Aaron Fitt

Dave Van Horn gave me the full tour of the spectacular new Hunt Baseball Development Center at @RazorbackBSB - or as he put it, his new "Power 5 football building." Really the gold standard for player facilities - attention to every tiny detail is amazing. Some highlights: https://t.co/goJmrzUMSU

pack2010 said:

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how are we so broke but it seems like there are stadium upgrades being announced weekly, including mid majors? it doesn't make sense. i know yow didn't care about baseball, but she really drowned us it seems (and Boo isn't helping with his lack of transparency). i just feel bad for Avent and the staff because they deserve 100x more than what they have.

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I'll take this one. The TL: DR is that we have a cheap ass fanbase, particularly at the high donor levels that fuel all modern capital campaigns.

In a day and age where $50 million+ leadership gifts from a single donor are a dime a dozen, we don't have anyone even in the same ball park (no pun intended). I haven't seen the updated donor pyramid, but when Wolfer79 posted it like five years ago, we had less than 50 people in the entire Wolfpack Club credited with as much as $10,000 a year. Folks, Wendell Murphy can't pay for everything. And you chuckleheads that think Jim Goodnight is going to walk through that megadonor door are just showing you don't know anything about Jim Goodnight. I suppose there's a chance Mr. Goodnight goes through some sort of late in life athletics Damascas road conversion and becomes an athletics supporter, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for it...

89_Grad said:

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pack2010 said:

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how are we so broke but it seems like there are stadium upgrades being announced weekly, including mid majors? it doesn't make sense. i know yow didn't care about baseball, but she really drowned us it seems (and Boo isn't helping with his lack of transparency). i just feel bad for Avent and the staff because they deserve 100x more than what they have.

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I'll take this one. The TLR is that we have a cheap ass fanbase, particularly at the high donor levels that fuel all modern capital campaigns.

In a day and age where $50 million+ leadership gifts from a single donor are a dime a dozen, we don't have anyone even in the same ball park (no pun intended). I haven't seen the updated donor pyramid, but when Wolfer79 posted it like five years ago, we had less than 50 people in the entire Wolfpack Club credited with as much as $10,000 a year. Folks, Wendell Murphy can't pay for everything. And you chuckleheads that think Jim Goodnight is going to walk through that megadonor door are just showing you don't know anything about Jim Goodnight. I suppose there's a chance Mr. Goodnight goes through some sort of late in life athletics Damascas road conversion and becomes an athletics supporter, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for it...

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i get that, i really do. but to not be close to local mid majors (ECU, Coastal, UNCW, UNCG, etc all have more modern stadiums/recent upgrades) is the issue. we lose to those guys, facility wise, and that's embarrassing

pack2010 said:

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89_Grad said:

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pack2010 said:

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how are we so broke but it seems like there are stadium upgrades being announced weekly, including mid majors? it doesn't make sense. i know yow didn't care about baseball, but she really drowned us it seems (and Boo isn't helping with his lack of transparency). i just feel bad for Avent and the staff because they deserve 100x more than what they have.

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I'll take this one. The TLR is that we have a cheap ass fanbase, particularly at the high donor levels that fuel all modern capital campaigns.

In a day and age where $50 million+ leadership gifts from a single donor are a dime a dozen, we don't have anyone even in the same ball park (no pun intended). I haven't seen the updated donor pyramid, but when Wolfer79 posted it like five years ago, we had less than 50 people in the entire Wolfpack Club credited with as much as $10,000 a year. Folks, Wendell Murphy can't pay for everything. And you chuckleheads that think Jim Goodnight is going to walk through that megadonor door are just showing you don't know anything about Jim Goodnight. I suppose there's a chance Mr. Goodnight goes through some sort of late in life athletics Damascas road conversion and becomes an athletics supporter, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for it...

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i get that, i really do. but to not be close to local mid majors (ECU, Coastal, UNCW, UNCG, etc all have more modern stadiums/recent upgrades) is the issue. we lose to those guys, facility wise, and that's embarrassing

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I definitely agree that we need to have a lot of upgrades but think about who you are comparing us to. Those schools (minus Coastal as of late) have nothing else. Those schools pump a lot of their budget into baseball. Our athletics budget supports a lot of good teams.

Eh. I'd be willing to bet the ratios of major to minor sport spend are pretty much them same between State and ECU / CCU.

