Billiken Tennis

[Billiken Rich]

3 minutes ago, slufan13 said:

Alright who's everyone voting for in November?

Cthulhu 2024!

[billikenfan05]

13 minutes ago, slufan13 said:

Alright who's everyone voting for in November?

Pedro

[slufan13]

I think we should use the endowment to buy out Chris May

[brianstl]

5 hours ago, Billiken Rich said:

Ok, in good faith, please show me the athletic department budget.  No guessing allowed.  I'd like to know your immediate priorities, how you'd fund them and what you'd cut.  It's pretty easy to say tennis or whatever is under-supported without knowing any details or having to make decisions about it. Do you go out and buy a new car every time your next door neighbor does?

Oh and I think Willie mentioned indoor tennis courts, you know, if we wanted to be on par with local high schools or whatever.  I think both sides are guilty of debating against the extremes, not that Willie is that.....       

For FY 2023 it was $29,100,236 according to the Department of Education.

[Billiken Rich]

28 minutes ago, brianstl said:

For FY 2023 it was $29,100,236 according to the Department of Education.

I was kind of pressing '05 for all those devilish details he was accusing me of guessing about.......In any case this discussion is exhausting and the Billiken Ladies beckon....good day! 

[cgeldmacher]

On 8/21/2024 at 2:30 PM, billikenfan05 said:

Here’s the funny part, if Chris May had either not botched the last MBB hire or not extended Travis Ford, these facilities might have come along with a men’s basketball tournament win or two. But that didn’t happen, and that’s on CM. That’s a problem he created and needs to find a way to properly support his programs, it’s not on fans to look the other way. 

That's not a bad way to look at it.  It has to be a long term play.  Invest in the sport that brings in the money (men's basketball) and then use the tournament credits we earn to upgrade the other sports.  Upgrading tennis now doesn't help the overall AD budget in the future.  Investing the men's basketball program now, does help all of the other sports down the road.

[cgeldmacher]

On 8/21/2024 at 2:33 PM, slufan13 said:

Yeah I totally agree. But not even talking in factual or hypothetical situations. This is a fan message board. Are people expecting fans not to want the very very best? Even Alabama football fans aren't ever satisfied. That's just how being a fan goes. 

No.  I don't want the absolute best for our tennis team if that pulls funds away from the sports I care much more about.

[billikenfan05]

19 minutes ago, cgeldmacher said:

That's not a bad way to look at it.  It has to be a long term play.  Invest in the sport that brings in the money (men's basketball) and then use the tournament credits we earn to upgrade the other sports.  Upgrading tennis now doesn't help the overall AD budget in the future.  Investing the men's basketball program now, does help all of the other sports down the road.

That's just how it works. 

You can say this in a vacuum and you'd be 100% correct. But recent history of Billiken Athletics will tell you that the money invested in SLU basketball from 2015-2023 resulted in a whopping one NCAA Tournament bid. 

It is not on fans to look the other way at 6 years of missed NCAA Tournaments that stunted the progress of facility upgrades across the athletics department. It's on Chris May to figure out a way to compensate for that lack of NCAA $$$ here and now, not ask for a good will extension based on ONE NCAA tournament appearance. The budget is a direct reflection on Chris May and his leadership decisions as it pertains to the Men's Basketball program. 

So fundraising campaign, corporate naming rights, corporate partnerships, male prostitution. You do what it takes to provide your student athletes and coaches with necessary facilities to compete at the top level of this conference. The Field Hockey facility is a wonderful start, I could not be happier about it(well if it would have been finished by the promised date, but acts of God I understand). FIGURE IT OUT.

 

[slufan13]

45 minutes ago, cgeldmacher said:

No.  I don't want the absolute best for our tennis team if that pulls funds away from the sports I care much more about.

I don't either but I didn't say that.

[cgeldmacher]

44 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

That's just how it works. 

You can say this in a vacuum and you'd be 100% correct. But recent history of Billiken Athletics will tell you that the money invested in SLU basketball from 2015-2023 resulted in a whopping one NCAA Tournament bid. 

It is not on fans to look the other way at 6 years of missed NCAA Tournaments that stunted the progress of facility upgrades across the athletics department. It's on Chris May to figure out a way to compensate for that lack of NCAA $$$ here and now, not ask for a good will extension based on ONE NCAA tournament appearance. The budget is a direct reflection on Chris May and his leadership decisions as it pertains to the Men's Basketball program. 

So fundraising campaign, corporate naming rights, corporate partnerships, male prostitution. You do what it takes to provide your student athletes and coaches with necessary facilities to compete at the top level of this conference. The Field Hockey facility is a wonderful start, I could not be happier about it(well if it would have been finished by the promised date, but acts of God I understand). FIGURE IT OUT.

 

I have no issue with this argument.  Not trying to put words in your mouth, but the idea that if we had spent our investable money in the basketball team more wisely, we would have more funds coming out of that program (tournament credits, additional tickets sold, etc.) to be used on upgrading all of our athletic programs makes sense.  That argument wasn't raised until just now.  My issue is with guys on this board picking every sports team we have at SLU, in different threads, and complaining that they don't have upgraded facilities.  What's next, are we sacrificing our values because the track team doesn't have an indoor training facility.

Here's how all this gets fixed.  Invest (wisely) in the men's basketball team.  Let that team earn the needed money for the entire Athletic Department.  Then begin the process of upgrading everything else.  I'm pretty sure the bigger donors have been squeezed as much as possible at this point.  The money needs to start coming from within.

[Taj79]

Doesn't the main program (football) pay the freight for all other sports at say Ohio State, Alabama, Xavier, Penn State?  There ar eonly two cash cows in the NCAA and we don't have one of them.  

