What's new
By:
USCHO Fan Forum

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • The USCHO Fan Forum has migrated to a new plaform, xenForo. Most of the function of the forum should work in familiar ways. Please note that you can switch between light and dark modes by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right of the main menu bar. We are hoping that this new platform will prove to be faster and more reliable. Please feel free to explore its features.

MN Golden Gopher 2010 Offseason Thread

Status
Not open for further replies.
Re: MN Golden Gopher 2010 Offseason Thread

hmm take this for what it worth.

but Pat Reusse Tweets That Lucia Out and Blais Contacted
 
Re: MN Golden Gopher 2010 Offseason Thread

Gophers #1 said:
hmm take this for what it worth.

but Pat Reusse Tweets That Lucia Out and Blais Contacted
Click to expand...

When it comes to Fat Pat and Lucia, Fat Pat isn't exactly rationale... that said, I hope there is truth to this rumor! Blais would make this team play hard every night, something we haven't done for years. More importantly John Hill would go too!
 
Re: MN Golden Gopher 2010 Offseason Thread

Gophers #1 said:
hmm take this for what it worth.

but Pat Reusse Tweets That Lucia Out and Blais Contacted
Click to expand...

http://twitter.com/am1500_reusse

E-mail from Fargo: “Plugged-in” UND sources say the Gophers have already called Dean Blais in Omaha about replacing Don Lucia.
Click to expand...

Blais has told Minnesota, “I don’t want any open job search, I just want the job if you are going to give it to me. None of the B.S.”
Click to expand...
 
Re: MN Golden Gopher 2010 Offseason Thread

Gophers #1 said:
hmm take this for what it worth.

but Pat Reusse Tweets That Lucia Out and Blais Contacted
Click to expand...

The tweet from Reusse does not indicate: 1) Lucia is out, and 2) under what circumstances Blais made the comment. Reusse is typically not a reliable source of information regarding Gopher Hockey.

Here's what Roman tweeted recently:

"Promised something from Neb. Omaha AD Trev Alberts on status of hockey coach Dean Blais. Alberts said no other school has contacted him about talking to Blais and he is going to make things so nice in Omaha that Blais and his wife will never want to leave. Hmm. Gophers open next season vs. UNO at Mariucci. Some fans hope Blais is on home bench. Only way I see that happening is if Don Lucia resigns for some reason. He was out recruiting Saturday. Don't think he will step down."
Click to expand...
 
Re: MN Golden Gopher 2010 Offseason Thread

HarleyMC said:
The tweet from Reusse does not indicate: 1) Lucia is out, and 2) under what circumstances Blais made the comment. Reusse is typically not a reliable source of information regarding Gopher Hockey.

Here's what Roman tweeted recently:
Click to expand...

I agree with Roman.

With the University of Minnesota budget situation, I don't know if it's a good time to be buying out coaches. If there's a change, it'll be because Don resigns.
 
Re: MN Golden Gopher 2010 Offseason Thread

thebrain said:
I agree with Roman.

With the University of Minnesota budget situation, I don't know if it's a good time to be buying out coaches. If there's a change, it'll be because Don resigns.
Click to expand...

You're right! The UMN athletics dept. had $69.3 million in expenses in the last fiscal year ending June 2009 and $67.7 million in revenue. Consequently it needed to draw $1.6 million from the athletics endowment fund to balance the budget. Compare that to other Big Ten school's athletics departments, like Penn State and Michigan that both generated $25 million more revenue than UMN or Ohio State which generated $50 million more. The margins for each of these other schools, reported to the U.S. Dept. of Education, was approximately $14 million.

Although the UMN athletic department is among few schools that can rely on three positive revenue generating sports: football, basketball and hockey, the department's financial success ultimately depends on basketball and football. However, these two athletic programs have not performed exceptionally well in years and their revenue generating potential has been far from actualized. The football team hasn't won a national championship in 43 years, basketball in more than 25 years.

The one line item that the UMN relies on that is consistently positive as a revenue stream are the media contracts which generated $6.2 million from Learfield Communications last year plus the BTN revenue. Add to that the Big Ten Conference distribution funds and alumni gifts (3/4 of the gifts received are for preferred seating in football, basketball and hockey), all of which help balance the budget, which has lately resulted in very slim margins.

Furthermore, with the two huge financial commitments in the recent past in the construction of the TCF Bank Stadium and the hiring of basketball coach Tubby Smith, the bottom line is the UMN is hardly in a position to engage a "buyout" of Don Lucia's contract.

