Menu
What's new
By:
Filters
AllBuffs | Unofficial fan site for the University of Colorado at Boulder Athletics programs

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!

  • Prime Time. Prime Time. Its a new era for Colorado football. Consider signing up for a club membership! For $20/year, you can get access to all the special features at Allbuffs, including club member only forums, dark mode, avatars and best of all no ads ! But seriously, please sign up so that we can pay the bills. No one earns money here, and we can use your $20 to keep this hellhole running. You can sign up for a club membership by navigating to your account in the upper right and clicking on "Account Upgrades". Make it happen!

CU's Booster Support

Sexton Hardcastle

Sexton Hardcastle

Club Member
I'm not trying to call out our boosters who are doing their best in helping out our program, I'm just trying to understand why we don't have enough to even be average in the facilities "arms race".Look around at other programs in the B12. They are light years ahead of us in booster support.

I'm not talking about the OU's and UT's. I'm talking about the teams we should be able to compete with. Like ISU, Mizzou, hell even KSU has a permanent indoor facility. Have we paid off our Bubble yet?

Thoughts?
 
Do the other schools typically have a major sugar daddy who gets the ball rolling on a new facility, or a well-oiled donor machine with contributions from a lot of folks, or is it different throughout the B12?

I'm afraid I know other facilities may be newer, possibly nicer, but I'm not sure how they are paying for it: one guy with deep pockets, or community support?
 
AlferdJasper said:
Do the other schools typically have a major sugar daddy who gets the ball rolling on a new facility, or a well-oiled donor machine with contributions from a lot of folks, or is it different throughout the B12?

I'm afraid I know other facilities may be newer, possibly nicer, but I'm not sure how they are paying for it: one guy with deep pockets, or community support?
Click to expand...

OSU has just one guy in Boone Pickens. But I don't think it's like that for the rest of the B12.
 
valdezj said:
OSU has just one guy in Boone Pickens. But I don't think it's like that for the rest of the B12.
Click to expand...

The Nubs have both the 1 massive donor and the army of small time donors. I heard most of their alums send the AD a dollar every time they lose a tooth.
 
RalphieMalph said:
The Nubs have both the 1 massive donor and the army of small time donors. I heard most of their alums send the AD a dollar every time they lose a tooth.
Click to expand...
Really? Does anyone know who this is? Whoever he is, he's got deeeeeeeeeep pockets. Didn't their new facility cost like 50M?
 
I have to wonder if lack of booster support is a result of the amount of out of state students who then leave after graduation as compared to the other schools who get lots of instate students.
 
The only big time donor I know of was Jack Vickers. I believe he was an oil man. Jack owned the Castle Pines Golf Club, and was responsible for getting it as a PGA tour stop.

Anyway, he was a big time donor for CU. Not sure what happened. I heard a couple of different things. Barnett ran him off, and I heard that he devoted all his time and money to keeping the tour at Castle Pines. Not sure what he's up to now. I heard he sold Castle Pines though.
 
buffwoman526 said:
I have to wonder if lack of booster support is a result of the amount of out of state students who then leave after graduation as compared to the other schools who get lots of instate students.
Click to expand...

Winner

CU doesn't garner much in-state support. Therefore, people graduate and scatter. Most of the other schools are the state school. Kids from the state go there, they graduate, and they stick around. The population in most of those states take great pride in their schools as well - probably because most of the schools are saturated with pro teams.

At CU, kids come from out of state, they party, they learn, they enjoy the outdoors, and if they watch some football on the side, then that is pretty good. When they graduate, they take off, without much thought of donating back to athletics. Tack onto the fact that the CU athletics compete with not just other state schools, but professional sports... and you have a recipe for weak support.

That is my unscientific analysis
 
I think it has a big effect on perception, which has an effect on donations
 
Boulder Buff said:
The residents of Colorado do not care about higher education.
Click to expand...

Disagree there... They just don't care about higher ed Sports programs. Im pretty sure football is CU's ONLY money making sport currently although all i ever hear about is how it takes away valuable scholarships ... blah bla..

