Seriously Coach34 is your stat true.. And if so get off your *** young alumni..

[mcdawg22]

Are there really only 10,000 active BDC contributors? I can, off hand name 20 including my wife and myself that are. So in my small sample size of people I know growing up in V'burg and living in Gulf Breeze, can account for 1/500 of the people in BDC. That is 17'n depressing. And again that is off hand. I guarantee if I included SPS'ers that I know and big time State fans that I know that number easily climbs to 100, which is 1/100 of the people on BDC. Seriously 1/100? I didn't know that percentage when I went to State, and that's in a 8 year span,(and no, I did not go to graduate school). We have to get off our asses and promote our school. Or at the least throw 50 bucks to BDC, it's not intimidating, if you didn't graduate, you are not chastised. Just do it, and tell your friends to do the same.

 

[RocketDawg]

You can look on your Dog Tag page and see the current number in the BDC. Last time I noticed, there were fewer than 10,000 ... and I think the number was under 9,000.

 

[RocketDawg]

I just checked: 8286 active members*

asdf

 

[mcdawg22]

asdf

One thing I'll add, I would wish that we'd embrace the aTm method, of association of former students. I did not graduate, because 20 year old McDawg was an unmotivated, directionless ball of intellect. If 36 year old McDawg was in college he would be on the dean's list. But because of my college completion, I got a job in a supervisory role at a financial institution. And because of higher learning I was able to parlay my learned deductive reasoning into promotion after promotion. So despite career wise going completely opposite of what my studies were, my college experience more than prepared me for the "real world". I think that " former students" sometimes feel like they don't belong. And that is just false. You belong , hell I know former students that were on the board of alumni associations. I plan to be on one day. Don't be embarrassed you represent our university and you are just a big a part of it as anyone that graduated.

 

[DawgBot]

Just looking at the website...it is not promoted enough.

It should be prominently displayed on the front of hailstate.com. A permanent image in the photo daily update.

Also...how does it not have a twitter? Wouldn't it be good if they could say something like thanks Will from Southaven...bulldog club member #9,000? They could give out prizes to the 10,000th member.

I am drunk..so maybe these are bad ideas.

 

[mcdawg22]

It should be prominently displayed on the front of hailstate.com. A permanent image in the photo daily update.

Also...how does it not have a twitter? Wouldn't it be good if they could say something like thanks Will from Southaven...bulldog club member #9,000? They could give out prizes to the 10,000th member.

I am drunk..so maybe these are bad ideas.

Those are great ideas, I love the maroon Friday's from Maldives, but maroon tshirt's from (insert world location) doesn't do as much as your suggestion.

 

[DawgBot]

All right. I will email someone in the bulldog club tomorrow. At least find out why they do not have a twitter account.

 

[Lawdawg.sixpack]

if you took a class at MSU, you are an alumnus.

 

[rezdawg]

it could be the relative futility of being a BDC member

I am in the above mid level rankings of the BDC. My football tickets are below the 10th row on the 30, my parking pass is in the Sanderson parking lot and the year I bought basketball tickets they were 5 rows from the top behind the backboard. I know they are reseating the stadium next year, but if the top 10% of BDC members keep getting 90% of the benefits I'll have to reconsider the value.

 

[kired]

You have to realize how a lot of people get tickets. They work with a guy whose dad runs ABC company and buys 20 season tickets.

The dad is the only one thats a member of the BDC. He's got a helluva high ranking and gets great seats so its pointless for the son and his friends to join.

 

[Requiem For A Dawg]

Why do you assume it's just young alums? With only around 8,000 members, I would say it's most all alums.

 

[MSUDawg25]

You have to understand how competitive these things can be. Getting season tickets is a privilege. The higher the demand is, the better off we are. If you are a Kentucky basketball fan or an Alabama football fan and a mid-level donor, you are happy just to GET tickets.

 

[FreeDawg]

Why do you assume it's just young alums? With only around 8,000 members, I would say it's most all alums.

Bingo. How many people graduated from 1975 until 2005 (I cutoff there assuming the newest grads could have size able loan debt). It's really a pathetic number. The thing that most don't get and I think they should stress is the importance of the lowest level contributors. Not everyone can give big money but I'd assume most all grads can afford $150 a year. Make the little guys feel important and grow that segment exponentially. Hopefully this group advances in their career and their commitment goes up. My theory is that a bunch feel like if they can't give big $ they aren't important and that just isn't true

 

[uptowndawg]

Another disappointing stat is that I only joined in 2009, have been giving mostly modest donations (just what is required to keep the seats in my section) and have somehow already climbed into the top 3,000 members. That means that there are about 5,000 of the 8,000 members who have been giving even less than the peanuts I've been throwing the BDC.

