PQ / CM Relationship

[fmrick]

Can you elaborate on this? It doesn't sound like it has any reason to be some secret. PQ has been involved with UR for quite some time, it certainly pre dates Mooney. That is a fact. He may be buddies with Mooney and Hardt and his involvement has increased, which is natural to lot of extents, just saying - and I could be wrong - I wouldn't expect him to go anywhere over personnel.

Well, his money will always be present on campus. There is already one building with his name on it, another will be started soon. Both he and his wife are grads of UR.

But relationships are a different thing. Personal connections, family connections, etc. often change with time. Sometimes it is just the nature progressions of life that bring about these changes. So in time my guess is that things will change for him and he will move on to other things. Do you really think he comes to games because he enjoys basketball that much? If he did, one would think he would not like what he is seeing. He just might take his friend aside and make a suggestion or two about how to improve the program.

No, my guess is that he has "other" reasons to drop by the campus.

 

[Spiders10]

what in the hell?

 

[MolivaManiac]

LOL. I love the direction where this is heading.

 

[whampas]

He stops by to walk his dogs, is that it?

 

[MolivaManiac]

He stops by to walk his dogs, is that it?

I had interpreted more like Queally is turning tricks with D Hall workers, but what do I know?

 

[Spiders10]

Apparently he's personally checking in on his buildings, to ensure they're being serviced properly.

 

[nathanw19]

I had interpreted more like Queally is turning tricks with D Hall workers, but what do I know?

There was one lady at dhall who loved to tell people every Wednesday that it was “hump day baby”... coincidence?

 

[GKiller]

Well, his money will always be present on campus. There is already one building with his name on it, another will be started soon. Both he and his wife are grads of UR.

But relationships are a different thing. Personal connections, family connections, etc. often change with time. Sometimes it is just the nature progressions of life that bring about these changes. So in time my guess is that things will change for him and he will move on to other things. Do you really think he comes to games because he enjoys basketball that much? If he did, one would think he would not like what he is seeing. He just might take his friend aside and make a suggestion or two about how to improve the program.

No, my guess is that he has "other" reasons to drop by the campus.

Are you aware that they own a home right by campus?

 

[spider fan]

The man "loves" UR - give him credit for putting his "money where his mouth is"....................Nothing sinister or lurid about that....to give any credence to any unfounded "rumors/scuttlebutt" ...whatever you want to call it is scraping bottom. Each of us choose our friends and he and his wife have the same option.

 

[97spiderfan]

At some point, will he tire of pushing money into our dead end basketball program? I guess its nice to bring your dogs to the RC and watch practice, hang with Mooney at the Tavern, etc...But if I'm dropping millions on an organization, I want to make sure it is on going to good use.

 

[9Legs]

Most successful people have the attitude that they have a lot to contribute to whatever the situation. It is especially true if they contribute large sums of money to an organization or have developed a successful enterprise.

There is a distinguished UR alumnus, who is the former GM of a major league baseball franchise who had to deal with a team owner who had a very large ego who knew nothing about baseball but "wanted to contribute". In the early stages of his ownership he would call the phone in the dugout and want to speak to the Manager about strategy-pitching changes, etc (after the first the time, the manager quit taking his calls).

Our colleague explained it this way. To these folks " It is like buying a Rolls-Royce and then someone tells you can not drive it- you can only look at it". I suspect Mr. Queally,
feels similarly and wants to play with the toy he thinks he purchased!

 

[BSHSpider15]

At some point, will he tire of pushing money into our dead end basketball program? I guess its nice to bring your dogs to the RC and watch practice, hang with Mooney at the Tavern, etc...But if I'm dropping millions on an organization, I want to make sure it is on going to good use.

From what I hear that is a big concern of his is that his contributions are not going to good use. Because of this we are likely to see a change and a big time replacement. I really hope the person I heard this from is right.

 

[Ferrum Spider]

Queally is killing our program right now.

"Fire Queally!"......?

 

[spiderstudent17]

From what I hear that is a big concern of his is that his contributions are not going to good use. Because of this we are likely to see a change and a big time replacement. I really hope the person I heard this from is right.

How reliable/connected is that person to UR athletic department?

 

[BSHSpider15]

How reliable/connected is that person to UR athletic department?

I know for a fact that this person has a lot of connections throughout UR athletics.

 

[UR79&Peanuts]

The more you feed the fire the hotter it burns

 

[MolivaManiac]

The more you feed the fire the hotter it burns

Are you referencing "wood" as FMRick seems to be above...???

 

[Eight Legger]

Does the FM in fmrick stand for "Fire Mooney?"

 

[64Spider]

Is PQ's daughter still on campus?

 

[spiderman]

I just can't imaging a "big time" replacement. there aren't that many available coaches I'd call big time.

 

[fmrick]

Does the FM in fmrick stand for "Fire Mooney?"

Not exactly. I've used that for about 25 years. It is part of my e-mail address, which I've also had for about 25 years. Mooney was not even around then.