Also isn't Colorado's Government funding for higher ed Flat out terrible? i'll bet plays a role in how and where CU spends there money.

Our football team is funding, OUR football team. But also lacross, soccer , CC, BASKETBALL too prolly.

Just some thoughts.
 
It is an interesting issue. We do have some fairly well to do alumnus or folks that spent time at CU. The Coors have put many kids through CU. The last big initiative from them was the events center. I think they lost their desire to contribute when the U stopped selling beer.

Didn't the guy or guys who founded Crocs go to CU? I know that the company has hit hard times but not sure where he or they stand now.

How about Hugh Hefner of Playboy fame? I am pretty sure his daughter was at CU when I was there in the mid 80's.

There is also that actor guy, you know from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid : ). I think he used to clean floors at the Sink.

Sure there are several more I am leaving out. Not sure how we are going about trying to get these and other "well to do" alumni to contribute but the big individual donnors are missing at CU. I know there are quite a few here and other places that contribute as much as we can afford. It is a shame that we cannot get the "army" of small donners ramped up because there are certainly more of them than those with deep pockets.
 
valdezj said:
The only big time donor I know of was Jack Vickers. I believe he was an oil man. Jack owned the Castle Pines Golf Club, and was responsible for getting it as a PGA tour stop.

Anyway, he was a big time donor for CU. Not sure what happened. I heard a couple of different things. Barnett ran him off, and I heard that he devoted all his time and money to keeping the tour at Castle Pines. Not sure what he's up to now. I heard he sold Castle Pines though.
Click to expand...

Vickers made his money in oil, there used to be Vickers gasoline stations in CO.
 
Buffalo Brad said:
.

There is also that actor guy, you know from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid : ). I think he used to clean floors at the Sink.

Sure there are several more I am leaving out. Not sure how we are going about trying to get these and other "well to do" alumni to contribute but the big individual donnors are missing at CU. I know there are quite a few here and other places that contribute as much as we can afford. It is a shame that we cannot get the "army" of small donners ramped up because there are certainly more of them than those with deep pockets.
Click to expand...
Robert Redford. He came here on a baseball scholarship I believe.
Cal Ripkin Jr's daughter goes to CU
Tom Shane(your friend in the diamond business) is an alum.
The guy from Oz, who now stars in law and order, is also an alum.
Hale Irwin obviously
Sports announcer Jim Gray
Chris Fowler
Steve Wozniak (the guy who invented the apple computer)
 
valdezj said:
Really? Does anyone know who this is? Whoever he is, he's got deeeeeeeeeep pockets. Didn't their new facility cost like 50M?
Click to expand...

Warren Buffet. Yes, he does indeed have deep pockets.

I agree with Dionisus here. Students attend football games in droves, but for most of the kids the games are just a side dish for morning/afternoon partying. Nothing wrong with that per se (I certainly enjoyed the hell out of it), but that's not a good way to raise an army of football donors.

Another one of Dion's points is spot on as well IMO... the kids CU tends to attract are far more worldly kids (or at least kids who consider themselves worldly). These are kids who would donate millions of dollars to homeless shelters before donating thousands of dollars to a football program. For the record, though I am obviously a fan of the program, I would count myself as one of these kids. A dirt poor, jobless one of those kids who also lives with his family, but one of those kids just the same.
 
Question about funding for CU's Athletic Department:

What's the source?

1. Football is our revenue-generating sport which helps support the other 15.

2. Dontations of any size are welcome.

3. The school provided the 8 million dollar stimulus loan package two or three years ago.

BUT...

Doesn't CU fall into the category of the 20% of schools whose athletic budget isn't wrapped into the schools larger budgets?

This is where my question lies. Is CU's athletic department funded differently than other Big XII schools?

Any insights are appreciated but "letmegooglethisforyou" is not.
 
I don't know how many of the old football players contribute. But I think that would be a good source of revenue. The Alfred Williams indoor practice facility and weight room.
 
