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I noticed on Friday that many regular Boulevard spots around my spot were apparently not renewed this year. Fewer signs and a lot of the regulars who have been around me for 10 years did not renew. This is on the upper end close to the flagpole.

I didn't have a chance to walk the Boulevard prior to the monsoon. Is this the same further south toward the stadium? I hate to see what it will look like next year when they impose the additional fee for the privilege of having a spot in addition to Mustang Club dues.

Thoughts?

It's crap like this that makes people wonder if the admin is trying to just dismantle everything. Enough with charging extra fees. If it's because we have a serious budgetary issues, just be honest with community about it. It would be nice if they made public what their capital and operating spend by each sport and say here's what we need from our greater alum community (not CoC or other high $ donors) and start up some sort of crowdfunding initiative where if you get every general alum to give $10 or some small dollar amount every month, quarter, year. That strategy would be way better than trying this "privilege fee" like Moody Re-seat and now for boulevard parking.

Same goes for the south side closer to the stadium. I noticed 3-4 spots that were regularly held for 10+ years vacant.

I think that the aforementioned combined with the home slate of games may have impacted renewals.

SMU_Alum11 wrote:It's crap like this that makes people wonder if the admin is trying to just dismantle everything. Enough with charging extra fees. If it's because we have a serious budgetary issues, just be honest with community about it. It would be nice if they made public what their capital and operating spend by each sport and say here's what we need from our greater alum community (not CoC or other high $ donors) and start up some sort of crowdfunding initiative where if you get every general alum to give $10 or some small dollar amount every month, quarter, year. That strategy would be way better than trying this "privilege fee" like Moody Re-seat and now for boulevard parking.

Could not agree more.

Insane_Pony_Posse wrote:how in the hell can they even consider raising prices next year considering we may only win 2-3 games this year?

I think "raise prices" is top of the agenda at every athletic department meeting.

I have zero interest in sending even $1 to SMU. After 10 calls per week I finally blocked their number. Sick of the admin treating alumni like [deleted] and price gouging the public for less than mediocre athletics. Not worth it anymore

Pony ^ wrote:I have zero interest in sending even $1 to SMU. After 10 calls per week I finally blocked their number. Sick of the admin treating alumni like [deleted] and price gouging the public for less than mediocre athletics. Not worth it anymore

They have been calling me for weeks. I answered today and got the standard sales spiel, as you would expect. But it bothered me because it made me wonder how clearly would I have to tell Pottkotter and Company how I feel before they would actually take me off the list? It's disrespectful and lazy. They couldn't even be bothered to put a note in my file. I just get a call from some kid like there was never a problem.

How do you know the money you actually give is going for athletics? Once received, SMU can use it for anything. If SMU needs money, let Gerald take a pay cut.

Mustangsabu wrote:

SMU_Alum11 wrote:It's crap like this that makes people wonder if the admin is trying to just dismantle everything. Enough with charging extra fees. If it's because we have a serious budgetary issues, just be honest with community about it. It would be nice if they made public what their capital and operating spend by each sport and say here's what we need from our greater alum community (not CoC or other high $ donors) and start up some sort of crowdfunding initiative where if you get every general alum to give $10 or some small dollar amount every month, quarter, year. That strategy would be way better than trying this "privilege fee" like Moody Re-seat and now for boulevard parking.

Could not agree more.

I saw Bigfoot today.

ponyboy wrote:

Mustangsabu wrote:

SMU_Alum11 wrote:It's crap like this that makes people wonder if the admin is trying to just dismantle everything. Enough with charging extra fees. If it's because we have a serious budgetary issues, just be honest with community about it. It would be nice if they made public what their capital and operating spend by each sport and say here's what we need from our greater alum community (not CoC or other high $ donors) and start up some sort of crowdfunding initiative where if you get every general alum to give $10 or some small dollar amount every month, quarter, year. That strategy would be way better than trying this "privilege fee" like Moody Re-seat and now for boulevard parking.

Could not agree more.

I saw Bigfoot today.

Did you give him some beef jerky?

SMU_Alum11 wrote:It's crap like this that makes people wonder if the admin is trying to just dismantle everything. Enough with charging extra fees. If it's because we have a serious budgetary issues, just be honest with community about it. It would be nice if they made public what their capital and operating spend by each sport and say here's what we need from our greater alum community (not CoC or other high $ donors) and start up some sort of crowdfunding initiative where if you get every general alum to give $10 or some small dollar amount every month, quarter, year. That strategy would be way better than trying this "privilege fee" like Moody Re-seat and now for boulevard parking.

the "crowdfunding" you mention is what comprises the 6 million (this past year) that the Mustang Club/Mustang Athletic Fund raises in current use $ each year. If someone wants to do $10 a month, I'm sure they'll get that set up for you.

The 17-18 fiscal year just ended, so the report isnt available yet online. But the most recent that is available, 16-17, is. "Current use" giving is the one to keep an eye on (it excludes things like endowments and capital projects). In '16-17, 42 million was donated in current use money, around five million of which was athletics.

17-18 is higher, not only in athletics but university-wide.

Here's a link to the report. You can see quite a bit as to given on pages 41-121, including a listing, individual by individual including some of your favorite ponyfans, of the crowd which funds. You're absolutely right, it takes a whole bunch of folks rowing in the same direction to keep the thing afloat.
https://www.smu.edu/-/media/Site/Annual ... 016-17.pdf

I’m find keeping the current setup with Mustang Club but why not try another avenue for income sourcing? I’m just think of GoFundMe where numerous products (e.g. video games) get created from random money throwers all at $5-$100 volume based transactions. I figure it couldn’t hurt if there’s a funding issue, which I’m assuming in the school’s forecast is probably assumming a drop in funding so they’re trying to reserve now. Pure guess based on trend from admins pricing strategy. I’ll read the report and add further comments. Thanks for sharing.

Update: I’ve read this before and prior reporting periods. The only real sports info, which I think you have already highlighted, is $17MM (no break down) and no break down of costs by sport to know what profitable and not. Financial reporting section: I don’t believe they’re including sports at least not in revenue or contributions. I’m reading on the phone but obviously without financial disclosures (because we are private institution) it’s hard to tell ΓÇ£sourcesΓÇ¥. When they show the breakdown in revenue, it looks to be primarily education related.

SMU doesn't release specific numbers but you can reverse engineer and come pretty close.

2016-17 FY included 12.2mm in current use $. of which 5 came from MC. The MC donor guide showed that 38% of revenue reflected in the budget comes from fundraising/gifts. If 12.2mm represents 38% of revenue, that puts your revenue around 47mm... While that's just my monkey math, it meshes closely with numbers publicly reported like in this article
https://www.sbnation.com/college-footba ... u-wants-in

Crowd funding has been mentioned as an option for a number of things, the stables being one of them - second pic is from an email that went out last week.

While that's just my [deleted] math, it meshes closely with numbers public reported like in this article.