Raetus

I literally just got off the phone with his manager. I told him about this thread and he got a laugh out of it.

I'll more than take all the hate that will come my way for saying this, but I'll just be honest and say that I don't see the value in season tickets or mega donations (for sports), at the moment. For me, personally (and only me), there's no ticket or area of Raymond James that I desire to hold or maintain. The best experience in the house is the student section and that (rightfully so) is reserved for the students. When that was no longer an option for me, I bounced around to various seats and areas and it's been a rather 'meh' experience in each of them. No matter where you sit, you're either standing too much or too little and someone is moaning about the person in front or back of them. It's also absurdly easy to get box seats to basically any game except for FSU, so I just don't see much of a ROI for season tickets. RJS is a nice stadium, though, so I'm not knocking it, but it's not ours. I've inherited Michigan season tickets on the 40 yard line through marriage and I make sure to keep access to those even though there's no way I'll be able to make it to games there very often. I keep them because they've been in the family multiple generations and once they lapse, they're gone. There's nothing like that at RJS that makes me feel the need to keep access to them. Now, if USF said that they'd like to build a stadium of their own in five years and were offering a payment plan to allow first dib access to a section of prime seats... that's something I'd be incredibly interested in. If you called me, today, with a payment plan of $200 a month for 5 years that gave me access to a set of prime seats in our to-be-built stadium, I'd jump on it in a second. That's $12k over a 5 year period AND I'd still, then, have to make a donation and purchase my tickets for each year. If you can find 5,000 people like myself, that's $60 million dollars and you've only allotted 5k seats in the stadium, yet, financed a significant chunk of the build. Sure, you haven't financed all of it, but you've made a great step forward. That's what it will take to get significant money out of me -- something that I actually want. As I did enjoy my time at football, basketball, and soccer games while I was a student, I won't complain too much about the athletic fees, but the academic experience was mediocre while I was there in comparison to other universities that I'm affiliated with, so I feel I've given USF more than my fair share of funds for what I actually received in return. Therefore, I feel zero impetus to blindly donate money without receiving something quality in return. If USF is looking for blind zealous donations, they need to step-up their indoctrination game in the younger, formative years. They've taken some great steps forward in this regard, but that will take awhile to come home to roost. I was at a gathering at the house of a prominent Tampa Bay family (I won't say names, but... real estate) and the topic of USF athletics came up. The general consensus was unless you're an alumni looking to give back or you're looking for an inexpensive way to put your name on something, there wasn't much value you there in donating to Football -- Basketball actually was much better received because of the Sun Dome. Many of them noted they already have suites at RJS, so they already had access to home games if they wanted to attend. From talking with people, none of them cared whether it was on or off campus, but a stadium that actually looked like it was owned by USF would be a big deal in their eyes for the University and was something that piqued interest. In general, it seemed none of these people would ever set foot in the place besides the grand opening, but they're always looking for an additional talking piece to add to their repertoire and something to let the grandkids use. Also, it doesn't have to be strictly for a stadium, either; if they put forth something that I want, I'll be all about it. I'd pay $2500 for a parking pass that let me park in whatever zone I want up-to 5 times a year and was good for 15 years -- that'd be worth it to me. How many times will I actually use that pass? Probably 10-20... good value for the price? Nope. I could just park wherever I want and pay the parking tickets and it would be cheaper, but it's like offering VIP status at a night club... it's not actually a good deal, but people will pay for convenience and faux status. So far, though, I'm seeing zero creativity from USF, which may lead to apathy and stagnation from a sect of fans. tl;dr: If USF thinks that they're going to raise the requisite support necessary to compete with more storied universities without offering something of merit in return, they're crazy. If that's the plan, they're more than welcome to continue down the current path and make the best use out of their continued level of support from tried-and-true donors who've always graciously supported the university. I'll go to football games and in the event I decide to sit in the stands instead of a box, I'll purchase them directly through USF or StubHub depending on where I can get the best seat.

If there is time to fix things, the footer on the Men's and Women's Basketball Attendance Numbers says "Football Attendance Averages", which I imagine is not correct for these slides.

For that exact purpose... people underestimate search engine web crawlers. An executive says "Upload the document to X and keep the link private.. I'll tell you when to make it live tomorrow." I literally hear this two or three times a week in my line of work. People who have to go online and talk about something typically want to confirm with their own eyes that the link does indeed work. I think it's a poor way of doing things, but it is still extremely commonplace across many industries.

People greatly underestimate how accessible internet documents are -- many think that if they don't share a link, it can't be found.

All I know is that yesterday was the first time EVER that someone from USF called my cell phone to talk to me about purchasing tickets. After being involved with the University in some capacity for 15 years, I find it hard to believe that, that is a coincidence.

I knew I was doomed early on, but I was surprised how long I lasted in the running lol.

Have to agree -- I've only spoken to her a handful of times, but she's always been absolutely pleasant.

Maybe his lifetimes are extremely short.

Wouldn't have been a bad start if I was willing to root against the Bulls... but... I can't, so there's very little chance of ultimately winning that one. lol

In. I'm either getting all of the points or none of the points -- no in-between with my bracket.

It was difficult to watch Ferrera's face on the bench -- hope she's okay.

And all players will be replaced by robots.

I'm fine with this. We're a decade past needing a serious revisiting of the laws in place that protect modern day journalists; it's been a longtime since the media has been the watchdog of the government or pursuers of truth. Now, it's all $$$$$ forget about fact checking, editing, merit, or ethics. There's no way that a reporter from the 70s handles this reporting in the same way that ESPN handled it. It'll be a tough case to win if brought to trial, but, I have no problem with JPP taking a stab at it.

I didn't say it was a smart move. Unfortunately, regardless of the consequences, there are people in life who can only be reached through a solid punch in the face. It's up to every individual to weigh whether or not the consequences of doing so are justified in his or her eyes. If Matt felt that whatever was done was so egregious that it warranted facing the consequences, then more power to him. We have laws in place and consequences that follow breaking them. If the authorities were alerted to the matter, then they should investigate, prosecutors should prosecute, and Matt should get a defense attorney. The legal process should play out and I have no idea about the facts involved to know whether or not it was justified. I fully stand by my opinion, though, that some people just need a solid punch in the face. Heck, I've run into a few of them on this board.

I wasn't there, but sometimes, people need to be punched in the face. Some of us just have the huevos to actually go through with it.

Credit hour prices have gotten out of control.

He's definitely a great coach. We had some really strong and well-trained teams while I was there. As a person and educator, though, he had some... rather large lackings.

People don't agree with me about a lot of things. Doesn't change the fact that he's still a ****.

Hillsborough High Alumnus, here. I can confirm -- Garcia is a ****.

You should try a Jitterbug. We got one for my father-in-law. He loves it. https://www.jitterbugdirect.com/

That's great news.

I'd subscribe. Heck, I'm paying $35 a month to one company just because I'm too lazy to call them up and cancel it. I don't even know my password. I'm definitely a fiscally responsible human being. Side note, I'm sending this post from my $20 American Airlines in-flight wifi on my way to Vegas, so we better put together that subscription thing quickly before I run out of money.

This happens to me as well. I just ignore it, as has been mentioned, and I find that I am indeed logged in. Could be a caching issue.