I concur with the late NCAA President Myles Brand, who died last year of cancer, and was the first academic to run the NCAA. He was a reformer who raised the academic standards for athletes and warned of the excessive arms race in the over-commercialization of college sports, although he defended corporate contracts by college athletic programs.

“In the case of commercialism, the extremes of unrealistic idealism and crass commercialism are not the right courses of action, but between them — somewhere — there is an acceptable balance point,” Brand said. “Finding this balance point, it can be argued, is the next greatest challenge we must address.”
 
Re: MN Golden Gopher 2010 Offseason Thread

This whole early departure dynamic is troubling but also interesting. We sometimes forget that these kids have been on a different track since they were 9 years old and it became evident that they had exceptional talent. Most of them began playing for at least 3 seasons (usually 4), traveling extensively, attending camps, and missing out on much of what their nonhockey friends were doing. They usually do not finish high school at home, and they are accustomed to changing affiliations every couple of years, depending on the opportunities presented to them. Most have parents who have sacrificed a lot in terms of time and money (something kids are aware of), and many have parents who have pressed for success more than they should have. There are many exceptions, of course, but many or most go through that experience. Given that, who can be really surprised that the kid/his parents do not suddenly decide that the educational and social benefits of staying in school where they are at outweigh the possible benefit of moving up closer to the goal that has driven them all along? They know moving up may not pan out, but that has been the case with every decision they have made for the past 10 years. If they are playing D1 hockey and are being courted for the next level, those past decisions have, in their eyes, been the right ones.

The recruiting coaches must look very closely at the parents of these kids to get a feel of how they will adjust to accepting a team role, adjust to adversity generally, and stay, among other things. No coach will turn away a Parise, Kessel, or Schroeder, but there are a bunch more roster spots on the team that must be filled by kids whose background will convince a coach that the kid will finish college and not jump for a few years in Europe or maybe a cup of coffee in the big time.

All obvious stuff, I know, but I would like to be a fly on the wall in coaches offices when they discuss whether or not to go after many of these kids. Maybe they just go after the best talent there is, I don't know. Or maybe the kid can throw a lawnmower a long ways . . .

Sorry to jump in a gopher thread with comments that are not gopher specific
 
Re: MN Golden Gopher 2010 Offseason Thread

burd said:
This whole early departure dynamic is troubling but also interesting. We sometimes forget that these kids have been on a different track since they were 9 years old and it became evident that they had exceptional talent. Most of them began playing for at least 3 seasons (usually 4), traveling extensively, attending camps, and missing out on much of what their nonhockey friends were doing. They usually do not finish high school at home, and they are accustomed to changing affiliations every couple of years, depending on the opportunities presented to them. Most have parents who have sacrificed a lot in terms of time and money (something kids are aware of), and many have parents who have pressed for success more than they should have. There are many exceptions, of course, but many or most go through that experience. Given that, who can be really surprised that the kid/his parents do not suddenly decide that the educational and social benefits of staying in school where they are at outweigh the possible benefit of moving up closer to the goal that has driven them all along? They know moving up may not pan out, but that has been the case with every decision they have made for the past 10 years. If they are playing D1 hockey and are being courted for the next level, those past decisions have, in their eyes, been the right ones.

The recruiting coaches must look very closely at the parents of these kids to get a feel of how they will adjust to accepting a team role, adjust to adversity generally, and stay, among other things. No coach will turn away a Parise, Kessel, or Schroeder, but there are a bunch more roster spots on the team that must be filled by kids whose background will convince a coach that the kid will finish college and not jump for a few years in Europe or maybe a cup of coffee in the big time.

All obvious stuff, I know, but I would like to be a fly on the wall in coaches offices when they discuss whether or not to go after many of these kids. Maybe they just go after the best talent there is, I don't know. Or maybe the kid can throw a lawnmower a long ways . . .

Sorry to jump in a gopher thread with comments that are not gopher specific
Click to expand...

Very intesting & jump in anytime.
 
Re: MN Golden Gopher 2010 Offseason Thread

Bakunin said:
You forgot to mention Bickel, O'Brien, and Taylor - all of whom left after one season IIRC.
Click to expand...

How about Sam Lofquist? I really think he left at a bad time. I believe Leddy was out at the time as well and really left the gophers short handed. I think the power play would have been different had he stayed this year.
 
