Finding specific fundraising that occurred at a private university 20 years ago is going to be difficult. That being said, the below was taken from his bio and covers the last ten years.
"On the development front, the Hurricane Club continues to support UM’s student-athletes and coaches in record numbers. The Hurricane Club raised more than $16 million in 2018-19 and now boasts a record 12,500 members, an increase of 140 percent since 2010. Philanthropic annual fund gifts increased to $5.9 million in 2018-19 and the Hurricane Club secured 10 seven-figure leadership gifts."
You probably don't have much experience dealing with individuals like our BOT members, but those people tend to speak about facts and not let emotion get the best of them. Saying you think Blake should be terminated for his performance as Athletic Director, while acknowledging his success in other positions is a reasonable take. Claiming Blake is bad at every other position he has held at UM is a slap in the fact of the BOT and isn't accurate.
I expected a bunch of Blake-defending nonsense from you, but this is really stretching.
YOU claimed that Blake did well in a fund-raising role at Miami. I challenged you on THAT, and now you are saying "finding specific fundraising that occurred at a private university 20 years ago is going to be difficult."
So let me renew the question. When you wrote the following words:
"The fact is Blake has held roles at UM involving both gifts and ticket sales. Blake was good at both of these roles."
What were the specific reasons why you claimed that Blake was "good at" the job involving (major) gifts? Because now you are claiming it would be "difficult" to get such specific information. So which is it? Was your claim that Blake was "good at" gifts something that you claimed without any factual basis, or...well, I guess that there isn't really an option here. Either you have the specific knowledge, or you do not. I hope that Blake never calls you to testify on his behalf.
Now, moving on to your snide comments that I "probably don't have much experience dealing with individuals like our BOT member" (oh, and I do), I don't know why you think that a specific critique of SEVEN YEARS ON THE JOB is supposed to acknowledge "success in other positions". And, if you bothered to read closely, you would see that I DID ACKNOWLEDGE his success in the ticket office, even though I am capable of pointing out some ticket office disasters that have occurred since he became AD.
What I DID DO was to take issue with the myth of Blake's "fund-raising prowess" at UM, which even you were not able to rebut ("difficult" to get such information).
So please stop repeating false claims about my posts. I DID NOT say that "Blake is bad at every other position he has held at UM". That is an invention that you created. I never said it.
Finally, let's analyze the Blake Bio Hype:
"On the development front, the Hurricane Club continues to support UM’s student-athletes and coaches in record numbers. The Hurricane Club raised more than $16 million in 2018-19 and now boasts a record 12,500 members, an increase of 140 percent since 2010. Philanthropic annual fund gifts increased to $5.9 million in 2018-19 and the Hurricane Club secured 10 seven-figure leadership gifts."
Which are the record numbers?
HC raised more than $16 million? Do you have prior year numbers?
Philanthropic fund gifts increased to $5.9 million? Again, what are the prior year numbers?
Ten seven-figure leadership gifts? Any context for this? IPF-related (thus more of a one-time, non-recurring bump)?
Oh, the MEMBERSHIP of the Hurricane Club went up (or did it)? So we have 12,500 members (at the height of Richt-mania), and we are comparing it to mid-recession 2010 when Shannon was boring people to death. How about we compare it to 2002 or 2014? Any "percentage increase" is manipulable.
Look, if you want to cite Blake's Bio, that's up to you. I asked specific questions about the basis of your conclusions that Blake was "good at" his prior jobs at UM, and all you could do was say that it would be "difficult" to get the data I requested, and then you cut-and-pasted Blake's own self-serving bio.
Come on, man, just admit that you have no idea of the basis for the myth that "UM's BOT loves Blake because he has raised so much money for UM over his career".
