of you react to everything Brandon does with the same ferocity as my dog to a knock on the door. Down boy down.
If Countess can backpedal this fall like Brandon did here, he will be an All-American.
"and with the help of some donors"
I'd say that Brandon got precisely what he wanted out of this charade.
Maybe next time he can do this without insulting our intelligence by pretending that he just figured out that it's expensive to take a 250-member band to Texas.
We got what we wanted - the band is headed to Dallas. We can let the butthurt go.
I don't think anybody wanted to be jerked around by the AD and forced to complain just to get the band to show up in Dallas. Brandon isn't about pleasing the fans, he's about testing the limit of their patience at virtually every turn (advertising, gimmicks, etc.) and then backing off at the last second only if/when they really look like they are about to freak out.
The guy is a shitty girlfriend who tries to redecorate your apartment and announces she's going vegan and you're not getting sex for a month if you don't go to her mother's for Thanksgiving, but she's hot and she steps up and does the bare minimum to keep you from walking out every so often and, well, there was that one time where she did that thing with her...
The only difference is we can't dump Dave Brandon or mush his face into a bowl of mashed potatoes to get him to act right all the time.
Dude, can I follow you around, even just a little bit?
Phew, our long, national nightmare is over. And The Victors will be performed softly and barely audible in yet another town.....
Also, as a lifetime season ticket holder (#humblebrag), I do want to say I'd rather play this game than a crappy team over Labor Day weekend at home 10 times out of 10. Its about time Michigan and the Big 10 got involved in these made for TV first weekend games. Lets do it.
Go Blue! Beat Bama!
I am trying to figure out how Dave Brandon is the idiot here when it took him 5 days to get a trip fully funded that his University department is not financially responsible for. Let's review the steps: (1) float financial test balloon; (2) cue bitching; (3) ask for donors; (4) obtain donors within 100 hours; (5) community claims victory.
I fail to see how this is any different than what Brian did to get HTTV funded, and Brandon isn't even responsible for paying for the marching band.
My hypothesis - David Brandon is playing his fanbase like a drumkit and they don't even realize it. You can claim bad marketing, but this probably played out exactly as he expected it to.
Agreed. This is about the third time he's done something like this, as well.
I don't think he's an idiot, and it is really clear what he is doing. I just find it disgusting the way he is abusing the fanbase. Great, the Michigan brand looks good to outsiders, meanwhile the actual fans feel used. There's a reason there were plenty of people on here arguing against trying to raise the money to send the band to Dallas.
Is Brandon the head of the Michigan athletic department? Or is he the head of Michigan nation (for lack of a less cliche term)? He played this perfectly if it's the former. He can't just ask if fans will pay for the band to travel but say/imply that the athletic department will pay for it if the fans won't. He had to threaten the possibility of the band not going if he was going to get fans/alums to pay...FWIW, I suppose I think Brandon is nothing more or less than the head of the athletic department. To paraphrase Hunter Thompson, there is some sh*t that as fans we won't eat, but Brandon hasn't gone that far yet, and it's not fair to assume that he will.
"Disgusting"? "Abuse"?
Man, it's going to take a lot more than this minor thing for me to think of Brandon this way. On two occassions when it's mattered the most--the NCAA violations and hiring a new coach--he came through in a big way. But that's brushed aside and everyone complains because he's not 100% transparent about his actions (and who on this level is?) and sometimes our unis look a little funny.
Brandon rocks.
I think it has more to do with messing with devoted fans' emotions than anything. I said it above but the real kicker is that Brandon is making decisions with the understanding that its going to have an adverse effect on the fans' hearts, which will in turn affect their pocketbooks. That, in my opinion, is a sh-tty way to operate. The AD needs to be fiscally sound but he/she also need to understand that for many of us, Michigan football is one of the most important escapes in life. Something like that should not be toyed with and, if so, very emotional responses are going to result, including personal attacks. A good chief executive can marry fiscal responsibility with humane treatment.
Seriously.
Let's decieve our fans and alumni so that we can upset them so that we can manipulate them. Great approach.
What could possibly go wrong?
I've posted this before . . . DB needs to drop the endless spin and try telling us a few things straight up. We can handle it.
He should just man up and say: "It costs a lot to have elite athletics at Michigan. You fans and the players like top-grade facilities . . . they cost a lot of money. You fans and the players like top-notch coaches . . . they cost a lot of money. You fans and the players like winning programs in all sports . . . they cost a lot of money. So I go for the money. That's my background. It's what I do.
I recognize that sometimes I'll go too far. I have a tendency to shoot that 'ole marketing cannon at anything that moves. Sometimes I'll get a big hit like UTL, sometimes I'll fratricide my own team with Uniformz.
That's where you fans and alumni come in . . . to keep me in check."