Re: MN Golden Gopher 2010 Offseason Thread

HarleyMC said:
You're right! The UMN athletics dept. had $69.3 million in expenses in the last fiscal year ending June 2009 and $67.7 million in revenue. Consequently it needed to draw $1.6 million from the athletics endowment fund to balance the budget. Compare that to other Big Ten school's athletics departments, like Penn State and Michigan that both generated $25 million more revenue than UMN or Ohio State which generated $50 million more. The margins for each of these other schools, reported to the U.S. Dept. of Education, was approximately $14 million.

Although the UMN athletic department is among few schools that can rely on three positive revenue generating sports: football, basketball and hockey, the department's financial success ultimately depends on basketball and football. However, these two athletic programs have not performed exceptionally well in years and their revenue generating potential has been far from actualized. The football team hasn't won a national championship in 43 years, basketball in more than 25 years.

The one line item that the UMN relies on that is consistently positive as a revenue stream are the media contracts which generated $6.2 million from Learfield Communications last year plus the BTN revenue. Add to that the Big Ten Conference distribution funds and alumni gifts (3/4 of the gifts received are for preferred seating in football, basketball and hockey), all of which help balance the budget, which has lately resulted in very slim margins.

Furthermore, with the two huge financial commitments in the recent past in the construction of the TCF Bank Stadium and the hiring of basketball coach Tubby Smith, the bottom line is the UMN is hardly in a position to engage a "buyout" of Don Lucia's contract.

I concur with the late NCAA President Myles Brand, who died last year of cancer, and was the first academic to run the NCAA. He was a reformer who raised the academic standards for athletes and warned of the excessive arms race in the over-commercialization of college sports, although he defended corporate contracts by college athletic programs.

“In the case of commercialism, the extremes of unrealistic idealism and crass commercialism are not the right courses of action, but between them — somewhere — there is an acceptable balance point,” Brand said. “Finding this balance point, it can be argued, is the next greatest challenge we must address.”
Click to expand...

And it doesn't look good to taxpayers when the university is begging for money, forcing people to take time-off unpaid, having layoffs and hiring freezes to pay a coach to sit at home while paying another one to coach. The U president wanted Dan Monson fired a year before he was fired, Maturi wouldn't because they were in the middle of trying to get state money for the football stadium and didn't think it'd look good to fire coaches and pay them to sit at home while asking for millions from the state for a football stadium. Once they got the money, Monson and Mason were gone.
 
Re: MN Golden Gopher 2010 Offseason Thread

HarleyMC said:
You're right! The UMN athletics dept. had $69.3 million in expenses in the last fiscal year ending June 2009 and $67.7 million in revenue. Consequently it needed to draw $1.6 million from the athletics endowment fund to balance the budget. Compare that to other Big Ten school's athletics departments, like Penn State and Michigan that both generated $25 million more revenue than UMN or Ohio State which generated $50 million more. The margins for each of these other schools, reported to the U.S. Dept. of Education, was approximately $14 million.

Although the UMN athletic department is among few schools that can rely on three positive revenue generating sports: football, basketball and hockey, the department's financial success ultimately depends on basketball and football. However, these two athletic programs have not performed exceptionally well in years and their revenue generating potential has been far from actualized. The football team hasn't won a national championship in 43 years, basketball in more than 25 years.

The one line item that the UMN relies on that is consistently positive as a revenue stream are the media contracts which generated $6.2 million from Learfield Communications last year plus the BTN revenue. Add to that the Big Ten Conference distribution funds and alumni gifts (3/4 of the gifts received are for preferred seating in football, basketball and hockey), all of which help balance the budget, which has lately resulted in very slim margins.

Furthermore, with the two huge financial commitments in the recent past in the construction of the TCF Bank Stadium and the hiring of basketball coach Tubby Smith, the bottom line is the UMN is hardly in a position to engage a "buyout" of Don Lucia's contract.

I concur with the late NCAA President Myles Brand, who died last year of cancer, and was the first academic to run the NCAA. He was a reformer who raised the academic standards for athletes and warned of the excessive arms race in the over-commercialization of college sports, although he defended corporate contracts by college athletic programs.

“In the case of commercialism, the extremes of unrealistic idealism and crass commercialism are not the right courses of action, but between them — somewhere — there is an acceptable balance point,” Brand said. “Finding this balance point, it can be argued, is the next greatest challenge we must address.”
Click to expand...