 

[dawgstudent]

I give $100/year under my own account. I give a much larger portion under someone else's so we can group our season tickets. The person I give under donates the majority b/c that's what he wants to do but a group of us split the rest.

 

[uptowndawg]

Makes sense as I'm that "someone else" you speak of for my group of 4 seats. But, even so, I would expect that I'd be a little lower on the totem pole than 3,000.

 

[Coach34]

As someone else said- it's not just young alumni- it's about people like Dawggeezer that graduated in the 1950's on down (I'm sure Geezer is a member, just using his age for reference). There is no reason we shouldnt have 25K members.

We want big boy results- but we expect them without doing the little things and hard work it takes to get there. It's hard to be like everybody else, when you are not like everybody else.

 

[Arthur2478]

if you took a class at MSU, you are an alumnus.

That's not accurate. To simply join Alumni Association, there are not any class requirements. Donating to either the MSU Foundation or the Bulldog Club automatically enrolls you in the Alumni Association. However, to be officially recognized as an alumnus or alumna of Mississippi State, there is a minimum number of credit hours that you must have passed from MSU. I'm not positive what that official number is, but I know out of state students who wish to use the "Sons and Daughters of Alumni Out-of-State Tuition Waiver", one of their parents must have earned 48 credit hours or earned a degree from Mississippi State. To purchase an official class ring of pendant from the MSU Alumni Association, there are requirements of 60 credit hours for undergrads, 30 for transfer students and a degree for graduate students.

 

[patdog]

And that's a huge reason we have so few BC members. We let give people the same seats for the same contribution whether they get 2 seats or 12, so people just let a friend order for them. They need to assign tickets on a points per seat basis and let as many members as want to pool their points if they want to order tickets together. We'd accomplish about the same thing seatingwise (everyone who wants to sit together would be able to) and we'd suddenly see more BC members and higher BC revenues.

 

[ronpolk]

I've noticed the same thing, uptowndawg. I graduated in 2008 and I'm already in the upper 50%.

 

[RougeDawg]

Why can't we get upward of 50k??

As someone else said- it's not just young alumni- it's about people like Dawggeezer that graduated in the 1950's on down (I'm sure Geezer is a member, just using his age for reference). There is no reason we shouldnt have 25K members.

We want big boy results- but we expect them without doing the little things and hard work it takes to get there. It's hard to be like everybody else, when you are not like everybody else.

$100 a year is 17ing chump change. If you have to cut out 2-4 dinners out at restaurants A YEAR, you could easily save the $100. I graduated in 08, joined on 09 and am now pushing the top 3k. Have 4 season fball. Had 2 bball for 2 seasons when sister was still in school but live to far away to use.

I think the real problem is that most alum only see a reason to join the BDC, is to get season football tickets. They see no other reason to donate and join. That's the real problem. We don't have anything else to offer anyone, other than priority for football tickets. That's on our athletic department. They need to create some other small benefits for BDC members, even if its as small as various dinners throughout the year with our head coaches or something to that nature. Have a minimum of 4/yr, space them out and allow BDC members opportunity to reserve which dinner or event they'd like. Now given 10k people, 4 total events might not be enough. But you get the point.

Make joining the BDC more than just getting football tickets.

 

[SkullCandy.sixpack]

How about adding "Get off your ***, Dan Mullen!"? This interview with him torques me quite a bit. http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/college-recruiting/2013/feb/27/sec-coach-supports-new-recruiting-rules/ He wants a "dead period" for recruiting basically to give the coaches a rest. Guys like Saban NEVER slow down, but Dano apparently wants to take a breather? "I don't want to sound like a non-worker"? The guy makes $3 million dollars per year. "Non-worker" and that salary are mutually exclusive terms. What would he be if he wasn't a HC? CEO of Microsoft? An inventor of the next generation of antibiotics? Hell no--he'd be a working stiff lucky to knock down $50k per year. Don't get me wrong--I think he's a great HC. Worth the money. But part of being a successful HC in the SEC is recruiting. The bar has been raised for that, so go earn your 3 MILLION DOLLARS. The rest of the interview is plain 17in weird. He wants a rule that there is an early signing period but before the signing, the recruit can't take any OVs--even for the school he wants to attend--none until after he signs! Sounds like he wants to lock them down early so he won't have to work to keep them. Actually, it just sounds nuts...

