Looking Forward

[BCPanther]

The problem is we have an Athletic Director who has promised improvements are coming for years, and we have no local interested media demanding answers about it. So he has no real motivation to either work hard to make it happen or explain why it's not happening.

When was the last time he had a news conference? Or even sat down for a wide-ranging interview? He recorded a general video for giving today, asking for donors but it was very general and student-athlete related. Nothing on facilities.

Just last year he was named one of four FCS Athletic Directors of the Year. Based on what, I don't know. But it seems clear he's incredibly comfortable to coast because he knows he would be difficult to fire.

He did one with Cole last fall but said absolutely nothing. Just his typical word salad with 'student athlete' thrown in there every other sentence.

Those awards are all about who plays the game the best and kisses the most ass. Hell, Gary Barta has won several of them.

I know he told the PSC that he would have an announcement on the Dome reno in January, well its now April and absolute crickets. Meanwhile, we've got Soccer doing a freaking GoFundMe so that they can have a locker room and Mark is flying all over the place on his own dime to get turf and a meeting room. We aren't a serious Athletic Department at this point and that's because of the person running it.

Once the Hartzell hires (Jake, Farley, Bobbi, Tonya, Jacobs) start to retire/move on/etc we're absolutely ****ed.

[DownGoesKansas]

He did one with Cole last fall but said absolutely nothing. Just his typical word salad with 'student athlete' thrown in there every other sentence.

Those awards are all about who plays the game the best and kisses the most ass. Hell, Gary Barta has won several of them.

I know he told the PSC that he would have an announcement on the Dome reno in January, well its now April and absolute crickets. Meanwhile, we've got Soccer doing a freaking GoFundMe so that they can have a locker room and Mark is flying all over the place on his own dime to get turf and a meeting room. We aren't a serious Athletic Department at this point and that's because of the person running it.

Once the Hartzell hires (Jake, Farley, Bobbi, Tonya, Jacobs) start to retire/move on/etc we're absolutely ****ed.

You really know how to cheer up the room haha.

Not wrong though. Ugh

[clenz]

The problem is we have an Athletic Director who has promised improvements are coming for years

Ignore everything else, this is the crux of so much of it.

From day damn 1 he laid out a strategic plan to have everything facility upgraded, build, rebuilt, and modernized by 2023. Covid happened so we can give a bit of an extension but the problem becomes the extension doesn't make up for the lack of literally anything being done from that plan.

The wrestling facility has been condemned and the team crowd funded the new practice mats because he told them the AD wasn't paying for them. Meanwhile the plan called for it to be renovated and made to be the long term home for the program.

The new women's soccer facility was actually done by the club rugby team, but the soccer team uses it.

The track hasn't been touched at all. Same with the indoor track, but that was part of the dome reno proposal

The turf in the dome was made possible by about 4 outside sources through grants and only because he was threatened by the MVFC over our old turf. Nothing else of the dome has been done - or even mentioned again. It's gone dark the last 3.5 years from even being spoken

The team room/suites was postponed over a year before Covid existed. Not that it was announced, he just never mentioned it again, until he was asked on Twitter over a year later. Then it started and was delayed, and then promised to be open before last season, then it was by the home opener, then he hasn't mentioned it since and i'm not sure it'll be ready by this fall.

The single football practice field seems amazing to us, it's what a ton of damn high schools in Iowa have. The number of NAIA/D3/D2s that have a minimum of 1 turf field for practice, and have for years, is crazy. That one single field doesn't solidify UNI has having high end FCS D1 facilities

There were 2 banners created and hung in the McLeod Center

The new court in the McLeod wasn't a "making upgrades" it was, much like the dome turf, absolutely way past due. We were still on the S16 court until that new one was installed, and let's just say that the old court was not treated/handled/stored well.

The practice facility, which is far more than just practice courts it "includes coaches' offices, basketball courts, strength and conditioning area, athletics training space, locker rooms, academic center for all student-athletes, department administrative offices and event space" (direct from the plans description) had full renderings inside and out. It hasn't been mentioned once since the day the plan was rolled out.


That plan "officially" ends in less than a year. That was the 5 year plan. Even if you want to extend to March 2024 because of Covid there is almost zero that can/will be completed from the plan that's left.


