The largest ever gift to Virginia Tech athletics will benefit recruiting, nutrition and performance for all 22 varsity sports.
University President Tim Sands announced Monday that a $15.2 million donation to the university will be used to help create a state-of-the-art Student-Athlete Performance Center on Virginia Tech's Blacksburg campus. The gift will benefit student-athletes in all 22 intercollegiate sports. It was made by an alumni couple who are Virginia natives.
It's gonna be yuge!
[Mod Edit: Quote partial excerpt from press release.]
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Yeah, okay, but will it have a slide?
This is awesome to see. I had to re-read this a few times when I got the bleacher report notification on my phone. Having something like this in the works that Whit won't have to worry about is going to be HUGE for us.
So as far as I can tell, it's a new, bigger place to eat.
Much more than that. Plus not just the football team uses the room.
All 22 Varsity sports will get to use it - a big help, considering the tweet I saw from Bitter mentioned that Whit stated Athletics alone spends $2.5-$3 million a year on food.
So who wants to take a stab at guessing the donor?
via GIPHY
You're welcome everyone.
thank you ass you a tru friend of Virginia Tech
I wish.
If I had that kind of coin, TKP would be fully funded and we'd all be wearing HOAT T-shirts with our TKP fitted (yeah, I'd make Joe make fitted happen) hats to the biggest, best bourbon selection having tailgate every gameday.
Fuck all that shit I just want TKP undies.
Damn the t-shirts and hats, but did you just say fuck bourbon?
You're dead to me.
It's about high fashion.
I ain't arguing with TKP undies. Who would? Why hasn't that happened yet, Joe?
But did you not say "fuck all that shit," which included a funded tailgate with the best bourbon selection every gameday?
I was referring to apparel only. Nobody wants to stand in the way of a waterfall of natures best bourbon, cascading down iceburg size whiskey rocks.
You dare dilute the greatness of bourbon with disgusting ice?
You goddamn savage, you disgust me!
Bro, I disgust alot of people. You are no more special than any of the rest.
Ice is appropriate for some bourbons. Come at me bro
I don't know, man, ten years from now when we can't keep a coach and Joe gets forced out fans will be complaining about "dat Ass money".
I had no idea the ramifications of my fake money.
Did you hear Frank is intentionally sabotaging the coaching search to become athletic director? They're all in bed with APFOW.
Did you hear that APFOW is under federal investigation?
Frank and Cheryl?!
Why did I not think of this.
Smart money would be Bill and Alice Goodwin.
I would put some money on John Mcconnell. Sold a couple software engineering firms I believe for a few hundred million a piece. Now has Mcconnell golf which has been very successful. Long/weird story but my dentist is now his wife and last time I went for an appointment (before I knew she was dating him), she said her (then) boyfriend was a big VT donor and they were just in Florida at the ACCCG.
Yes, that means I may have skipped an appointment or two since then BUT, either he is the donor or we could be seeing a big donation from him sometime soon.
They've been talking about doing this for a while. Glad they got the money to pull it off.
I have t say with the placement of this, the architecture of Cassell is starting to stick out like a wart. I hope that talk earlier this year about an upcoming massive Reno is more realistic than conjecture.
After all the hype from BAG
color me slightly disappointed
I'd say this is more important to the program than landing any 5* that's available right now.
Texas A&M may disagree:
Johhny Manziel=large $
Not being a dick, just saying how the right player/success can attract a lot of $$$.
And an increase of $300 million over a year!!!...that's crazy money.
If Whit had that kind of coin......
Same argument could be made for Vick.
There are program changers out there for sure. Hell, we could be the biggest example of that in the last 20 years. I was trying to be careful with my words when I said the facility is more important than any 5* available right now.
I agree that facilities attract the players....imagine what $600 million dropping on Whit in the next year......
Shooooo(g) that's a lot of money!
I got about 15 million reasons to disagree with you. 😎
I got one big one
5 star recruits are flashier than $15m donations but believe me the facilities have a higher chance to have more long-term benefits for the program
It's just...
Everyone has good facilities. How does this give us a leg up on competition?
I like that we are getting an upgrade for sure, but there is only so much you can do.
I have seen the current facility, and it seems pretty good. It just seems like you could put 15 Million dollars somewhere else. (scholarships, new majors, etc)
I guess you never really know unless you are out on the recruiting trail yourself
Well it's certainly not letting them get a leg up on us....
There is no way you have been in Bowman room and thought "this is pretty good"
Well my only other point of reference is the IUP athletic center
My high school had a nice cafeteria setup.
Lucky Dog
BTW, not everyone has nice facilities, trust me. VT has some of the best facilities in our conference. Hell, one of the mentioned reasons Jimbo left FSU is that they wouldnt update/build facilities to match other schools.
Currently yes. But location of Lane, Cassell, stadium woods, and
JamestownJamerson really limit the future expansion and updating of those facilities. For example Tech hasn't found a spot to build their ACC studio they are required to build. Cassell is outdated, Bowman and many other rooms in Jameson need modernization badly.Hmm I'm not sure what we can do about Jamestown. You're right, that's going to be tough to work around. ;)
Tech being there I think would have helped in the long run.
Getting a donation like this is a huge step in the right direction for all of our athletics. Maybe our Alumni base is realizing, what it takes to keep up with the Benjamins.
Kelvin Benjamin is a large man.
That's pretty much all you can say about his NFL career so far
Isn't this the same donation as was announced over the summer?
