Upper Concourses named after Bill Martin
Listen I appreciate everything that BM has done for M athletics, but my first thought was REALLY?
Out of all the people that have had an influence (players, coaches, alumni) this surprised me.
Anyways congrats to you Bill.
mgoblue.com front page for the article
September 7th, 2010 at 12:12 PM ^
Without Billy Dollas, that stuff doesn't get done.
September 7th, 2010 at 12:15 PM ^
Please tell me the upper concourses are called the "Billy Dollas Concourse"
September 7th, 2010 at 12:17 PM ^
Sailboat Willie Concourse.
September 7th, 2010 at 1:02 PM ^
Bill Martin is the guy who came into an Athletic Deaprtment bleeding red ink, who turned it around, who stayed far longer in the job than he or anyone else expected, and who didn't stay a day longer than was absolutely necessay; a guy who championed a project that Bo Schembechler personally endorsed; who brought in a massive, historic renovation of the Stadium on time, within budget, and more brilliantly and beautifully than anyone had dreamed...
After all that, could anyone have the slightest doubt about the wisdom, graciousness and gratitude in naming a concourse after him?
September 7th, 2010 at 1:18 PM ^
basketball facilities, too.
September 7th, 2010 at 2:07 PM ^
Exactly and +1 to you. At the time he made some unpopular decisions but now the Dept is on great financial footing.
September 7th, 2010 at 12:21 PM ^
Nautical theme to be installed in the offseason, correct?
September 7th, 2010 at 12:36 PM ^
Of the sailboat reference. I know Brian made a huge deal about it during the coaching search, but I think the result of the coaching search is spot on. As funny as it was to critiscize Bill Martin in that way, it ultimately was just ill informed.
Also Les Miles could have declined the offer from LSU and held himself to a slightly higher set of principles. I've always felt that the Michigan coaching search had followed those principles and was waiting to interview Les after his season was complete.
He didn't even want to give Michigan time to interview him, and he wasn't being told to sign for a contract extension of be fired. He was being offered a whole bunch of money and he made his choice. Which was to take himself out of consideration for the position.
I think in 10 years, people will look at that name, and remember how all the the new style of dominating football began.
September 7th, 2010 at 4:21 PM ^
Some people just want to be assholes. Bill Martin did an amazing job as our AD.
September 7th, 2010 at 12:22 PM ^
We have been extremely fortunate to have top-notch administrators in our athletic department with Bill Martin, and now David Brandon. Bill drastically improved our athletic finances without compromising our programs. We have one of the top-5 athletic budgets in the nation, and it runs separately from the academic programs so it doesn't need to take a single dime of tuition. By signing Adidas (a few million more $ in revenue than Nike) and adding the luxury boxes, for example, Bill has turned a program that was in the red into a budget surplus. In addition to all of that, he had MAJOR facility upgrades that were long overdue. We all recognize the stadium renovation, but think about the Crisler Arena basketball practice facility, the new Al Glick fieldhouse, Alumni Field (softball), Wilpon Baseball complex, new soccer stadium.
I had the opportunity to have lunch with a small group of students with Bill Martin when I was back in undergrad a couple years ago. I was truly impressed by his wisdom and his foresight. There is a reason why other athletic programs are making cuts and why we continue to expand.
September 7th, 2010 at 12:24 PM ^
I was going to make a joke about us not having a boat dock to name after him, so this was the next best option. I see however that others have beaten me to mocking the good captain.
A mere concourse seems fair. Bill did arrange it so we have insane amounts of money and amazing facilities to recruit with. The man's more glaring weakness was he was horrible at coaching searches.
September 7th, 2010 at 12:33 PM ^
I was at the stadium Saturday. IMO Bill Martin did one hell of a job with the stadium and the athletic department in general.
Also think he hired the right coaches.
September 7th, 2010 at 12:36 PM ^
"Also think he hired the right coaches."
Cheryl Burnett and Tommy Amaker, to name two examples, stand in direct opposition to this statement.
I think it's a perfectly fair criticism of Bill Martin to say that he struggled with coaching searches. That isn't a statement directed at the Rich Rodriguez hire, either.
September 7th, 2010 at 12:38 PM ^
I love the Rodriguez hire, but that doesn't necessarily mean that that coaching search was handled perfectly either. Martin did a ton of things right, but coaching hires aren't at the top of that list.