It was a professional termed used for situations that occurred in my line of employment at the time.

But as a season ticket holder, I would really like to give the guy a fair chance.

 

[urmite]

Not exactly. I've used that for about 25 years. It is part of my e-mail address, which I've also had for about 25 years. Mooney was not even around then.

It was a professional termed used for situations that occurred in my line of employment at the time.

But as a season ticket holder, I would really like to give the guy a fair chance.

25 years ago, I used it for my transistor radio...

 

[GKiller]

Not exactly. I've used that for about 25 years. It is part of my e-mail address, which I've also had for about 25 years. Mooney was not even around then.

It was a professional termed used for situations that occurred in my line of employment at the time.

But as a season ticket holder, I would really like to give the guy a fair chance.

Thanks for taking that question so seriously. Any excuse to talk about yourself I guess.

 

[GKiller]

Is PQ's daughter still on campus?

Nope. But his youngest son is. All 3 of his kids went to Richmond including the last one in school, a senior I believe. If this was FMRick's point there is no reason to be so circumspect.

 

[Gospiders06]

He gets his meal at glory days. Has a great meal gets to meet former and current players. The former players talk about the glory years of going to the sweet 16, beating Kansas and Indiana. Then the current players talk about how young we are and once everyone comes back next year we are going to the NCAA tournament. Then he orders a soda that does tastes a bit flat.

 

[wr70beh]

Could Queally be sabotaging men's hoops in order to have his true love men's LAX be the flagship sport on campus? That's the only thing I can think of at this point.

 

[MrTbone]

While I suspect you’re tongue in cheek, I’ll go ahead and say that being bad at basketball has no impact on us being good at lacrosse. Witness last two years for example.

 

[urmite]

While I suspect you’re tongue in cheek, I’ll go ahead and say that being bad at basketball has no impact on us being good at lacrosse. Witness last two years for example.

It doesn’t affect how good we are but does it affect how much people notice?

 

[keefusb]

I suspect that what PQ is getting out of this relationship is a "Trading Places" style social experiment. Recall Mooney's famously humble upbringing - his dad was a bus driver, and his mom was a cleaning lady. I like to think that PQ wanted to see if he gave CM a 10-year deal for $1.2 million per year, how would it change him (ala Eddie Murphy's character)? For me, CM's UR experience has simply drained him of his passion, and made him into an entitled complacent individual.

Hardt needs to end this experiment after the A-10 tournament at the latest.

#NoMoreMooneyTruthing

 

[UR80sfan]

Putting down Paul Queally is counter productive to your cause. Paul is highly regarded by a vast majority of people associated with University. He has been the largest benefactor to the university over the past decade and stepped up time after time. He is also expected to be the largest benefactor over the next 10 years. He is a guy who loves the University and understands the big picture of what needs to be done to make university better. Putting down Paul makes people on the board look selfish, by putting their own needs ahead of the best interests of the university. No one associated with the university is going to choose the side of people on this board over Paul.

 

[Captain Anderson]

Putting down Paul Queally is counter productive to your cause. Paul is highly regarded by a vast majority of people associated with University. He has been the largest benefactor to the university over the past decade and stepped up time after time. He is also expected to be the largest benefactor over the next 10 years. He is a guy who loves the University and understands the big picture of what needs to be done to make university better. Putting down Paul makes people on the board look selfish, by putting their own needs ahead of the best interests of the university. No one associated with the university is going to choose the side of people on this board over Paul.

What if the "side of the people on this board" starts to echo the opinions of the vast majority of your alums, season ticket holders, fanbase? I am under no illusion that anything I say on this message board is going to affect the powers that be at UR. Ironically, my "selfish" dream would be for us to start making the NCAA tournament regularly and me traveling to the A-10 and NCAA tournament games to root on my alma mater with other spider alums and fans. I had those experiences back in 2010-11 and I want other members of our University community to be able to experience that...especially our players. I appreciate PQ's contributions of time and $ to the program. The practice facility is going to be a great asset for years to come. But the whole "trust the people in charge because they are smarter than you and keep blindly supporting the program with your time and $" attitude gets old. You don't have to have .edu at the end of your e-mail address to see that we need a coaching change. That is, if your goal is to actually try and win the A-10 and go to the tournament...if not just say that we want to be Williams or Vassar. You will lose a lot of fans but you will get to "win" US News rankings. And yes, I'm incredibly proud of my UR degree and want us to always be a top academic institution but if we don't want to be the best in the conference we are in stop lying to your constituents.

 

[MolivaManiac]

PQ has been extremely generous with his donations to the University of Richmond. This creates opportunities and it creates challenges:

1- I think most business folks are aware that a 'customer concentration' can create a big problem when one of those customers leaves. I hope that the University is being very mindful of the need to diversify it's donation sources.
2- I don't think it takes a genius to figure out that the Athletic department has a revenue problem right now. We are down about $700,000 per year in NCAA unit revenue from where we were a few years ago. I would not be surprised if our football and basketball ticket selling is also down another $250-300k per sport, based on what i am seeing and hearing. A revenue reduction of somewhere between $1M and $2M per year for our AD is not insignificant.

