DAVE BRANDON HAS THE ANSWER!
nor can we build ships with 16" guns or 12 inch armor plate anymore.
I read somewhere that the race to the moon cost us 5% of the US government budget for much of the 60's. Of course we did get tang and space food sticks out of it.
To paraphrase JFK:
We choose wifi. Why go to the moon? Why does Michigan play App State. We choose wifi in this decade and the other things not because they are easy, but because they are hard!
What Brandon says is probably true. At the end of the season, all of the season ticket holders take a survey to say what they want to see improved as part of the stadium experience, and I'm guessing WiFi availability was very high on the list.
Do we really have to complain about everything Brandon does? Maybe the students aren't showing up early because once they get in the stadium, they won't be able to share selfies on facebook?
I just don't ever remember wanting to check my phone during a game.
but I'm betting there are plenty of people who do.
I don't know how serious these comments are but (and I say this as a middle aged man now) there seems to be a major disconnect between generations. The typical 13 to 28 year old (I don't know the exact ages) has their cell phone as an extension of their hand. Flipping through apps during a football game would be second nature - these are people who can text without looking at the phone and will send messages to people 5 feet away rather than walking over to talk to them. I am sure they are doing other things on those phones that I have no idea about as well.
People make it sounds like old foggies (in this case 29 years old and above) stare straight ahead in rapt attention for 3 hours without swiveling their head other than to watch the band. Being "mobile" for that age group is like "talking" for us "old" folks. So what is immaterial to X age group is probably pretty vital to a group that has only known life with mobile electronics being second nature to their breathing.
April 28th, 2014 at 10:47 AM ^
Sometimes I wonder if the people complaining about WiFi in the stadium also want the live blogs on this site shut down. After all, if you're typing something in or reading other posts, you aren't paying full attention to the game!
April 28th, 2014 at 11:05 AM ^
When the commercial breaks are 6 minutes a pop, they want to do something.
+1 insightful.
April 28th, 2014 at 11:17 AM ^
Actually something like that. The survey basically asked about it in 2 ways. The first, they basically ask you how strongly you agree with a statement like "WiFi access is very important to my gameday experience." The second, they will list like 10 topics, plus an area to add "Other", and then ask you to rank them in order of importance to you. It actually does include things like "Music selection" and "Concessions".
that we can field an offensive line that isn't such a f*cking sieve.
We also need to collectively remember that we (read: rabid fans) aren't necessarily a perfect cross section of Michigan's total fan base. For every one of us that wants to listen only to the band and the sound of our offensive line literally running over an Ohio player, there are 10 freshmen who really couldn't care less.
This seems like a way to keep the majority of those who purchase tickets happy and also to appease the students (future season ticket buyers) who have been none too impressed with the football experience and AD in recent years.
I hate him as AD. He was a really good pizza CEO. Engineered their massive turnaround.
Not really... the new stuff at Domino's sort of came after he left.
Not to nitpick but from a capital return perspective Dave did poorly - the stock came IPO in 2004 at $14 - when he left in 2009/2010 stock was $10ish. That's not good. It did get as high as the $30s in 2007 before crashing, and got as low as I think $3 at the nadir of the financial crisis. It is now near $80 for perspective.
I guess one could in theory argue that developments after he left in 2011-2012 were due to groundwork he laid but it would be a reach. The next CEO brought out a lot of ideas outside of 'branding'.
Came as a result of Brandon's work...oh, and the new pizza line was launched at the end of 2009 after 18 months of customer research and food development...initiated by Dave Brandon.
Brandon didn't sign on with Michigan until January 2010 and didn't resign as CEO of Domino's until March 2010. Moreover, he remained on Domino's advisory board for an additional year.
