DAVE BRANDON HAS THE ANSWER!
April 28th, 2014 at 10:18 AM ^
haven't Ace and Brian bitched about the poor Wi-Fi in the stadium? Now everyone is pissed because Brandon is trying to fix that. Whatever. If Rich Rod was flying in from Arizona to install the antennae, everyone here would fucking nut themselves with joy.
April 28th, 2014 at 10:22 AM ^
April 28th, 2014 at 10:27 AM ^
If Dave Brandon wants to refer to us as his "customers" then he better be working his ass off to improve the product.
Night games are cool, fireworks are neat, laser light shows are fun, etc. but at the end of the day it comes down to winning football games, as it always has.
April 28th, 2014 at 10:30 AM ^
April 28th, 2014 at 10:48 AM ^
Man, Dave Brandon can't win with you people. All he is doing here is providing a solution to a problem that has been identified by the average fan (even Brian has commented on lack of connectivity in the stadium). Do I feel the need to be connected 24/7? No, but I can certainly see how this could improve the gameday experience for others while not being detrimental to my own. This is a no lose proposition and is met with mostly venom. It's beginning to feel like Brandon could host a group of cancer survivors on the field at halftime and the response here would be "Fuck Dave Brandon! This won't make our O-line any better, he is just pushing the brand somemore!" BTW, Dave Brandon is 0% responsible for our bad O-line.
Do I agree with everything Brandon has done? Certainly not, I don't like the slow march towards commercials in the stadium and the Dallas-band fiasco was embarassing. I wish he were more hands off with the football team, because it does feel like he's more of a head hancho than Hoke. I am concerned about the high prices. I don't blame him for trying to maximize profits, this is a capitalist country after all. However, I think he (and most of college football) are sitting squarely on a bubble that is one economic downturn or another bad season away from collapsing. He is already seeing that with the slow student sales and lower season ticket renewal rate. These are legitimate concerns but I'm capable of having them without reacting to literally everything Brandon does with "Fuck Dave Brandon!"
April 28th, 2014 at 11:11 AM ^
Isn't that people don't want WiFi. They do. I know I'd enjoy it. Ths issue is is that WiFi is a small item on peoples' wish lists.
If you do a poll asking people "would you like free guac on your burritos," 96% would say "of course I want free guac" (the other 4% are immediately deported as communists/terrorist/commuterrorists). But if you ask them to name the BIGGEST issues facing the country, very few would name "lack of complimentary guac."
Pretty much everyone would like WiFi. But it seems like a fix to something other than then primary problems.
April 28th, 2014 at 11:28 AM ^
Secondly, people are bitching about the price and the product. Brandon can't really do much about the team. The price, maybe it can be lowered a bit. I don't know -- the money is going back into the athletic programs and school -- it's not like it's going to faceless shareholders.
April 28th, 2014 at 12:49 PM ^
it's not like it's going to faceless shareholders.
True, but a large part of it is going to faceless bureaucrats dedicated to insuring their own job security.
As C. Northcote Parkinson noted - "in bureaucratic organizations, the number of people required to do the work will continually rise whether the actual volume of work stays the same, increases, decreases or disappears."
My problem in a nutshell is that Brandon is a meddler.
The guy presides over a world class/world famous athletic dept., one of the few that are easily in the black, with a mind numbingly large budget . . . and he can't fucking leave it alone.
Seriously, this a place where your uber rich alumni are donating business schools, indoor fieldhouses, quarter of a BILLION dollar stadium renovations, and he's fucking around with curly fries and macaroni noodles?! WTF?!
Schmooze your big donors, count your cash like scrooge mcDuck and call it a day.
By all accounts Dave Brandon does a great job keeping the Bill Martin $ train rolling along, and that's got to be at least 1/3 of your job. Make some good coaching hires, and build some facilities when needed and thats it. End of job description.
I might be wrong in my estimates, but I would think that TV contracts, Alumni donations, athletic apparel agreements & PSD/ticket sales are probably at least 90% of your budget income. Other than ego, why is Dave Brandon messing aroiund with small-time fringe advertising, mascots, skywriting, dicking around with the band & other traditions?
