Athletics Director Ross Bjork took questions from the 12th Man during his latest monthly Aggie Town Hall.
Athletics Director Ross Bjork took questions from the 12th Man this week during his latest monthly Aggie Town Hall. You can watch the event below.
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Select quotes from the town hall are below.
Yeah, no, I think I think he's on to something and something that we talk about all the time, and (we talk about) in our 12th Man Foundation. We've said it numerous times that we have the best fundraising organization in college sports. And that's not just us saying it. Our peers say it. I don't know how many calls come in every week from other organizations in college fundraising to say, Hey, how's the 12th Man Foundation doing it? Or we get a technology company that we're a partner with saying such and such school is looking at this, they want to know how A&M does it through the 12th Man Foundation. A great organization. We have a young alumni program that, if you're within the last 12 years of graduating from Texas A&M, you get some related benefits. You get some extra sort of boost. If you give $50, you get credit for more than that. So there's a program that's in place right now. We also are in the pipeline of building out the student body, the current 12th Man. We have a student membership, and we have several thousand members that are giving $25 a year as a student. So that is building a pipeline and they get priority points.
The biggest challenge is that I think a lot of people look at this is as a transaction. And so what we want to do is flip it into just support and philanthropy. And what I mean by the transaction is I want to sit on the 50-yard line. Well, that takes a contribution to the 12th Man Foundation. But those seats are sold, and those seats aren't really turning over at a rapid rate. So people are going to look at buying a season ticket and the ones that are available are typically going to be in the in the upper end zones. Do people see the value of that? So student membership is a big push for us. The young alumni program can continue to evolve and we can promote that more and more. And then creative things like the Gig ‘em Pass, where last year we introduced this and you could basically buy eight tickets and you could use those eight tickets however you saw fit. You want to use two of them for Alabama and two of them for the Auburn game? Then you had four left. So trying to be creative and flexible I think is a way to build the younger generation, the younger former students. And then through events. We do coaches night in partnership with the Association, and typically that can be a younger crowd. Doing things like that, I think is a push for us. But I guarantee you, Justin, that our staff in the 12th Man Foundation? They think about this every day, how to build that future generation. So it does not go unnoticed for sure.
We're on the list, and we're trying to make it happen. We're doing everything we can. Last summer, we were like an inch away from another…not Garth, but another big name. And that would have been great in Kyle Field. Coming out of COVID, that person's team and all their folks were like, boy, we want a sold-out venue. And we're like, look, we can make it 80,000, we can make it 20,000, we can make it as big as you want. We'll sell it out whatever number you want to sell it out. And I think they were just a little skittish about coming out of COVID. So we have a whole group that we've revised, our outside special events, and they are focused on how do we bring more music to College Station and Kyle Field? So we're pushing, we're trying. We haven't landed it yet, but that it's something that is a priority for us. And I think our good friend Billy Lucci even tweeted something at Parker McCollum. And he jumped on it. Hey, I'd love to do a show at Kyle Field. So look, it's a conversation that's out there. It's up to us to deliver, but also you have to have the act that's willing. And so we're pushing, we're trying to leverage everything that we have, and we need to land something at some point. Because it'd be a lot of fun. It would be packed. I think Parker, he'd be great. You know, other big-name acts…there's another famous Texan that I think plays for big venues, right? So there are lots of people in the music world that I think would be great at Kyle Field. And we're trying.Â
There was another outreach, a friendly outreach, on Twitter to me that basically said, why do you keep letting this happen? How much longer will you let this go on? And it was related to obviously, they're talking about men's basketball. They're talking about college football playoff from 2020. And so obviously the buck stops here, right? I'm the A.D., so I get it. The tennis thing’s interesting. Coach Weaver and I, we've kind of talked about this the second half of the season. We've only lost one match, but there was one point where we won like three SEC matches and we like went from like No. 8 down to like No. 12 in the middle of the season. Shouldn't you go the other way? So there's a human poll, which we’re ranked number one in, the USTA. There's coaches, there's media members on there. But the seeding in the NCAA tournament, this is what I've learned, is based on ITA rankings. And the ITA rankings are based on who do you play, who did they play, who did their opponents play, who beat who. And it's like this whole formula. It's like an RPI type type formula…so it sounds like the NCAA selection committee, and I looked at some of their minutes a couple of weeks ago. It's fascinating they ask this question because I wanted to know, what are they using? And I looked at their minutes from one of their meetings and they pretty much talked about the rankings. So it's unfortunate, but look, let's just go win. If we can use that as fuel, and our ladies have been playing at a high level, let's just go win it. Then we'll just say we are number one. So I get what he's saying and it can be frustrating, but now we just have to take care of business.