We should not rush to judge DB on silly things like this. Instead we should judge DB by the product on the field and so far by all accounts it has drastically improved each year since DB took over for each of the two major sports. I think DB is possibly the best AD in all of college sports and we are lucky to have someone as intelligent as him.
April 25th, 2012 at 10:12 AM ^
Its not about the players being impacted by the band not being there or even me really caring. What it has always been about to me and many others is the optics of it all. The spin that the Alabama game is such a great thing (which it probably IS), all the while behind the scenes Brandon is seeking ways to make the trip profitable by deciding to keep the band home. I'm willing to go out on a limb and say that I bet the VAST majority of us simply assumed that the band would be making the trip. To me, this is more about unmet expectations for the "Michigan Experience" in Dallas than anything.
I think you may be giving Brandon too much credit: He essentially has nothing to do with the product on the field other than having hiring/firing authority over the coaching staff. He is not out recruiting and not out coaching the players. What an AD does is make sure the department is fiscally responsible (including marketing efforts and fundraising) and compliant with all regulations/laws.
I have no idea what makes people think that he is the best AD in college sports. Where do you get that opinion?? He came into the role at a time when there was no where else to go but up. He hired Hoke, which turns out to have been a great hire due to HOKE's actions, not Brandon's. Other than that, what has he really done that any other AD wouldn't have done? I'm asking this honestly and without any malice aforethought.
April 25th, 2012 at 10:45 AM ^
He essentially has nothing to do with the product on the field other than having hiring/firing authority over the coaching staff.
My jaw literally hit the keyboard when you wrote this. After watching Beilein vs. Amaker, and the (admittedly early) returns of the Hoke era, I can't see how any person can't agree this is a huge power? His largest function is to make sure the correct people are in place to do their jobs. He hasn't made many hires, but the big one he made appears to be working.
What an AD does is make sure the department is fiscally responsible (including marketing efforts and fundraising) and compliant with all regulations/laws.
By these standards, I think it's hard to consider him anything but an success.
I have no idea how he's done compared to other AD's - he's the only one I even marginally follow.
I find it amusing that, while having this debate on a Blog that wrote 3 articles about how idiotic a hire Hoke was before he was hired, wrote a small novel mis-representing what he was after his hire (HE WON'T RUN THE SPREAD/MANBALL!/PUNTING ON 4TH AND SHORT!!!/HOW CAN THESE OLD WHITE GUYS RECRUIT?/AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!), someone actually has the temerity to write:
He hired Hoke, which turns out to have been a great hire due to HOKE's actions, not Brandon's. Other than that, what has he really done that any other AD wouldn't have done?
...as if the decision was obvious, and is one to hand-wave under the carpet while looking for other accomplishments. We just got rid of an AD who was riotously successful in everything OTHER than making the right hire for football, and people treat him like a pariah.
Brandon brought men's and women's D1 Lacrosse.
The UTL Game
The Big Chill
He navigated the NCAA sanctions successfully
April 25th, 2012 at 11:01 AM ^
I admit that I am erring on the opposite side - by not giving Brandon probably the credit he is due - mostly because I do not understand the outpouring of love he gets on this Board by many (some? a vocal few?). I think I'm just skeptical that he is doing something that any other AD would have done. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the successes you list (and they are definitely very great successes) should be attributed to Brandon more than I am willing to concede and that he truly is going above and beyond what anyone else in his position would/could do.
I do not dispute that the Hoke hire has turned out to be great thus far. I don't think I ever criticized the hire in any of my previous posts. I was a detractor of how the Rodriguez situation was handled (water under the bridge) but I never second-guessed the hire. Your comparison of the accomplishments of Martin and Brandon is an interesting one and very insightful, no doubt. I think that's where I'm coming from in my assessment of Brandon thus far - Martin took a floundering AD and transformed it into a financially viable entity. He then bungled the coaching search and got hammered (justifiably) for it, thereby tarnishing how his tenure will be remembered. On the other hand, Brandon is lauded for the Hoke hire and my question was what else has he done. But you have done a very good job of pointing out his other accomplishments (UTL, Big Chill, etc.) and I appreciate it and have to re-think my position on Brandon. I mean that with all sincerity. And I appreciate this discourse.
April 25th, 2012 at 12:25 PM ^
But just pointing out that there were a lot of places, particularly around here, that were VERY critical of it, and if anything, Brandon wasn't making the "easy decision" by hiring, but going with his gut...and getting it right. Maybe he could have just begged Miles to come in and take over, and forgo the consequences later, because everyone would have been excited right off the bat. But he didn't. He took the harder road.
