UAlbany getting lapped?! Binghamton Upgrades

[Dane96]

Binghamton adding Men's Hockey and Field Hockey.

Major donation and basically free use of the arena helps.  My real concern is the following:

We're also working on as part of a major renovation over in the East Gym area. We're going to have an additional track, throwing areas and we're going to update the track and we're going to put the hopefully the women's field hockey field right there," Marshall said. "So they're going to be treated royally and I think hockey is going to be the same. And as we continue to increase the way we treat our student-athletes and the other sports. This is going to be the place to come with the indoor practice facility coming. Weather's not going to be an issue anymore. So people will come up here and I think we'll be able to beat Vermont and Maine and of course Albany so I'm looking forward to it."

 

So, they are putting in an indoor facility to go along with the indoor baseball facility.  We literally are at the bottom of the SUNY Four Barrel with facilities, full stop.  I hope to god we hear an announcement about the indoor facility soon.

 

https://www.wicz.com/story/48706920/bu-ad-gene-marshall-confirms-school-is-working-on-bringing-ice-hockey-field-hockey-with-potential-start-date-in-20242025-academic-year

[cwdickens]

Dam .... Binghamton adding Men's Ice Hockey and Field Hockey ...if happens brings a total of 21 sports .... vs UAlbany current sixteen. Thei announcement certainly give many here something to piss and moan about.  I wish Binghamton well with Ice Hockey however, that will present challenges in recruitment, possibly fragmenting their fan paying fan base between MBB and Ice Hockey and finding a conference for Ice Hockey. Is there hidden demand for hockey in Binghamton? 

Lastly, I would rather have sixteen well run programs vs. 21 half %&#*@ run programs.

 

[Eli]

Man, I'd love real, supported UA ice hockey. I'd probably support that more than MBB.

[Dane96]

11 hours ago, cwdickens said:

Dam .... Binghamton adding Men's Ice Hockey and Field Hockey ...if happens brings a total of 21 sports .... vs UAlbany current sixteen. Thei announcement certainly give many here something to piss and moan about.  I wish Binghamton well with Ice Hockey however, that will present challenges in recruitment, possibly fragmenting their fan paying fan base between MBB and Ice Hockey and finding a conference for Ice Hockey. Is there hidden demand for hockey in Binghamton? 

Lastly, I would rather have sixteen well run programs vs. 21 half %&#*@ run programs.

 

Couple comments:

1. The Federal Hockey League team averaged 3800 fans in addition to whomever showed for hoops.  Meaning, there may be some overlap of fans but if that crappy hockey league can bring in almost 4k...I don't think hockey or basketball will suffer.  There is truly nothing else going on up in the Southern Tier but for hunting season.  Would not shock me if both hoops and basketball are averaging over 3k.  The AHL team had nightly sellouts.

2. Your last point- we have 16 $ienaty run programs.  Baseball is not fully funded.  Lax had their own NIL start up (Greyed Danes)to help support the program from the NIL standpoint.  Track and Field can't even afford a fricken scoreboard for an unreal facility.  Never finished the field hockey and lax fields.  Have terrible away side stands for football.  Have some of the worst sports medicine facilities at the Division 1 level.  We don't have an indoor sports bubble...etc, etc.  I could go on and on. HAVE NOT SECURED THE BAG (in sports parlance) to fully fund the Phase 1 arena renovations (per the information publicly released by the athletic department). The FOOTBALL LOCKERROOM DOES NOT HAVE AIR CONDITIONING and has almost 20 year old lockers donated by Alumni.  My high school had a better setup, in 1992.  

Binghamton, through public and private funding has:

1. Stated they are building a new indoor track and field facility

2. Has built a premier baseball facility, including indoor facilities for use by multiple teams. Privately funded with an insane gift and over the top in my opinion...but it is still done.  

3. Is repurposing the Binghamton Tennis and Racquet club that they purchased this year, for sports use.  It will be for indoor use of the tennis teams and for other use. 

4. Is adding hockey.  

5. Is adding field hockey

6. As part of the baseball build, build one of the best softball facilities you will see in the northeast.  

7. Have kept their pool.  For the record, the pool situation at Albany could have been rectified...I interned in the Athletic Department as an undergraduate and they had a study drawn to show the costs to make it a competitive pool (for NCAA events).  

Look, there is no denying that in some ways, Albany has a tough time with funding from the State and this puts handcuffs on the athletic department.  But facility and sports support wise, we are fourth of the D1 four.  My concern is simple-- our AD comes from a marketing background, starting with collegiate branding/marketing at Coca-Cola and ending with fundraising and development at ODU.  I would think that bringing in cash for large projects and beating the bushes to get the non-affiliated NIL collectives "moving along" would be a strength.  Let's be clear, the University cannot run a NIL nor really be associated. However, all schools are using back channels, even Siena has a 100k a year NIL collective.