So let's recap and grade out the metrics, the words David used, and if we have succeeded in our strategic plan

Meeting room - Success, even if 10 times more difficult than it should have been
On Campus soccer - technically a success because of club rugby - it is a failure based on the actual plans/metrics set by the plan/AD
Basketball Practice Facility - complete failure
Football practice field - success because of Mark Farley
McLeod Upgrades - 50%
UNIDome Addition and Renovation - complete failure
Outdoor Track Renovation - complete failure
West Gym upgrades - somehow this is actually worse than a complete failure

So out of 8 facilities metrics half are complete failures. 2 are success based on technicality. One is a 50% success. One is, being generous, a full success.

That's a really poor grade for meeting your own metrics

Let's look at how David has done in leading his team to accomplish his Financial Accountability metrics

$2 million in cash donations to PSC - fail
2,000 PSC members - fail
Increase season ticket sales in every sport at least 50% - fail
Increase overall ticket revenue by 50% - fail
Increase average attendance at each ticketed event by 50% - fail
Explore and secure multiple new sources of revenue - this is a top secret apparently but based on everything that is know it's tough to give this anything but a fail...though the word "explore" is the first word so maybe it's technically a pass?
Annually operate with the parameters of our budget - this is real nice boiler plate language, but is meaningless in terms of an actual metric but I'll give half

So out of 7 metrics none of them are a pass. 2 are 50% based on technicalities and 5 are fails

Diversity and inclusion metrics
Bring department to full Title IX compliance - I'm assuming fail since nothing has changed
Develop a survey structure for athletic department staff and student-athletes, designed to provide actual feedback on existing culture and climate. - probably a pass. Impossible to know outside of the AD
Implement specific mechanisms that will enlarge the pool of applicants to include all protected classes and ensure that representation is maintained throughout the search process. - probably happened? Impossible to know outside of the AD
Attract and retain diverse student-athletes, coaches, and staff who are integrated into the campus community. - seems like a pass
Win the NCAA/Minority Opportunities Athletics Association Award for Diversity and Inclusion. - didn't happen as far as I know

So out of the 5 diversity metrics - which is clearly where David is actually passionate/outspoken on things - we can say he's over 50%.



That is 20, self set, metrics. Of those there are maybe 2 we have demonstrable proof they happened fully due to someone paid by the athletic department (practice field and team room). 2 or 3 we assume would be done and 2 or 3 that are 50%. That leaves a minimum of 12 metrics that are impossible to not grade as a failure as of now. That's not a great grading out for a 5 year strategic plan that you took a year to develop and study.

Hopefully we hear of/see a lot of the things that are failures get announced in the next 6-8 months. Not just announced but action started on. If we don't I'm not sure how anyone can continue to look at his term as athletic director and claim success when using HIS OWN METRICS, not even some pie in the sky fan expectations. Especially when we look at what our peers are doing/have done even with COVID

[UNIAlum95]

The practice facility was to sit in the lot immediately outside of the McLeod Center. Hopefully there was enough thought in the steam tunnel reconstruction that we don't need another full year of tunnel work in addition to the new facility.

We are supposedly in a quiet period of fund raising for the dome to get enough funds built up for a public announcement this summer. Hold your breath on that one but that's what is being said right now.

[BCPanther]

I need a job where I can lay out a 5 year plan, categorically fail at it 4 years in and still have the same job.

[DownGoesKansas]

We need a huge donor to appear to clean up this mess. By starting with the AD

[clenz]

The practice facility was to sit in the lot immediately outside of the McLeod Center. Hopefully there was enough thought in the steam tunnel reconstruction that we don't need another full year of tunnel work in addition to the new facility.

We are supposedly in a quiet period of fund raising for the dome to get enough funds built up for a public announcement this summer. Hold your breath on that one but that's what is being said right now.

Oh. Right. I forgot about the steam tunnel excuse.

How we managed to build the McLeod without it being an issue - and completely rebuild the area around the union that runs over it. How we paid an architect and engineering firm to render out the practice facility but somehow did it with that one pipe being literally impossible to do anything with

Apparently UNI has the only steam pipe in the world that is literally impossible to work with/move/work around.

