AD Patter$son Facing Heat

77,

I completely agree with your post. I have never given on ounce of credibility to anything coming from Chip Brown. I really don't even know what his website/newsletter/radio show or whatever else he may have is called or where it is located. He so wants to be Blackie Sherrod, but isn't smart enough to realize that Blackie had ethics, morals, and unimpeachable sources.

That said, I believe that this is the first thing Brown has done that does have credibility, and quite frankly, I can see no holes in his story. He may have done us the biggest favor and put a short fuse on a situation that could have simmered for years, while a program continues to sink.

 

And his mother was a born-again-virgin....right? Give the guy a break! He's not even finished unpacking yet!

 

If you only hear one side of the story.....and a skewed side, at that, you're not making an accurate judgment. Believe me, if I only read that article and "assumed" it was a non-biased university-based assessment of 19 months worth of work efforts, I'd be freaking out....along with the rest of you. There's more to the day than dawn. There are a few decisions Patterson has made that I'm concerned with, but I'm going to see how those decisions pan out before I panic, run away, and start showing a dilapidated steer at the county fair. And there's 50%---the Patterson/Athletic Department side---that is not being disseminated in that article for judgmental purposes.

The University of Texas is one of the 5 most powerful universities in the country! Do you really think they're willing to throw away such power, prestige, and influence, nationally, over a couple-million bucks? Our revenue and donations are through the roof! Cutting a few million bucks in a decade is not the plan, it's simply the ground-work...the beginning of an excavation process....to achieve the building and maintenance of the brand which is The University of Texas. Blue prints are always altered, and scales of the blue prints modified to meet the needs of the people--- which are the athletes and us fans. Perhaps it was through listening to the wishes of many that some of the changes have been made. Let's hear and relate to both sides before we make such harsh statements about our athletic department and its director.

 

This is way beyond a Chip Brown story issue now, the sources he cites are talking to other people, more and more national media are picking it up.

Here are two more.

report--texas-lost-10-000-season-tickets-after-2014-season-145328010.html

report-many-at-texas-unhappy-with-athletic-director-steve-patterson

So Patterson listened to the wishes of many and they said to raise ticket prices across the board and alienate long time alumni, fans and boosters, with his other actions. Why does anyone need to see how this turns out? I guess what you mean is let's see how the dollars and cents shake out? That seems to be all that matters now. Corporations will pick up the slack of you "little people."

Football season tickets went way down in 2014, so raising prices is the answer.

You talked about milk prices going up, but milk prices also come down, when circumstances merit.

Milk is a staple for many people and they will buy it because they need to. Sports tickets are not a staple and people have proved they will quit buying them, when the prices are too high.

Not renewing season tickets and donations is not panicking and running away. It's standing up and saying these policies are wrong, it's voting with your pocketbook. It's the only thing that people like Patterson understand.

This is probably fine with Patterson, as he can sell them to corporations.

There was a quote in the first article that said Patterson is taking the "college" out of UT sports and I think that is very accurate.

The University of Texas is a world class school of higher learning, with a well respected college athletic program. It is not just some "brand" like IBM, a cold profit at all cost corporation, at least it shouldn't be. UT's power and prestige is not just all about money.

I don't want the athletic program turned into a professional athletic program, where every aspect of it is to make money, no matter the consequences. This is what Patterson is doing and people are starting to rise up and just say no to that. I hope it continues till he is gone because he will never change.

 

huge amounts of

Surely you are not so ill-informed that this is the first time you've read about this thug's sociopathic behaviors?

When a guy breaks into a bank and begins robbing it blind, or murders a bunch of people at a Luby's, you surely would not say, "Oh, just give this guy some time; we need to see if he's a good guy."

We've had plenty of evidence without Chip's article that Patterson is a no-good POS who even disrespects fans who have been loyal supporters for 50 years. I have a friend, the former CFO of EXXON, who has been a 50-year supporter of UT athletics and a 50-year holder of football season tickets, and he was ready this year to give up his football season tickets because he feels so disrespected by this AD criminal. Hopefully, when next year comes around, he won't be faced with that decision because of a Putin-like character in the UT AD job.

If you are so uninformed that you don't know what this thug is doing to the fan base, then I feel sorry for you and you need to learn to Google and read: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=fire+Steve+Patterson

Steve is going to earn those bonuses that Powers idiotically put into his contract. That Bill hired this criminal is amazing, but he did.

