Bohn and the Future...

[BlackNGold]

It is no secret that I have wanted Mike Bohn gone for a long time. Mike Bohn was not a bad guy, he was a nice guy but he was not the right guy for Athletic Director. I often compared him to a used Car Salesman, he was entirely a tactical thinker and was unable to be a strategic thinker (which is not all bad if he was an associate AD working for someone who laid out the plan).

I am amazed that some posters think that Fundraising is not part of the AD's job (maybe it was sarcasm that I did not pick up on) - well fundraising was a major portion of Bonh's job. Bohn was never comfortable with the Corporate backroom schmoozing, he liked getting out and shaking hands but was not good at the detail work that it took to land the big fish. In one of his first job evaluations at CU one of the knocks on him was his inability to bring in big donations (this was brought up at a BOR meeting when they were approving his bonus). It was something that haunted him throughout his tenure at CU.

The AD is $22 Million in the hole and that is not a good place to be and the amount would be a lot worse if the CU foundation had not made a $6 Million donation to the AD the last two years. If you want to add sports then the AD is going to have to be self sufficient and that is going to occur through fundraising. And Fund raising is not going to get off the ground without a strong football program.

Bohn moving on is a good thing because we were not going very far with him. CU needs to bring in someone who will actually lead the AD and lay out a plan and a vision to start getting people to buy into - this has been sorely lacking.

CU Athletics are at a crossroad, IMO, everyone wants to preach patience but that does not work. CU Football needs to be fixed and CU athletics has to be fixed.

 

[Buffnik]

 

[Lt.Col.FrankSlade]

Didn't Tharp have a "vision"? I believe he called it "Vision 2010" when he spelled it out in 1999.

Most of it still hasn't been achieved.

 

[BuffUp]

CU as a whole is really struggling these days. Seems as though there is always a victim being thrown under the bus while nothing gets corrected with the next "great hire". Once again starring down the barrels of a AD that is in the red and not looking real attractive for perspective hires, that might wind up under the next bus.

 

[DavisBuff]

The little I know about Bohn (no inside info), I like him. He did well working within the constraints of CU athletics post "The Scandal - that wasn't".
He did some very good things in his time here, especially with the BBall teams.
The timing of all of this is very odd, but that is the nature of Big Money Athletics.
Hopefully, the timing has to do with some big-time donors stepping in and they want some say for their money. Though Bohn worked hard, for whatever reason he was unable to bring in the money required for college football.
Bohn did not do a bad job, but if we can bring in an AD that does a better job, can raise more money and to take us to the next level, that is what CU needs to do. No tears from me, Bohn gets too much money. Unemployed he is still better off than most of the country. I am not being callus, Mike Bohn will land on his feet.
MacIntyre is an improvement over an inexperienced Embree and Hopefully, the next AD will be an improvement over Bohn.
I hate the influence money in amature sports has, but that needs it's own thread. Hopefully, that will get fixed some day. Until then I am willing to sell out if it means enjoying watching CU football again.

 

[BlackNGold]

Didn't Tharp have a "vision"? I believe he called it "Vision 2010" when he spelled it out in 1999.

Most of it still hasn't been achieved.

The plan was being achieved while Tharp was here - that is how the Sky Boxes and Club seats were built which was the last major project at Folsom. Having a clearly defined objective and a schedule helps to achieve the goal. That is the only reason the practice facility for BB got build - Bzdelik had it in his contract with dates and milestones. He also was fanatical about riding the powers that be about hitting those milestones. JB had more to do with the BB facility getting done than anyone else.

When Bohn was showing the model of the Football Facility expansion they were using the model that Tharp had put together in the early 2000s.

 

[buffalo30]

It is no secret that I have wanted Mike Bohn gone for a long time. Mike Bohn was not a bad guy, he was a nice guy but he was not the right guy for Athletic Director. I often compared him to a used Car Salesman, he was entirely a tactical thinker and was unable to be a strategic thinker (which is not all bad if he was an associate AD working for someone who laid out the plan).

I am amazed that some posters think that Fundraising is not part of the AD's job (maybe it was sarcasm that I did not pick up on) - well fundraising was a major portion of Bonh's job. Bohn was never comfortable with the Corporate backroom schmoozing, he liked getting out and shaking hands but was not good at the detail work that it took to land the big fish. In one of his first job evaluations at CU one of the knocks on him was his inability to bring in big donations (this was brought up at a BOR meeting when they were approving his bonus). It was something that haunted him throughout his tenure at CU.

The AD is $22 Million in the hole and that is not a good place to be and the amount would be a lot worse if the CU foundation had not made a $6 Million donation to the AD the last two years. If you want to add sports then the AD is going to have to be self sufficient and that is going to occur through fundraising. And Fund raising is not going to get off the ground without a strong football program.

Bohn moving on is a good thing because we were not going very far with him. CU needs to bring in someone who will actually lead the AD and lay out a plan and a vision to start getting people to buy into - this has been sorely lacking.

CU Athletics are at a crossroad, IMO, everyone wants to preach patience but that does not work. CU Football needs to be fixed and CU athletics has to be fixed.

Yes to this.