The fact that we have 16 sports, which lack adequate facilities and full funding, in some instances, bothers me greatly in light of the fact that we need about 120-140 million to bring us up to the jones'.  I feel like we are skating by, and we will be lapped making it much harder to pull even.   Don't get me wrong, we spend a quality amount of money on sports, approximately 23 million.  But the reality is, most of that is not seen in fundraising efforts nor do we have any known NIL collectives but for Lacrosse.

If I am wrong, I would absolutely welcome discussion with the administration, the same administration that has not reached out to me to ask for a donation since my football stadium donation, which I find beyond peculiar. 

 

[Michigan_Dane]

I turned 50 this year.  I spent the prior 30 years as an ardent fan.  I backed that support up with donations, tickets, apparel and anything else sold at the bookstore or online.  My house is littered with merchandised crap.

 

I wish UA well but other than morbid curiosity I’ve moved on.  I won’t live another 30 years but even if I did I don’t see any signs that the trend line will improve barring an act of god.  That said, I believe even god also moved out of New York at this point.

[cwdickens]

23 hours ago, Dane96 said:

Look, there is no denying that in some ways, Albany has a tough time with funding from the State and this puts handcuffs on the athletic department.  But facility and sports support wise, we are fourth of the D1 four.  My concern is simple-- our AD comes from a marketing background, starting with collegiate branding/marketing at Coca-Cola and ending with fundraising and development at ODU.  I would think that bringing in cash for large projects and beating the bushes to get the non-affiliated NIL collectives "moving along" would be a strength.  Let's be clear, the University cannot run a NIL nor really be associated. However, all schools are using back channels, even Siena has a 100k a year NIL collective.

The fact that we have 16 sports, which lack adequate facilities and full funding, in some instances, bothers me greatly in light of the fact that we need about 120-140 million to bring us up to the jones'.  I feel like we are skating by, and we will be lapped making it much harder to pull even.   Don't get me wrong, we spend a quality amount of money on sports, approximately 23 million.  But the reality is, most of that is not seen in fundraising efforts nor do we have any known NIL collectives but for Lacrosse.

If I am wrong, I would absolutely welcome discussion with the administration, the same administration that has not reached out to me to ask for a donation since my football stadium donation, which I find beyond peculiar. 

How many times do we have to rehash the short comings of our sports and our college administrations concerning intercollegiate sports and facilities, obvious at least one more time.  Who can or more importantly who will hold these people responsible for this lack of attention in money and facilities (perhaps leadership) for our UAlbany athletes.  From my recollection, there is a master plan for athletic facilities development however, I do not recall if there is a timeline associated with this Master Plan.

I appreciate your offer Dane96 to lead that discussion, however, if GDAC is no longer communicating to you about donations as they do from me, the best person is someone who already has the ear of Athletic Director Mark Benson and President Havidan Rodriguez. Perhaps, Michael J. Castellana, CEO of Broadview FCU and UAlbany grad '84 and '92 and UAlbany Council Member & Chair and UAlbany Foundation Board Member is the go-to person. He has been a frequent face and supporter of MBB and Football. 

Sadly, what gets said on the forum usually go nowhere.  Is this thread just one of those "Keeping up with Jone's" moment or is it about giving our student-athletes the best opportunity to perform in their sports as well as the classroom?

Lastly, to UAalumn72, we going to need to borrow two cans of purple paint from the SEFCU Renovation project, as the Softball scoreboard needs a paint job in addition the John Fallon scoreboard.  Yes, I know about the shortcomings of our facilities because I show up for the other sports WSOC, Field Hockey, Softball, WLAX and Baseball.  

 

Edited April 14, 2023 by cwdickens
update & clarification

[jimbo]

To me, this just seems like a continuation of the slide. Let's face it, Bing has surpassed UA in enrollment, has a higher endowment, has a lower acceptance rate and is rated way higher on most comparative lists. Southern Tier or not, they are getting it done.

[Clickclack]

This school has no vision, $iena leadership, everyone is lapping them. They keep losers around for a decade like Gattuso and Benson, 20 years trying to fundraise 15mill to redo SEFCU. It's sad to see and watch...

 

Indoor facility...lol...child please! You won't see one in your lifetime. Again, took near 2 decades to get SEFCU upgraded, and this is with a "fund-raising" guy at the helm. In fact, I don't expect any further facility upgrades for another decade+. 