Ok in that case, good on him - its a shame he didnt do these things 5 years earlier when he could have benefited and looked a lot better to his shareholder base, because the timing of these initiatives to the public came around the time of the new CEO. Anyhow let's just say there was alot of stagnation at Domino's for the majority of Brandon's 11 years. From the story I linked re: the IPO the business was stagnant/shrinking 5 year into his watch:
Domino's reported net income of $39 million on sales of $1.33 billion in 2003, a 36% decline from net income of $60.5 million on sales of $1.28 billion in 2002. First-quarter 2004 net income was $18.4 million, nearly half of Domino's total for all of 2003.
April 28th, 2014 at 10:35 AM ^
I think this was already covered, but he led that turnaround and only left for Michigan after it was well underway. I think he was even in some of the earily ads?
Yeah it was stagnant, but you can say that about a lot of businesses that have a decent market share and then sit on what they have (cough cough GM) while the competition gets better.
What I do not get...... is how this accomplished business person totally does not understand Michigan, the sport, or the fans.
April 28th, 2014 at 11:09 AM ^
Having worked in public companies and exposed to upper management and having worked with (and being an entrepreneur) I think the term business person can mean very different things and people too easily interchange various personality types/strengths/weaknesses under a broad title.
Taking over Exxon Mobile which is going to do better if oil is $110 a barrel versus $85 no matter what the hell you do, is very different than trying to say grow Chipotle's as a concept 8 years ago. Or even your local mom and pop. A Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, or Steve Jobs is a very different type of CEO than a Brandon or 100s of other similar Fortune 500 type CEOs are like. And frankly CEOs are just like the rest of us - there is a bell curve; there are great, good, average, poor, and plain awful ones.
So what you're saying is that Dominos won with Dave Brandon's players after he left?
April 28th, 2014 at 10:01 AM ^
After he engineered the long decline. He was the CEO for at least ten years before the "we're sorry our pizza sucks" campaign.
Damn....every time football is brought up I cant help but think "Wow. we are in the shitter". And now, we dont even have basketball anymore.
This sucks...
PEOPLE WANT TO BE ABLE TO EXPERIENCE THE STADIUM/GAME WITHOUT ALL THE EXCESS BULLSHIT YOU TRY TO PUT IN THE WAY OF FANS ENJOYING THE GAME.
NO ADS
GOOD OPPONENTS
GOOD TEAM ON FIELD
MORE BAND LESS SPECIAL K
NOT GETTING PRICE GOUGED
(it seemed like this post really required all caps)
April 28th, 2014 at 10:03 AM ^
I feel like it's only a mattter of time before we have to give up the "no advertisements" thing. Judging by the sluggish ticket sales, I think that the amount of money that can be milked out of fans without advertising has probably peaked, and costs will continue to go up.
April 28th, 2014 at 10:16 AM ^
My opposition to advertising is based on the fact that I don't trust the AD to do advertising well. I'm worried that it will turn into a minor league baseball environment rather quickly.
April 28th, 2014 at 10:20 AM ^
You mean we could get a puffy taco kicking field goals !?!?! That would be awesome!
April 28th, 2014 at 10:25 AM ^
Don't be silly
It will be a stuffed pizza.
April 28th, 2014 at 10:28 AM ^
I wouldn't trust Brandon, but I think that it has been done in other college stadiums OK. I have been to OSU and LSU games and they have had advertisements for a while, and the atmosphere and experience don't seem to suffer.
May be in the minority but i really like Dave Brandon as AD. He doesn't do everything i would like but i can appreciate an AD that wants UM to win and do it with a little style and swagger.
I personally am neutral on him but I do see a lot of dislike of him here. But this is a different crowd than "random UM fan". Things like skywriting over a rival's stadium when you have lost to them 4 out of 5 years (hey maybe we save that for a period where we can score a TD on their defense more than once every three years?), and not sending the band to Dallas until the public outcry became enormous are just bad optics. I am sure he does some good and bad things - like any AD. And if the football team was in competition for Big 10 championships annually he'd look like a genius due to RR / Hoke / Beilein. In that world, he could do his cute branding stuff in the corner out of the spotlight.
But football is what drives the athletic dept, perception and dollars.