Wolfpacklife said:

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pack2010 said:

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89_Grad said:

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pack2010 said:

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how are we so broke but it seems like there are stadium upgrades being announced weekly, including mid majors? it doesn't make sense. i know yow didn't care about baseball, but she really drowned us it seems (and Boo isn't helping with his lack of transparency). i just feel bad for Avent and the staff because they deserve 100x more than what they have.

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I'll take this one. The TLR is that we have a cheap ass fanbase, particularly at the high donor levels that fuel all modern capital campaigns.

In a day and age where $50 million+ leadership gifts from a single donor are a dime a dozen, we don't have anyone even in the same ball park (no pun intended). I haven't seen the updated donor pyramid, but when Wolfer79 posted it like five years ago, we had less than 50 people in the entire Wolfpack Club credited with as much as $10,000 a year. Folks, Wendell Murphy can't pay for everything. And you chuckleheads that think Jim Goodnight is going to walk through that megadonor door are just showing you don't know anything about Jim Goodnight. I suppose there's a chance Mr. Goodnight goes through some sort of late in life athletics Damascas road conversion and becomes an athletics supporter, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for it...

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i get that, i really do. but to not be close to local mid majors (ECU, Coastal, UNCW, UNCG, etc all have more modern stadiums/recent upgrades) is the issue. we lose to those guys, facility wise, and that's embarrassing

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I definitely agree that we need to have a lot of upgrades but think about who you are comparing us to. Those schools (minus Coastal as of late) have nothing else. Those schools pump a lot of their budget into baseball. Our athletics budget supports a lot of good teams.

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I mean I could compare us to power 5 teams but that's not fair

Our fan base has gotten too used to a handful of big donors carrying the big load. It is time for a new generation of big donors to step forward!

89_Grad said:

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pack2010 said:

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how are we so broke but it seems like there are stadium upgrades being announced weekly, including mid majors? it doesn't make sense. i know yow didn't care about baseball, but she really drowned us it seems (and Boo isn't helping with his lack of transparency). i just feel bad for Avent and the staff because they deserve 100x more than what they have.

---

I'll take this one. The TL: DR is that we have a cheap ass fanbase, particularly at the high donor levels that fuel all modern capital campaigns.

In a day and age where $50 million+ leadership gifts from a single donor are a dime a dozen, we don't have anyone even in the same ball park (no pun intended). I haven't seen the updated donor pyramid, but when Wolfer79 posted it like five years ago, we had less than 50 people in the entire Wolfpack Club credited with as much as $10,000 a year. Folks, Wendell Murphy can't pay for everything. And you chuckleheads that think Jim Goodnight is going to walk through that megadonor door are just showing you don't know anything about Jim Goodnight. I suppose there's a chance Mr. Goodnight goes through some sort of late in life athletics Damascas road conversion and becomes an athletics supporter, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for it...

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Check this out. If lil ole Catawba can land a $200 million gift (although admittedly not for athletics), why can't Pack Athletics for Doak and other needs?
https://www.wunc.org/education/2021-10-26/whopping-200m-gift-triples-catawba-colleges-endowment-and-will-boost-environmental-sustainability-efforts

From today's baseball season ticket renewal email:

Link is not working for me to renew....anyone else having problems? Also, faculty rate has gone way up...used to be a deal...not anymore. Thanks a lot NC State Athletics!

Baking in $100 donation into the season tickets isn't the worst idea. I'm not sure how far the $100K or so goes towards these improvements though. This is a start though.

Prices for faculty/staff tickets have doubled in price! I don't know about others. Passing along a stadium enhancement tax is not the right decision IMHO. Keep ticket prices affordable and show us a plan...we will donate. Adding it to ticket prices is not the solution!

Leave it to Boo and Woodson again

My ticket costs went from 160/piece to 299/piece.

metcalfmafia said:

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My ticket costs went from 160/piece to 299/piece.

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I am faculty/staff and mine went from $128 to $267 (an increase of 109%). We haven't had a raise in three years and affordable sports tickets was one of the few perks of any value. This is not how you treat your supporters!

Pakbackr said:

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metcalfmafia said:

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My ticket costs went from 160/piece to 299/piece.