 

[Railin Jemmye]

Terrible, terrible attitude to have......

You give to the BC to help MSU athletics. The perks you get are just consolation, not the sole reason you give.

 

[Railin Jemmye]

No MSU sports fan has an excuse to not be in the Bulldog Club.....PERIOD........

$100 a year is nothing.

 

[uptowndawg]

If there ever was an opportune time to restructure the system as you say, then the post expansion re-seating seems to be it.

 

[Dawgzilla]

I have a whole list of excuses.

I'm not going to get into a huge argument over this. One can certainly be a fan of a college sports program but not donate to its booster club. However, that fan then has no room to ***** and moan when the Athletic Department cannot afford certain things, such as competitive salaries for assistant coaches.

For the record, I donate substantial sums of money to the College of Engineering every year. I believe in giving back. I do not believe that giving money to support college athletics is a good use of my charitable resources -- however, I appreciate the 8,0000+ people who donate that money, and I'm grateful they do not agree with my priorities.

 

[Railin Jemmye]

I think we can all live with your situation.

 

[Spidey.sixpack]

My wife and I are members of the BDC, but don't give anything annually and have yet to give anything. I plan to give soon, but my wife and I just purchased a home and are starting our jobs, plus we have some other goals to accomplish first. We do purchase 2 season tickets each year and have bought bowl tickets to both Gator Bowls. This has allowed us to be ranked #5821/8289 without ever giving a dime. We are limited to just 2 season tickets each year and we can't get a parking pass until we begin to donate to the BDC.

 

[Koldfire]

You have to realize how a lot of people get tickets. They work with a guy whose dad runs ABC company and buys 20 season tickets.

The dad is the only one thats a member of the BDC. He's got a helluva high ranking and gets great seats so its pointless for the son and his friends to join.

The stadium has a seating capacity of around 55,000. I am not sure of the actual number of seats available to the general public. But let's say that that number is 48,000. This number is derived from the stadium capacity, minus student and other University held seats. Let's say that there are 2,000 corporate accounts and large "single BDC member" groups holding an average of 10 seats each. That's 20,000 seats allocated to 2,000 BDC members. Last year we ended up with about 9,000 BDC members by the time of seat allocation. This brings the total "general" seats available to 7,000 (9000-2000) BDC members down to 28,000. Assuming that these 7,000 BDC members purchase, on average, four seats, we have reached capacity.

Since there is a waiting list for seats, one must assume that the above seat distribution matrix is understated. Either the 2,000 big accounts are holding more than 20,000 seats or the other members are averaging more than 4 seats. As you can see, there is no attraction for potential BDC members if acquiring seats at Davis Wade is the motivation. Additional seats from the stadium renovation will help this situation some. However, the corporate accounts will probably increase the 10 seats to one member margin, in that a big portion of the new seats are designed to attract corporate members.

So to see significant increase in BDC members more "general seating" must be made available. The problem is that MSU relies on a big giver model vs. a mass giving model. That's why 9,000 BDC members creates a waiting list at Davis Wade. We will experience a modest bump in BDC membership and giving in anticipation of the stadium upgrade, only to see it fall back to the 9000 mark because of limited "general" seating capacity. *Disclaimers: 1. The numbers used are for demonstration purposes and are not stated as actual (I think they are reasonable). 2. Seats at Davis Wade should not be the only motivation for giving to MSU. However, I must disclose that it was my motivation.

 

[57stratdawg]

Shouldn't it be noted that one BDC member might represent one entire family? I would obviously love for this number to be much higher, but one member might represent several individuals.

 

[Railin Jemmye]

If you buy tickets, I won't rag you about the BC. My point was that there should be some level of giving to the university.

I know many alumni live a ways from Starkville and use that as a crutch to not come to games. But giving to the BC is something that everyone can do, regardless of location.

 

[engie]

I am in the above mid level rankings of the BDC. My football tickets are below the 10th row on the 30, my parking pass is in the Sanderson parking lot and the year I bought basketball tickets they were 5 rows from the top behind the backboard. I know they are reseating the stadium next year, but if the top 10% of BDC members keep getting 90% of the benefits I'll have to reconsider the value.

Here's the thing with all this.

Under 10k members = over $30mil raised = over $3,000/yr average donation. Seems that the top 10% are carrying a whole lot of the weight for the rest of us because I don't know of anyone(personally) that is giving beyond that level.