Tons of work, just really in the last, I'd say, 12 months to really get towards the launch of the campaign. But you go back even farther back. When I got here in 2019, there were already architects on board. There were conversations going on about different pieces and parts of what could take place. It was sort of high-level thinking at the time, different ideas than what we have now. But a lot of the same principles were applied back then and I just sort of said, hey, time out. Let's just kind of simplify the process. Let's figure out how we build buildings here. What are the funding requirements? What are the needs? And then we had to call time out because of COVID. Late ’20, early ’21, we got everything back on the on the table and said, hey, could we break ground in 2022? What would that look like? And everybody said it's doable. Let's kind of back up from the time you want to start construction, here's what needs to take place. And our teams from the Texas A&M System capital projects and facility planning, to Texas A&M University capital planning and facility planning, to Kevin Hurley in Athletics, to the 12th Man Foundation of course…our donors are stepping up. It's been a unified effort to get us to where we are. We're putting up construction fence here in a couple of weeks around the current indoor track. Construction trailers are going to be parked out there here before too long. The indoor track, the current indoor track, just about has every sort of piece of the track that we're going to keep out of there--trophies, some equipment, the scoreboard--just about everything is out of that building. That building will start to come down. So the first two things are indoor football and indoor track. That's what people are going to see first. And then when football's over, we'll renovate the Bright Complex. Then we'll tear down the current indoor football in late December, early January, and then start building the academic center. Those will be the first pieces that people will see. So it's here. We're continuing to raise money. The Centennial Campaign is around a little shy of $90 million right now towards our $120 million goal. So we're off to a great start. I think (the COVID pause) helped map some things out and be forward thinking. But what it did hurt though was the economy and the construction market, right? So things are more expensive than what they were, and they usually go up anyway. There's inflation, there's things that go up, cost escalation goes up anyway. But in some categories, we're seeing some extremes. We hear about supply chain, we hear about cost, we hear about things being stuck on ships somewhere in the ocean because they can't get here in time. It's getting better, it's leveling out. But it’s definitely more expensive than what it was a couple of years ago.
I think he makes a great point. And yeah, some of the figures, I'm not sure where he got $170 of $200 million raised, because we're raising $120 million. We will have some revenue from some other premium seats. We'll have some athletic debt reserves that'll be put towards it. We'll have some debt financing that'll be split off because of some increased revenue. So we don't quite have $170 million raised, we've raised $90. And then there's some other buckets that are being filled from some other categories.Â
So how do we grow? I think it comes down to engagement and communication and the things we talked about earlier. Young alumni programs, student programs, building that pipeline. We're getting ready to launch a rewards program about how often people attend our games, and you can earn points and things like that. I think it goes down to communication and engagement and just stating the case for what we're trying to build, asking people to give. And again, no one's better than our 12th Man Foundation. I think it's awareness, it's engagement, it's asking and it's really just showcasing. And then a lot of times people do want some benefits and that's where we do have the challenge. We don't have a lot of season tickets that are sort of between the goal lines. And if that's what people want, then we may not be able to fulfill that. But I think the message then has to be you can still make an impact if you do this. Here's some other options to make an impact. We have to communicate that as often as we can to get that to impact (the former students). That's what we have to do. Man, just think if we had 10% of the 526,000, that'd be 52,000 people constantly giving to athletics. And right now we're kind of in the 20,000 range a little shy of 20,000. That’s a high number against our peers. But man, if we could get to 10%, what would that say? It would say a lot.Â
Then back to the NIL stuff and donations. We have to embrace all of it. Look, we can never tell a donor where to spend their money. It's their money. It's their feelings about the institution. We provide options. You can donate, you can buy tickets, you can do a sponsorship. And I made the statement that we have to embrace all of it in today's world. If I try to fight somebody over, no, you have to give here. No, I really want to give to the collective. No, you can't do that. That's not a good, healthy dialog. We have to allow the donors to choose where they want to invest. And right now there is that new option where you can do an NIL, and that's OK. And so far, we have not seen people that have said, I'm choosing one or the other. Maybe they don't do as much through the 12th Man Foundation. That's okay. Maybe they're doing this over here. That's okay. So our job is to facilitate. What is your interest? Where do you want to give? If you want to give to NIL, we can't really do that. That's outside. You can do that over here. But here's your options to give and donate. And so that's the way we've approached it. And Travis Dabney and the (12th Man Foundation) staff, they've done a great job of just saying, where do you guys want to give your money? It's up to you. It's your money. Here's our options through the University.Â
People have confidence that the right leadership is in place. The vision is being carried out, how it sort of matches what they think Texas A&M should be about and stand, excellence in everything that we do. So I think there's no doubt. I mean, go out and hire Jim Schlossnagle, an established sitting head coach. Go out and hire Joni Taylor. Go out and hire Buzz Williams. Go out and hire Jimbo. And we could go on and on down the list. You make those kind of decisions and people say, okay, that's what I want at A&M. And that's what I want our university to stand for. And then you're right, it fuels sort of the marketing vehicle of the university, which can be utilized through athletics as that that front door or window, whatever analogy you want to use. I think it sends a message for sure.