[BCPanther]

We need a huge donor to appear to clean up this mess. By starting with the AD

There are 7 companies within 20 miles of Cedar Falls worth over a billion dollars. I'm guessing we've never bothered to ask.

Hartzell was the guy bold enough to stand up and say we aren't taking crumbs anymore and they ran him out of town.

[DownGoesKansas]

There are 7 companies within 20 miles of Cedar Falls worth over a billion dollars. I'm guessing we've never bothered to ask.

Hartzell was the guy bold enough to stand up and say we aren't taking crumbs anymore and they ran him out of town.

Well to be fair. I doubt expect the AD to ask them to donate to fire him lol

But yea

[UNIAlum95]

Just some context from connections at UNI:

The wrestling facility has been condemned and the team crowd funded the new practice mats because he told them the AD wasn't paying for them. Meanwhile the plan called for it to be renovated and made to be the long term home for the program.

The facilities department decided in the fall to conduct a facility review of the West Gym. Not in the spring, not in the summer, but fall and then determined that it was structurally unsound. The athletic department was not notified that the review was going to happen. I don't know that I'd put this on the athletic department.

The track hasn't been touched at all. Same with the indoor track, but that was part of the dome reno proposal

Correct this is part of the dome reno "plan" which includes a new track surface. One key thing to note is the ADA work that is required with any work done in the seating bowl. All of the aisles will need hand rails and I'm not sure if the steps are wide enough to accommodate railings with two way traffic.

The team room/suites was postponed over a year before Covid existed. Not that it was announced, he just never mentioned it again, until he was asked on Twitter over a year later. Then it started and was delayed, and then promised to be open before last season, then it was by the home opener, then he hasn't mentioned it since and i'm not sure it'll be ready by this fall.

I'm sure there are other things that kept this from being completed but the seats were stuck in international transit and port for over six months. Not an excuse for the overall management but some of the things are out of the department's control.

[achrist70]

Correct this is part of the dome reno "plan" which includes a new track surface. One key thing to note is the ADA work that is required with any work done in the seating bowl. All of the aisles will need hand rails and I'm not sure if the steps are wide enough to accommodate railings with two way traffic.

I think everyone understands that with ADA laws the dome would have a smaller capacity after renovation is done. Personally I think that a capacity of 14,000 or so would fit us better now.

[UNIpanther99]

The above context is appreciated, but all of it should have been expected up front (maybe not the seats in the team room, but if that's the only hold up there are temporary work-arounds). ADA upgrades should always be factored in up front. The West Gym is an old building, it should have been expected that it might need some structural upgrades.

Many high schools have resurfaced their outdoor tracks twice since the UNI track was put in.

[UNIAlum95]

The above context is appreciated, but all of it should have been expected up front (maybe not the seats in the team room, but if that's the only hold up there are temporary work-arounds). ADA upgrades should always be factored in up front. The West Gym is an old building, it should have been expected that it might need some structural upgrades.

Many high schools have resurfaced their outdoor tracks twice since the UNI track was put in.

No excuses just facts. As with any governmental body or large organization, communication channels often fail. I don't think blaming the AD for a facilities audit weeks before a season starts is fair.

To the railings, that was something that I hadn't thought of before. I have no reason to believe that the reno plans overlooked something like that. It will change the look of the dome for sure and will be interesting to see what the capacity ends up being. Assuming it ever gets done with club seating options, I could see the capacity dropping to 12K. I think we are down to a low 15K number as it stands today right?

[clenz]

Before I reply I want it known, that long post from me was me taking any of my opinion out of it and looking directly, and only, at David's words, the plan David created, and what has been done to accomplish the goals David set for his athletic department.

This post I remove that level of objectivity

The facilities department decided in the fall to conduct a facility review of the West Gym. Not in the spring, not in the summer, but fall and then determined that it was structurally unsound. The athletic department was not notified that the review was going to happen. I don't know that I'd put this on the athletic department.