And what's absolutely crazy is that Bill gave Patterson a FIVE YEAR NO-CUT CONTRACT. I understand Bill's selfish reasons for doing that (legacy-related), but that was perhaps the dumbest decision a college president has ever made re a new AD. Maybe Jamail, or Meyers, or even Red (who had a business relationship with Steve's father) will buy out Patterson's contract. Steve, who is evil but not dumb, knows that with his no-cut contract, he can be a total ******* and piss off everyone in sight and then get bought out years early (and laugh all the way to the bank) and simply go on to his next gig. Or else he can ruthlessly pursue his revenue and net profit objectives (driven by the bonus terms of his contract) and make a bunch of money that way as well.

Powers must have been under an enormous amount of anxiety in his cock fight with the BOR and Perry. Nobody ought to make any big decisions when they are under huge amounts of stress. That and he wanted to protect his legacy, such as it is now . . . .

What an unbelievable cluster f**k. Maybe the influential guy that I know that knows McRaven can make this thing whole, because Fenves, a suck-hind-tit disciple of Powers, won't do a ******* thing differently than Bill did.

We'll see . . . .

 

SabreHorn,

I totally agree with your viewpoint. I've talked with Bill at away games meeting the bus for years now and have chatted with him recently in his office at UT. I've always thought that he was the best college president re athletics that I'd ever known.

But the Patterson (and even the Strong) hires have completely changed my mind re him. He spent probably 30 minutes extolling to me and a small group why Charlie was the only candidate he interviewed for the job of head football coach. It was as though he was incredibly defensive about why he hired Charlie. It became crystal clear, listening to him, what his motivation was for hiring a coach with four years of head coaching experience from a Tier II football program. It was all about his legacy and how he wanted to be remembered -- and nothing else. Really sad.

I know some recruiting media folks and they are universally negative about what Charlie is doing recruiting-wise. Their perspective is that the program he runs is disorganized, not well-planned, and generally run more like a first-level supervisor type would run it than a highly capable executive. It's very sad situation.

Bill's desire for a certain sort of legacy is going to be a very expensive price for the University of Texas at Austin to pay in all sorts of ways into the future. It didn't have to be this way: Bill could have hired Oliver Luck and Art Briles, but in one case he got suckered into listening to a con artist during an interview, and in another, he was more concerned about how he would be remembered than about the welfare of UT - Austin.

 

Ummmm 56
I don't see that the crap stevie has thrown at the fans is meeting or will meet the needs of the formerly loyal fans. You don't really think stevie actually listened to the wishes of the many formerly faithful fans and then raised prices, parking, costs and changed policies that affect how those fans can resell tix they can't use?
Which stat/ fact in Brown's article is incorrect?
Speaking of ground work and decades long planning perhaps it would have been wiser to have a winning season or 2 before raising costs so much and implementing divisive policies.

 

Dear Steve,

If you're going to recognize famous Longhorns you might want to take a moment to get their name right.

It's Jordan Spieth.

(The original tweet has been deleted. Mr Patterson has agreed to issue a corrected tweet for only $9.95.)

 

I can't think of any excuse for this.
But to Driver
I bet stevie wished he HAD thought of that revenue enhancing market driven solution.

 

No. I'd say "May I assume these things happened in the Bermuda Triangle of Texas which we call "Waco"?

You need to look no further than today's sports section of The Statesman to see how the landscape of sports has changed and the overwhelming tasks we have to protect our athletes and each individual sport. Perhaps you should be very worried and produce a ground-swell against the private NCAA schools who can easily take over the majority of sports because they DO NOT have to supply any financials. They can, legally, create 'slush-funds' to fund sports, scholarships, coach's salaries, and the like. Those are things you best concern yourself with. IF Patterson is the ADFH (Athletic Director from Hell), let's call in a priest and have an exorcism.

From reading your post, along with others, I can only assume that---due to climate change---the Bermuda Triangle of Texas has moved southward from Waco to Austin.

If Charlie Strong can go 8-5 this year and 10-3 next season, if Smart can bring life back to the Erwin Center and sweep out the walking dead, then people will start talking about all of the right moves our new AD has made.

Yes, I have concerns about a few of his new policies, but I'm not willing to scream "We're doomed" and run away from The University of Texas which means so much to me. The paranoia of those writing the posts on this topic reminds me of the delusional posts of our aggy friends over the years.

