Recent Comments

Yea as someone whose parents have had season tickets since 1979 VCU has gone through the same growing pains and anger about the system.

I thought about this, but that would imply that Jamie has died. I don't believe they can be a face of someone who hasn't died and I don't think Jamie will die. I think Jamie will actually be the one to kill her.

I think he does kill her but I'm not sure it happens this season. The story line doesn't seem to be trending that way, considering Jamie is ready to murder the Sparrow and his folks over Cersei's walk. But, anything can happen. It felt more likely for him to kill her during Tyrion's trial since he knew it wasn't Tyrion that killed Joffrey but she was convinced he did. He had the most resentment to her then. More than now.

I have no data to support this, but I've always been under the impression that VT has a small, but reasonable amount of 'medium' donors (5 figures+ over the course of a life time), and maybe a few 'major' donors (5 figures/year, 6 figures over a lifetime). but I'm not sure we have any 'big time' donors (people giving multiple million dollar donations). I know the Worshams have given $2 million over the course of their life time, but other schools have Alumni who do this annually.

It is frustrating to see how large a fanbase we truly have, only to see how frugal we are into providing the support needed to reach our potential.If we're not going to have people willingly give money to the HC and yet still take in all the benefits of the events the HC supports, then I don't blame those in charge from making them do it.

I agree. It sucks, but Whit has to do it. Paul Jones gave UVA a $35 million gift for naming rights to the basketball arena. I'm not sure we have any alumni who could do that. If we did, we may not be in this place now. This means Whit has no choice to but maximize donations from our middle-upper class donors.

Anyways, here's a semi-relevant article detailing the biggest donors from each school in the 2014 top 25. I don't think we have many Alumni at this level.

Cersei will die and I'm going to guess it will be at the hand of Jamie. It's just enough of an unexpected turn to be plausible. Her fortune from Maggy the Frog predicted that she would become a queen, check. That she would be replaced by someone younger and more beautiful, check by both Sansa and Margaery. That her husband will have 16 kids and she will have 3, check with all of the bastard children of Robert, and that hers will have gold crowns, check with their golden Lannister hair, and gold their shrouds, check for 2 out of 3 of them being dead and buried in gold outfits. The final part is that the valonqar will wrap his hands around her throat and choke her to death. Well, valonqar means "Little Brother" in High Valerian. The quick assumption is that Tyrion will be her downfall and is what she believes too which is why she hates Tyrion so much. She has always feared him. BUT, Jamie, while being her twin, is also younger than her. My prediction, Jamie will kill her by the end of the season.

For someone who hates the "real fan" moniker you throw out some pretty big gusto and some nice accusations.

I wasn't accusing anyone in particular of anything. Just stating that in general, our alumni and booster giving and participation levels pale in comparison to what they should be and what they are at our peers. This is not debatable, our giving levels are bad, and are actively discussed in Blacksburg where they hold annual conferences and think tanks to figure out how to fix the issues we have with this.

There could be a million different legitimate reasons why people don't participate that means nothing about their pride in VT.

True... When you're talking about it on a per person basis. But I'm not. I'm talking about the 99.5% inactive level of participation that a majority of our alumni and Hokie Club chapters see on an annual basis. You can't make an excuse for a 99.5% inactive participation level, you can only look for ways to improve upon it.

Do all 6k people even know it exists? Or what the benefits of joining are?

They should. Annual mailings go out to everyone in the area to the mailing addresses on file through the main VTAA, of which they are extremely thorough in tracking you through life (like, eerily thorough). And if you're an alumni of VT, you're enrolled into the VTAA for life with no membership dues. However, the events that area alumni chapters put on help to fundraise for VT as well as funding a scholarship for area students, which can be desperately needed, especially for those out of state students.

I didn't know VCU had a football program /s

For someone who hates the "real fan" moniker you throw out some pretty big gusto and some nice accusations. There could be a million different legitimate reasons why people don't participate that means nothing about their pride in VT. Do all 6k people even know it exists? Or what the benefits of joining are?

Damn right. That's a heckuva list, too.

Oh yeah, and its not just there. I know in the Raleigh metro area there are about 6k alumni. Largest alumni base outside of the Commonwealth to be exact. And this is just alumni, not spouses who went to another school, or fans who didn't go there. For any given alumni chapter event we have we might max out at 30 participants, for a whopping turnout of 0.5% of the alumni base.

People love flying the VT flag, they love putting the stickers on their car, and they love wearing the colors, but the second you ask them to get active and actually participate in what it is that they say they love, oh boy do the excuses come out.

Tech needs to focus more on getting more people into the Hokie Club then hammering the existing members.

Well, I think the problem is that the existing members were getting benefits that outpaced their donation levels when compared to the models our peer schools utilize. As I said before, our fans have had it real good for a real long time, and now the tax man is coming to collect. If we want to be a top athletic department with the across the board success that Whit has been preaching and we've been gobbling up and fawning over, we can't bitch and moan when its our turn to up the ante as well.

I guess my big issue issue is Section 18 aren't great tickets they line up on about the 10-15 yard line. I have given Tech over $20,000 in the last ten years and generally continue to give them $2000 per year. I am now being told that isn't enough to keep my tickets where they are.

Tech needs to focus more on getting more people into the Hokie Club then hammering the existing members.