Edited April 15, 2023 by Clickclack

[classof95]

It's come full circle. Even after we went to D-1, I didn't talk much about Albany sports around friends who went to major sports schools. In 2005, that started to change and folks would say it looked like UA might could rise to the mid majors. These days, it feels like pre-2005. No one really talks about Albany sports except when the Great Dane is in a mascot contest. 

Edited April 18, 2023 by classof95

[Eli]

2 hours ago, classof95 said:

It's come full circle. Even after we went to D-1, I didn't talk much about Albany sports around friends who went to major sports schools. In 2005, that started to change and folks would say it looked like UA might could rise to the mid majors. These days, it feels like pre-2005. No one really talks about Albany sports except when the Great Dane is in a mascot contest. 

Yep. School completely blew it after the MBB/WBB championship years (didn't give Brown the tools he needed to continue) and the #1 LAX years (don't really follow LAX so not sure why that happened). Instead, they renewed an FBB coach that is a total loser on and off the field (total prick if you ask me) like 3 times, yadda yadda yadda.

One day we'll fire Benson, Cegles, Gattuso, Killings, etc. and start a new...that's when I'll be back to talking about UA publicly in a positive light and giving them money on a yearly basis. Until then, I won't give them a dime outside of coming for the arena home opener (50/50 chance), I'll continue to trash members of the leadership team (aforementioned) on social media and anytime the school calls me begging for donations I'll tell them to fire those clowns otherwise to stop calling. Don't care if they are an innocent student calling or someone from the AD. You want my money? Make changes. Starting at the top.

New arena and newer stadium is just lipstick on the pig.

Edited April 18, 2023 by Eli

[kikuria]

On 4/18/2023 at 3:02 PM, Eli said:

Yep. School completely blew it after the MBB/WBB championship years (didn't give Brown the tools he needed to continue) and the #1 LAX years (don't really follow LAX so not sure why that happened). Instead, they renewed an FBB coach that is a total loser on and off the field (total prick if you ask me) like 3 times, yadda yadda yadda.

One day we'll fire Benson, Cegles, Gattuso, Killings, etc. and start a new...that's when I'll be back to talking about UA publicly in a positive light and giving them money on a yearly basis. Until then, I won't give them a dime outside of coming for the arena home opener (50/50 chance), I'll continue to trash members of the leadership team (aforementioned) on social media and anytime the school calls me begging for donations I'll tell them to fire those clowns otherwise to stop calling. Don't care if they are an innocent student calling or someone from the AD. You want my money? Make changes. Starting at the top.

New arena and newer stadium is just lipstick on the pig.

And the Office of Civil Rights/Department of Education still haven't blessed the school declaring it in Title IX compliance.  Self-inflicted wounds over and over again (like all the staffing choices you listed.)

[Eli]

2 hours ago, kikuria said:

And the Office of Civil Rights/Department of Education still haven't blessed the school declaring it in Title IX compliance.  Self-inflicted wounds over and over again (like all the staffing choices you listed.)

Welcome back! lol

[kikuria]

8 hours ago, Eli said:

Welcome back! lol

I do try.  But only occasionally! 

[McFan]

And I'll jump in w/ beating the dead horse - The indoor track facility (if you can call it that) is an absolute joke.  A square track for a D1 team that dominates the conference.  For those not familiar w/ track it should be run on an oval.  That means two straights and two corners, not 4 of each.  Think of a basketball court that isn't a rectangle!!  Who does this?  My son runs D3 and I can tell you he doesn't run on any square tracks.  Understanding not every school has an indoor facility but this is a large D1 University.

I admittedly don't know the economics of it but some of the cost could be offset by hosting HS meets.  These meets are currently held at Union (also square and from the 1950's I think) and HVCC (oval but short and a surface that is almost unsafe it's so slippery).  I decent, not great, facility would be filled every Saturday and Sunday from early December through the end of March.  Other times you could host events, intramurals, and club events on the infield.  All with enough fees to more than offset the lights being turned on.  

[classof95]

I ran into an Albany alum who owned a store (his sweatshirt gave it away) this weekend and we talked a bit about the state of the university and athletics. He is pretty involved still as an alum but is losing interest year by year. Said that he has had a few conversations with President Rodriguez about concern over losing ground to the other major SUNYs, both in academics and athletics. Said the degree was far more prestigious back in the 90s than it is now. Rodriguez apparently said that they're less concerned with US News rankings and more with making the university accessible to as many students as possible. I like the latter idea but I'm not sure it precludes the former. Has anyone else heard similar sentiments from the administration?

Edited May 22, 2023 by classof95