West Gym needing work isn't new. It didn't pop up in the last year. If David didn't realize the amount of work West Gym needed that really is intentional negligence on his part. Also, again this plan was created in 2017 and implemented in very early 2018. There was actual years to even start to look at West Gym and figure a plan out, or catch it before it was too far gone. If anything your statement proves one of two things: 1) that literal nothing from the 5 year plan was actually looked at or 2) intentional neglect to even attempt anything for wrestling and including them in the 5 year strategic plan was all lip service with no intention of doing anything for them. Given that Schwab had to literally GoFundMe Crowd Source the practice mats.

Are either of those acceptable from the athletic director? Did he ever go to West Gym and look at it? Was he really caught off guard by the state of it? If he was he is one of about 2 people who know anything about UNI wrestling that would be caught off guard by it, and I'm not sure I can actually name that second person but one has to exist, just based on mathematical probabilities.

What it sounds like is David failed to keep an eye on facilities he is in charge of. He failed to monitor the needs of the building. He failed to follow through on his own created metrics for success of the strategic plan he created.

What it sounds like is David had ZERO intention of doing anything to upgrade West Gym (which is a shock to no one that has paid any kind of attention). To be 3.5 years into the 5 year strategic plan to have the facility upgrade and be caught off guard by the fact the 100+ year old building needing massive work is either gross negligence or intentional. I'll let you pick which you think it is, and then which you think is the "worse" option. That building is under his oversight and control. For him to be caught off guard by an inspection from facilities is dizzying in so many ways.

Correct this is part of the dome reno "plan" which includes a new track surface. One key thing to note is the ADA work that is required with any work done in the seating bowl. All of the aisles will need hand rails and I'm not sure if the steps are wide enough to accommodate railings with two way traffic.

What the ADA requires is irrelevant to my post. The ADA requirements should be built in to any dome proposal, even just in brain storming. The Dome reno would be/is the "showcase" of his plan. The fact we are over 4 years into the plan and haven't heard a single statement on it since the plan was first unveiled is concerning. Now, do I know a few extra things? Sure. I do know there has been work being done behind the scene. My issue, and I've said this MANY times on this site, is why keep ALL of that work private? You don't want every detail out there? Perfect. I get that. There has been no promotion that anything is even in the work. If you don't know someone who knows someone you are well out of the loop that anything is even being worked on in the complete dark. Every other school, peer or not, that has been planning, in the fundraising, or building stage, uses a new facility as the MAIN source of PR. They are pumping tweets out to generate excitement. They are throwing posts out to get donations, because every penny helps. They aren't hiding literally everything about it.

I wasn't claiming the indoor track not being done was a fail, on it's own. It would be dumb to redo the indoor surface before the rest of the dome, which includes any ADA issues. Those are a reason we haven't done anything with seats in the past, but this isn't a "we might redo the seat backs" situation that the ADA would complicate. This was sold, from day 1 as a complete renovation of the dome. Directly from the strategic plan

• New bowl seating, premium seating and press box upgrades, indoor track resurfacing, restroom, concourse and concession stand upgrades, additional meeting rooms, Hall of Fame Connector upgrades/expansion and coaches' locker room renovations.
• Renovation and expansion to the west side of the UNI-Dome providing a true main entrance to the facility.
• A new track surface will solidify UNI's place as the premier indoor track and field training and competition venue in the Missouri Valley Conference ($900,000 - $1.5 million).

They knew from the start the ADA would be involved. If that is being used as an excuse that they have to account for in the delays then I genuinely question the decision making and research knowledge from the UNI staff that didn't realize that. I would also be VERY wary of using any engineer/architecht that comes back and goes "Oh, we didn't account for this so now we have to change things"/

Again, I know of stuff for the dome being worked on. I don't understand why we are the only school in the country that feels the need, or is required to, do everything completely in the dark until it is 100% ready to go.

As far as the aisles being wide enough it's been widely reported, for a very long time, that capacity will be dropped to ~13,500-14,000 (from what I had heard) to accommodate those requirements along with suites. So they knew that from the front. To have anyone try to spin ADA requirements for why it isn't done doesn't hold water, really. Hell, not even not being done. I'm going back to the fact it is kept under the same security as the football code for the president.

I'm sure there are other things that kept this from being completed but the seats were stuck in international transit and port for over six months. Not an excuse for the overall management but some of the things are out of the department's control.