I'd add to those successes things like new scoreboards, that I think people like, in general, getting the band mic'd after the Big Ten said it wasn't allowed and no one would stand up and ask "why?", and through manipulation or blind luc k making sure that the B10 didn't screw up the last game of the season. And it can't be emphasized how well he handled the sanctions. Got us off fairly easy, chastized the media for creating it, and looking in control. (Compare that to how the Fab Five stuff was handled, where we basically decided to hang ourselves on the cross and pushed through sanctions that are far worse than what the NCAA is usually putting out for similar stuff, just because we felt bad about it).
A lot of good AD's may have done the same thing. But who's a good AD? I'm not sure they grow on trees. The AD's at OSU, PSU, USC, Arkansas....? Look at our own track record. Two AD's ago we had a complete incompetent who actually found a way for Michigan Athletics to lose money. And Martin was a mixed bag himself. He was brilliant in getting funding for facilities and getting them tastefully designed and added to the campus (not as easy as it sounds; see: Halo). But his "fiscal genius" consisted of fixing how badly things were broken, and then drastically raising the prices on everything. I can make money by exponentially adding to what everything costs by adding seat licenses for nearly everyone. Maybe it's keeping up with the Jones, but lets not forget the $$$$ for everything came before Brandon. The difference is Brandon is a guy who's at least willing to spend that money, on coaches, and upgrades like lights, and scoreboards that don't seem "necessary", but help the experience. Martin is a guy who would shut off lights in rooms of the Athletic Buildings that people had left, and tell staff to take the stairs rather than the elevator.
And that's not even getting into his dismal coaching hire record. He got Beilein right (on his second try.....and.....yeah...). Failed Women's basketball coaches, screwing the timeline that might have gotten us Pitino, and even beyond whether Rich was a good fit or not....he completely dropped the ball in doing his duties in helping Rich fit in, and helping people show Rich he was accepted. Rich could have been the greatest hire in the world, and he would have lucked into him because everything else fell through even though he had over a year to know he was going to have to hire someone.
That doesn't mean Martin was a complete failure....or even a bad AD....just saying that "doing what any good AD would do" isn't a slam dunk, because there aren't AD training programs, and there are a lot of not good ADs out there.
Great, the Michigan brand looks good to outsiders, meanwhile the actual fans feel used.Hold on. Unless you personally ponied up some of the money to send the band to Dallas, why would you feel used?
So what I am hearing is:
(1) float financial test balloon that knowing will result in bitching
(2) ask for donors
(3) ___________
(4) profit
#3 is "get donors"
...and if you are right, that's the weirdest damned thing I ever heard of. You mean to say that Brandon deliberately raised this internet kerfuffle to persuade some high-level donors? That he couldn't have pursued the donor-funding through other, quieter means? And that he deliberately put himself through the process of plainly inconsistent public statements of his intention, just for, what -- sympathy? Attention?
It just sounds so . . . dishonest. . . when you put it that way.
Brandon deliberately did this to get others to pay for it and to keep Michigan in the news cycle. You think he didn't know this math until RIGHT after the spring game when Michigan Football wouldn't be in the news until fall camp?
He floated other ideas out last summer:
Moving the OSU game (created a stink, front page links on ESPN.com, no change)
Mascot talk (created a stink, front page links on ESPN.com, no change)
Discussion of advertising in the Big House (created a stink, no change)
He finds ways to keep the fan base excited/riled up and Michigan in the news without actually doing things that people dislike. It's all marketing and buzz.
Hope to hear The Victors blaring all day!
play venues for free in order to get "exposure." It basically amounts to playing for free, period. Since when does Michigan need "exposure?"
Since this is not 1970 anymore where there are only a handful of elite football teams.
I have as much Michigan pride as any, and I like to believe that "this is Michigan fergodsakes" is enough. And to some extent, it is. But in todays world, there are a large number of teams that are considered the "hot" team and those teams are competing with us for recruits year in and year out. We need to be in on these made for TV games that ESPN, in the name of self interest, will promote to holy hell, as that keeps us even more relevant in the eyes of recruits and future fans.
Something else to keep in mind:
For kids coming up in, say, the class of 2014, the last time that we were relevant on the national landscape was in 2006, when those kids were still in elementary school. For many that are not from the midwest, they only know Michigan as that school with the Big Stadium that had the whole RR-drama and that routinely loses to OSU. Obviously, last year went a long wat to changing that, but we can't expect to go 11-2 every year (and, with our schedule, even this coming year), so games like this are necessary to keep us relevant.
Based on recent actions, I'm betting we play Arizona in 2015 and 2016.
Your hate for Dave Brandon is sickening...I'm glad you got over your not like Brady Hoke, I think his 4th and 1 strategies won you over there, but with Brandon --- he can't win.
The guy has done great things for Michigan and you stay taking #shots. But why?!
I would very much like to see that broken up and get, say, ND at home in those years.
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