As I suggested above, I expect the tightened security came from the Board of Trustees, perhaps launched by new trustee Adam Silver, and was implemented through Tallman Trask, who runs a lot of operational stuff at Duke. He is Executive Vice President and the principal administrative and financial officer.
Sage Grouse
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'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013
my extremely cynical view of how such organizations are run makes me think it went down as follows
- the same inertia that causes nothing to get fixed meant that cameron was running with 60's era security in 2010's
- adam silver goes to game and, given his experience running a league, knows the risks and liabilities that a lack of security brings. tells administration they need to get their act together
- Administration hires some security consulting firm to come up with a plan for duke athletics.
- One of two things happened. I find both extremely plausible, and neither reflects well:
- - the consulting firm (likely being chosen because of a relationship with a trustee or administrator) has no real experience in sports security, and proposes what we have today. Nobody in the department says "wait hold on a second, nobody else does this, maybe we should get a second opinion"
- - the consulting firm came back with a plan more in line with...the rest of the world...and the athletics department said "wow that's expensive" and the firm came back with a cheaper no-bag no-reentry option, at which point the department said "hey but people need to buy $tuff from the $tore!" so the firm came back with a proposal to allow merchandise bags, and the department said DEAL!
- Draconian security is implemented, people stop showing up, but the same intertia that caused there to be NO security for so long means nothing will change.
Is this exactly what happened? doubt it...but i think we have all been around the organizations that operate like the athletics department often enough to realize it's pretty darn likely.
April 1
Do not think that shallow or indifferent leadership in operational issues is confined to the athletic department. This theme has been around for decades. Back when the East Campus was being built, Alice Baldwin had to convince the unmarried President Flowers that both showers and bathtubs should be included in the East Campus dormitory bathrooms which were being designed to house women undergraduates.
Is it too oxymoronic to say that Duke is Inertia Driven? Nice motto...Inertia Driven Since 1928!
So your season ticket base is aging, you're failing to attract younger fans, you're failing to attract fans period, and now you're running off season ticket holders who have been around for two to five decades.
So here's my question. At what point are there basically no paid fans at Duke football games? Define that however you like, but I think consistent failure to make five-figure attendance is in our near future. Cutcliffe is nearly .500. What happens when the next coach isn't? Does this even resemble I-A (FBS, whatever) football in 2030?
When you run off long tenured season ticket holders, you're also running off their families. You're running off the next generation, and the next. Duke--it's as if you're in a cartoon on a raft floating towards a waterfall. Instead of attempting to prevent its descent, you just paddle faster into the void.
A movie is not about what it's about; it's about how it's about it.
---Roger Ebert
Some questions cannot be answered
Who’s gonna bury who
We need a love like Johnny, Johnny and June
---Over the Rhine
I was a glutton for punishment so went to most of the home football games while I was at Duke (during the Goldsmith era) and haven’t been back for a game since I graduated (I have been back for several basketball games, though none in about 10 years). Being a Duke fan then was very frustrating, but I enjoyed the campiness of the experience. I also just had to walk across campus, was going for free, and didn’t have a lot competing for my time (who needs to study?), so I was an easier target than most.
I now live in New York City. I haven’t been in a few years as my kids have gotten busy with activities, but I used to go to about one Columbia football game a year. The quality of play makes Duke look like the Patriots, the stadium isn’t particularly nice, and other than them sometimes having bouncy castles for Homecoming, there aren’t any other special draws. I have fairly close family connections to the university but these don’t drive a lot of loyalty to the football team. But I go. It is a relatively cheap (similar prices to Duke tickets), convenient way for me to expose my kids to college sports and it gets them out of our modest-sized Manhattan apartment. And the stadium is usually not crowded so my kids can move around as much as they want. Concessions and admissions are far from a well-oiled machine, but I don’t recall them doing anything to offend me the way that Duke clearly makes it unpleasant for fans.
I’m trying to figure out how to translate this to Duke. How do you get the casual fan to bring their kids, get the alums to travel back for one or two games a year, and make students take the walk across campus to go to a game (and hopefully yell a little bit)? This was a challenge when I was in school and remains one today, but the excuse of the team being consistently horrible keeping away fans is gone. I think there have been a lot of constructive comments on this thread. One would think that someone posting here knows someone in the Duke administration and could get them to read through this thread. Because for all of the surveys, it seems like they are largely ignored (which only makes it more frustrating). If they just dealt with some of the low-hanging fruit, it would make a big difference. Because as others have noted, when the team’s record inevitably starts getting worse, it will only get harder.
Well, as a season ticket holder for many on/off years (Slayton, Roof, Franks, Wilson, Spurrier) and during Cut's tenure, the Game Day Experience is not fun. My undergrad alma mater, APP State, has got a great formula, and program (even without 2+ Star players). We travel to Durham, from Florida for home games, it's a challenging trip. My co-season ticket holders are alums of other ACC schools, but we attend Duke games for the tailgate (and the game is a subsidiary event that happens afterward, and usually more fun when we win). This year, with game times only decided 10 or so days prior to the event have made travel plans challenging (I realize that it's all about the TV revenue, not the fans). The Concessions services and products are mediocre (as an example: the chocolate-flavored hot water for $3). Security is well-suited for a 50,000 attended game, which we will never see here. And, the team, is, well, coached very conservative and unimaginative (Run 2, Pass 1, Kick, repeat). And, I cannot recall when I have seen decent pass coverage from a Duke team, Wake and Miami will have free reign. We may not be season ticket holders next year.
I encourage anyone that feels this way to give Ozzie a shout and inquire about our tailgate and our game day experience. Even for a night game, TNTDevil and I often set up our grill on Blue Devil Alley by 9am. We can't change what happens in the stadium, but we do our best to make it an amazing experience outside in the Card Lot, proudly serving up a different menu every game, with an amazing group of people joining us. Our numbers very each day from the twenties to over 50, depending on our opponent, kick off time, and the weather.
It's an unbeatable atmosphere, and one that we truly enjoy being a part of every year. (And it's a great way to meet other DBR members, and get a beerducation from DevilDeac and company.)
Q "Why do you like Duke, you didn't even go there." A "Because my art school didn't have a basketball team."
Moneta? -- Gone.
From the Chronicle, six months ago:
By Ben Leonard | @Ben___Leonard
May 16, 2019 | 10:01pm MDT
After 18 years as vice president for student affairs at Duke, Larry Moneta is set to retire June 30, when Mary Pat McMahon will succeed him as vice provost/vice president for campus life. The Chronicle’s Ben Leonard talked to Moneta about his time at Duke, from his best decisions to his regrets.
Sage Grouse
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'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013
1. High ABV and/or bottle-conditioned beers can be cellared easily for a year or more with IPAs/IIPAs generally excluded as they're betterer if they're fresherer (aka as further from farther ).
2. I'll often buy a 4 pack of those types beers and drink one every quarter for a year to see how it changes/matures or trade one or two from the litter.
3. Really no need to sequester stuff as you can go to almost any craft beer store and buy interesting stuff off the shelf that'll be great for a tailgate later that week.
[redacted] them and the horses they rode in on.
well i'll be in amsterdam in may, and austria and germany in july, and possibly elsewhere (and perhaps russia in june).
And my plan is to hit up oktoberfest munchen...
So plenty of opportunity to stock up on stuff that might be otherwise hard to find at craft beer stores around here
April 1