Unless the plan is to simply have more giveaways and rely solely on large donor dollars, it does not seem that the current trends are sustainable.

 

[97spiderfan]

PQ has been extremely generous with his donations to the University of Richmond. This creates opportunities and it creates challenges:

1- I think most business folks are aware that a 'customer concentration' can create a big problem when one of those customers leaves. I hope that the University is being very mindful of the need to diversify it's donation sources.
2- I don't think it takes a genius to figure out that the Athletic department has a revenue problem right now. We are down about $700,000 per year in NCAA unit revenue from where we were a few years ago. I would not be surprised if our football and basketball ticket selling is also down another $250-300k per sport, based on what i am seeing and hearing. A revenue reduction of somewhere between $1M and $2M per year for our AD is not insignificant.

Unless the plan is to simply have more giveaways and rely solely on large donor dollars, it does not seem that the current trends are sustainable.

Agreed Mo. And herein lies the rub. Do we shell out an additional 700K to get rid of Mooney (estimated new coach cost), in the hopes of recouping some of this lost revenue and go further in the hole, but with a long term investment strategy of seeing more NCAA unit revenue and increased tickets sales from folks who have just given up because of Mooney.

Obviously, I know my answer but my hope would be that they are looking at this very analytically at the RC with revenue/expense projections for keeping Mooney vs. canning him.

I would love to know the number of season ticket holders and donors who are no longer contributing because of Mooney, I would think that number and total dollar figure is not insignificant.

 

[Eight Legger]

Whatever the season ticket and tickets-sold totals feel to this year, you can probably take another 20-25% off those totals next year if you keep Mooney. Before the VCU game we were down about 15,000 announced tickets sold this season. Conservatively figure an average of $10 a ticket and $5 per ticket sold for concessions and that's about $225,000 we lost. Could be a lot more than that too, on the high end.

 

[97spiderfan]

Whatever the season ticket and tickets-sold totals feel to this year, you can probably take another 20-25% off those totals next year if you keep Mooney. Before the VCU game we were down about 15,000 announced tickets sold this season. Conservatively figure an average of $10 a ticket and $5 per ticket sold for concessions and that's about $225,000 we lost. Could be a lot more than that too, on the high end.

Our lowest price ticket is $12. And if you look at the stands, you will see it is the priority seats that are filled while the premium seats are open. These are your high dollar seats. We are selling lots of those $5 and free kids club tickets in the priority sections. There are lots of open seats around Hardt and Queally every game. Those seats are where your real revenue comes from.

I think a new coach would inject energy into the fan base and especially season ticket holders. If they want to "re-prioritize" season ticket prices and giving levels as has been discussed, hiring a new coach at this time would make sense. If they want to charge us more and keep Mooney, even more people are going to tell them to pound sand.

 

[ChoppinBroccoli]

I suspect that what PQ is getting out of this relationship is a "Trading Places" style social experiment. Recall Mooney's famously humble upbringing - his dad was a bus driver, and his mom was a cleaning lady. I like to think that PQ wanted to see if he gave CM a 10-year deal for $1.2 million per year, how would it change him (ala Eddie Murphy's character)?

Is he Mortimer or Randolph in this scenario, and who has the other side of the $1 bet?

 

[97spiderfan]

Is he Mortimer or Randolph in this scenario, and who has the other side of the $1 bet?

Great movie. You can just see what this contract has done to Mooney. He used to be a passionate dude and now I just see someone who is content in the fact that he never has to work again with what he has banked here over the past 14 years. He shows up, puts in his hours, nothing more, nothing less. Certainly, he has lost his push for excellence. Now, just competing and getting better will suffice.

 

[97spiderfan]

I don't know what Hardt is going to do but I think if Mooney gets canned, it is his g*d-damn complacency and competing talk that does him in. Hardt, ex Iowa football player, doesn't strike me as the type who puts up with that type of attitude. Could be wrong though, time will tell.

 

[Spiders05]

Whatever the season ticket and tickets-sold totals feel to this year, you can probably take another 20-25% off those totals next year if you keep Mooney. Before the VCU game we were down about 15,000 announced tickets sold this season. Conservatively figure an average of $10 a ticket and $5 per ticket sold for concessions and that's about $225,000 we lost. Could be a lot more than that too, on the high end.

Just a couple things. The math on tickets sold doesn't work. You're comparing attendance YoY, but don't know the underlying composition of tickets sold/discounted/given away. Second, athletics doesn't get a dime of concessions. In fact, they can actually become a net loss for the department.

 

[Spiders05]

And just a general comment...

There's a lot of projecting going on regarding what people are or are not doing. Very few assertions supportable by fact, unless you're stalking those individuals.