 

[bigbang2]

We must give credit where credit is due. Bohn did a great job with the Basketball program. But football is the major revenue producer for CU. His dismissal should have been months ago before the hiring of Coach Mac part two. I will not give him credit for the Pac 12 inviation. The Pac 12 invitation would have happened with or without Mike Bohn. Larry Scott made the inital push for the move. And it was logical for CU to join the Pac 12 both academically and in sports. I was digusted by the way Embree was handled. I understand he should have been fired. But he was a former student, a former player, I didn't appreciate watching that press conference. That should have been handled better. I also didn't appreciate watching my Buffs become a laughing stock for over 7 seasons. Bohn fired Garry Barnett, another decision that I didn't like. The only donations I make is when I buy season tickets. I haven't made any other donations since the year 2005 just after Garry Barnet was fired. The next hire and what the administrators do in the coming weeks will determine if I will renew my commitment to CU with donations. They must show me if they are truly serious about winning.

 

[Scotch]

The plan was being achieved while Tharp was here - that is how the Sky Boxes and Club seats were built which was the last major project at Folsom. Having a clearly defined objective and a schedule helps to achieve the goal. That is the only reason the practice facility for BB got build - Bzdelik had it in his contract with dates and milestones. He also was fanatical about riding the powers that be about hitting those milestones. JB had more to do with the BB facility getting done than anyone else.

When Bohn was showing the model of the Football Facility expansion they were using the model that Tharp had put together in the early 2000s.

The basketball facility was in Tharp's plan as well, and I believe renovating the CEC was to. Not sure what the time frame on it was.

 

[Quattro]

CU as a whole is really struggling these days. Seems as though there is always a victim being thrown under the bus while nothing gets corrected with the next "great hire". Once again starring down the barrels of a AD that is in the red and not looking real attractive for perspective hires, that might wind up under the next bus.

So why isn't it all that attractive? We will pay, Boulder is a great place to raise a family, we will be receiving full shares of the PAC 12 networks next year, our bball programs are nationally relevant and still rising, and there's still the honeymoon period for MM and a few other coaches. The AD can focus most of his time on fundraising and getting the facilities project going.

The overreaction with these hires...

 

[cubuffs85]

The plan was being achieved while Tharp was here - that is how the Sky Boxes and Club seats were built which was the last major project at Folsom. Having a clearly defined objective and a schedule helps to achieve the goal. That is the only reason the practice facility for BB got build - Bzdelik had it in his contract with dates and milestones. He also was fanatical about riding the powers that be about hitting those milestones. JB had more to do with the BB facility getting done than anyone else.

When Bohn was showing the model of the Football Facility expansion they were using the model that Tharp had put together in the early 2000s.

While I give Bohn credit for basketball because it happened under his watch. I don't think it gets done without Bzdelik demanding improvements.

 

[cubuffs85]

So why isn't it all that attractive? We will pay, Boulder is a great place to raise a family, we will be receiving full shares of the PAC 12 networks next year, our bball programs are nationally relevant and still rising, and there's still the honeymoon period for MM and a few other coaches. The AD can focus most of his time on fundraising and getting the facilities project going.

The overreaction with these hires...

These jobs are in more demand than people think. There's only X amount of BCS AD jobs out there, with the prestige, budgets, and compensation. There's even less in a location like Boulder.

 

[NashBuff]

When was the last time that CU truly got a huge donation? I'm thinking it was Coors when they donated the $ to build the Dal Ward Center.

 

[Lt.Col.FrankSlade]

When was the last time that CU truly got a huge donation? I'm thinking it was Coors when they donated the $ to build the Dal Ward Center.

The largest individual donation ever made to CU athletics was $4.75 million, by Louise Bennett Reed, in 2009.

As far as I can tell, the largest corporate gift was $5 million, by Coors, in 1990.

 

[MontanaBuff]

From the 2004 CU Media Guide:

Athletics 2010: Four Key Elements

1) Education – Including graduating every student-athlete and retaining nine out of ten;

2) Winning – Goals were set for each program in the department, with CU overall to win the Director’s Cup, given out each year to the school which accumulated the most overall points during an academic year (a fairly bold hope, considering CU competed in the minimum number of sports). Football’s goal was to be in the top ten nationally each year, with the goal of men’s basketball to be in the top 15;

3) Culture – Creating a culture which would achieve the goal to “aggressively embrace and promote diversity and equity”; and

4) Facilities – Worth quoting in its entirety:

“Facilities. Athletics 2010 will provide the University with facilities to better recruit, educate, train and compete at the highest national levels without adversely impacting the institution’s academic priorities. Plans for these enhancements are as follows:

“- Develop facilities with financial integrity and ensure that they provide revenue opportunities;

“- Provide state-of-the-art academic support facilities;

“- Establish facilities for year-round practice and competition that provide priority access and scheduling for all intercollegiate sports;

“- Expand Folsom Field and build a new stadium complex, including suites, club seating, additional northeast seating, a parking structure and a Fieldhouse on the northeast side (first portion completed in 2003);

“- Build Olympic sport fields;

“- Expand and remodel the Coors Events Conference Center for practice facilities (including a new volleyball venue), meeting space, ticket operations and concessions;

“- Collaborate with the campus and community to establish facilities sharing”.