Once again, do you really think that our university would be willing to give up the most powerful brand, influence, and prestige as one of the 5 most powerful institutions in the United States for a couple million dollars of savings over a period of years?

And if what you're saying about Patterson is subjectively correct, I highly suggest we petition our governor to remove every Perry-appointed member of our UT Board of Regents, for they're the ones who wield the power in making these hiring decisions.

If what you say turns out to be correct, I'll jump onto your bandwagon. Until then, I look at such gloom-and-doom theatrics as a witch-hunt.

As for your CFO/Exon friend who's had season tickets for over 50 years (and just renewed again for this coming season), HE DID CHOOSE TO RENEW. I surely admire his/her loyalty to all-things UT, given this person's age and just the logistics of getting in and out of the stadium, weather conditions, and the like. That's a true Orangeblood! I've ridden this boat with numerous coaches and dept. personnel I didn't care for. But, I chose to support the school and our athletes first and foremost.

And, as I'm sure you're well-aware, if this is truly a mistake/miscalculation in our hiring decision, UT will rectify the situation sooner rather than later.
Hook'Em Horns!













Seriously?

 

Here's an idea.....why don't you contact Chris Brown and ask him to interview Steve Patterson and have him respond to each one of the article's rhetoric. Simply get both sides of the story----both sides of the data---before assuming a person writing such articles is doing it for the good of UT vs for persona agenda? (And the other 2 articles were simply rehashing of Brown's article......with no data or interviews with our AD, as well---simply interpretations of Brown's article-----funny, in and of itself.) This is beginning to take on the tone of "talk radio." Anything for a splash and no set of facts from both sides. To be fair, you must have both sides of the story to make a decision. (Ex: "10,000 give up their season tickets." BUT our ticket sales are 2 months ahead of last year's sales.) This is an example of why we need all of the data, facts, figures, and response from the Athletic Dept. before we pronounce gloom and doom.

 

Yes, everybody has totally lost their minds and are acting like aggy, except for you, that is the rational conclusion to be made here.

As I said before, this is well beyond Chip Brown, I guess everybody in that story, including UT alumni and faculty are liars. They have expressed their views to other media sources besides Brown and they are relating the story also.

Don't you dare question our loyalty to the University, just because we don't blindly follow bad policy, dealt out by a UT staff member. Yes, the policies he has implemented are bad. He is the one responsible, not some private school. It's because we care deeply for Texas and it's alumni and supporters that we speak out against these policies.

As an alumnus, I want the very best in all things for my University, that is not always measured in financial gain. What happens on the field or court in the future, does not change the fact that these steps taken by Patterson now are wrong.

Alienating alumni, donors, fans, all those that support Texas, does not benefit the University in any way.

Here is yet another article on Patterson for you to discount, they seem to be growing each day.


Patterson-fails-one-who-can-save-him-6339776.php

 

NB,

Whoever 56 Bells is, either he/she doesn't actively participate in attending UT sports in Austin, or didn't observe how the previous AD conducted business, or else he/she is incredibly naïve, or else he/she is a Plonsky/Patterson plant. I'd vote for the latter.

Nobody can observe what this new sociopath AD is doing and think that he is normal; indeed, he is the sort of deviant that ought to be in Huntsville or Leavenworth or Florence Supermax.

If I were on this thug's jury, I'd vote for his immediate incarceration and a fine of $100,000 for every Longhorn fan he's wronged in the slightest way. Sociopaths like him deserve that sort of treatment and to have society protected from criminals like him.

 

Wow! I didn't question anyone's loyalty...period. Just as McCombs said to end the above-referenced article "Winning cures everything!"

Are we not allowed to disagree on this site? Have I missed something?

But, once again, the article simply rehashes the first article which rehashed the 2nd article which rehashed the 3rd article. And when I read that our athletic department is losing money, thus Patterson may lose his job, it removed credence to the article, for me, and made it seem more like sensational jounalism. We've all seen the latest financials which are excellent/exceptional!

As I said 6 posts ago, if everything being said about our Athletic Department and Steve Patterson are totally correct, and if there are no other 'sides' to the issues, we're in dire straits.

I can't imagine that to be the case, however. If everything really is this one-sided, I suspect Patterson will be gone sooner rather than later. If the Longhorn Foundation decides Patterson needs to go, he's toast.