The stadium, on the other hand, is perfect. Thanks Bill!
September 7th, 2010 at 2:00 PM ^
I was really referring to the current coaches, Rodriguez, Beilein, and Borseth.
As for Amaker I think if you go back to the time he was hired it was generally well received - just didn't work out.
September 7th, 2010 at 4:27 PM ^
Amaker didn't work out the way we were hoping (Dick Vitale once predicted he'd lead us to a Final Four), but he did improve the program from the smoking crater Brian Ellerbe left behind. We went from being a complete embarassment on and off the court to being a program that was competitive but just plateaued on the edge of the tourney bubble. A couple key wins here and there, or maybe another recruit or two, and he might even still be coaching here.
September 7th, 2010 at 12:38 PM ^
The man's more glaring weakness was he was horrible at coaching searches.
"Horrible"? I'd like to have the data on this. There is Tommy Amacker, whose tenure was ultimately a failure. But the search process was exemplary. Amacker may go on to be one of the great coaches in the Ivy League.
There's Rich Maloney, whose hiring was exemplary and whose record is likely to be outstanding even among Michigan's long line of outstanding head baseball coaches.
There is John Beilein; was that a flawed "coaching search"? How? Do you equate "poor record" with "flawed coaching search by the AD"?
And there is Rich Rodriguez. If you are referring to Rich Rodriguez in your comment, let's just see who has the last laugh, okay?
September 7th, 2010 at 12:49 PM ^
I hardly consider Tommy Amaker a "failure." Martin wasn't going to be able to get a coach to take us through the sanctions with large amounts of success without overpaying. He got us a coach that recruited well and coached well enough to get us to a point where we could hire a coach that could hopefully take us to the next level. He was a transitional coach and he did his job.
September 7th, 2010 at 12:59 PM ^
I think I was the first, and perhaps the last, Amacker fan in Ann Arbor. I had originally thought it a brilliant hire. Amacker as the next Kryzewski. I called Amacker's tenure an ultimate failure, only because it was felt that he needed to be replaced, short of Amacker's own goals for the program.
Where I feel certain that we agree, is that there was nothing "horrible" about the process involved in hiring Amacker.
September 7th, 2010 at 1:02 PM ^
If you're such a fan, why have you misspelled his last name no less than 5 times in this thread?
September 7th, 2010 at 2:11 PM ^
It was misspelled once before me on this thread. And I followed that misspelling. My mistake. Should've known better.
September 7th, 2010 at 1:10 PM ^
Because it means you got the wrong guy. But a more accurate measurement is "had to fire the coach" shows a flawed coaching search. (Though hopefully if you're firing them, it was for record, and not other problems). Which would disqualify current coaches.
September 7th, 2010 at 1:12 PM ^
If so, is giving a frickin' Concourse to the guy who got it done that big a deal? I may not have thought everything Martin did was great, but damn if that man didn't get us a beautiful Stadium. (And no, since they added the seats at the Halo time and added all that metal, it hasn't been that gorgeous anymore).
September 7th, 2010 at 1:33 PM ^
The football stadium appears gorgeous to the nth degree. Everything from the regular fan experience to the boxes for the wine and cheese set. Even the suites seem better than many others, because of the windows allowing access to the field noise, and the windows between suites.
But the football stadium is only the tip of the iceberg. Having the Yost updates, the new soccer stadium, wrestling facility, Crisler work begun, basketball practice facilities, the baseball field . . . that is a huge, huge infrastructure improvement.
The coaching searches were wonderful. I, for one, am thrilled at RR coming on board, and breaking the incestuous relationships with the football coaching tree started by Bo. I also love Beilein, and agree that Amaker and the B-ball program were in a no win situation after sanctions, etc.
I view Martin as a great AD, albeit very different from Brandon. Brandon is the right man for today, but the foundation Martin put into place makes Brandon's work much easier.
September 7th, 2010 at 8:24 PM ^
Martin? Really?
If they wanted to highlight who got Michigan through the hard times of the late 90s, they should have named it after Marv Krislov. He was University general counsel when all the sports issues went down. I had him for a seminar when the basketball SUV scandal broke and he was running hard to address that.