We can certainly do better in the BDC -- but we should be commended over how well we've done the past 2(going on 3) years. We've raised money that is absolutely comparable to the bigtime SEC programs in the private athletics sectors.

Tennessee's private donations: $30 mil down from $40 mil last year - http://www.wsmv.com/story/21095989/tennessee-athletic-fundraising-drops-by-25

Florida's private donations: $42 mil up from $38mil - http://www.gatorboosters.org/assets/financials/Gator_Boosters_Inc_FS_6_30_12.pdf

Those are just the two that I could find quickly. We've raised over $70 mil the past two years -- putting us on the same tier as these two in the "big 6". I'm sure the other numbers could be found just as easily...

Here are numbers from 2008, when we apparently raised under $2mil total in the BDC...but should show just how competitive our current numbers(likely) are: http://espn.go.com/ncaa/revenue/_/page/1/sort/donations

 

[tcdog70]

Instead of blaming Alumni, how bout putting the blame on the Bulldog Club? The Business School calls me from time to time wanting donations, but I have never been contacted by the BC. Why don't they get off their *** and recruit People.Sure everybody should join, but the BC needs to be a lot more proactive.

 

[Spidey.sixpack]

Shouldn't it be noted that one BDC member might represent one entire family? I would obviously love for this number to be much higher, but one member might represent several individuals.

Definitely. My wife and I are one account, two people. My father has a single account with 5 tickets. My grandmother is a single account with 4 tickets. They have to donate a certain amount to get/keep their seating locations. They are both on the 40 yd line on rows 5 and 2 respectively. I'm up top next to the student section. I plan on giving soon so that I can get into the lower level seating with the re-seating next year.

 

[Spidey.sixpack]

I agree with this. The College of Engineering has called me several times wanting donations. Never the Bulldog Club.

 

[57stratdawg]

The MSU Calling Center calls for athletic donations periodically throughout the year. I don't know if they ask for BDC memberships as well.

There should be a BDC and Alumni Association booth set up before and after graduation. Put together a small incentive package " Free to joing, Free TShirt and 100 points!" (or "HOW WILL YOU GET FOOTBALL TICKETS NEXT YEAR!?!?!") for signing up on the day you graduate. That would greatly increase the expected value out of each individual, which is really what their goal should be.

 

[MStateFan22]

Yep

That's not accurate. To simply join Alumni Association, there are not any class requirements. Donating to either the MSU Foundation or the Bulldog Club automatically enrolls you in the Alumni Association.

I've never taken any class from MSU but I get alumni stuff in mail and email.

 

[gtowndawg]

When the stadium expands, so will the Bulldog Club

I just think most people are not in the Bulldog Club if they don't have football tickets. So it one Bulldog Club member represents 4 season tickets (which I think is probably a safe bet), then we are roughly at capacity. 8,500 members x 4 = 34,000 season tickets. Isn't that about what we can do? Not sure how many tickets students account for plus guest tickets. Either way, if we open up say 3,000 more tickets for football, then I guarantee Bulldog Club membership will go up in a short period of time.

Now the question becomes, how do you sell people on paying to be in the Bulldog Club when they get no tangible benefits from it like access to season tickets. They sure aren't doing it for the sticker that last about 8 months outside.

 

[maroonmania]

I just think most people are not in the Bulldog Club if they don't have football tickets. So it one Bulldog Club member represents 4 season tickets (which I think is probably a safe bet), then we are roughly at capacity. 8,500 members x 4 = 34,000 season tickets. Isn't that about what we can do? Not sure how many tickets students account for plus guest tickets. Either way, if we open up say 3,000 more tickets for football, then I guarantee Bulldog Club membership will go up in a short period of time.

Now the question becomes, how do you sell people on paying to be in the Bulldog Club when they get no tangible benefits from it like access to season tickets. They sure aren't doing it for the sticker that last about 8 months outside.

Its already expanded signficantly since Byrne and then Mullen arrived. Wasn't that long ago we were in the 6,000 range.

 

[tcdog70]

The MSU Calling Center calls for athletic donations periodically throughout the year. I don't know if they ask for BDC memberships as well.

There should be a BDC and Alumni Association booth set up before and after graduation. Put together a small incentive package " Free to joing, Free TShirt and 100 points!" (or "HOW WILL YOU GET FOOTBALL TICKETS NEXT YEAR!?!?!") for signing up on the day you graduate. That would greatly increase the expected value out of each individual, which is really what their goal should be.

Good ideas. If the BC was a private business it wouldn't last a year.