NB, perhaps you're right. Perhaps you're not. I'm just willing to give our AD more than 19 months to work on the process. Everyone's making this out to be Train-Wreck kind of situation.

 

Well that’s harsh.

I think it is safe to assume that SP has been given a mandate to increase revenues, and almost certainly there are financial incentives/bonuses for him to hit target numbers. So in a sense he is “doing his job” and also enriching himself in the process. If this is indeed the scenario then it wouldn’t matter if Luck or anyone else had been hired because the directive would be the same: make more money.

This is not to excuse anything SP is doing but to put it in perspective. If he is just a hired gun then the real accountability for all this is above the AD level. President? BOR?

 

After more than two decades of renewing donations and season tickets without a second thought, I was a hair away from ending something that means the world to me. It's been tabled to review again after a trial season under SP's new dictator policies.

Nothing short of a complete cluster**** could have brought many of us to this point. To say that SP hasn't completely alienated his customer base and spit on the many years of personal and financial loyalty is absurd.

A lot of us were there loyally paying and cheering through the lean, painful seasons. Those who downplay his offensive and disrespectful actions towards the fanbase likely don't have several years and $1,000's a year worth of dog in this hunt.

 

Brad
I am there with you. I really thought long and hard about dropping. Even in the awful years I never once considered not donating not getting season tickets.
Not once.
Next year? At this point I do not know.

does anyone know or did it say in the articles how many did not renew? I read somewhere it was around 10,000.
stevie p seems to think he can replace thousands of the loyal fans with plenty of corporate people. That could be difficult..
How many out of town corporate people will he get? will they fill hotels and restaurants?

 

Chris? Do you mean Chip?

That is almost as egregious as $P calling Jordan "Justin" in the congratulatory tweet...

Here is a clue...pissing off the bread and butter base is rarely a good way to endear oneself...and $P is doing precisely that. At least that bread and butter often came to the games, something that corporate shills often do not. And a shill that gets a ticket just because they sent a larger check that replaces bread and butter losses is STILL a shill, and likely one that sits somewhere OTHER than at DKR to watch the game.

$P must go, and the sooner the better...hmm...as I read that, is there any way we can foist him on that entity north of the Red River that still sucks?

 

It seems to me that some of you are at and some of you are past the tipping point with SP.

At least in terms of your personal & monetary investment in the LHF / football season tickets. It is disgusting that his actions have caused so many of you longtime and very loyal supporters to consider a divorce of something you dearly love. I hope it stops short of that.

If this process continues and more & more fans choose not to renew, the President and or the BOR will also reach a tipping point with SP.

 

No, winning does not make wrong things right, that is straight out of the OU playbook.
Nothing we do is wrong as long as we win. All these articles being published are terrible publicity for the University and they are growing. They also talk about all the strange things that Patterson has done at all his prior places of employment.

Bad policies ares still bad policies whether winning or losing. I will continue to say this because it is right. I feel sorry for anybody that thinks that as long as we win, anything goes, we can alienate and shut out loyal fans and alumni.

Nothing you or McCombs or anybody else says will ever make me feel differently. You called people "aggy like" and delusional for saying we don't go along with Patterson's actions. These actions are wrong and whether we wait or not, they will still be wrong.

What is aggy like and delusional is just going along with whatever the company line does. That is what aggy does. If you don't you are a 2% aggy according to them. You don't question the crazy things they do.

Nobody said you can't disagree on this site, if that was the case you would have been sent packing like they do on ShaggyBevo, neg repped into oblivion as they say. Did that happen here? We disagree with you and are saying so, did we miss something? That was an odd thing to say and totally untrue. What was your point in saying that?

You can and did get a negative response from people and that was to be expected. Do people not have this right? Obviously you have missed something, that posters can and did respond, why does this surprise you?

 

More than 2 decades of 'dogs in the hunt' with season tickets for 5 sports. I wouldn't think of NOT renewing. It's a huge part of my life and love for the University of Texas. I may not like the price increases, but it's worth it to me for the enjoyment I receive from all things Texas.

 

I apologize to Chris Brown.....my bad! I had no intention of comparing you to the "I-hate-anything-Longhorn," Chip Brown.
I did hear that Steve Patterson, on his trip to the Middle East and on a daily sight-seeing tour, referred to a certain river In Jordan as "The River Justin."

 

This is very communistic like. You would put someone in jail because you don't like what they're doing, even though it's legal? I hope you're never on a jury.

