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Baseball's Coming Back


KNCLZip

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27 minutes ago, ZachTheZip said:

So just as the team was starting to win and had a pretty good coaching staff, we voluntarily death-penalty the them and bring them back as the NCAA's first attempt at a crowdfunded athletic program?

 

I completely understand that feeling.  I don't know how this is going to shake out, but I didn't rejoice when I heard all of the details.  This may be a creative way to bring back the sport, but I don't think it's going to work the way I understand it right now.  

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1 hour ago, ZippyRulz said:

"...continuing revenues generated from new student-athletes coming to UA..."

 

and what revenues would those be??

 

If it's like when I went to school 5-10 years ago, it's fromthe sale of text books.

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2 hours ago, ZippyRulz said:

"...continuing revenues generated from new student-athletes coming to UA..."

 

and what revenues would those be??

 

Historically,  baseball only has 11-12 full scholarships to give out in order to fill a 35 man roster. Those would be split up with partials given to multiple players. Those players were still on the hook to pay for the remainder of tuition and sometimes, board.

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This announcement doesn't make any sense to me. If there is not already committed outside funding for the baseball program this could be a disaster and the first blunder of the Williams AD leadership. 

 

To have a competitive team in the MAC in baseball you need approximately $2,000,000 annually. Where is that going to come from. Kent is the hallmark of MAC teams and their budget is higher. If we are going to play in Canal Park, a logical home field, how are we going to get the $500,000 the owner of the Rubber Ducks wanted in order to build locker rooms previously when the idea was floated and we had a emerging competitive team? Issues of travel, NCAA full allotment of schollies, coaching staff, Ohio vs out of state talent, spring trips, equipment all need to be funded. If not the MAC will kill us.

 

Why add more sports when revenue is flat and all sports need more resources. A previous poster noted men's BB had its budget cut. Men's soccer lost its operations director when Oliver Slawson left to coach Ashland and his position was eliminated to cut the budget. Jared's scheduling opponents who have more coaches and resources than he has. Is it any wonder our best program has slipped. Baseball and women's lacrosse will draw funding away from the other sports that have a chance to excel, not considering football.  I'd rather see the time and energy required to pull this off go to bringing all sports to the level of track and men's soccer. I doubt this is going to bring us any closer to getting a better venue to host our men's and women's BBall team's. That is also more pressing to me. 

 

These two new sports, as presented in the announcement, seem to be based on a modified D-III model. Yes, schollies are there but only to the tune of what the community will fund. Is it up to the baseball alumni to beat the bushes for the sport's funding? That assures we will be last in the MAC in both sports.

 

I sure hope there is more to this than we have been told. It seems we are passing club sports off as our new varsity offerings.

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10 hours ago, 72 Roo said:

This announcement doesn't make any sense to me. If there is not already committed outside funding for the baseball program this could be a disaster and the first blunder of the Williams AD leadership. 

 

To have a competitive team in the MAC in baseball you need approximately $2,000,000 annually. Where is that going to come from. Kent is the hallmark of MAC teams and their budget is higher. If we are going to play in Canal Park, a logical home field, how are we going to get the $500,000 the owner of the Rubber Ducks wanted in order to build locker rooms previously when the idea was floated and we had a emerging competitive team? Issues of travel, NCAA full allotment of schollies, coaching staff, Ohio vs out of state talent, spring trips, equipment all need to be funded. If not the MAC will kill us.

 

Why add more sports when revenue is flat and all sports need more resources. A previous poster noted men's BB had its budget cut. Men's soccer lost its operations director when Oliver Slawson left to coach Ashland and his position was eliminated to cut the budget. Jared's scheduling opponents who have more coaches and resources than he has. Is it any wonder our best program has slipped. Baseball and women's lacrosse will draw funding away from the other sports that have a chance to excel, not considering football.  I'd rather see the time and energy required to pull this off go to bringing all sports to the level of track and men's soccer. I doubt this is going to bring us any closer to getting a better venue to host our men's and women's BBall team's. That is also more pressing to me. 