I think those stats will be a little different for this year, with the addition of TCF BANK Stadium. There was a lot of construction expenses in those budget figures (even though there is not suposed to be) plus the fact that all of the revenue from Football will be staying with the U. The U2 concert will also help things out a bit. I can also see the lifting the ban on alchohol if next year there are no major problems (get all of the bugs worked out on running a stadium first and there were problems), I could see Maturi going back to the Regents and asking again. Also if the boosters want something bad enough they will find a way to get it done, that includes privet money for the buy out.... money NOT coming from the U. Where there is a will, there is always a way......
 
Re: MN Golden Gopher 2010 Offseason Thread

GopherBigGuy911 said:
I think those stats will be a little different for this year, with the addition of TCF BANK Stadium. There was a lot of construction expenses in those budget figures (even though there is not suposed to be) plus the fact that all of the revenue from Football will be staying with the U. The U2 concert will also help things out a bit. I can also see the lifting the ban on alchohol if next year there are no major problems (get all of the bugs worked out on running a stadium first and there were problems), I could see Maturi going back to the Regents and asking again. Also if the boosters want something bad enough they will find a way to get it done, that includes privet money for the buy out.... money NOT coming from the U. Where there is a will, there is always a way......
Click to expand...

That ban will be in place for the foreseeable future...the U is not going to challenge it this year because they need money and as long as that is the case nothing will change. The President and Board of Regents have already said as much.

You are right though, those numbers are pre-TCF bank stadium (they come from the 2009 fiscal year which ended in June) but that isnt going to make things that much better. It will push the AD into the black though but not by a lot I don't think. (we wont know until June)

The U needs to cut some sports, I know they hate it, but in the current climate they can't afford to have that many scholarships on the ledger.
 
Re: MN Golden Gopher 2010 Offseason Thread

There was a very good discussion regarding the Gophers on beyond the pond yesterday on KFAN. If you happened to miss it, it's worth downloading.

Micheletti really called out the assistant situation and also the attitude of players like Schroeder.
 
Re: MN Golden Gopher 2010 Offseason Thread

They did the same thing a few weeks back...Pat and Nate Miller just railed all the coaches for pretty much everything we have. It was kinda sad to hear because I was sort of hoping we were all being irrational ;)
 
Re: MN Golden Gopher 2010 Offseason Thread

Handyman said:
That ban will be in place for the foreseeable future...the U is not going to challenge it this year because they need money and as long as that is the case nothing will change. The President and Board of Regents have already said as much.

You are right though, those numbers are pre-TCF bank stadium (they come from the 2009 fiscal year which ended in June) but that isnt going to make things that much better. It will push the AD into the black though but not by a lot I don't think. (we wont know until June)

The U needs to cut some sports, I know they hate it, but in the current climate they can't afford to have that many scholarships on the ledger.
Click to expand...

The State Legislature elects the Board to a 6 year Term..... When are the next elections? Since the Legislature has already passed a law stating that no alchohol maybe served at The Bank unless it is availiblee to all 21+ how likely is it that they will find alchohol friendly Regents the next time they are elected????? On a side note I would love to see an all WCHA Frozen Four (Bemidji State is WCHA :p )
 
Re: MN Golden Gopher 2010 Offseason Thread

http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=846472&catid=391

This was 2 days ago.

MINNEAPOLIS -- TCF Bank Stadium doesn't sell alcohol at Gopher football games now, but a bill making the rounds at the Capitol could change that. The legislature is reviewing a bill, looking into the sale of booze at the new stadium.

Senator Jim Metzen amended a liquor bill last week, to get the talks going again. The legislature says the money raised from sales, would go towards athletic scholarships at the University.

"I thought let's go back to the issue because it's important," Metzen said. "There could be a lot of scholarships available for men and women."

Some fans however, apparently don't care about the liquor restriction.

"People will either go to a house, or sit in their cars and drink out of their flasks, sometimes hidden in purses" student Steven Conlon said. "They are bringing the alcohol in anyways."

Last year there was debate whether to sell alcohol in only the premium seats. But the legislature said no. If alcohol was to be sold, it's for everybody.

"We were going to get the discussion moving and the way I understood it, they were going to go back and review it, then meet with committee chairs," Metzen said.

In a statement, the University says, "President Bruininks and members of the Board of Regents have said they don't intend to seek a legislative change on this issue this year, so the University does not have a formal position on it. We are focused on the very challenging budgetary position and minimizing the impact of any budget cuts on our education, research and outreach missions."


(Copyright 2010 by KARE. All Rights Reserved.)

I think that in these lean times I can see the State mandating that he U change it's policy in order to generate more revenue for the entire U System so that more money can be devoted to other areas.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top