 

I have no problem with what Patterson is doing in regards to tickets, loyalty points, parking, turnkey tailgating, coaching hires, etc. I do have a problem with him trying to pinch pennies in regards to coaches salaries, coaches dinning, the band, charging for reunions, etc. I also don't care for his global reach plan.

He's implemented some good things and he's way out there on others. Hopefully, someone will reign him in on some of the foolishness or maybe he will be able to self examine the bad polices. Time will tell.

 

First of all, I've enjoyed many of your posts on many different topics. I respect your opinion although sometimes with a different perspective from mine.

I called some of the RESPONSES "aggy-like"..NOT the people. Let's agree to disagree, for right now. The proof will be in the pudding, and I'll wait and taste the pudding first, thank you. As for "ShaggyBevo," I don't even know what that is.

I do, however, wish you had gotten this upset when our dear governor, Rickie Perry, stacked our Board of Regents with the idiots that have been giving FAR MORE exceedingly negative publicity for The University of Texas for a decade now than the sports trivia articles on Patterson have.

I suppose a lot of negativity is just human nature......like hiring Charlie Strong with those negative responses, letting Rick Barnes go with those negative responses , keeping Augie and those negative responses, etc. Just way to much instantaneous negativity over anything. The sky is not always falling, and the glass is not always looking 1/2 empty. Just my opinion, however.

 

It's like the UT version of Texags. You are lucky not knowing.

Actually all my negative responses were with the Shawn Watson hiring. I think if we had kept Applewhite or hired a different offensive coordinator than watson, last year may have been better than 6-7 and there would be a lot more positive buzz about Charlie Strong and our future under him. Whether he can win or not, right now I fear we won't know because the buck stops with him, and like with Mack Brown with Diaz, Strong will bear the ultimately responsibility for Watson. If Brown had hired Greg Robinson instead of Diaz after Muschamp, would he still be the coach? I think so but we do not know. If Strong had kept Applewhite or hired someone else better would we be in better shape right now? I think so, but I do not know. I think a different offensive coach would not have lost Zach Gentry for starters. Anyway, sorry this is too much football discussion for in the stands.

What ultimately will make or break Patterson is Strong and Smart. Patterson's mistake is he has bought 0 goodwill if they do not pan out. Actually, he may not have enough goodwill even if they do.

 

I am not paranoid, nor my responses delusional and I wish you would get upset over what Patterson is doing right now to alumni, donors, and supporters.

By the way, this is the subject of this thread, not the other things you have brought into it.

Patterson has alienated people and I believe that winning does not make those bad things right. You just attack the articles and never say this is not correct.

I and other posters believe these actions and others are bad for the University, just like the crazy things he did at other places he worked. These are things he did and are well documented, that show what and who he is.

Perry has been talked about at great length on Hornfans over the years, maybe you should do some research. We all know about it and his battle with Powers too. Yet Powers survived somehow didn't he. You take these kind of digs at least once in every post. When you had no idea what has been said about Perry on Hornfans.

Hyperbole like the sky is falling and the glass is half full doesn't change the fact that Patterson's policies are wrong and alienating people. It's already happened, it's not my opinion.

Patterson has brought on the negativity with his negative actions. People on this board don't like it and are in the vast majority in this belief.

This forum is for expressing those beliefs, whether it be positive or negative. There was much more positive response to Strong than negative on this board.

Barnes and Augie have been talked about for years, both good and bad. The baseball and basketball teams have major problems. Football is even more well documented. This is a UT Forum about sports and other subjects, things are discussed and hashed over.

Everything is not always just fine all the time either, bad things happen, people respond in kind. That's not my opinion, that's life.

 

I've heard the Gentry decommit was mutual. The staff told him they were moving to a spread offense and the rest is history.

 

Gentry will be a good one when it's all said and done. Hated losing that guy.

 

Patterson could get some of the heat off of him if he admitted some of the policies were wrong and changed them.
" I have heard the alumni and fans loud and clear and are making the following changes ...."
"We will refund parking pass charges and distribute free parking passes to LHF members purchasing season tickets as before."
" We are eliminating the policy of no resale of tickets."
"We understand that a lot of longtime fans are not happy and have not renewed and we are willing to grandfather them back into the same or comparable seats with the same donation level if they choose to renew by July 30, 2015".

Probably would go a long way, but I am sure arrogance will win the day. Sad.