 

These two new sports, as presented in the announcement, seem to be based on a modified D-III model. Yes, schollies are there but only to the tune of what the community will fund. Is it up to the baseball alumni to beat the bushes for the sport's funding? That assures we will be last in the MAC in both sports.

 

I sure hope there is more to this than we have been told. It seems we are passing club sports off as our new varsity offerings.

Who cares. Its baseball. The people who care are getting what they want in the team back and it appears the U will be putting very little (if any) of their own financial resources towards it.

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10 hours ago, 72 Roo said:

Why add more sports when revenue is flat and all sports need more resources. A previous poster noted men's BB had its budget cut. Men's soccer lost its operations director when Oliver Slawson left to coach Ashland and his position was eliminated to cut the budget. Jared's scheduling opponents who have more coaches and resources than he has. Is it any wonder our best program has slipped. Baseball and women's lacrosse will draw funding away from the other sports that have a chance to excel, not considering football.  I'd rather see the time and energy required to pull this off go to bringing all sports to the level of track and men's soccer. I doubt this is going to bring us any closer to getting a better venue to host our men's and women's BBall team's. That is also more pressing to me. 

 

So, it sounds like our marketing "effort" is only going to get worse as well.:(

 

Sadly baseball has no effect on getting a new basketball arena, as it is dead in the water either way. Hindsight being 20/20, it should have been done at the same time as the Info, maybe at the expense of the five story monstrosity that pretty much sits empty on the home side. The economy was better, potential sponsors were at least approachable, and the bottom hadn't publicly fallen out yet on extravagant spending at the U. Now, it's a pipe dream. And the poorly worded downtown arena bill that was publicly crucified by the citizens killed any chance of the city helping fund one. 

Edited by Spin
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You guys ever think they could have put those lines about recruiting from Ohio and funding the program through donations as a way to raise money and then when the time comes, the program will be run the same as all other college baseball programs in the MAC? They're just trying to make it look good publicly and financially for the next couple of years until people forget about those promises. And I don't blame them for that at all.

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This format is actually very similar to the one I laid out when the program was cancelled. What's missing is to get other schools to join in so there's competitive balance.

 

What it needs is a conference of cold weather baseball programs from the same area, some MAC East teams, YSU, a revived Clevaland State and Duquesne, and maybe some other programs that don't want to spend millions chasing the dream of a Superregional asskicking. Play less games, or play more games per week and start later in the year (April). No long travel trips to the Sunbelt. No shovelling money into the program (like the other sports) chasing a dream of someday competing against the powerhouses.

 

And you're playing other D1 schools. 

 

All it takes is a change in how college $port$ are run.

 

If this "self sustaining" method does come into play, I bet other schools will be watching closely. If it works, this idea might just happen.

Edited by Spin
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I took a break from the forum (and the U) during the Scar era, so we haven't taken a look at what Zips alum have been doing in the pros lately.

 

SP Chris Bassitt (2011) had five starts this year for the A's, going 0-2 6.11 before being shut down for Tommy John surgery. He hopes to recover in time for Spring Training.

OF Devon Ahart and OF Joey Havrilak are playing independent league ball, hoping for another shot at the majors.

SP JT Brubaker went 7-6 4.44 for AA Altoona. I didn't catch him at Canal Park.

 

 

Edited by Spin
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A question I forgot to ask....I know or read that the U is going to fund-raise and get gifts-in-kind to support the addition of baseball, bu is that the same methodology they will use to add the women's lacrosse programs?  Is that, too, going to be community funded or come through the U's budget?

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From my experience you're talking a couple full schollys if you have a few studs, and 9-10 split over 25 or so with some walk-ons.. a 1/4 scholly is the minimum, so at most, we can have 20 scholarship players receiving 25% scholarship, and 15 walk-ons

Edited by zippy5
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