Sure. Delays are happening more due to covid. I get that. Doesn't explain the complete deleting of the team room in 2018 from any mention until it was re-announced in 2020. Would it take much effort on his part to make a comment regarding delays? It could 1000% be out of his control, but look at his history of refusal to mention anything in public, or speak in public, or do anything in public. The only reason we know it was shelved in 2018 was he was pressed on it on Twitter at that time and his response was "indefinitely on pause". He hasn't provided an update on it since July or August of last season. Just as he has provided zero information on ANY of the projects that HE SET AS HIS OWN DAMN METRICS AND GOALS FOR THE PLAN HE CREATED.

Again, going back to what I said at the very beginning of the post you are picking tiny parts out of, and the post I quoted

we have an Athletic Director who has promised improvements are coming for years

He spoke publically about everything he was going to have done in 5 years. Then he never mentioned any of it again and has disappeared from any actual public speaking.

In the modern college game ADs aren't schedule makers and internal administrators like they were years ago. The role of an AD in the modern time is to be the face of the athletic department. To engage everyone they come across. To lead the funding efforts. To work to be actively seen and engaging with fans ranging from the young to the fringe part time fans to the biggest of donors. Working to build the relationships and create the environment of excitement.

How David worked for Jamie Pollard, one of the prime examples of a modern AD, and is still the most monotone, hidden, reserved, use as few words as possible, etc. ADs in the country is impossible to believe. He spent a decade working for Jamie and it's like zero of Jamie's style or mentality rubbed off.

He will go weeks on Twitter without a single post. Now you may go "He's an AD not a social media person", but again that's not how it works. His tweets that he does put out read exactly like he talks - the most Ben Stein tone. There's never any inflection. There's never excitement, even when talking about things he is very clearly passionate about - see his Diversity/Inclusion efforts, which he has made a ton of work on. It's hard to listen to the few times he speaks in public and feel genuinely excited about what he is saying. I wouldn't be shocked if that impacted fund raising and corporate relationship building. He's trying to sell UNI, UNI athletics, and his vision for the ROI these partners would get and if he is doing it in the same ton as any speech/interview he has done since getting to UNI I would understand if corporate partners would be hesitant.


Now, as I said, maybe he has everything in a row and ready to be dropped on us with football, basketball, and the track between now and the next school year. If we don't have anything, or very little that is actually concrete, by the time the next school year happens I think it would be super understandable to have high levels of concern.

It's been said a dozens of times but - why is UNI so different that we are the only MVC, MVFC, or even largely any FCS/MM program unable to do these projects? There has to be some reason for it. Why can't we find the corporate partners everyone else has? Why are we the only teachers/accounting school of our size that can't find donors? Near a billion dollars from direct peer institutions over the last 8-10 years on upgrades and facilities, and our biggest accomplishment is a field turf practice field.

Something isn't adding up, and anyone going "That's just how it is and it can't be done in Cedar Falls" I take issue with.

[BCPanther]

I think he was referring to the outdoor track, didn't we pass on hosting the league meet in 2018 because it wasn't in good enough shape with the promise that it was going to be done in time for 2019? That was also supposed to be where the soccer team was supposed to move but I guess it was easier to throw up some fencing and mow.

I totally understand what you're saying about red tape and the process in getting everything done, the problem is that it doesn't seem to be hampering other schools in getting things done, I get Iowa and Iowa State are on a whole different level but they announce things, present them to the BOR and there are shovels in the ground. The process to do things here would literally be the exact same just at our scale.

Athletics, since Dannen and accelerated under David, has been really good about saying why things CAN'T happen or what is getting in the way of things happening (hell, I remember a story about an electrician not letting them turn up the volume in the McLeod Center). It would be nice for, just once, that we hear why things CAN and are happening. David may be the most competent administrator in the world, who knows, but that isn't what ADs do anymore. You're the spokesman, the face of the brand, the guy that gets the money and the guy that shouts from the mountaintop why you're great and why you HAVE to be a UNI fan. David has proven over and over and over and over and over that he either can't or won't do that and that makes him an awful fit for us and for any AD position.