Pearsons provide leadership gift to Tech athletics to help launch next phase of facility renovations
looks like it
Which is weird because today they keep talking about how the gift is anonymous...
Your link reads like the initial donation was enough to kick start the fundraising. The Pearsons also live in Georgia. I think this last donation from the anonymous couple in Virginia finished off the fundraising and now there is enough money to begin the project? Maybe?
I believe this is the same people. The quote in the article today reads.
This does not mean they have to be living here now. The original article mentions he grew up in Warrenton. It also includes the same conceptual design renderings and mentions
the 15 million dollars.Edit: It does not mention the 15 million, only the estimated project cost of 16 million and that the Pearson's made a donation commitment to allow the university to begin the building process.
Somewhat related:
http://www.fauquiernow.com/index.php/fauquier_news/article/fauquier-virg...
Yep, fair enough. I don't read so good.
I agree it's the exact same project. Based on the fact that this second announcement is about anonymous donors, I thought that maybe the these were different people. But you also make a good point about the project cost and donation amount.
I think they only put up the seed money to get it going. (please understand ONLY in context of conversation)
Seems to me that the next major thing that needs to be upgraded in terms of Athletic 'facilities' is the athlete's dorm?
I might be in the minority, but I really hope this doesn't happen anytime soon. I'm obviously obsessed with VT athletics because I'm on TKP, but athletes already get sooooo many extra perks. I think they can live in regular dorms and be just fine. Most athletes live in Cochrane/Harper and it's a nice enough dorm.
That's exactly one reason why the dorms have not be updated. The consensus I hear is that all of the dorms will need to huge facelift and updating, not just the athletics dorms. I dont think anyone is going to allow for just the athletes to getting the update. I do think this announcement will speed up the process for the dorms to be updated down the road.
Makes sense to me. I'm good with all of the dorms being updated. And I think that's the plan with WAJ recently being updated. I lived in Harper and spent lots of time in Cochrane...compared to most dorms on VT's campus, they are palaces!
I lived in Cochrane from 2011 to 2012 and I can attest it was not a palace. Aside from it being right next to West End, the place was a dump. It didn't have a kitchen or a laundry room. However, I think they did some renovations to it the year after I moved out.
'09-10 resident here. Can verify your account. At the time it was by far the "worst" suite-style dorms on campus. That being said being attached to West End made up for a lot in my book. Also it was a big step up from pre-renovation EAJ for me.
Compared to other, older dorms on campus, it is a palace. Might not be as nice as New Hall West/East, but it's decent.
09-10 Cochrane Resident here - it wasn't too bad, but didn't have any more living style perks that any of the normal dorms had with the exception that you had 4 rooms to one suite and 2 showers for 8 people. Being attached to West End was a HUGE perk, especially when you can stroll down in the winter when it's snowing and show up in shorts and flip flops.
My, how times have changed. I remember visiting some friends in Cochrane to play some board games and thinking their rooms were a lot nicer than mine at Pritchard in 1994-1995. Granted, I also lived on the Pit so that might have something to do with it, too >.>
Maybe compared to some of the super old dorms on campus, but nowhere close when you compare it to what other schools are doing.
Reference.
I don't disagree with your opinion but its no secret we have lost recruits because of the living situation on campus. Other schools do it far far better than we do. It's something that has to be and will be addressed sooner rather than later.
Didn't I see in the official visit schedule that was on twitter that they showed the athletes the Edge living complex? I think that because of the admission numbers going up that they actually allowed some freshman athletes to live off campus their first year.
For everyone that has spent time in the Bowman Room and that side of the Merryman Center, this is going to be a HUGE upgrade that give us a recruiting advantage across the board. This news, combined with talks/designs for new athlete dorms, is really gonna give us the perfect recipe to get top student-athlete talent to Tech in all sports, primarily football.
We already have the best dining halls in the country, and now we're going to give all athletes their own private dining options on top of that when they don't want to hang out with us peons in the Lobster line at West End?
I feel like people don't quite fully grasp how we just doubled down on one of the bigger sells of our recruiting efforts while at the same time locking down one of our bigger weaknesses.
We dropped out of the top 5:
https://www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings?rankings=best-campus-food
#FireTim #FireWhit #HireBobbyFlay
KJ to UM Amherst, confirmed
WHOA! JMU is ahead of us. Must fix immediately!
I actually think it'd be a mistake to do so. VT really leaned on that when they were trying to build out of state rep and sell campus life. They already have the #1 quality of life and students love their school.
Perfect time to distance from a gimmick ranking. Focus on the prestige that was built over the last two decades. It's also an unwinnable arms race with school population growing.
JMUs is not that good
All the food services and their employees at JMU are run by Aramark.
Wasn't Aramark the food service provider when VT was ranked #1?
I'm not sure but they run ECU's food and that food suxxxxx
Negative.
Negative. I worked at WEM from 2005-2008 and dining services always prided itself on the fact that they were not run by a contract dining service. Sunday morning brunch was my fave. I was one of the ones making omelettes for your hungover asses. You're welcome.
Thanks for the clarification.
For some reason, thought I remembered seeing Aramark trucks at the dining halls on occasion when I was there (06-11).
As someone who did undergrad at JMU, I just cannot agree with this.
D Hall brunch on weekends was the truth. Many a day was it that hungover Beard stumbled in and ate as much greasy food as he could stand.
They serve truth for brunch in your detention hall?
Very generous donation, but I hope that facade overlooking the practice field is just a quick conceptualization. We can do better than that.
EDIT: Yep, it is. Add some Hokie Stone and clean it up a bit. Very nice.