How to keep up the pressure for Brandon's removal?

The only thought I have is that we are focusing on the football game and the team. I feel that we need to focus on other issues. This is not a comprehensive list and there are others who know a lot more about this than I do. But, pushing the agenda of draining the students, alumni and season ticket holders and increasing the cheap thrills in an esteemed academic institution should be the best bet.

Some issues I have with Brandon (not comprehensive at all and not in any order):

1. Concession stand prices (including water debacle)

2. Jersey numbers

3. Fireworks, Noodle, Jetpacks

4. Season ticket holders prices and right to buy issue

5. Shrinkage of student tickets

6. Increasing the student ticket prices

7. Throwing the coach under the bus

8. 1am press release

9. Not engaging good coaches during the search

10. Sitting in on coaching sessions

11. Not being an administrator and staying classy (comparable: President going over to various classes and watching the professor's lectures-How would that go.)

12. Wasting dollars building indoor stadium for rowing team

13. Not taking care of the fans who support the football stadium

14. Messing up the tradition of Michigan football and how prestigious it is

 

I am probably wrong on some, but the point stands. This is not just about wins and losses. We need to focus on other things. Student section chanting during the game some of these matters over and over again should help. "Supporting the team. Not the AD and Hoke". "Reduce student ticket prices. Don't be greedy". "Lay Low Brandon". "Stop the Gimmicks"

You can also do some slogans in front of his office and house. I like the march during PSU game, but I think it has to be before that. You do not want a bad incident after midnight.

Please don't neg me. I am as frustrated as some of you are...

 

Moar rallies? Seriously, if the powers that be just think this will pass, then nothing happens.

Anytime there is blood in the water, you have to finish the situation. Brandon will fight back hard and being a CEO, he will be adept at internal politics. It would be great if Brian gave us some direction as I think we would rally behind him. There are multiple things that I think could help: The first 3 are ones that can be done individually: 1. Signing the petition and reaching out to as many alumni as you can to get them to sign. 2. Emailing Schissel 3. Emailing each of the regents. Then some bigger activities that take some organization are: 1. Another protest at the Presidents house 2. Fire Brandon chant at the remaining home games. 3. Fire Brandon shirts. There was a kick starter for this but I believe it failed. Essentially the more the message can be gotten across the better. I also think the focus needs to be on Brandon. Not fire Hoke, not we want Harbaugh. Brandon is the root of the problem. Need to address it there.

organized chants, with 'fire' from one side of the stadium and 'brandon' the other (make sure the Brandon part is in the student section/side so it does not get confused/mixed with hoke)....a la 'go' v. 'blue'. This would show it is not a segmented/student only sentiment and is shared throughout the stadium. I hate to say it....but after that, I think a boycott at the Maryland game is necessary, but there is plenty of time between now and then to make it clear to players it has nothing to do with them or wins/losses. This is important to communicate no matter what. Drop all vitriol leveled at Hoke....hard I know....inept as he is....he isn't evil and he is already dead coach walking. The more Hoke's name is mixed up in this, the more the fan base can be portrayed as a spoiled group that is just worried about winning and that is exactly NOT the case. The issues need to be clarified as rejecting the corporate selling out of the games day experience and the Michigan football tradition to a soulless vampire that is an accomplished liar and a terrible fit for the role he occupies. A manifesto on what is being lost and why it will destroy the experience, both short and long term, is required, focusing on experiential items first and foremost and winds and losses as an afterthought, then citing the duplicitous and untruthful actions Brandon has taken to cover up his failure as added evidence of his unsuitability. Drop attendance for that game by 20,000+ and make it known that this will become a permanent situation as long as DB is retained. For anyone choosing to attend the game...no judging.....wear red in solidarity to show that at some point you will also stop attending. That will be impossible to ignore. It will make for excellent TV shots and get lots of coverage. Also, someone might want to set up an alternate petition that does not require a uniquename (I'll call and update my password tomorrow and sign, but not everyone has one and many will not bother to go through the steps required to use theirs).

It's simple. Boycott the games. I'm not going to any more until DB is gone.

Fire Brandon chants don't work. I was at the Minny game in seciton 19 and I didn't hear anything....I suppose if we ensure they are heard on the TV broadcast that is great but a picture tells a 1,000 words.

Let's get a Fire Brandon tifo going in the student section. If that is too hard to smuggle in than just get 10-12 kids to bring in a rolled up sheet of paper and spell out:

F-I-R-E     B-R-A-N-D-O-N

This is guaranteed to be on sportscenter and you are also guaranteed at least 5-7 zoom-ins with screen time on ABC. Doing this for the PSU UTL III would be perfect.

Why should we limit this to kids. If some here on the Mgoblog-osphere tailgate and go to games why not have some of you with another

F-I-R-E    B-R-A-N-D-O-N

somewhere outside the student section as well.

i dont think the logistics of a boycott of kickoff at PSU would actually be that hard.  if we publicize, through this blog and elsewhere (remember, the national media is already looking at mgoblog and the forums! and things are definitely bound to heat up this week), I think most students would be aware of the protest.  For those that arent, thanks to the bottleneck at the section entrances, it would be very easy to voice our intent to those who didn't get the memo - im thinking having 'volunteers' stand outside each section with large signs imploring students not to enter the stadium until after kickoff.  We can also have same volunteers run down the stands right before the game kicks off and round those up who want to partake in the protest.  This. could. work.