April 28th, 2014 at 10:07 AM ^
a damn halo around the stadium? No? Okay then.
April 28th, 2014 at 10:24 AM ^
1. He also stupidly scheduled a rematch of the Appalachian State game, which will give us at least a week of embarrassing PR, and nothing else. He probably did that out of some airheaded belief that we would benefit from the "hype".
2. He let the program twist in the wind between the 2010 OSU game and the few days after the bowl game, during which the 2011 recruiting class came apart at the seams. It was widely perceived at the time that the reason why there appeared to be no public coaching search was because we had inked some sort secret backroom deal for Harbaugh. This perception was largely the result of the belief that no athletic director could possibly be stupid enough to not be looking for a coach at the time. Turns out, Dave Brandon really is that stupid. Dave Brandon's "process" was utterly moronic. People have forgotten about this -- specifically, how the lack of public action was perceived as a sign that we had Harbaugh in the bag, because the alternative was unthinkable.
3. When the UM-OSU game was being seriously talked about being moved to October, my memory of that time is that Brandon was surpringly indifferent to it.
4. He let the program get fucked over by making us play at MSU two years in a row. My guess is that he didn't offer a peep of protest over it. I guarantee you no other major athletic director would ever let this happen.
5. I think that it was maybe a few years ago that he also publicly expressed a desire to have a mascot so that little kids would be interested.
That is just what I can think of off the top of my head.
Using the timetable established by his Dominos tenure, he'll start the "We're sorry our athletic department sucks" campaign in 2010.
April 28th, 2014 at 11:50 AM ^
Don't forget the student seating debacle last football season or the PSL system (I don't understand what a PSL is but ppl seem to be upset by it).
Does this mean I can fire up my twitter account again just to hashtag #FireBrandon? #FireBorges seemed to work.
I like it the way the rest of the board like GoT.... House of Cards is pretty good as well.
edit... Sorry.... was trying to respond to Mr. Wellborne above.
Exactly what i expected from this board. In the past, there have been complaints from Brian and many others about the lack of connectivity in the stadium making it impossible to post or follow the game on twitter, to get more information when a confusing play happens, etc. So an article appears with Brandon recognizing the issue and saying they are trying to address it...and instead of agreeing the people on board attack him as with everything. Picking apart his quote in order to make it sound like he thinks wifi is the only thing Michigan fans want is dishonest and pathetic..but not surprising from the board. It seems like there is competition to who can slam Brandon the most. At least the athletes (especially non-revenue sports) love him for all the improvements and facility upgrades he has been moving forward.
The original poster exemplifies this the best..the title "DAVE BRANDON HAS THE ANSWER"...the premise about how this shows how much he is out of touch with reality...Huh? Because Dave Brandon is trying to fix something that his customers have identified as an issue, that makes him out of touch with reality???
Honestly, is ANYONE even remotely excited to be in that stadium in a few months?
Seems like every place one goes anymore there is someone bitching about the poor wifi service to the hapless waiter/bartender/hair dresser/auto mechanic/etc
I can see it now in the football stadium, one hundred thousand people groaning at the same time because the internet is down. But what a rush when they all cheer at it's return!
April 28th, 2014 at 10:12 AM ^
April 28th, 2014 at 11:37 AM ^
So the ''Oh stop being an old fart! People these days are just different!'' crowd really are wrong huh? Thought so. People have no idea how to socialize anymore and it IS because of unlimited texting and the fact that cell phones are now small computers. I hate it. For the record I'm only 20.
From the comment section in Freep article:
April 28th, 2014 at 10:03 AM ^
Well, we have heard constant complaining about the $295 price for student tickets. For 7 games, that makes it $42.15 per ticket so for a section of the crowd that probably really cares about the WIFI, it does exist.
April 28th, 2014 at 10:08 AM ^
April 28th, 2014 at 10:14 AM ^
I just want to be able to afford tickets and not see the seats in the row next to mine go for sometimes 50% of what I paid. DB can take his dynamic pricing and PSL's and shove it up his anus.