Pollard Details Recommended Cuts

Jamie seems committed to have no fans for the entire season which seems pretty stupid. Reassess in a few weeks.


Well, Covid is going to be around all season, and God forbid somebody catches it. Who cares if we destroy everything around us? As long as my 95 year old great uncle with terminal cancer doesn't die in the nursing home with a bad cold, it was all worth it.
 
I can't understand the resistance to transparency. What is lost by just putting it out on the table what the likely ramifications are? Juxtapose that against U of I having Barta call a surprise meeting and cancel a bunch of sports.

There's nothing whiney about it. The decision was made not to have fans, and that decision has implications. He's outlining the implications.

My only issue with the statement is that it is written like the decision has been made for no fans for the entire season. As far as I know, that's not the case. I was under the assumption that if things improved, having fans for OU was still on the table. That said, maybe that was the whole point of the letter...kind of a big FU to those who complained to Wintersteen and made her change her mind. Almost a "here are the consequences of your complaining".
 
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It should, I own one of the dance competitions and I rent Stephens 4 times a year.

Thanks, I was thinking that we bought tickets to see a friend's daughter dance a couple of times this past winter, and the production quality was good. I was assuming that Stephens had to be rented out for it, and they didn't just take part of ticket sales.
 
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It turns out your decisions affect other people. Large events are a much higher risk to increase the community spread that ends up affecting people who weren't even there. That is why in a pandemic we must avoid these activities, more so when they are not essential activities. This isn't that hard of a concept.

sacrificing some non-essential things is how we get to live a more normal life in many other ways

That's odd. I don't recall a superspreader event having occurred in the US via an outdoor event. ESPECIALLY one with mandatory mask usage seats assigned with social distancing in mind. Maybe you can enlighten us where this has occurred.
 
I'm sure they do, but I guess that's my point.. there's no way that stuff is happening this year, whether there's money to run the building or not. Maybe that's a wrong assumption on my part.
I have 4 weekends scheduled to rent Stephens next spring and summer for my business I own, a dance competition. We are hurting and looking forward to a better Spring in 2021. This news is an absolute gut punch for my business and all the young children that take part in my events. Nearly 3000 kids over these 4 events/weekends at Stephens alone.
 








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ISU Athletics? Of course.





But you are discounting how valuable having sports, and more important successfull sports, is to the university in terms of enrollment numbers and overall name recognition if the university. Sports programs are worth FAR more than budget numbers in terms of advertising for your university.

It's of course important, and I never discounted that. First, ISU is still having football, and with cancellation by the Big 10 and PAC 12 regardless of whether there are fans in the stands, playing games at all will raise ISUS
But you are discounting how valuable having sports, and more important successfull sports, is to the university in terms of enrollment numbers and overall name recognition of the university. Sports programs are worth FAR more than budget numbers in terms of advertising for your university.
Not discounting those things at all. The poster said this decision is losing the thing keeping ISU financially stable. That simply is not true at all. When you add in athletic vs non-athletic donations and research dollars athletics revenues are low single digit percentage of ISUs revenue.
Not to mention ISU is still playing football when others aren’t. ISUs profile will be raised this year even if games are TV only.
This does have a huge impact on Ames and the local economy. It will hurt ISU, but I wanted to clear up the misconception that not having fans in the stands is going to ruin ISU financially.
 
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His letter provides "several" options, not all options being looked at.

It begs the question, why weren't all the options being looked at discussed? I don't pretend to have the answer but it does feel like the most controversial options were provided to generate a reaction.

If you have less income you must cut costs or find other sources of income. I don’t see a lot of other options. Maybe Earl May is running a sell on money trees but not likely. I doubt eliminating golf saves you much money. No good options for JP. The best option was to have fans at football games and put in place restrictions to minimize the risk of Covid.
 
That's odd. I don't recall a superspreader event having occurred in the US via an outdoor event. ESPECIALLY one with mandatory mask usage seats assigned with social distancing in mind. Maybe you can enlighten us where this has occurred.

Probably because we've banned almost all large events, outside or in, severely limiting the chance for that to occur.

Oh, and if you looked at the seating chart they released, the 25k\40% seating plan didn't really allow for recommended levels social distancing. That was a big part of the problem. If community spread levels drop down to more reasonable levels i could see 15k\25% working out in October. But people are going to have to do what it takes to get those levels down.
 
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Not discounting those things at all. The poster said this decade is losing the thing keeping ISU financially stable. That simply is not true at all. When you add in athletic vs non-athletic donations and research dollars athletics revenues are low single digit percentage of ISUs revenue.
Not to mention ISU is still playing football when others aren’t. ISUs profile will be raised this year even if games are TV only.
This does have a huge impact on Ames and the local economy. It will hurt ISU, but I wanted to clear up the misconception that not having fans in the stands is going to ruin ISU financially.
The no fans isn’t going to be a big deal in the long run for the entire university but it could have a potentially big impact on the AD. If the AD goes away the school is going to be in for a rude awakening for how important it is.

I would have been 4th generation at one of the D3 schools but went to Iowa State because I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do and I wanted to go to a D1 school for the sports. My sister was the same way that’s sports/marching band made her decision. High schoolers particularly guys are not exactly complicated individuals.
 
Do you feel unsafe when you use the stage? Are they able to accomodate all your guests?
I had a large event there just this past July. Absolutely felt safe, we suggested masks when social distancing couldn't take place. Stephens is so large and has so much space it accommodated all the competitors and parents with no worries. The event lasts 40 hours over a Fri -Sat - Sun weekend. We see about 1000-1500 competitors and parent/spectators over that long period of time. A transient crowd. It was about 90% normal and very safe with masks and distancing protocols being the biggest overall difference. Life and live events can still happen IMO if we use some common sense. But that is completely lacking in todays world and we're up against a cancel at all cost crusade. It is so difficult to navigate as a business owner.
 
Well, my 18 year old son who plays DIII football tested positive, so it hits close to home. Had a sister who had it in July .
 
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