Because he's a meddler; an egotistical meddler that tripled his marketing budget & staff immediatley after becoming AD and now they are in a desperate search for a WOW experience to justify it all.
What I find so laughable, is that he seems to be trying to create a sterile bland, NFL-like game day experince, while simultaneously employing minor league baseball-like tactics and gimmicks. That disconnect, coupled with the endless PR speak comes off as pretty sleazy sometimes. Michigan just doesn't need these tactics, $ arms race or not.
You can be a good CEO and a "shitty pizza salesman" at the same time.
Honestly, free WIFI is great, it's just about 10 years late and with everything going on with the program right now seems like little more than an itty bitty bandaid applied to a bloody stump.
Well given the plans in place for the athletic campus as a whole, I'd say they're doing a pretty good job, don't you think?
Not especially.
The Crisler upgrade was necessary.
The stadium upgrade should have never featured boxes.
The Indoor Track Building upgrade is necessary - but the moving of the track complex and the paving over of Ferry Field for more parking lot is a travesty.
...and as they've increased AD staffing, net operating revenue has been stagnant to slightly reduced.
April 28th, 2014 at 11:48 AM ^
There's only one problem that needs to be addressed and that is what the brand is, which is great football, supported by the winged helmets, block M, and maize and blue. Nothing else matters. And because Dave Brandon seems to have little control over the product on the field, he has to try to affect those things that he does have control over because he's not going to sit there and do nothing. That's marketing/advertising 101. Products come out all the time that are genuinely shitty, but that doesn't stop the companies from marketing the heck out of them with huge ad dollars and multi-media platforms. People may buy a shitty product once, but no amount of great advertising, coupons, or enticing in-store promotions can get someone to come back if the product disappoints.
As hard as he may try, Dave Brandon cannot market his way out of this problem. That said, I do appreciate the wifi.
April 28th, 2014 at 11:57 AM ^
Not the biggest issue facing the country? Says you, Mister. Are you aware that there is, evidently, an avocado shortage because of the drought in California? I'd say that's damned urgent right there.
April 28th, 2014 at 12:25 PM ^
I understand what you're saying BiSB, but what baffles me is that this relatively minor (and positive) announcement has lead to yet another AD bashing thread. This news has no relation to how good the team will be in the fall or how high ticket prices will be, which are 2 biggest problems for most people. The appropriate response should be either "That's nice, now I can check my phone during games" or "Couldn't care less." Instead, its mostly "AHH, Dave Brandon said something! Let me remind everyone how much I hate him!"
But, you can be the first to explain how WiFi and winning football games are an either or proposition.
April 28th, 2014 at 12:27 PM ^
What do you see as the primary problems they should be fixing? Not trying to be difficult, I'm genuinely curious.
April 28th, 2014 at 11:13 AM ^
Thank you. It's like DB can't do anything right on this board. I defend him a ton on here (and I don't always agree 100% with what he's done, but I generally like the guy).
April 28th, 2014 at 11:08 AM ^
You're the one out of touch. In the last year I've gotten 3 surveys on football tickets, their prices and what I want in my Michigan football experience. They're not pulling these ideas out of their asses. They've done legitimate market research and know what will bring more people to games. If Brandon thinks that more wi-fi will get more fans in the stands then it's because there's substantial evidence that says it will. But then there's little you sitting in front of his computer, never having taken an econometrics, statistics or economics course in his life and thinking he knows better than much more substantially paid people with MBAs.
April 28th, 2014 at 11:11 AM ^
I'll take his thoughts over yours
April 28th, 2014 at 11:44 AM ^
Mascot in waiting
April 28th, 2014 at 11:52 AM ^
Will that work?
April 28th, 2014 at 12:23 PM ^
and all I can say is man, you guys complain a lot.
Hey Dave Brandon
Where is Dave Brandon selling $65 tickets?!
April 28th, 2014 at 11:04 PM ^
Enjoy it. It's what you chose.
April 28th, 2014 at 11:05 PM ^
Enjoy it. It's what you chose.