Isnt the Chipolte guy a CU grad. There are a lot of good restaurants that started out in Boulder. Lots of other companies. Man, the program could get donations from IBM, Chipotle, Noodles and Co, Celestial Seasonings, Crocs, Soldier of Fortune, Tokyo Joes, Ball Aerospace, Wild Oats could build a new indoor practice facility, and stadium expansion, and subsidize tickets prices to fill it up. A new bold PR machine can work wonders. Need to get into Colorado living rooms, and pull in all of the front range.

Here in Alabama, Troy St is small potatoes compared to Bama and Auburn, and yet the state also pulls for them, has a good PR program going, and gets some attention for a smaller school.

CU can works wonders, if the state and some of the schools leadership can get behind the athletic program and make it a priority. Not only academics, but a top athletic school as well. I agree with GB, CU is a gold mine, but you have to labor, and keep at it before it can yield huge benefits.
 
Last edited:
Buffalo Brad said:
There is also that actor guy, you know from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid : ). I think he used to clean floors at the Sink.
Click to expand...


Both Redford's son and daughter went to CU. However, his daughter's time here was marred by tragedy; her boyfriend (a CU journalism student) was murdered.
 
RalphieMalph said:
Another one of Dion's points is spot on as well IMO... the kids CU tends to attract are far more worldly kids (or at least kids who consider themselves worldly). These are kids who would donate millions of dollars to homeless shelters before donating thousands of dollars to a football program.
Click to expand...

This is a really intriguing point.

I'm going to jump to the conclusion that kids are smart enough to jump to their own conclusion that homeless people and shelters need their help; I'm going to say that "need" is not a word associated with a college football program. What you hear is that the football guys rake in millions in tv revenue, that they have better facilities than other athletes on campus, eat steak every night, get treated like kings, have private tutors for every class, and so on.

The perception of "need" is that football fans believe that CU needs facilities equal or superior to other football programs in order to attract top student athletes.

Winning another NC would create the kind of donors we need, but we think we need those donors to step up and fund the program during its growing pains in order to snare the athletes we need to win the NC.

Classic catch-22.
 
I stand by my assertion that Colorado residents don't really care about higher education in this state. The general attitude toward universities in the state is collective indifference. Add in the funding cuts (that will get worse when Referendum C sunsets), and I don't get why so many of you are shocked that someone would question whether the state actually cares about higher education. Does the fact that Colorado is 48th in the nation for funding higher education not cause a bit of concern? Unfortunately, it reflects the state's values IMO.
 
Last edited:
Boulder Buff said:
I stand by my assertion that Colorado residents don't really care about higher education in this state. The general attitude toward universities in the state is collective indifference. Add in the funding cuts (that will get worse when Referendum C sunsets), and I don't get why so many of you are shocked that someone would question whether the state actually cares about higher education. Does the fact that Colorado is 48th in the nation for funding higher education not a bit of concern? Unfortunately, it reflects the state's values IMO.
Click to expand...

I'm not shocked. I'm contemplating.
I think the people I know care a great deal about higher education.
I think the state does not fund it appropriately, and "the people of the state" do not make it a priority.
I think that funding athletics -- booster support -- is not the same as funding higher education.

It's really sad that there are so many needs in Colorado and the country that are going unmet. I don't know how you divvy up the small amount of proceeds you have and decide whether to fix highways, fund heathcare for children, or put money into a university for important research.

By the way, I recall that Colorado sucks at funding K-12 public education as well. Should go look up those stats and see how low we are. somewhere in the bottom 40 I think in per-student funding.
 
I think the higher education funding issues point to a larger disconnect between the state and its residents. Several CU graduates I talk to have not been back on campus since they graduated. Maybe I just happen to encounter the outliers, but I'm not so sure. The weirdest thing about the funding issues is that Colorado has one of the most educated populaces (measured by highest level of education attained) in the country. Yet the universities struggle.

When you turn the attention to athletics, that disconnect is there as well. For whatever reason, CU has not been able to show residents that they have a stake in the athletic department.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top