I love all the "Josh is a smart guy but" posts in here. Show me your Bronze Tablet and law degree. You think he doesn't do his research for what things are worth and weighs them against the value he thinks he can extract?
Gies Memorial Stadium
*Bronze tablet while playing D1 football and scoring TDs
Marc Andreessen is another billionaire Illini alum. But we sued him claiming he had stolen the Mosiac browser. So there's another rich alum we've pissed off.
RabidDawgClassic
- Los Angeles, CA
I’ve been pretty straightforward with my opinion that, in the current state of college athletics, you have to take extraordinary measures to stay competitive. If selling the naming rights to Memorial Stadium was something that needed to be done to field a winning football team, then it had to be done. It’s debatable whether Gies’ $100-mill will help with that and it’s also debatable as to whether that amount was underselling it. But no one wants a stadium — a memorial or otherwise — to be consistently empty because the home team is pathetic.
Where I take offense (if that’s even the right word) is the blatant insult to our intelligence in:
1. Saying it’s okay because Gies’ dad was a veteran, and
2. Saying the $100 million was a “gift” when it was clearly a business transaction.
It’s insulting to think the Illinois fanbase, as a whole, would just accept the whole “we’re not selling out the military history of the stadium because Larry Gies’ dad was a veteran too. So… we cool?” If you’re gonna sell out the soldiers whose names are on the columns, at least have the balls to own it.
As for the gift… if Gies was truly giving it without expecting anything in return, then no offer to rename the stadium in his honor should ever have been brought up. For tax purposes, it may be considered a donation… but in reality, Gies got something of significant value in return for his money.
Where I take offense (if that’s even the right word) is the blatant insult to our intelligence in:
1. Saying it’s okay because Gies’ dad was a veteran, and
2. Saying the $100 million was a “gift” when it was clearly a business transaction.
It’s insulting to think the Illinois fanbase, as a whole, would just accept the whole “we’re not selling out the military history of the stadium because Larry Gies’ dad was a veteran too. So… we cool?” If you’re gonna sell out the soldiers whose names are on the columns, at least have the balls to own it.
As for the gift… if Gies was truly giving it without expecting anything in return, then no offer to rename the stadium in his honor should ever have been brought up. For tax purposes, it may be considered a donation… but in reality, Gies got something of significant value in return for his money.
I didn't know the complete story but here is Andreesen's side - he was the one that sued Illinois....for a reason.
Illini92and96
- Austin, TX
To add on to this. What if Gies said, I plan to give $100M now and then $100M every 5 years for the rest of my life, based on how he plans to spend and pass on his immense wealth. Would ~$750M lifetime be worth naming rights? Heck, what if he said when I die, you can get 20% of my $5B net worth? Seems like either scenario would be naming rights worthy consideration.
We just don't know the real plans, so @sultan of grange grove I don't think we know the whole picture of what we are likely to get from Gies as a result of this relationship.
I don’t agree. They slapped “State Farm” on the Assembly Hall pretty easily.
I think there’s definitely some reasonable points brought up here that you are exchanging naming rights FOREVER…for whatever Geis was willing to donate RIGHT NOW. Maybe $100 mil was what Josh thought was reasonable. To me it’s like winning the lottery. You either take a smaller lump sum, or get it all in an annuity. And Josh said give me the money now.
I think overall the construction of the Scoreboard is a net positive only because it’s so unique. I think a middle tier or even lower brand like Illinois football benefits greatly from having the “biggest” something. Something that differentiates them from other schools. Could it even be a tourist attraction for people that would otherwise not consider buying a ticket, just to see it? I do. So I think it was money well spent in the long term.
Money towards the roster is a separate discussion. We’re in a weird spot in college sports (that doesn’t even exist in pro sports bc those leagues have some form of salary caps or penalties for going over), where if you as a donor or pretend owner of a college team wants your team to win badly enough, you can spend as much as you want to make it happen.
Does Illinois have any of these people in their fanbase? That’s Josh’s main goal I think now. He needs to recruit some deep pocket “owners”, who he himself trusts and that trust him. More than just Geis.
This conversation is about more than stadiums, big donors, or even private equity. The root cause of our woes is an insatiable need for cash to fund soaring salaries. Each school is desperately scrounging up all they can lay their hands on to feed into in the bidding war for a finite pool of talent.
The article below highlights our struggle to climb or just hold our place in the NIL pecking order. Good leadership only goes so far.
writingillini.com
The article below highlights our struggle to climb or just hold our place in the NIL pecking order. Good leadership only goes so far.
The biggest problem facing the Illinois football program is external
It is pretty clear that the Illinois football program has a problem. It is not something that a new coaching staff or an influx of transfer portal players can c
writingillini.com