[willie]

At the big schools Football pays for about everything. 

[billiken_roy]

15 minutes ago, willie said:

At the big schools Football pays for about everything. 

"big schools" is the key phrase.  and for most of those schools you could add "public" as well.  

we arent a big school in anyway.  

[billikenfan05]

1 hour ago, cgeldmacher said:

I have no issue with this argument.  Not trying to put words in your mouth, but the idea that if we had spent our investable money in the basketball team more wisely, we would have more funds coming out of that program (tournament credits, additional tickets sold, etc.) to be used on upgrading all of our athletic programs makes sense.  That argument wasn't raised until just now.  My issue is with guys on this board picking every sports team we have at SLU, in different threads, and complaining that they don't have competitive facilities.  What's next, are we sacrificing our values because the track team doesn't have an indoor training facility.

Here's how all this gets fixed.  Invest (wisely) in the men's basketball team.  Let that team earn the needed money for the entire Athletic Department.  Then begin the process of upgrading everything else.  I'm pretty sure the bigger donors have been squeezed as much as possible at this point.  The money needs to start coming from within.

FIFY

Then find new revenue or donation streams. Creativity, vision, that’s how you solve these problems. 

There were posters on this board a year ago warning that the financial situation in SLU athletics was going to be tough if SLU didn’t get an NCAA Tournament bid. That’s the reality we’re in right now. That’s the situation that was created with Travis Ford’s extension. 
 

My point is that a leader would look for a way to subsidize the shortfall in budget, not tell his coaches “whoops my b, maybe you’ll get those lights next year”. You find solutions for right now. 

[OkieBilliken]

Not a huge deal but Tennis kicks off the season this weekend.  The women host NIU tonight while the men visit their former head coach and dude responsible for their rapid improvement who is now the coach at Drake.  I did see where the A10 is again holding the conference tournament in April at the USTA Campus in Orlando.  I attended last year.  Amazing facility and it was a blast to see both teams compete down there

[BLIKNS]

I must say OkieBilliken goes to alot of Billiken games in several sports

[courtside]

10 minutes ago, OkieBilliken said:

Not a huge deal but Tennis kicks off the season this weekend.  The women host NIU tonight while the men visit their former head coach and dude responsible for their rapid improvement who is now the coach at Drake.  I did see where the A10 is again holding the conference tournament in April at the USTA Campus in Orlando.  I attended last year.  Amazing facility and it was a blast to see both teams compete down there

A 10 year agreement was made recently for the USTA to host the Men’s and Women’s NCAA Tennis Championships provided some upgrades are made, including adding 6 additional indoor courts. That begins in 2028. It’s hosted 3 times. But it needed some upgrades. It’s UCF’s home courts. They host many other college events throughout the year. (mostly in that back corner of 12 courts) Early season warmer weather matches are popular to schedule down there similar to baseball etc... 

[OkieBilliken]

3 minutes ago, courtside said:

A 10 year agreement was made recently for the USTA to host the Men’s and Women’s NCAA Tennis Championships provided some upgrades are made, including adding 6 additional indoor courts. That begins in 2028. It’s hosted 3 times. But it needed some upgrades. It’s UCF’s home courts. They host many other college events throughout the year. (mostly in that back corner of 12 courts) Early season warmer weather matches are popular to schedule down there similar to baseball etc... 

It is a really cool facility.   Very nice seating and fan experience overall.  They have a terrific cafeteria style restaurant on site.  College tennis can be really fun to watch in that type of environment, when you have access to all of the courts 

[courtside]

37 minutes ago, OkieBilliken said:

It is a really cool facility.   Very nice seating and fan experience overall.  They have a terrific cafeteria style restaurant on site.  College tennis can be really fun to watch in that type of environment, when you have access to all of the courts 

It is a nice facility. Massive.  But they weren’t quite ready to host the NCAA Championships without some upgrades. Previously there were regional sites like Boca Raton, or Carson, CA, etc…but not one big national USTA facility. Some high profile professional players live in Lake Nona and train there. Madison Keys etc…others make frequent short stays. It’s roughly 60% local and 40% visitors, be it juniors, tour pros, club pros, college teams, etc…at any given time. They get some good rowdy 4 figure crowds for some of the college matches.

[BLIKNS]

Is the complex on the UCF campus?

[OkieBilliken]

10 minutes ago, BLIKNS said:

Is the complex on the UCF campus?

No.   Its about a half hour away.  

[courtside]

15 minutes ago, OkieBilliken said:

No.   Its about a half hour away.  

Yep. The only thing it’s close to is the airport. 

[BLIKNS]

Thanks.. Been 10 years since our daughter graduated from UCF

[OkieBilliken]

First win of the year and first SLU MT win for Coach Tobin yesterday as SLU beat Oral Roberts 5-2 in Stillwater, OK.   ORU beat SLU last year in St. Louis so this is nice to see.  They play host Oklahoma State this evening, at one of the few college tennis facilities I've actually been to, an amazing indoor/outdoor complex that is state of the art.  

Correction:  SLU beat ORU last year 4-3.   My memory is gone.  

[courtside]

14 minutes ago, OkieBilliken said:

First win of the year and first SLU MT win for Coach Tobin yesterday as SLU beat Oral Roberts 5-2 in Stillwater, OK.   ORU beat SLU last year in St. Louis so this is nice to see.  They play host Oklahoma State this evening, at one of the few college tennis facilities I've actually been to, an amazing indoor/outdoor complex that is state of the art.  

Correction:  SLU beat ORU last year 4-3.   My memory is gone.  

Oklahoma State hosted the Men and Women’s NCAA Championships last season.