Eric_Soncrant

Turkey and Minotaur: Your numbers do work in theory, don't get me wrong. But of those 200,000 alumni, not all have an interest in supporting athletics. Many of those alumni where here when there were no athletic programs and an even larger percentage prior to football, obviously our most popular sport. Our numbers are increasing in the people that support us. The Around the Horns events are exactly what you are referring to as it reaches out to alumni and fans in areas throughout the state so that we can communicate our message and update them on projects, while hopefully raising a little money as well. I would love it if every alumnus would give $50, but not every one has the passion for our athletic programs that most people on this board have. And I'd be willing to bet there are several people on this board who haven't supported USF Athletics by making a gift or buying season tickets in quite some time. Eric

SRQ: Unfortunately for us, state matching gift programs can not be put towards athletic facilities. I know one of the schools to the north got a match for a facility by adding some classrooms to it but it is my understanding that would be tough to do these days. We're going to have to do this with the support of many generous individuals and corporations. I love the ideas and please keep them coming but also please be patient. Go Bulls! Eric

The reason we don't have drawings of each specific facility is because they are in production. What you have seen is the drawing of the overall master plan. It takes a little bit of time to put all these individual facility drawings together. We will when the time is write give everyone the opportunity to participate in building these facilities, but we need to have a majority of funding available before that happens. Thanks as always guys for your input. I'm just trying to keep things as accurate and real as possible around here. Go Bulls! Eric

My personal opinion is that I was extremely impressed with Brighthouse Networks Field in Clearwater. That was the first time for many of us in that stadium and we left there thinking a scaled down version of that would be fantastic. Louisville's field is also very impressive when we visited their last year and toured many of their facilities. As far as the order of which will happen first, it depends on when the funds are raised. Vicki has said many times that we will build based on what we have funding for when we have. So the new track stadiums will be the first to happen as we now have funding. I think you'll be pleased over the next year or so at the efforts of Lee Roy, Doug, Vicki, Joe and Mike (our major gifts team). These things don't happen over night and we have a lot of projects. Eric

Our current estimate for the softball stadium is in the $3 million range. We have some renderings of what we would like for it to look like but obviously that depends on a few things. Minotaur, not to bash you, but do you realize how many jerseys we would have to sell to even make a dent in that. Considering our cost would be about $50 per jersey we would have to sell a heck of a lot of jerseys. And don't tell me we don't do fundraisers. Have you been to our auction, any of our golf tournaments, or the online auction. We have a staff of 8 people and believe me our time is better spent cultivating donors to make annual gifts and major gifts than doing a bake sale or car wash. Our fundraising continues to grow each year and with continued hard work from our entire staff it will continue to grow. Instead of complaining, why don't you actually attend one of our fundraisers and see what we actually do. Happy Memorial Day everyone! Eric

Be nice now Jim.... Joe: If you are in Orlando, our closest event is at Lone Palm in Lakeland. It's a great course. If you don't golf we still have the dinner that you can go to separately. Eric

The Tampa, West Palm Beach, and Miami Around the Horns events are all closing in fast. If you haven't registered for any of those events (and I don't think too many of you have), please do so no later than Thursday of next week. If you need more information please go to www.gousfbulls.com and click on the link on the right side of the front page. Thanks and Go Bulls! Eric

Turkey: I assume you are referring to the Bull Ring. Mike Smith at the Clubhouse has always been there for us when noone else would help us with our watch parties. He is extremely accomodating to our fans and they have plenty of televisions. I'm not convinced the Bull Ring is a great place to watch games as they don't have a lot of televisions and depending on where you sit, you may not be able to see one. As we continue to grow, we can't forget those that have always been there supporting us. Our plan is to continue to do watch parties at the Clubhouse. Thanks for asking though. Eric

I have to ask what you guys are drinking because I thought you could only rip on the Athletic Department on this board ;D I haven't read the rules of the board but you guys may be facing some time in the penalty box for comments like that. Just kidding of course. It is nice to hear compliments every now and then for our efforts. You'll see many of us there on Saturday and Sunday. Thanks again for the kind words. Eric

Anyone surprised that Pittsburgh is our repeat game considering the controversy at the end of the season. Looks like we may have the makings of a rivlary. Eric

Just a reminder that the Around the Horns Summer Coaches Tour is approaching quickly. The kickoff event is June 5th at Tampa Palms. If you are a golfer, individual tournament fees are $175 and included golf, fees, shirt, golf balls, tees and all the contests. Lunch and dinner are also included. For non-golfers, dinner only is $40 each or $300 for a table of 8. For more information here is the link: http://www.gousfbulls.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=7700&KEY=&ATCLID=222504 Other events are: West Palm Beach Columbia Restaurant - June 9th Coral Reef Yacht Club in Coral Gables - June 9th The Georgian Club in Atlanta - June 12th Longboat Key Club - June 16th Lone Palm Golf Club in Lakeland - June 23rd Belleair Country Club - June 29th Feel free to ask here or email me with any questions. Go Bulls!