Just my two cents - 

I don't think chants at the game will work, and I think the powers that be (as well as the media) will get used to protests at the president's house.  We need to use the media to amplify the message, and I think we do that with visuals.  Two that come to mind - rows of empty seats at a home game, and related, if you have tickets to the game but are not attending in protest, video the burning of it and put it on social media.  I don't know the in and outs of twitter but it sounds like someone can come up with a clever hastag and get all of these clips linked so that we tee it up for the mainstream media to run with it.

i think the subsequent rallys at the regents meeting or whatever are a great idea, but its likely to have only about 1000 students (at most) and brandon, the regents, etc will likely treat this as just another abberation; not representative of the collective opinion of all michigan students. and another rally, while great, will be seen as a bit stale - we NEED something more creative, somehting more impressionable.  

the optics for such a campaign to oust Brandon need to be right.  nothing will be more attention grabbing than a boycott of kickoff at PSU.  with those overhead shots the image will be burned into the eyeballs of television audiences everywhere and is likely to be replyed on sportscenter and other news programs.  the announcers will likely start talking about and will be a running conversation throughout the game.  the regents will have no choice after that game but to fire brandon.  

The student section needs a Tifo at the PSU game.  This needs to happen.  

A large banner, with a pointed message, would truly get the point across on the national stage.

I know we have some dedicated students perusing the board (and maybe some hardcore soccer fans to boot that know what I'm talking about?) so can we please get this going?

If you're unsure what a Tifo is, please google it.

We can leave the flares at home, though.  

I'm guessing the best way to keep up the pressure is for the team to keep losing.

We should get WolverineDovotee to go on Olberman and just start screaming "fire Brandon!" over and over to the camera.

We could try to put together a protest of sorts at Gate 10 at any of the upcoming home games.  Whether it is trying to get people to come in late or not go to the game at all, this would be a way to reach a ton of people.

I'm pretty sure we could do this - the Jesus people have been there multiple games, we can just steal their thunder

It seems to me that the Slippery Rock game on 10-18 could easily be co-opted into an anti Brandon rally. If I'm right, there's no pre-ticketing required for students. Some cameras and media are likely to be there. A few k die hard alum will already be there Almost no one in the stands will care about the outcome of the game or know anything about the players. The bored alum will need something to do and can be channelled.

The games

 

When the stands are empty then actions will be required. Im all for supporting the players but if I read things correctly and see players saying "wins and losses are just statistis" then they no longer deserve an audience. 

According to a Texas rancher: "Tryin’ ta burn it off the cow will land ya in the big house for rustlin'."

I would be on the lookout for a "sudden change of venue" announced pubicly a few minutes before the meeting.  If it happened that way, thoiugh, at least it would indicate that the trustees and admins are fully coginzant of the displeasure the football program is brining to Ann Arbor.

Agree with this. I think we should try to keep the stadium as empty as possible until kickoff . . . The entire stadium. Having students come in late would have the biggest impact, because they are a concentrated group, and all the extra individual game seats above that are generally empty, will leave that corner empty when Brent announces, "You are looking live . . ." I'll plan to not get to my seat until kickoff. Before kickoff, a lot of empty seats will make a point. And yes, please stop talking about Hoke and Harbaugh. The goal is to get the Athletic Dept straightened ou, top to bottom. "Fire Brandon," should be the focus.

The attitude of the athletic department at game day say mid 1980s?

1. If the ushers could get their hands on a beach ball they stabbed it with whatever sharp object was available or rent the seam(s) effectively destroying it so it could no longer be used.

2. If a football went over the catch-net behind the field goal an usher pretty much gave chase, pell mell into the crowd to get the ball back.  The game was to keep passing it up the stadium until it went over the top edge where someone else got it and was supposed to run it out to the exterior chain link (in those days) and chuck it to someone else to take it home.  Basically it was an eye poke at the athletic department for not being willing to give up a single football.  People were escorted outside the chain link perimeter for juking the person trying to reclaim the football.

3. Your tickets were constantly checked at every entry portal in and out by yellow rain slicker people who werent afraid to tell you to get lost in so many words.  If there were long lines that was your problem.

4. The womens' bathroom situation was an embarrassment.  As I recall there were only two womens' bathrooms in the entire stadium, one north and one south.  The lines were back to forevvvver.

5. Armed LEOs ringed the field to keep people OFF at all costs, usually this was post game.  You wanna challenge a guy with a gun?

And I never heard a peep out of anyone wanting to fire anybody.  I bet if the Athletic Dept went back to "established past practices" we'd be reading about it in TIME magazine.   Piling on the Athletic Director because people are mad about the team's record is kinda cheap.  As I've posted before I completely understand how Brandon has alienated various groups at different times and done a few things in poor taste...the skywriting sticks in my mind.

You guys want a Rally, try the No Guns No Cops No Code that swept thru campus when Michigan decided to employ, train, and arm its own police force back in the early 90s.  That had the backing of the entire student body...and swept all thru campus...no flash mobs covered by blogs and ESPN in those days friends.  Duderstadt was holed up in the Ad Building and had to leave thru the steam tunnel contingency exits....so maybe some perspective and history on why I think this line to fire the AD is gettting a little old and doesn't have much backing other than some unallocated venom from fans pissed about the W-L record this season.  My post probably smacks of the "we walked uphill to school both ways in the snow when I was a kid" but its my perspective since I lived it.

 

Guys with gravitas have to lean on the regents.  Gravitas comes in 2 flavors:

1.  Money

2. Political power

Somebody in the relevant political party ringing up a regent would set a bonfire that 10,000 students coulnd't hope to make.

I'm not saying that's the way things should be, just the way they are.

love the idea of boycotting the kickoff. 

Hold another rally, make sure it's bigger than the last one. 

I still don't really understand why my thread explaining how important this group of students is to the future of Michigan athletics got hammered, but I haven't changed my opinion. We are all counting on them. Student unrest, when well organized, is damn hard to ignore. I've seen it bring about improbable change with my own two eyes.