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I am faculty/staff and mine went from $128 to $267 (an increase of 109%). We haven't had a raise in three years and affordable sports tickets was one of the few perks of any value. This is not how you treat your supporters!

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Guess y'all didn't do what gravis told y'all to do and just send a bunch of money and wait for a plan hopefully!

I ain't got no dog in this fight, but that's a helluva price increase. Damn.

I think it was a pretty smart move by the AD and WPC. They know season tickets sell out. Why not bake in the improvement costs where you know you'll 100 percent get the sale anyway.

I don't know..Doubling prices and expecting season ticket sales to remain the same seems like a piss poor idea to me.

BigLefty24 said:

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I don't know..Doubling prices and expecting season ticket sales to remain the same seems like a piss poor idea to me.

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They'll sell out again. Guaranteed.

Doesn't work for me being out of town with all the weekday games, but if I were local, I would pay that for tickets, particularly knowing that facilities improvements are involved. I suppose that puts me in the minority. I do hope there is some sort of capital campaign I can donate to in the near future though.

Hate it for the people who actually want to go but so many people use it to boost WPC points I love they did it. At least make it cost to manipulate the system.

Does anyone know what competitor season tickets run (UNC, ECU, CCU, Clemson, GT)? Doubling prices doesn't seem to be a great idea unless you actually have won something, but maybe it's justified based on the comps.

Lagniappe said:

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Does anyone know what competitor season tickets run (UNC, ECU, CCU, Clemson, GT)? Doubling prices doesn't seem to be a great idea unless you actually have won something, but maybe it's justified based on the comps.

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They provided the justification for the majority of the price increase. You can probably chalk the other 30 bucks increase on inflation, capitalizing on fan excitement, whatever you want to call it.

Only reason is because of the doak donation

Gravis said:

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I can break it out a little for you……2000 sold season tickets = enough cash flow to service $2 million of debt service that can be taken to the regulators at the bank.

The date has been set the formal announcement of the project, so I guess we will soon see how people will step up, hopefully it goes well.

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Cash flow, debt service, how much debt capacity can the athletic department create....

Gravis is talking my language now. How to plan to pay for what will probably be several improvements at Doak
spread out over time.

Will not be suprised to see this for CFS and other programs, a "capital improvement fee" to allow the AD to get long term borrowing approved for numerous projects. Go Pack !

SMH at people who ***** about outdated stadium, whine for someone to build them a new stadium, and then when tickets bake in the capital contributions that our cheapass fanbase refuses to give, ***** about that too....Take out your wallets people.

That capital contribution is less than what 90% of us spend on restaurants in one month. If you spend $30 bucks on a night out with your spouse (and, in Raleigh, that will be a place like Moe's), then consider foregoing it six times a year, and voila, you've made up 90% of the capital contribution on a pair of tickets...

89_Grad said:

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SMH at people who ***** about outdated stadium, whine for someone to build them a new stadium, and then when tickets bake in the capital contributions that our cheapass fanbase refuses to give, ***** about that too....Take out your wallets people.

That capital contribution is less than what 90% of us spend on restaurants in one month. If you spend $30 bucks on a night out with your spouse (and, in Raleigh, that will be a place like Moe's), then consider foregoing it six times a year, and voila, you've made up 90% of the capital contribution on a pair of tickets...

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It's unfortunate but some people will always find the negative and something to complain about.

I think all most of us want to see is a plan, any plan, before you start raising the funds via a forced donation! I will open my wallet as I have for over 40 years and donate. I could have bought my beach house a lot sooner with all the money I have given the WPC, so I am not one of those asking for an upgrade to facilities and not willing to help fund it! We just want to see the dang vision!

Gravis said:

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BigLefty24 said:

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I don't know..Doubling prices and expecting season ticket sales to remain the same seems like a piss poor idea to me.

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Can't have it both ways......Spending into the 8 figure range for improvements has to be paid for.

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I don't disagree. But communicating that with those folks prior to sending out pricing info seems like the easiest thing in the world to do. It appears it's the overall lack of communication that is driving people nuts, and I think that is a very reasonable concern, considering it's been at the forefront of every conversation regarding baseball since the CWS ended.

Gravis said:

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Probably not enough for some, but it clearly says in the release - details coming in mid November.

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fair point. I don't think it's an unreasonable ask. Even with the additional fee, it still works to roughly $10/game, which is a fair price.