SRQ: We do require gifts that are associated with preferred seats for football and men's basketball be made to the Stampede Athletic Fund, which allows us to direct the money towards our needs at the time.  This allows us to take care of funding all of our sports needs. There are a handful of people who have historically supported women's sports and we grandfathered them in several years ago to allow them to continue that support. For some sports, we have created coaches clubs which allow individuals not wanting preferred seating for football or men's basketball to support the sport of their choice.  Their are currently coaches clubs set up for baseball, men's soccer, women's soccer and volleyball.  If you are interested in supporting a sport not listed above, you can make a gift to that sport and receive 100 percent tax deductibility as there are no tangible benefits. We encourage you to do so whether it is to softball, golf, sailing, cheerleading, etc. We currently don't have one for the sports not listed because those coaches haven't decided to set one up.  We are currently working on setting one up for men's golf. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask here or email me at soncrant@admin.usf.edu.  Thanks for the question. Eric

D1DDY: I got the email and logo but not the registration yet. I'll keep an eye out for it. Thanks for signing up for it and supporting this event. Go Bulls! Eric

Cuban is doing a great job putting these together in the Miami/West Palm area.  There is also information on the gousfbull.com site.  Go to the department heading and click on Bulls Club.  At the bottom of the page is a list of upcoming events, including all the Around the Horns.  The first one is June 5th at Tampa Palms.  Hope everyone makes it out to the one in your area. Eric http://www.gousfbulls.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=7700&KEY=&ATCLID=222504

Our master plan calls for a separate soccer stadium from the track. There will be a grass infield in the existing and to be renovated track stadium which could accomodate soccer but once funding is in place there will be a separate soccer stadium and practice field. Eric

Great job you guys! I'll order several again this year as well. The PR Machine at work. Eric

Tech Data is not a strong supporter of USF Athletics in particular. They have at times bought some group tickets to USF Football. But I don't believe in the past couple years. Eric

NO I DON'T! (that's me screaming at you) ;D

I guess we ordered the right envelopes afterall. ja : Eric

Update: We expect the acrylic holders to be delivered the end of this week. We will have them in the mail to those that ordered them early next week and they should be in your mailbox soon there after. I thank you for your patience as this became a bit more complicated than it should have been. For those that haven't ordered one yet, you still can as we ordered extras. You can do so by calling 1-800-GoBulls. Thanks again everyone. Eric

Soup: It is open to anyone. The Bulls Club puts on the events. It will have an link at the front of the page as we get closer so you can go directly to it from there. It is an opportunity for anyone that wants to interact with our coaches and staff to do so. Eric

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The 2006 USF Around the Horns Coach's Tour is set for the month of June.  This years tour includes four golf tournaments, two events in south Florida, and our first out of state event.  The schedule is as follows: June 5th Tampa Palms Golf and Country Club June 9th  West Palm, The Columbia Restaurant (lunch) June 9th  Coral Reef Yacht Club, Coral Gables (evening) June 12th  The Georgia Club, Atlanta, Georgia June 16th  Long Boat Key Club (Manatee and Sarasota Counties) June 23rd  Lone Palm Golf Club (Lakeland, Orlando) June 29th  Belleair Country Club (Pinellas) For more information, log onto www.gousfbulls.com, go the Bulls Club page and go to the events.  Hope to see all of you there, we've made some great strides from last years events. Go Bulls! Eric

Hey everyone: Let's stop throwing out projections based strictly on opinions. I wouldn't expect it to take 10 years to finish a new baseball stadium. The master plan just got approved two weeks ago. A big step in allowing us to start fundraising for these projects. I'm not throwing out time projections but if it takes 10 years, all of us here will be very disappointed as well. Eric

Thanks Paisa and BnB for pointing out that the St. Pete Times does support USF Athletics. And to defend the Times protecting their rights as a sponsor, the Trib did the same stuff before when they were the sponsor. All of our sponsors are given the ability to use the logo. The Trib had the contract but didn't want to put money up to sponsor us, the Times did. The Trib put's a lot of money into the Bucs and you can't blame them for that, but please don't knock our sponsors for doing something any of their competitors would do given the same opportunity. Eric