except boosters.....the same boosters who are still scorned about being left out of the coaching search...the same boosters who spend the money to build first class facilities....the facilities that recruits these days put heavy emphasis on. connect the dots....Not a good speaker...ok. Granted the Texas job in many ways is like being the leader of a political party, and you need to make connections to win HS recruits, coaching talent, etc...but ultimately Strong's job is to win football games. If he does that, no one will give a shyt about his bad speeches except boosters.
Interesting times in University of Texas athletics.
There are four major fund-raising projects being talked about by Steve Patterson:
* $15 million for a new tennis stadium/facility because the current one (Penick-Allison) is being demolished June 1 to make room for construction of UT's new medical school.
* $250 million for renovation of the south end of DKR and additional premium seating throughout the stadium.
* $350 million to endow all the athletic scholarships at Texas
* $450 million to replace the Erwin Center in roughly 5 years, because it too will be demolished to make room for the UT medical school. (The pricetag on a new arena is so steep most believe it will end up a public-private partnership involving the city and county.)
The No. 1 priority on that list is the $15 million for a new tennis center. It will take a year to build. So the current plan is to resurface 10 courts at the school's intramural tennis facility at 51st and Lamar, have the men's and women's teams play there for one year (2014-15) and then have a state-of-the-art tennis facility that could host major tournaments - pro and college - including the NCAA Championships.
Here's the problem: Less than 1 percent has been raised for the new tennis facility. And sources say ground won't be broken on the new facility until at least $10 million has been raised.
If that $10 million isn't raised by July, the one-year build out would extend into the 2015-16 school year and could keep the tennis programs at Texas, the highest revenue-producing athletic department in the country, on 10 resurfaced courts at UT's intramural facility.
The bottom line is Steve Patterson and the Longhorn Foundation is either getting almost no response to their fund-raising efforts or isn't trying nearly hard enough.
Patterson hasn't returned numerous calls, texts or emails from me to talk about an array of subjects and his communications director Nick Voinis has repeatedly ignored/rejected my attempts to get Patterson on the radio.
Sources say Patterson has alienated some big-money donors because of his lone ranger work style. Those sources say the only thing that could change the minds of donors going forward would be Charlie Strong winning big in football.
No pressure Charlie.

