It's a tale as old as Dave Brandon's hiring.
A man with business expertise is hired to oversee a college athletic department. That man then tries to run that athletic department like a business, and much of the moves alienate or grate fans. It's a recipe for disaster that led to the ouster of Michigan's last athletic director, and appears to be happening again in Austin, Texas.
From Chip Brown of Scout.com:
Sally Lehr, one of 158 members of Texas’ class of 1964 back on campus for their 50th reunion last September, asked athletic director Steve Patterson why he wanted to charge them $25 per person to go stand on the football field at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.
[...]
“He said it was expensive to allow people on the field. They had to turn on the lights. They had to have people leading the tour and a groundskeeper,” Lehr recalled. “He said if athletics had to pay for all of that, they might have to cut the donation they made to the UT library.
“I was stunned by his arrogance and avarice,” added Lehr, whose stepfather was Jones Ramsey, Texas’ sports information director from 1961-83.
Things seem to be going quite swimmingly down in Austin, eh?
Remember this the next time you complain about Gene Smith too. Even his haters (of which I am not one) must admit by now that it could be worse.
Much, much, much, much worse.
